Berlin hosts major Göbeklitepe exhibition featuring rare artifacts
BERLIN
An exhibition dedicated to Göbeklitepe, the world’s oldest known monumental sanctuary — approximately 12,000 years old — and a UNESCO World Heritage site, will open in Berlin, bringing the origins of settled life to the heart of Europe.
The exhibition will be hosted by the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East) on Berlin’s Museum Island from Feb. 6 to July 19.
Prepared in cooperation with Türkiye’s Culture and Tourism Ministry, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums and the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul, the exhibition will present 93 exceptional artifacts from Göbeklitepe and the surrounding Taş Tapeler (Stone Hill) region.
Many of the archaeological objects, brought from Türkiye, will be displayed abroad for the first time. The official opening will be attended by Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and German Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer.
Necmi Karul, coordinator of the Taş Tepeler research project, said the Berlin exhibition rests on two main pillars: More than a century of archaeological cooperation between Turkish and German scholars and the Taş Tepeler project launched in 2021, which demonstrated that Göbeklitepe is part of a much broader cultural landscape.
Excavations are currently underway at 10 sites in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, carried out by multinational teams involving 36 academic institutions from countries ranging from China to Germany.
Karul noted that nearly 100 original artifacts from Taş Tepeler will be exhibited for the first time, accompanied by previously produced replicas held in Germany.
Organized across eight thematic sections, the exhibition aims to reshape perspectives on early sedentary life, food production and social organization.
He added that Berlin represents the most significant international platform yet for sharing these findings and that similar exhibitions are planned in other global cultural capitals.
Director of the exhibiting museum Barbara Helwing welcomed the exhibition, emphasizing that the presence of nearly 30 comparable sites in the region makes Göbeklitepe not less, but more comprehensible and striking.
She underlined that the exhibition focuses on objects illuminating daily life in the Neolithic period and holds special personal significance, recalling her own student work at the Nevali Çori excavations in Şanlıurfa in the late 1980s.
Comprising eight sections, the exhibition traces artistic expression and social life from birth to death and also features photographs of Göbeklitepe by Spanish artist Isabel Muñoz.
Göbeklitepe has previously drawn global attention, with a related exhibition at Rome’s Colosseum attracting over 6 million visitors.