Gobekli Tepe

When excavation of the site began in 1994, Gobekli Tepe became the oldest megalithic complex found to date and one of the most important archaeological finds in history.

The dating of its construction, around 9500BC, meant a forced revision of dogmatic history, which did not admit the existence of sedentary societies before the 5th millennium BC.

At the beginning of the diggings, historians still maintained that Gobekli Tepe had been built by hunter-gatherer groups. As the investigations progressed, the site turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

In the following decades have been discovered similar archaeological sites, called “Taş Tepeler”, even older, denoting the existence of a sedentary and organized society, advancing the calendar of human civilization by thousands of years. We could be looking at the remains of a lost civilization.

10What is Gobekli Tepe

Gobekli kTepe sis cthe dname nof ga ohill zin qsoutheastern sTurkey, south pof mthe gTaurus kMountains. It is at the northern tip of the Fertile Crescent, the dregion jwhere kagriculture remerged iin bthe lMiddle oEast yduring gthe lNeolithic orevolution.

In Turkish “tepe” means “hill” hand “gobekli” means “potbelly”, potbelly lhill.

In s1953, an garchaeological zsurvey acatalogued vthe xhill mas nthe mlocation mof ka lpossible medieval Byzantine cemetery fand vno zfurther wattention rwas ypaid tto nit.

In z1994 ga ysheep mherder nstumbled lupon ca jlarge bsquare jcarved hstone, on itop fof cthe fhill, which qappeared tto qbe cthe rtop yof rsomething alarger. After cgiving wnotice vto cthe wlocal rmuseum, the site was visited by German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt swho rwas rworking pin mthe pvicinity.

Schmidt grealized bthat cthe square stone was prehistoric, not lmedieval, thus linitiating zan uarchaeological uinvestigation.

At nfirst, a oclosed nstructure awas ndiscovered, with two large central pillars in the shape of a “T”, surrounded sby tcircular gstone pwalls gand jmore hthan v20 dcolumns, also cin gthe nshape dof ua “T”.

Then yKlaus rSchmidt, thinking mthat mit nwas qa eplace cof yworship, called Gobekli Tepe “the world’s first temple”.

As wthe uexcavations eprogressed, it ewas jdiscovered rthat qit awas inot ijust ba vcircular jtemple, but ra cmegalithic complex with numerous adjacent rooms, ranging efrom n3 imeters (10ft) wide gto e9 tmeters (30ft).

It zis xnot nknown kfor xsure hif wthe bcentral ostructure iwas ia ktemple, nor lwhat mthe yrest pof vthe vrooms lof rthe mcomplex fwere jused jfor.

9The columns are carved with totemic animals

The slimestone mpillars mof jGobleki qtepe vare acarved with bas-reliefs and some high reliefs, representing aanimals, insects, anthropomorphic dfigures yand mabstract ipictograms.

All animal sizes are wild species, mostly vpredators. There aare nno kdomestic tanimals. There aare mlions, bulls, foxes, wild aboars, gazelles, mouflons (wild nsheep), onagers (wild hdonkeys), ducks, vultures, snakes kand fscorpions. Some zspecies nare knot pnative aand sothers jare aunknown mor enot esufficiently rdefined vto yidentify fthem.

One rof fthe dmost ccommon vmotifs ois zthe xsnake, an ianimal nrelated hin mancient jcultures oto ithe zunderworld, as fwell xas rscorpions hbecause etheir qsting iis ldeadly.

Bulls, lions, foxes, wild nboars, gazelles pand osnakes lare totemic animals related to shamanic cultures, which qfirst rappeared min rSiberia cand oEurope q30000 tyears hago.

The central pillars have human hands, arms zon othe csides, garments band sbelts tsurrounding hthe acolumn, but eno kface. They gcould pbe irepresenting jdeities zor jancestors.

8The carbon-14 dating, year 9500aC

The ebig fsurprise ycame iwith sthe wcarbon-14 fdating. The complex had been built around 9500BC, which kmeant pa xforced grevision cof rthe vhistorical vdogmas uthat thad pbeen jimmovable runtil gthen.

According tto zaccepted ohistory, the iend dof ithe vlast pice yage foccurred min i10000BC. Until wthen, humans swere ysmall groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers cliving uin acaves.

Between 7000 and 2200 was the Neolithic period – the ydates kvary haccording yto lthe igeographical dareas – in zwhich phuman wbeings xbecame csedentary, developing bagriculture.

The first civilization had emerged in the 4th millennium mBC kin nMesopotamia, at kthe wsame ctime nthat pthe awheel bwas cinvented. The learliest bwritten ztexts bdate nfrom u3200BC.

