Sefertepe is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement near Viranşehir, in Şanlıurfa province, Türkiye — the most easterly known site of the Taş Tepeler, the cluster of "Stone Hills" that includes Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe and Sayburç. It has been excavated since 2021 as part of the Şanlıurfa Neolithic Research Project. Where its famous neighbours are known for monumental T-shaped pillars, Sefertepe's force is quieter and darker: it is a village built around human skulls, carved faces, and small objects that carried meaning close to the body.
- Location
- Eskikale, Viranşehir, Şanlıurfa
- Period
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic
- Excavation
- Taş Tepeler Project, 2021–
- Known for
- Skull room · carved faces · beads
Where is Sefertepe?
Sefertepe sits at the eastern edge of the Şanlıurfa plateau — the far side of the Taş Tepeler landscape from Göbekli Tepe, and near the Karahan Tepe side of the map. It is the most easterly Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement yet identified in the group, which makes it something of a frontier: on-site observation suggests its architecture blends building traits from both the Euphrates region to the west and the Tigris region to the east.
Why Sefertepe matters
Sefertepe is not yet a site the public can read as easily as Göbekli or Karahan — and that is precisely the point. Its importance comes from the opposite condition: the evidence is charged, human, and not yet fully settled in published form. This is the site of the hidden head — a place where skulls, faces, beads and small animal-marked objects gather around a single hard question: what remains of a person after the body has changed?
Every landscape of stone bodies also needs a place for the skull, the face, and the small object that refuses to become ordinary.
The skull room
Sefertepe's centre of gravity is its skull room — 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. We give it its own page, including our original field notes and an honest account of why the counts differ. Read the full story of the skull room →
Faces, beads, and small objects
Beside the skulls, Sefertepe has produced carved human faces — one in high relief, one in low — in a style found nowhere else in the Stone Hills, and small charged objects such as a double-faced bead. These keep the site's symbolic world close to the hand: animal and human presence reduced to the scale of an ornament, a tool, a thing carried between people. Explore the carved faces and beads →
Quadrangular buildings
Sefertepe's rectangular (quadrangular) building groups keep it from becoming a loose set of strange finds. The skulls, the faces and the objects appear inside built space. That is the site's deeper contribution to understanding the Neolithic: death here was not only disposal — it was arranged architecturally. The room itself became part of how the dead were kept present among the living.
How old is it, and who is digging it?
Sefertepe is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site; on-site working notes give a date around 10,500 years ago, placing it after the earliest layers of Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe. Precise dates and plans await full publication. Excavation is carried out under the Şanlıurfa Neolithic Research Project — the wider Taş Tepeler programme that has been running since 2021. See where Sefertepe is and how old it is → · Who built it → · How it compares to Göbekli & Karahan →
Frequently asked questions
What is Sefertepe known for?
A room of human skulls, carved human faces in an unusual style, small charged objects such as beads, and rectangular buildings — together making it one of the Taş Tepeler's most important sites for questions about death and personhood.
Where is Sefertepe?
In Eskikale village, Viranşehir district, on the eastern edge of the Şanlıurfa plateau — the far side of Taş Tepeler from Göbekli Tepe.
How old is Sefertepe?
Pre-Pottery Neolithic; a working on-site date is around 10,500 years ago, later than the earliest layers of Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe. Full dates await publication.
Can I visit Sefertepe?
It is an active excavation, not a ticketed site. The reliable way to see it is a guided Taş Tepeler tour — plan a visit here.
Sources
- The Community Garden — Taş Tepeler Complete Site Study Guide and Sefertepe on-site field notes (field-note level; some details await publication).
- Arkeonews — Sefertepe skull-room and carved-face reporting, 2025.
- Anatolian Archaeology — Sefertepe excavation reports, 2025.
- Taş Tepeler Project / Şanlıurfa Neolithic Research Project.