Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe was built and occupied during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN)—the earliest division of the Neolithic period in Southwest Asia—which is dated to between 9600 and 7000 BCE. Beginning at the end of the last Ice Age, the PPN marks "the beginnings of village life", producing the earliest evidence for permanent human settlements in the world. Archaeologists have long associated the appearance of these settlements with the Neolithic Revolution—the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture—but disagree on whether the adoption of farming caused people to settle down, or settling down caused people to adopt farming. Despite the name, the Neolithic Revolution in Southwest Asia was "drawn out and locally variable". Elements of village life appeared as early as 10,000 years before the Neolithic in places, and the transition to agriculture took thousands of years, with different paces and trajectories in different regions. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic is divided into two subperiods: the PPNA, to which the early phases of Göbekli Tepe belong, is dated to between 9600 and 8800 BCE; the PPNB, to which the late phases of Göbekli Tepe belong, is dated to between 8800 and 7000 BCE. It was preceded by the Epipalaeolithic and succeeded by the Late Neolithic.