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The Archaeology of People: Dimensions of Neolithic Life, Whittle

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Göbekli Tepe - Ancient Temple in Turkey

Submitted by AlexHunger on Monday, 02 July 2018  Page Views: 165989

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Göbekli Tepe Alternative Name: Göbekli Höyük, Gobekli Tepe, Göbeklitepe
Country: Turkey Type: Ancient Temple
Nearest Town: Sanliurfa  Nearest Village: Karapinar
Latitude: 37.223300N  Longitude: 38.922400E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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43559959 DrewParsons MartinJEley Bak_teria BrunoG jdeblois83 Kuba rrmoser would like to visit

ModernExplorers visited on 13th Jun 2012 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 4 A brilliant site to visit - the smoking gun. Loved the anthropomorphic stones and the animals carved on to the rocks. The museum in Urfa is a must for the statues on display there

Jansold visited on 20th Sep 2011 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4

Andy B: would like to visit Visited in episode one of the BBC TV series Divine Women by Bettany Hughes



Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2 Ambience: 4.5 Access: 4

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AlexHunger : Segment D is one of the near circular shaped pillared areas in the best condition of Göbekli Tepe. There are 5 more, usually smaller such pillared areas on this site, many of the pillars having elaborate carvings. Göbekli Tepe is apparently a Pre Pottery Neolithic Temple dating back to about 9,000 BCE near the Euphrates in South Eastern Turkey. With kind permission from Dr. Klaus Sc... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Late Pre Pottery Neolithic B temple site dated to 9,000 BC and apparently abandoned when the water supply dried up. Situated in south eastern Turkey's Mesopotamia, at the edge of the Harran plain and the fertile crescent.

The site predates that of Jericho. Only flint stone and bone tools have been found as ceramics hadn't been invented yet. Excavated between 1995 and 2005 by the late Dr. Klaus Schmidt of the Deutsches Archäologische Institut.

Judging from the published drawings and photos, there are what appear to be 6 buildings with elaborately carved T shaped megalithic pillars, among others. There are numerous animal and mystical signs engraved on the pillars, while the walls are made of good masonry. The workmanship is much better than that of significantly more recent archaeological sites. One is reminded, to some extent of the temples in Malta, which were built 5,000 years later. Some of the artefacts and at least one pillar were taken to the museum in Sanliurfa.

Dr. Schmidt described the research and excavations in his Book "Sie Bauten Die Ersten Tempel," published by the C.H. Beck publishing house in München in 2006.
The title translates to "They built the first temples." Dr. Schmidt's theory was that temples predated fixed settlements during the early Neolithic.
For the latest news see The Tepe Telegrams, Breaking News from the Göbekli Tepe Research Staff.

A new paper - Decoding Göbekli Tepe with Archaeoastronomy - which claims evidence for a connection with the Younger-Dryas cometary encounter in approx 10890 BC. Unsurprisingly this has been 'debunked' by the official research team, but do they really have the depth of cross-disciplinary knowledge to completely write off the ideas in the paper? There is ongoing debate in our forum

Note: Göbekli Tepe accepted as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Also: A sanctuary, or so fair a house? In defense of an archaeology of cult at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site
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Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AlexHunger : The central Pillar of Segment D of Göbekli Tepe has clearly recognizable engravings representing arms of an anthropomorphic character. There is also an "H" symbol in the corner. There are 5 more, usually smaller such pillared areas on this site, many of the pillars having elaborate carvings. Göbekli Tepe is apparently a Pre Pottery Neolithic Temple dating back to about 9,000 BCE near the ... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by jansold : General view of the new excavations. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by ModernExplorers : One of the 4 stone circles uncovered. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by Jansold : Pictograms and animal reliefs. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by ModernExplorers : Not sure exactly what these animals are but pretty sure they're now extinct. (1 comment)

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AngieLake : The partially quarried pillar mentioned in the caption of the previous photo, "in the limestone hills around Gobelki Tepe, which can be seen on the mound in the distance." Photography by Vincent J. Musi and article by Charles C. Mann in National Geographic magazine of 2011. (1 comment)

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AngieLake : This photo of the temple, by Vincent J. Musi, from the National Geographic magazine in 2011 has a caption: "It's likely no one lived at Gobelki Tepe, a religious sanctuary built by hunter-gatherers. Scientists have excavated less than a tenth of the site - enough to convey the awe it must have inspired 7,000 years before Stonehenge." (Article written by Charles C. Mann). [Rescued from recycl...

