Human Bones and Mortuary Practice

Human skeletal material has been found at Göbekli Tepe, and its presence and character have generated considerable scholarly discussion.

The human bones found at the site are not in the form of formal burials — there are no complete skeletons laid out in dedicated grave pits in the conventional archaeological sense, at least not in the excavated portions of the site.

Instead, what has been found consists of scattered human bone fragments, teeth, and other skeletal elements mixed into the fill deposits and other contexts across the site.