dainst | Since recently there has been renewed
interest in the results of geophysical survey undertaken at Göbekli
Tepe in the years 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2012 we put together this short
overview on these works and their results – which helped to understand
the extension of the Neolithic site and its monuments even in those
parts of the tell not yet excavated.
Without a doubt, the most widely known
features of the Göbekli Tepe archaeological site are the monumental
buildings, which, due to their ‘outstanding universal value’, were
recently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Notably, since the very early years of excavations, one of the most
pressing questions has been whether these structures, with their
characteristic T-pillars, were restricted to certain parts of the mound
(where revealed through excavation and suggesting a unique agglomeration
of this particular building type) or whether they existed all over the tell.
Archaeological survey methods have
changed significantly over the last years. One innovation which has
dramatically changed the way field archaeologists work are ground-based
physical sensing techniques (for a short introduction into this
technology and its application see, e.g. here
[external link]). This technology provides us with images of possible
archaeological features beneath the surface without even taking a shovel
to hand. In 2003, a geophysical survey was undertaken at Göbekli Tepe
with the help of GGH – Solutions in Geoscience GmbH.
In a first step, large parts of the tell were subjected to extensive
magnetic prospection, and later selected areas were studied using
georadar and geoelectric tomography.
As already noted by
Klaus Schmidt in his 2003 field report which was published the same year
(Schmidt 2003, 5), first results already provided a better
understanding of the site and served to confirm earlier observations:
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