New Discovery: A Human Face Carved on a T-Pillar at Karahan Tepe
A close up of T-pillar with face carved onto it at Karahan Tepe, Oct. 6, 2025. (Photo via Ministry of Culture and Tourism)
During the October 2025 excavation season at Karahan Tepe, archaeologists made an extraordinary find: for the first time, a T-shaped pillar at the site has been revealed with a carved human face etched directly into its upper portion.
Professor Necmi Karul at Karahan Tepe in Şanliurfa, Türkiye, Oct. 6, 2025. (AA Photo)
Found Inside a Neolithic Home
The pillar was not uncovered in one of Karahan Tepe’s monumental enclosures, but rather inside a domestic structure. A sunken, clay-plastered house built directly into the bedrock. Archaeologists found three small T-shaped pillars arranged within the room, likely serving both as roof supports and sacred symbols.
On one of these pillars, one was carved with the human face: deep eye sockets, a broad, flat nose, and sharply chiseled cheeks.
According to Professor Necmi Karul, head of the Karahan Tepe excavation, the house was built vertically into the earth, with clay-plastered walls and a stone floor. The pillars inside, though smaller than those in the other enclosures, were not merely structural.
“Their decorated surfaces reveal that these stones carried artistic and symbolic meaning beyond architecture,” said Karul.
He added that the face confirms a theory long held by the team:
“We’ve suggested for years that the T-pillars represent the human form — the crossbar as the head, the shaft as the body. This new pillar makes that idea undeniable.”
The facial details, he noted, closely resemble other Neolithic sculptures unearthed in the region, showing a continuity of style that binds Karahan Tepe to its sister sites like Göbekli Tepe.
Why This Is Important
The face emerging from Karahan Tepe’s stone walls is more than an artistic gesture - it’s a psychological threshold in human evolution. It implies that the builders of Taş Tepeler were already exploring questions of identity, mortality, and meaning long before writing, farming, or metal.
Also, because it confirms that t-pillars are in fact anthropomorphic human representations.
At Sayburç, archaeologists found carved ritual scenes inside what were clearly domestic buildings — proof that daily life and sacred symbolism weren’t separate in the Neolithic mind. The same pattern might be emerging at Karahan Tepe, where decorated pillars appear within smaller, clay-plastered rooms rather than grand temples. It suggests spirituality lived inside the home as much as in communal sanctuaries.
You may watch this Sayburç documentary below by Dakota Wint
Want to Visit Karahan Tepe?
Karahan Tepe is now open to visitors. While Göbekli Tepe has drawn international attention and a visitor center, Karahan remains raw, windswept, and largely untouched—a living excavation site.
To explore either site respectfully and in-depth, use a reputable guide such as SanliurfaTour.com
As more of the Tas Tepeler sites are unearthed—including Sefer Tepe, Sayburc, and Harbetsuvan—we may finally glimpse the mind of humanity before history!
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