The Mystery of Gobekli Tepe
At around 12,500 years ago, human beings started to domesticate plants and animals around the world. This was the start of the geological epoch known as the Holocene. During this time, human beings also started to transition from a hunter-gatherer species to an agricultural-farming one, and thereafter began the great creation of towns and cities and the basis of civilisation. Prior to this ‘Neolithic Revolution’, we were nomadic creatures, with no written language, and with tools and technologies driven largely by our need to hunt on the land and sea and survive the elements day to day.
We need to remember also that 12,500 years ago corresponded to the end of the last ice age, where vast ice sheets had covered much of North America, Northern Europe and Asia, with their maximum extent around 26,500 years ago. The glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere began to retreat around 19,000 years ago. After the end of the last ice age came the period known as the Younger Dryas, which was between 12,900 to 11,700 years ago, which saw a temporary reversal of the gradual climatic warming. This was clearly a dramatic time to be on planet Earth and in particular in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is interesting that the Neolithic Revolution really came at the end of this ice age, permitting the conditions for human beings to thrive, apparently for the first time. Or was it?
The archaeological site at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey
Between the years 1996 to 2014 a site in Turkey was excavated by a renowned German archeologists called Klaus Schmidt, from the University of Erlangen. The site was in the South Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and it had the appearance of a hill, and so it was called ‘Potbelly Hill’ which in Turkish is written Gobekli Tepe. The site is around 1,000 ft in diameter and 50 ft high and is located 2,500 ft above sea level. Schmidt and his team were not the original discovers of the site, but it had originally be discovered in 1963 by the American archaeologist Peter Benedict from the University of Chicago in co-operation with Istanbul University.
After having spent several years excavating the site, Schmidt uncovered several layers which he had radiocarbon dated to 7,370 - 7,560 years ago (Enclosure C), 7,970 - 8,280 years ago (Enclosure B), 8,620 - 9,110 years ago (Layer III) and 8,800 - 9,2130 years ago (Layer III). The team found an astonishing set of T-shaped pillars forming what appeared to be a Temple or stone circle configuration. Many of the pillars contained pictograms and animal relief carvings, presumably to represent sacred symbols. The animal reliefs included lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, donkeys, snakes and other reptiles. They even included insects, arachnids and birds. Overall, the site displays the signature of a high culture and with a sophisticated knowledge of architecture and also possibly astronomy, and the use of stone tools - not expected of a hunter gatherer society.
Examples of some of the stone T-shaped pillars at Gobekli Tepe
The discovery of Gobekli Tepi is evidence suggestive of a non-linear history, which departs from so called gradualism. To construct a site like this, and noting that only around 5% of it has been excavated by archeologists to date, does not seem possible with a simple hunter gatherer society. This project would have required perhaps several hundred people working on it for years or decades, and they had to be fed with sufficient resources to not interrupt the construction. Just like the Clovis First model of the America’s, much of our understanding of history appears to be in need of revision. In fact, the site is suggestive that we are living in a post-apocalyptic era, and that there may be some truths to the mythologies of a great flood that swept across the Earth and also that prior to this existed advanced human societies.
The most incredible thing about this site in Turkey, is the view from Schmidt, that the site had been deliberately buried after its use. What could motivate a people to bury such a site? There would appear to be two possible reasons, which is to protect it (or preserve it) or to hide it from discovery by others. But protect it from what? And to hide it from whom? One thing is for sure, the only way we are going to unlock the answers to these questions is by fully committing to a major archaeological excavation program in Turkey. Let us hope that happens soon.
This article was originally posted on a previous web site for the asterism project on 15th Jul 2020 and it has been copied here since that site was closed down.