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AngieLake : From National Geographic in 2011. Photos by Vincent J. Musi: An amazing early carving of an animal on one of the pillars.

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AngieLake : From Nat Geographic in 2011, Photos by Vincent J. Musi. Pillars at the Temple of Gobelki Tepe.

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by ModernExplorers : Another striking statue in the museum in Sanliurfa (5 comments)

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AngieLake : A beautifully-carved bas-relief on one of the T-shaped pillars, with vultures, scorpions, and other creatures. Photographed by Vincent J. Musi, article by Charles C. Mann in National Geographic magazine of 2011.

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by ModernExplorers : Layers of history, the walls looked more modern than the stone circles

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by ModernExplorers : More carvings

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by Kustur : Gobekli Tepe in Turkey

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by Kustur

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by Kustur

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by Kustur : Site in Turkey

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AngieLake : The caption from 2011 says that a roof will be constructed over the site to protect the fragile carvings. No doubt that was completed as planned. "Pondering the mysteries of this ancient temple under an open sky will soon be a thing of the past." That must be a disappointment, but we have Vincent J. Musi's photos to remind us how lovely it was, and the article from National Geographic magazine...

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by AngieLake : More carvings photographed by Vincent J. Musi, from an article in National Geographic magazine in 2011.

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by Flickr : Gobekli Tepe made from Lego! Gabriel Thomson writes: This was my entry for round 4 of the MocOlympics in 2011 on MOCpages. Image copyright: qi_tah (Gabriel Thomson), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by Flickr : The Vulture Stone of Göbekli Tepe Image copyright: stapleton.ronnie, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by ModernExplorers : Another strange rock formation next to the car park

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by ModernExplorers : There were other strange shapes in the rocks next to the car park (4 comments)

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe submitted by ModernExplorers : You can see hands, arms and a belt (1 comment)

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"Göbekli Tepe" | Login/Create an Account | 80 News and Comments
  
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A Pre-pottery Neolithic Representation Of Space At Göbekli Tepe by Andy B on Saturday, 11 September 2021
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Author: Dragos Gheorghiu (Doctoral School National University of Arts - Bucharest)

Space is an abstract concept, difficult to represent and difficult to identify in the visual productions of prehistoric populations. Despite these limitations, iconography sometimes allows the inference of spatial knowledge from graphic representations, when one can identify a coherent network of meanings linking different images. One such example is the iconography of the PPN architecture from Gobekli Tepe, in particular that of Enclosure D. The structural architectural elements were decorated either with complex scenes featuring various species of animals, or only with solitary animals whose position and relationships could offer information on the perception of the PPN environment.
EAA Conference 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGvjUw2R5QE
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Re: Göbekli Tepe by DimitriosDendrinos on Saturday, 15 May 2021
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I wish to announce my latest paper on the carbon-14 dating of Neolithic monuments with special attention paid to Boncuklu Tarla and Gobekli Tepe. The paper can be accessed here on the researchgate.net site:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351607065_CARBON_14_EVIDENCE_AND_NEOLITHIC_SITES_Dating_the_Architectures_of_Boncuklu_Tarla_and_Gobekli_Tepe

and here, on the academia.edu site:

https://www.academia.edu/48927468/CARBON_14_EVIDENCE_AND_NEOLITHIC_SITES_Dating_the_Architectures_of_Boncuklu_Tarla_and_Gobekli_Tepe

Comments are welcome
Dimitrios S. Dendrinos
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Re: Göbekli Tepe by DimitriosDendrinos on Thursday, 06 May 2021
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To all interested:

I'm pleased to announce that I have a new paper out on the sites at Boncuklu Tarla, Nevali Cori and Gobekli Tepe. it can be accessed on both Researchgate.net at my page:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dimitrios-Dendrinos/research

and at my page on academia.edu:

https://www.academia.edu/48744237/BONCUKLU_TARLA_Why_evidence_also_from_this_Neolithic_settlement_supports_the_theory_that_Gobekli_Tepe_is_a_6th_millennium_BC_site

Any comments are welcome
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New temples, stones found in Turkey’s Göbeklitepe site by davidmorgan on Monday, 16 July 2018
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Archeologists have discovered new temples and standing stones in Göbeklitepe, an archeological site located in Turkey’s southeastern Şanlıurfa province.

