Direkli Cave

 Direkli Cave is 72 km. from the Kahramanmaraş city center in the Döngel Distrıct on the Kahramanmaraş-Kayseri Highway. The discovery of a ‘Mother Goddess’ statue in the excavations carried out in Direkli Cave in 2009, lends the name Direkli to this civilization that once lived in Anatolia. Until now, ‘Venus’ style statues were only found in Europe. For the first time an example specimen was discovered in Anatolia and the Near East. This discovery dated the history of civilization in Anatolia back 5,000 years, between 16,000 and 12,000 BC. The statue found in Direkli Cave is about 3 cm tall. Besides being the first stylized Mother Goddess figure discovered in Anatolia, the most important feature is that it is made by human hands of fired ceramic. In particular, the discovery shows that the worship of a Mother Goddess began in Anatolia during the Neolithic Age. The excavation studies were directed and assisted by Assoc. Dr. Cevdet Merih EREK of the Gazi University Archeology Department.