Following his work at Turkish site Nevalı Çori, in 1994 German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt decided to investigate the 1963 Chicago survey and Göbeklitepe site. He began excavating.

When in 1991 Professor Robert M. Schoch suggested water erosion on the Sphinx at Giza indicated earlier Egyptian civilisation than the accepted 5,000 years, critics asked for proof anywhere in the world of earlier sophistication.

In 1992 Dr. Mark Lehner challenged Schoch to give any example on earth whereby hunter gatherers had constructed sites of massive, monumental stonework. About 1995 Schmidt began unearthing huge T-shaped pillars.

Egyptologist John Anthony West states that Göbeklitepe, dated 11,600 years old, is that smoking gun example. This megalithic site near the city of Şanlıurfa on the Turkish-Syrian border may have implications for ancient sites worldwide.

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