Göbeklitepe in Palaeoclimate Context: Human Responses to Climate Change in the Upper Tigris and Euphrates Basins from the Younger Dryas to the Early Holocene

The upper Euphrates and Tigris basins are located in modern-day Southeast Türkiye, on the northern periphery of the Fertile Crescent. From the eleventh to the eighth millennium calBC, during the Younger Dryas and the Early Holocene, human communities in this region transitioned from mobile hunter-foragers to settled agriculturalists. This process went hand in hand with the construction of the first monumental buildings, such as those at Göbeklitepe and its sister site Karahantepe. Although the Early Holocene is broadly understood as a phase of climate amelioration following the Younger Dryas climate reversal, it also featured short and abrupt phases of climatic instability, so-called rapid climate change (RCC) intervals. This contribution examines demographic trends against the backdrop of climate change to highlight potential impacts on human communities in this key region of Neolithisation, placing Göbeklitepe in its broader cultural and palaeoclimate context.