The Taş Tepeler, which means "Stone Mounds" in Turkish, are a group of ancient archaeological sites in Upper Mesopotamia (also called al-Jazira), near the city of Urfa in modern-day Turkey. These sites are the remains of settlements from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period, around 10,000 to 7000 BC. They show the shift from people who moved around and gathered food to those who stayed in one place and farmed.

Economy and culture

The people of Taş Tepeler had not yet learned to raise animals or grow crops for food. Instead, they survived by hunting animals and carefully collecting wild grains.

The domestication of animals began in the area of the Taş Tepeler culture. Early attempts to manage animals, such as creating symbols of them and using methods to trap them, happened around the same time as the construction of Göbekli Tepe, as shown by the animal carvings there. The earliest known dates for actual animal domestication are about 9000 BCE for goats and sheep, about 8500 BCE for pigs, and about 8000 BCE for cattle. These events took place in Northern Mesopotamia. For example, Çayönü Tepe may be where pigs were first domesticated around 8500 BCE.

Sites like Çayönü Tepe were influenced by the cultural traditions of Göbekli Tepe and began practicing agriculture around the 9th millennium BCE. Other places, such as Neva Çori, Cafer Höyük, Hallan Çemi, Abu Hureyra, and Jerf al Amar, also started farming during this time.

• Origin and dispersal of domestic livestock species in the Fertile Crescent (dates Before Present).
• A drawing of a person with an aurochs, holding a tool and likely controlling the animal. Sayburç, 9th millennium BCE.
• A painted boar from Göbekli Tepe, 8700–8200 BCE.

Religion

Many Taş Tepeler sites have large stone buildings with T-shaped obelisks, similar to those found at Göbekli Tepe. These structures are larger and more impressive than earlier Neolithic sites like Körtik Tepe, which are not part of the Taş Tepeler group.

These buildings may have been early places for worship, possibly used to honor ancestors. Inside, they had T-shaped stone pillars, like those at Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, or the rectangular pillars at Çayönü Tepe. These pillars are believed to represent humans or gods. Some had carvings of people or human heads. These discoveries suggest that people worshipped these stone pillars, a practice common during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period and continued in the Near East until around the first millennium BCE.

The tradition of T-shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe is unique to the Urfa region but appears at many other Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites, such as Nevalı Çori, Hamzan Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Harbetsuvan Tepesi, Sefer Tepe, and Taslı Tepe. Other stone pillars without the T shape have been found at nearby sites like Çayönü, Qermez Dere, Boncuklu Tarla, and Gusir Höyük.

On the pillars, carved hands are often seen on the sides, shaped like geometric shapes. These details suggest the pillars represent stylized human figures, with the top of the "T" resembling a head. Belts and clothing are also commonly carved on the pillars.

Symbols combining humans and animals have been found at Göbekli Tepe and Nevalı Çori. One example from Nevalı Çori shows a bird, likely a vulture, standing on two seated human figures facing opposite directions. The meaning of these symbols is still unknown.

Phallic symbolism, or symbols related to male anatomy, appears often in the art of Taş Tepeler sites. Statues of men holding their erect penis have been found at places like Yeni Mahalle (the famous Urfa Man statue), Göbekli Tepe, Harbetsuvan Tepesi, Karahan Tepe, and Sayburç. Some researchers believe the pillars themselves might have represented ancestors in a phallic form. The figures often have a V-shaped collar around their necks.

Phallic symbolism may also relate to the realistic and powerful style of the sculptures. For example, at Göbekli Tepe, animals are often shown with bared teeth, strong paws, or long tusks, creating a sense of danger or strength.

• Karahan Tepe Man, 10,000–9,500 BCE
• Urfa Man, about 9000 BCE
• Sayburç Man, 9th millennium BCE
• Göbekli Tepe ithyphallic protome
• Kilisik sculpture

Daily artifacts

Some sites from the Taş Tepeler culture have uncovered artifacts that are typical of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic or Neolithic periods. Ayanlar Höyük, a site from the early to mid Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, had stone vessels and plates (common tools before pottery was invented). Some of these items had animal designs, and others were grindstones.

