The serious reexamination of Göbekli Tepe began in 1994, when Klaus Schmidt, a German archaeologist working for the German Archaeological Institute, visited the mound and recognized the potential significance of the flint tools and worked stone he found there.

Schmidt had extensive experience with PPN sites in the region, and the character of the lithic material — the specific types of flint points and blades characteristic of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic — told him immediately that this was something far older than the medieval period.

Systematic excavations began in 1995 and continued under Schmidt’s direction until his death in 2014.

Schmidt and his colleagues worked in collaboration with the Şanlıurfa Museum, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and with ongoing support from the German Archaeological Institute.

As the excavations proceeded, the scale and character of what lay beneath the mound became clear in stages, each new revelation expanding the sense of what the site was and what it meant.