RIHA – Rectangular structures and residential remains uncovered in the second phase of excavations at Göbeklitepe indicate that the site was not merely an abstract “ritual center,” but a place where settlement, control over labour and social hierarchies took shape. Concrete evidence from the excavation site closely aligns with Abdullah Öcalan’s analysis of the Neolithic transformation, the formation of caste structures and the transition to settled life. 

 

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and long portrayed in mainstream historical accounts merely as “the world’s first temple,” Göbeklitepe (Xirabreşk) continues to challenge conventional understandings of one of the most critical turning points in human history. Excavations currently underway in a new area of around 1,500 square metres in the northern part of the mound have uncovered rectangular structures dating to the settlement’s second phase, along with house floors indicating everyday domestic life. The emerging picture shows that the site was not merely a place for ritual gatherings, but provided the foundations for an institutionalized form of social organization that developed alongside permanent settlement. This archaeological evidence appears to support Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s analysis of the “organization of the hunter caste,” the “commune-caste contradiction” and the “Neolithic counter-revolution,” which he examines at length in his manifesto.

 

MORE THAN A RITUAL CENTER 

 

Prof. Dr. Necmi Karul, coordinator of the Taş Tepeler Project and head of the Göbeklitepe excavations, has highlighted the site’s structural evolution in his latest public statements. Drawing attention to the internal layout of the rectangular structures uncovered just below the surface, Karul said initial indications suggest that they were used as dwellings. He also noted that the tradition of standing stones became less prominent as the site evolved from monumental circular enclosures to rectangular structures. The simultaneous use of public buildings and dwellings, he stressed, shows that Göbeklitepe was not merely a center of worship, but also a permanent settlement where people lived.

 

These findings move beyond approaches that portray Göbeklitepe as an abstract “miracle of belief” and reinforce Abdullah Öcalan’s argument that the site was the product of a vast socio-political organization. On the subject, Abdullah Öcalan said: “Göbeklitepe is where state civilization emerged. Göbeklitepe is a civilization, one that lasted for thousands of years and spread across a vast geographical area. It is deeply rooted and is where state civilization emerged.” What is emerging at the site today, residential structures and settlement layers developing alongside monumental ritual structures, is turning into tangible archaeological evidence of the long-term, institutionalized form of civilization that Abdullah Öcalan described.

 

ORGANIZED LABOUR AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE FIRST CASTE STRUCTURES

 

The extraction, transport and shaping of Göbeklitepe’s T-shaped pillars, some weighing several tonnes, would have required the coordination of a vast workforce, a subject that has long been debated in archaeological circles. The settlement layout and structural planning highlighted by Prof. Dr. Karul point to sustained control and organization of labour rather than occasional gatherings of hunter-gatherers.

 

Abdullah Öcalan describes the sociological mechanism behind this monumental construction process as follows: “Building Göbeklitepe’s enormous T-shaped stone pillars, erecting them in an organized manner and creating an architectural structure required a large-scale organization. These T-shaped, monolithic stones, standing around six metres tall and weighing approximately 20 tonnes, could not have been produced without long-term planning and firm control over labour.”

 

In his analysis, Abdullah Öcalan argues that this structure was based on coercive power and a privileged group, stating: “On this basis, it can be said that the caste structure had an institutional organization based on coercion. The hunter’s club, made up of men, must have evolved into a caste based on domination and taken control of this organization.” Excavations are now revealing increasingly clear functional differences as they reach deeper foundation levels, showing how the division of labour and a hierarchical governing structure took concrete form at the site.

 

THE TRANSITION TO THE NEOLITHIC: NOT A NATURAL PROCESS, BUT A MAJOR BREAK

 

Rejecting the view held by some archaeologists that the transition to agriculture and settled life was a voluntary process, Abdullah Öcalan interprets this period as one in which matrifocal clan society was dismantled and people were subjected to forced labour. In his manifesto, Abdullah  Öcalan writes: “The transition to the Neolithic did not take place, as it is often assumed and described, as the result of voluntary or natural processes. It was entirely imposed by the caste through coercion; it was a counter-revolution. No one would willingly abandon a free and prosperous way of life for one marked by such hardship.”

 

The layers uncovered during the excavations, showing a transition from hunter-gatherer symbolism to settled domestic architecture, document a transitional phase in which humans moved away from a nomadic foraging cycle in harmony with nature and became confined to a particular place. The presence of rectangular dwellings is regarded as material evidence of a second phase in which property, the household and control over production began to be spatially defined.

 

MASCULINE SYMBOLISM AGAINST THE MATRIFOCAL CLAN AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF SACREDNESS

 

The prevalence of masculine and predatory animal symbolism on the stelae at Göbeklitepe, together with the near absence of female figures, closely echoes what Abdullah Öcalan, in his theory of Jineology, describes as the “first great sexual rupture.” Abdullah Öcalan interprets the symbolic language found on the stones as follows: “In the finds from Göbeklitepe, the male sexual organ is brought prominently to the fore and even sanctified, raised from the earth towards the sky and proclaimed the ruler of the earth and the heavens. It is as though the sacredness derived from female fertility had been transferred to the male sexual organ. There are no female figures at Göbeklitepe. The structures here emerged as a reaction against women and the matrifocal clan.”

 

The process described by excavation director Karul, in which the “tradition of standing stones gradually weakened and gave way to more functional residential spaces,” follows a trajectory that supports Abdullah Öcalan’s analysis that the hunter caste, which established an ideological hegemony, gradually evolved into a political, administrative and settled system.

 

SOCIAL HISTORY IS BEING REWRITTEN

 

Ongoing excavations on the northern slope of Göbeklitepe are revealing not only architectural remains, but also the first key points in humanity’s transition to a class-based and hierarchical society. As archaeological excavations go deeper, each new piece of evidence shows that the site was not merely a mystical gathering place, but a historical crossroads where labour, space and belief were centralized. This development once again appears to bear out Abdullah Öcalan’s observation from years ago: “The archaeological findings uncovered at Göbeklitepe require history to be rewritten on this basis.”

 

MA / Murat Çiftçi - Ekrem Tunçoğlu