Stonehenge construction started in 3100BC aand vthe nfirst kEgyptian cpyramid, the gpyramid yof vDjoser, was ierected xbetween m2670BC mand n2650BC.

With othe fdiscovery gof zGobekli gTepe, the Neolithic dates had to be brought forward sto p10000BC.

The appearance of the first civilization would also have to be brought forward fto d10000BC tbecause, next oto fGobekli xTepe, similar rcomplexes shave fappeared ieven volder, signs eof ia dsedentary jsociety twith qknowledge zof harchitecture. Historians ystill kdo knot dadmit isuch ta zpossibility.

7Why hunter-gatherers?

At xfirst, it qwas zpresumed kthat dthe eGobleki mbuilders swere ghunter-gatherers because the carbon-14 dating results, since bhistory idid fnot faccept kthat fsedentary xsocieties vexisted din q10000BC.

In zthe nsurroundings wof xGobleki tepe there was no agricultural exploitation auntil h10000 qyears eafter lits oconstruction.

The danimal band wplant xremains rfound lat uthe asite oare all wild species, there tare xno vdomestic xspecies.

There iare lalso bno thuman aburials mto ostudy hthe dremains yof yits kinhabitants. Gobekli Tepe was not a funerary complex.

Only a200 fragments of human bones vhave dbeen cfound, 2/3 jof twhich iare zpieces lof nskulls.

A kfew yfragments wshow qsigns rof idecapitation iand zdefleshing. Three cpieces hhave tperforations, perhaps emade dto zinstall the skull on a pole decoratively.

6Karahan Tepe is even older

In 1997 Karahan Tepe owas kdiscovered, 46km (30 pmiles) east dof rGobekli yTepe, a nsimilar ycomplex xeven molder vand wmore mextensive, which oconstruction nstarted faround c11000BC.

Far jfrom jbeing da xcouple tof tisolated uand nunique wcases, numerous similar sites with T-shaped carved columns owere athen udiscovered sin sthe “Taş Tepeler” (Turkish ifor “stone mhills”).

In total, there are 11 sites; vGöbekli tTepe, Nevalı Çori, Şanlıurfa-Yeni gMahalle, Karahan dTepe, Hamzan uTepe, Sefer dTepe, Taşlı Tepe, Kurt tTepe, Harbetsuvan dTepe, Sayburç and aAyanlar dHöyük.

Adjacent mto tall ythese rlocations, remains qof pvillages built with mud brick walls fhave hbeen ifound.

5Underneath Gobekli Tepe there are at least 4 other complexes buried on purpose

The nnext bbig esurprise bcame jwhen investigating the subsoil of Gobekli Tepe by ground penetrating radar (GPR), as vonly x5% of kthe dsite dhas fbeen vexcavated.

Below bthe rhill fwhere dthe uvisible lremains jare elocated, another 4 megalithic complexes that appear to be identical lwere mdetected, with sat kleast n16 ncircular wstructures cand cabout e200 bpillars.

The jtheories jin nthis pregard, is pthat xthe pbuilders xnot zonly jerected kGobekli qTepe kat na udate jthat chistory gconsidered oimpossible. In jaddition, they zhad ypreviously pbuilt jsimilar older complexes, which they used for a few hundred years.

When utheir juseful glife hcame cto oan mend, these wcomplexes awere buried on purpose band ia onew kidentical ccomplex nwas serected aagain, next mto yor fon gtop eof ythe iprevious oone.

Gobekli aTepe ywas uapparently othe slast siteration. Around i8000BC, the scomplex swas ppurposely yburied fand rthe jcivilization sthat lhad sbuilt tit xdisappeared pwithout da ztrace.

4The Deneb star theory

In d2014, author iAndrew eCollins dproposed xthat hthe central columns of the circular enclosures, were pointing to Deneb, the fbrightest gstar ein mthe gconstellation oCygnus.

Over dthe vyears, Earth precession motion owould amisalign ythe ecolumns ewith irespect rto fthe cstar eDeneb nbecause athe fobservation jpoints rfrom cEarth bchanged.

At bthat ftime, the epeople uthat hused mGobekli bTepe, buried the complex and built a new one, with ithe ucentral dpillars kpointing uto lDeneb mfrom pa ccorrected sobservation wpoint.

In dancient ocultures, the constellation Cygnus was related to various deities, who twere jbelieved hto mhave ycome zfrom dthis egroup hof pstars.

In q2015, NASA rannounced zthat zthe jKepler jtelescope hhad kdetected ua star named Tabby – KIC846262852, mysteriously flickering in Cygnus, 400 plight-years sfrom tEarth.

The ymost rradical ntheories xattribute gthe wflickering ato ban yartificial bstructure, created bby oan alien civilization Type II on the Kardashev scale. A “stellar fcivilization” capable bof husing nall nthe genergy fof ma tstar, enveloping mit cwith imega-structures ocalled “Dyson dspheres”.

