The site, known as Karahantepe, is situated in southern Turkey, east of Anlurfa, and has a series of constructions that predate the invention of writing. Sculptures of human skulls, snakes, a fox, and several oddly constructed pillars were unearthed amid the remains by archaeologists.
For example, surrounding a human head sculpture, researchers discovered 11 pillars. In an essay recently published in the journal Türk Arkeoloji ve Etnografya Dergisi, Necmi Karl, an Istanbul University professor of ancient archaeology, remarked, “All pillars are created and fashioned like a phallus.”
Karl didn’t speculate in the journal study on why the heads and phallus-shaped pillars were made or what significance they could have had.
This structure is connected to three additional structures to create a complex. According to Karl, prehistoric people may have marched through this edifice in a ceremonial procession. Current evidence reveals that people used the complex for “a ceremonial ritual, arriving from one end and going from the other, having to parade in the presence of the human head” and the phallus-shaped pillars, according to Karl’s journal report. According to Karl, further excavation and research would be necessary before archaeologists could assert that the march took happened.
The buildings were filled up with earth rather than dismantled, probably as part of a decommissioning ceremony.
Gobekli Tepe, another archaeological site with gigantic buildings and animal and human head sculptures, is similar in age. Gobekli Tepe is also near Anlurfa, and archaeologists are trying to figure out how the two sites are related.
Despite the fact that Karahantepe was discovered in 1997, it was not until 2019 that excavations began. Experts performed several archaeological surveys at the site at that period. Karl did not reply to requests for comment.
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