Sayburç was already known for one extraordinary thing: the earliest known narrative scene carved by human hands. The 2025 excavation season, directed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eylem Özdoğan of Istanbul University, showed that the famous wall was never alone. Archaeologists have now exposed more than fifty Neolithic structures — turning Sayburç from a single monument into a fully-fledged village roughly 11,000 years old.
Homes and gathering halls, side by side
Of the structures uncovered, five appear to have been communal or special-purpose buildings; the rest were homes. Both kinds share the same architectural vocabulary — benches, niches, hearths, and the T-shaped pillars best known from Göbekli Tepe. Finding those pillars inside ordinary houses, not just in ceremonial halls, is part of what makes Sayburç special: here, the symbolic and the domestic sit under the same roofs.
A village changing shape
Because Sayburç was occupied continuously for around 300 years, the dig can trace change over time — most strikingly, a clear shift from round-plan houses to rectangular ones. That transition marks a genuine turning point in how humans built, and Sayburç preserves it in unusual detail.
Put together, the finds reframe the site. Sayburç is not just the place with the astonishing carving; it's one of the clearest windows we have onto the moment people settled down. Explore the village and its burials for the fuller picture.