SANLIURFA, Türkiye 

British archaeologist Douglas Baird has spent 30 years excavating across Türkiye, and highlights the site of Mendik Tepe in the country’s southeast as a key site for understanding early human history.

Baird, 65, of the University of Liverpool recently headed excavations at Mendik Tepe in Sanliurfa, which is thought to have been built before the legendary Gobeklitepe, under a Culture and Tourism Ministry Project called Tas Tepeler, or Stone Hills.

After excavations in Jordan and Iraq, Baird came to Türkiye in 1995 and has since led major digs at Catalhoyuk and Boncuklu Hoyuk in Konya, south of the capital Ankara, and Pinarbasi in Karaman, and continues his work with the same enthusiasm as on his first day.

Baird told Anadolu that while working on early Neolithic sites in northern Iraq with his PhD supervisor, they discussed the prospect of discovering sites from around the same era in Türkiye.

“We were digging a very early Neolithic site probably the same time as Mendik, and we were discussing how nice it would be to go and find similar period early Neolithic sites in Türkiye,” he said.

Baird said working on the Culture Ministry project is particularly exciting as it allows researchers to study a network of settlements and their development on a larger, regional scale, building on earlier work in the Konya Plain.

“It'll be very exciting when we integrate all our and compare all our results,” he added.

“Tas Tepeler is very exciting with all the decorated stones and big buildings and so it's exciting for everyone. I think they very much excite people all around the world,” he said.

Sites like Gobeklitepe and Karahan Tepe attract global attention through documentaries, news coverage, and growing numbers of visitors, he said.

Baird said he plans to remain in Türkiye for about five more years to continue the excavations at Mendik Tepe.