نظرة عامة
Sefertepe (Sefer Tepe) occupies a low rise in Viranşehir district, about 70 km east of Şanlıurfa, between the Eskikale and Kırbalı neighbourhoods. It belongs to the T-pillar horizon defined at Göbekli Tepe. Bahattin Çelik and colleagues recorded the site in surveys of Viranşehir; systematic excavation under Taş Tepeler intensified in 2024-2025.
The surface shows T-shaped stelae. Subsurface work has produced a special room with human skulls, an 8,500-year-old micro-carved bead, and, in November 2025, two human-face reliefs on limestone blocks of a platform, facing north: one high-relief face with modelled features, one more stylised low relief. Dates cluster around the late 9th to 8th millennium BCE.
Sefertepe is less famous than Göbekli or Karahan, which is exactly why it belongs on this atlas: Taş Tepeler is a landscape of many hills, not two icons. Compare Sayburç for domestic architecture and Karahan Tepe for carved human imagery.