Open documentation · English edition

Translation of the canonical Spanish source under CC BY-SA 4.0. Code, trademarks and visual assets are not included.

Çakmaktepe and the route to Göbekli Tepe

The place in plain language

Çakmaktepe is an archaeological site in present-day south-eastern Türkiye. It belongs to the beginning of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, when hunter-gatherer groups in the region were taking early steps towards a more settled life.

TRACEKEEPERS opens its first window in the cave of Sarımğara, within its reconstruction of Çakmaktepe, around 9600 BCE. The occupied cave, its name, the tribe and the continuity of its ancestors over millennia belong to the story. They are not presented as facts demonstrated by the excavation. The site does allow the game to ask how an experienced community could organise homes, tasks and gatherings without cities.

Göbekli Tepe lies roughly 30 km away. The game expresses that distance as about eight hours on foot and saves it for a later journey. It does not turn the route into a short walk or claim that the two communities were one.

What the reconstruction may show

The landscape is represented as a limestone plateau with hills, pale ground, stone, grasses, low scrub and scattered trees or shrubs. It does not present a South African quarry as the real place, or add an alpine lake, snowy mountains or a closed forest.

Circular semi-subterranean structures cut into bedrock appear beside the cave. Some special buildings at Çakmaktepe reach about 16 m in diameter. The reconstruction uses wooden posts. It does not place T-shaped stone pillars in this settlement. Çakmaktepe's buildings may be understood as regional precedents for later solutions at Göbekli Tepe and other sites, but a direct evolution has not been proved.

The opening scene uses a warm, dry day but does not invent an exact temperature. Today's climate helps us understand the modern region, although it cannot simply be copied eleven thousand years into the past. Around 9600 BCE, the Holocene was beginning and south-eastern Anatolia was emerging from an earlier colder, drier phase.

Wild sheep and aurochs may be seen at a distance. Gazelles and foxes are regional reconstructions, not specific Çakmaktepe finds. Goats and domestic animals are not added as confirmed facts about the camp. News about wolf-like animals living beside people reaches the group through fictional travellers from the south and is clearly something Bora could not verify.

Work, plants and ornaments

The campaign shows people gathering and grinding wild plants. Grinding and pounding tools from Çakmaktepe support these activities. Exact quantities, species, meals and conversations remain reconstructions when no identification has been published.

The arrival mission asks players to locate four small stones in marked map areas and bring them to Lorn. He selects the pieces and finishes a stone-bead ornament through a brief, safe interaction. Stone beads are documented, but the particular object, its recipient and its meaning are fictional. The ten later adventures do not claim that the group invents fire, clothing, hunting, agriculture, art or religion.

Gatherings and beliefs

Aurochs and sheep skulls were found deliberately placed at Çakmaktepe, together with small objects that may have had ritual use. This demonstrates an intentional act, but it does not reveal what the community believed, what each animal meant or who led its gatherings.

Oru may connect animals, memory and ancestors within the fictional beliefs of his group. The game separates his voice from what archaeology can establish. Chants, percussion, torches, dancing and offerings are marked as plausible reconstructions.

Materials and limits

The campaign may show stone, varied flint tools, bone, wood, hides, baskets and plant fibres. The setting belongs to a period before pottery: no functional cooking pot, molten metal or later technique is handed over by the travellers.

Visible clothing is limited to irregular pieces of hide and leather. Braided plant fibres are used for cords, ties, belts, handles or baskets, never as cloth or a garment panel. Small bone, tooth, stone or shell ornaments are not treated as automatic proof of work, gender or rank.

The cave of Sarımğara, the river, the personalities of the six characters and the exact sequence of missions are cautious historical fiction. They allow the game to explore real questions without pretending to know a conversation from more than eleven thousand years ago.

Starting sources

The sources support the broad context, architecture and materials. Kael, his group and the specific scenes remain narrative reconstructions.