• Stone vessels with animal designs, Ayanlar Höyük (8800-7000 BCE)
• Top and bottom grinding stones from Ayanlar Höyük (8800-7000 BCE)
• Blades and other stone tools, Ayanlar Höyük (8800-7000 BCE)
• Stone necklace, Boncuklu Tarla (8800-6000 BCE)

Sites

The sites include Göbekli Tepe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and at least eleven others: Nevalı Çori, Yeni Mahalle, Karahan Tepe, Hamzan Tepe, Sefer Tepe, Taşlı Tepe, Kurt Tepe, Harbetsuvan Tepe, Sayburç, Ayanlar Höyük, Çakmaktepe. These locations are being studied and protected as part of the "Şanlıurfa Neolithic Research Project," which involves Turkish and international researchers working together.

Desert kites are connected to or near some of these sites. These structures are large walls made of dry stones, often hundreds of meters long, built to guide and trap wild animals like gazelles. They consist of long paths leading to enclosed traps, sometimes surrounded by smaller cells. In the Upper Mesopotamia region, these desert kites were likely built around the same time as Göbekli Tepe. They show that people may have tried to capture and control animal populations to store and use meat over time. These structures represent an early attempt to settle in one place and begin domesticating animals. The study of desert kites is part of the Taş Tepeler archaeological program, led by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, to learn about the beginnings of settled life and farming practices in the region.

Genetics

Human samples from Boncuklu Tarla (from around 9000 to 8500 BCE) and Çayönü (from about 8300 to 7500 BCE) were included in a recent genetic study as part of a group called the Mesopotamia_Neolithic cluster (along with a few samples from Nemrik 9). In this study, the Mesopotamia_Neolithic cluster was identified as a major source of genetic ancestry for several individuals from the Levant and Egypt during the Bronze Age, including those from Ebla, Ashkalon, Baq'ah, and Nuwayrat.

The Nuwayrat individual, an adult male from Egypt’s Old Kingdom (dated to 2855–2570 BCE) and referred to as "Old Kingdom individual (NUE001)," was found to have genetic connections to North African Neolithic ancestry. However, about 24% of his genetic makeup was linked to the eastern Fertile Crescent, including Mesopotamia, which corresponds to the Mesopotamia_Neolithic cluster. His genetic profile was best explained by a two-source model, where 77.6% ± 3.8% of his ancestry matched genomes from the Middle Neolithic site of Skhirat-Rouazi in Morocco (dated to 4780–4230 BCE). This site itself had 76.4 ± 4.0% Levant Neolithic ancestry and 23.6 ± 4.0% Iberomaurusian ancestry. The remaining 22.4% ± 3.8% of his ancestry was most similar to Neolithic genomes from Mesopotamia (dated to 9000–8000 BCE). No other two-source model met the required statistical significance (P>0.05). Two three-source models were also identified, but they included only small additional contributions from the Neolithic/Chalcolithic Levant.

According to Lazardis, “This sample shows that people in Egypt at this early time were mostly related to North Africa but also had some ancestry from Mesopotamia.” Girdland-Flink noted that 20% of the man’s ancestry matched older Mesopotamian genomes, suggesting that Mesopotamian people may have moved into Egypt in significant numbers at some point.

The 2025 study did not determine the exact timing of the admixture event. It showed that the Nuwayrat sample had the strongest genetic connection to Neolithic Mesopotamian samples from 9000–8000 BCE. Other studies indicate that during the Neolithic period (10,000–5,000 BCE), populations from Mesopotamia and the Zagros region expanded into the Near East, including Anatolia, spreading innovations like domesticated plants, pottery, and more settled lifestyles. Egypt may have been influenced by these movements. Changes in dental measurements and tissues were observed in the Nile Valley around 6000 BCE. Later, cultural influences from Mesopotamia are recorded in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE (3999–3000 BCE), marked by the appearance of Late Uruk features during Egypt’s Late Pre-dynastic period.