Pre-Pottery Neolithic Timeline

10500 BCE – 1500 CE · 6 sites

All sites in this period

T-shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe archaeological site

Continent Record

Most-Visited Ancient Site in Asia

Göbekli Tepe

9600 BCE – 8000 BCE

The world's oldest known monumental sanctuary, predating Stonehenge by roughly 6,000 years. Massive carved T-shaped pillars arranged in circles suggest complex ritual activity among pre-agricultural communities.

Neolithic

The Stone Tower of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), c. 8500 BCE — among the world's earliest stone monuments

New

Continent Record

Earliest Known Site in Asia

Jericho

9600 BCE – 700 CE

The world's oldest continuously inhabited city — a Neolithic settlement in the Jordan Valley where humans first built permanent stone structures and cultivated crops around 9600 BCE. The Tower of Jericho, erected by an early Neolithic community around 8500 BCE, is one of the earliest stone monuments on Earth, predating Stonehenge by more than 5,000 years and the Egyptian pyramids by more than 6,000.

NeolithicChalcolithicBronze Age

Continent Record

Oldest Sanctuary in Asia

Karahan Tepe

9500 BCE – 7800 BCE

Karahan Tepe is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement in southeastern Türkiye, contemporaneous with Göbekli Tepe, featuring monumental architecture and ritual enclosures.

Neolithic

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World Record

Oldest City in the World

Hasankeyf

10000 BCE – 1500 CE

A 12,000-year-old cliff city on the Tigris River with cave dwellings, medieval bridges, and Artukid monuments — one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, now partially submerged by the Ilısu Dam in one of the most controversial heritage losses of the 21st century.

NeolithicBronze AgePrehistoric

Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho — the 10-metre occupation mound in the Jordan Valley, Palestine

Continent Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Asia

Tell es-Sultan

10500 BCE – 600 CE

The world's oldest walled settlement — a 10-metre earthen mound in the Jordan Valley preserving over 10,000 years of continuous occupation, including a Pre-Pottery Neolithic stone tower built around 8300 BCE that is the oldest known free-standing stone structure, and the Natufian base camp that may represent the world's first permanent village.

PrehistoricNeolithicChalcolithic

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Continent Record

Oldest Settlement in Asia

Boncuklu Tarla

10000 BCE – 7000 BCE

A Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement in Batman province whose earliest layers may predate Göbekli Tepe, featuring communal buildings, bead workshops, and evidence of early ritual practices that illuminate the dawn of settled life in Upper Mesopotamia.

PrehistoricNeolithic