Göbekli Tepe and the Failure of Historical Materialism

Göbekli Tepe challenges the foundational assumptions of historical materialism by demonstrating that symbolic structures, not economic surplus, can drive monumental construction and social organization. The site's 9600 BCE hunter-gatherer-built complex predates agriculture and permanent settlement, contradicting materialist frameworks that require proto-economic surplus for large-scale coordination. Applying the Theory of Non-Derivable Admissibility (TNA), this study reinterprets Göbekli Tepe as an axiomatic limit, suggesting symbolic frameworks can force technological adaptation—including agriculture—as a secondary response to ritual constraints. This finding necessitates revising historical causality from linear material determinism toward a model of structural discontinuity.

Bresciano, C. (2026). Göbekli Tepe and the Failure of Historical Materialism. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.19409752