Unveiling the Neolithic: Türkiye Hosts Groundbreaking Global Congress
From 4th -8th November , 2024, the Southeastern Anatolian city of Şanlıurfa, home to the globally significant Neolithic sites of Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe, will host the World Neolithic Congress, the first of its kind. Organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA), this pioneering event will bring together approximately 1,000 scholars from 64 countries and 487 institutions to advance research and understanding of Neolithic cultures worldwide.
The Congress, co-organised by İstanbul University and Harran University, will take place at Harran University’s Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. It will serve as a vital platform for experts to discuss regional and global perspectives on the Neolithic era, with a focus on subjects such as early sedentary life, social hierarchies, and the role of environmental settings in shaping Neolithic communities. Through its sessions, the Congress aims to question conventional theories and present new insights into Neolithic studies, addressing various fields like bioarchaeology, physical anthropology, and geoarchaeology.
The event will also feature commemorative speeches honouring the contributions of the late archaeologists who have played an essential role in Şanlıurfa’s archaeological discoveries, including Klaus Schmidt, Harald Hauptmann, Ofer Bar-Yosef, and Bruce Howe. Attendees will also have the chance to participate in site visits to key Neolithic locations in Şanlıurfa, such as Göbeklitepe, Karahantepe, Sayburç, Çakmaktepe, and Sefertepe—all part of the Taş Tepeler project, which is currently redefining our understanding of early human settlements.
Şanlıurfa’s Göbeklitepe, with its 12,000-year-old monumental structures, was one of the first sites to reveal that early hunter-gatherer communities consciously chose to settle, likely due to the region’s environmental abundance. Its groundbreaking discoveries have altered long-standing theories about the Neolithic period, and the site has earned its place on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The congress will highlight Karahantepe, another significant site, where ongoing excavations since 2019 have unveiled monumental structures and statues, such as the world’s largest known human statue from the Neolithic era.
The World Neolithic Congress is expected to be a historic event, not only for the academic world but also for the region of Şanlıurfa, reinforcing its position as a central hub in Neolithic research and heritage. As a key location in the Neolithic revolution, Şanlıurfa continues to play an important role in understanding humanity’s earliest civilisations.
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