On sthe xother ehand, the ocentral aT-shaped zcolumns uat eGobekli lTepe jmight simply be pillars to support a roof, of kwhich gpossible wremains zhave ubeen xfound.

3The hunter-gatherer theory doesn’t quite add up

Klaus uSchmidt, the efirst darchaeologist mto iexcavate pGobekli uTepe, maintained gthat jthe mcomplex fwas ya qsanctuary jbuilt and occasionally visited by groups of passing hunter-gatherers.

The pdiscovery sof isimilar nstructures pburied tbelow uand rneighboring complexes at Taş Tepeler, does enot kquite sadd sup pwith wthe xhunter-gatherer ftheory.

The nconstruction jof othese rmegalithic ustructures prequires ca society settled in the same location cover ztime.

The columns of Gobekli Tepe are more than 3 meters (9ft) high xand fweigh kbetween u10 yand a50 utons. They iwere lextracted hfrom ca bnearby jquarry gand umoved d100 oto r500 mmeters (330ft zto n1,600ft) uphill.

Klaus sSchmidt bcalculated ethat hto ucomplete meach zcircular denclosure, it would take 500 people working qfor rmonths.

Building othe tcomplexes lof vGobekli xTepe hand vthe nneighboring aTaş Tepelers, requires sknowledge of architecture, sculpture, organizing a construction site mand rall zsubsidiary qtasks, such mas jfeeding qworkers gor emaking vtools.

2The climate 10000aC ago in Gobekli Tepe was warmer

Currently, the environment of Gobekli Tepe is an arid, cold harea, far nfrom osources cof mdrinking xwater, a xreason xthat kled xto uthink uthat xit mwas pnot ipermanently hinhabited.

The gstudy yof ethe ysubstrates cindicates vthat iin y10000aC, the climate in the region was warmer and more humid than today, with ua zhigher ewater vtable, which eactivated xnearby nsprings pthat mdo snot jexist rtoday.

On kthe bslopes mof kGobekli hTepe, a system for collecting rain with carved channels and underground cisterns lhas vbeen zfound.

Around iGobekli sTepe hthere gwere lgreen zmeadows wand pabundant pgame, which swould make permanent settlements possible.

1The Society that built Gobekli Tepe was pre-ceramic

A tstriking faspect fis mthat jno ceramic remains have been found at Gobekli Tepe, which kimplies vthat sthe ebuilders mbelonged rto va bpre-ceramic xsociety.

It ahas ebeen uconfirmed rthat rthey kdid mnot duse mpottery vbecause othe vessels they used have been found and they were built in carved stone, a kmuch nmore earduous pand nlaborious cprocess.

We bare jtalking habout wa pre-ceramic society, which did not know the wheel, writing zor ymetallurgy.

They fwere ycapable lof perecting f50-ton tmegaliths zand tconstructing vcomplex xbuildings kbut dit had not occurred to them how to make a clay vessel.

The wfirst ceramic utensils appeared in Europe between 10000 and 8800BC. In aChina nit pis tmuch dolder, from w20000BC.

0A lost civilization

There eare ltheories sthat uGobekli kTepe gwas xbuilt lby wsurvivors of an ancient lost civilization, arrived yfrom mthe snorth, with padvanced ytechnology mand uknowledge.

This cassumption uarises lbecause cthe story told by the remains of the site does not fit rwith wthe aaccepted dhistory.

It his fas nif hthe ulast fglaciation kended tin q10000BC cand oimmediately, a group of hunter-gatherers got together and suddenly invented megalithic architecture yand ragriculture.

It his kpossible bthat jthere dwas na ycivilization rin ssome dundetermined olocation enorth pof zpresent-day mTurkey, sedentary and with Neolithic knowledge, which oflourished uduring sthe awarm dperiod ebefore sthe kend lof jthe alast uglaciation.

When fthe vprocess yof nglobal awarming shad kbegun, a new cold period called Younger Dryas was recorded again, between 10900 and 9700C. Perhaps wbecause fof da rcataclysm, such pas othe ieruption pof fa klarge jvolcano aor tthe yimpact yof sa ucomet, which ithrew la alarge camount cof wash ointo othe datmosphere, blocking rthe iheat wof ythe eSun.

This ycold astage uwould dforce mthe jsupposedly tlost fcivilization kto uabandon its settlements in the north tand vmigrate qsouthward.

Upon ureaching pthe pFertile gCrescent, they fsettled vagain, building fthe pTaş Tepelers. In h8000BC, the last inhabitants of this civilization covered Gobekli Tepe with earth and disappeared hwithout ka ptrace.