Sefertepe: frequently asked questions

Sefertepe is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement near Viranşehir in Şanlıurfa province, Türkiye — the most easterly known site of the Taş Tepeler group. Excavated since 2021, it is best known for a room of human skulls, carved human faces, small charged objects such as beads, and rectangular buildings. Read the full overview →

Pre-Pottery Neolithic, spanning a long period: its T-pillars belong to the earlier tradition, while the excavated complex, faces and bead are reported as PPNB (~8,500 years) and the skull room at roughly 10,000–10,500 years. Precise dates await full publication. See the timeline →

In Eskikale village, Viranşehir district, on the eastern edge of the Şanlıurfa plateau — the far side of the Taş Tepeler landscape from Göbekli Tepe, near the Karahan Tepe side of the map. Where & how old →

Like most Taş Tepeler names it is a modern Turkish place-name — "tepe" means hill or mound. You will also see it written as two words, "Sefer Tepe." It refers to the low settlement mound that the excavation has opened.

A chamber inside a specially prepared building where dozens of human skulls were gathered, alongside infant remains, with one skull reported set apart and facing east. It is one of the most important mortuary contexts in the whole Neolithic. The full skull-room story →

The public count has grown season by season — field notes recorded 22, and by 2025 the reported total reached 31, with the season's twelve skulls split between the skull room and a neighbouring cell. We date each figure rather than pick one. See the discoveries feed →

You will see the phrase, and it points at something real — but we use it carefully. Across the Neolithic, communities de-fleshed, kept and displayed human skulls; at Sefertepe they were gathered within architecture. What a Neolithic skull cult actually means →

Two carved human faces — one in high relief, one in low — in a style found nowhere else in the Taş Tepeler, found on a specially arranged platform. Explore the carved faces →

A pebble-sized basalt bead carved with a miniature human face on each side, reported at roughly 8,500 years old — proof that Sefertepe's symbolic world was worked at the scale of the hand. The symbols & iconography →

Communities of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic — people moving from a hunter-gatherer life toward settled village existence, part of the same cultural world that raised Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe. Who built it →

Excavations are led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emre Güldoğan of Istanbul University's Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, with the Şanlıurfa Museum, as part of the Şanlıurfa Neolithic Research Project within Taş Tepeler, since 2021.

Both belong to the T-pillar tradition — Sefertepe has around 16 T-shaped pillars of its own. The difference is emphasis: its excavated finds centre on a room of human skulls, carved faces and dense beadwork, and it lies furthest east in the group. Sefertepe vs Göbekli & Karahan →

It is an active excavation, not a ticketed visitor site. The reliable way to see it is a guided Taş Tepeler tour that also takes in Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe and the Şanlıurfa Museum. How to visit →

Sefertepe sits within the richest Neolithic landscape on Earth: Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Sayburç, and the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum with Urfa Man are all within reach. Plan the route →