In an interview with state-run Anadolu Agency, Mehmet Önal, the head of the Archeology Department at Harran University in Şanlıurfa, said at least 15 more mega-monumental temples and more than 200 standing stones were discovered as part of geophysical surveys in the region.

Göbeklitepe has recently been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

“As archaeological excavations continue in the coming years, we will come across new constructions,” said Önal.

He noted that the excavations in Göbeklitepe are estimated to continue for at least 150 years.

Göbeklitepe has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List since 2011. It was discovered in 1963 when researchers from Istanbul and Chicago universities were working at the site. Since then, the excavations have never stopped.

The German Archaeological Institute and Şanlıurfa Museum have done joint work at the site since 1995 and have found T-shaped obelisks from the Neolithic era measuring three to six meters (10 to 20 feet) high, and weighing 40 to 60 tons.

During the excavations, diverse historical artifacts like 65-centimeter-long human statues dating back 12,000 years were also discovered.

A 4,000-square-meter steel roof was erected to protect the site during preparations for its candidacy.

After being temporarily closed to visitors due to restoration work, Göbeklitepe partially reopened in February.

Source: Hürriyet
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    Re: New temples, stones found in Turkey’s Göbeklitepe site by davidmorgan on Monday, 16 July 2018
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    "at least 15 more mega-monumental temples and more than 200 standing stones were discovered as part of geophysical surveys in the region" - far out!
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A sanctuary, or so fair a house? In defense of an archaeology of cult by Andy B on Monday, 02 July 2018
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A sanctuary, or so fair a house? In defense of an archaeology of cult at Pre-Pottery Neolithic Göbekli Tepe - Oliver Dietrich and Jens Notroff

from Defining the Sacred - Approaches to the Archaeology of Religion in the Near East
https://www.academia.edu/13242551/


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A short note on a new figurine type from Göbekli Tepe by Andy B on Friday, 11 August 2017
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Oliver Dietrich and Klaus Schmidt
During the 2012 autumn excavation season at Göbekli Tepe, a small figurine (5,1 x 2,3 x 2,7 cm) was handed in as a surface find from the north-western hilltop of the tell. The motif of the figurine is an ithyphallic person sitting with legs dragged toward his body on an unidentifiable object. He is looking up and grasping his legs. Between the legs, a large erect phallus is de- picted, while a quadruped animal is sitting on the person´s left shoulder.

More at
https://www.academia.edu/34199322/A_short_note_on_a_new_figurine_type_from_G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe
(Free registration required)
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Göbeklitepe prepares for key UNESCO visit by davidmorgan on Monday, 24 July 2017
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Officials have been spending last-minute efforts as the Göbeklitepe archeological site in Turkey’s southeast, one of the leading historic values of the country, prepares to be nominated for UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2018 ahead of a delegation visit in September.

Aydın Aslan, a culture and tourism director in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, has told state-run Anadolu Agency that they were very pleased to finally hear the nomination of the Göbeklitepe archeological site, accepted as the world’s oldest center of worship by Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry and many other international institutions and organizations, for this year’s 42nd UNESCO heritage committee meeting.

Read more at Hürriyet
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    Göbeklitepe added to UNESCO World Heritage list by davidmorgan on Monday, 02 July 2018
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    Located in the Germuş mountains of south-eastern Anatolia, this site presents monumental circular and rectangular megalithic structures, interpreted as enclosures, which were erected by hunter-gatherers in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic age between 9,600 and 8,200 BC. It is likely that these monuments were used in connection with rituals, probably of a funerary nature. Distinctive T-shaped pillars are carved with images of wild animals, providing insight into the way of life and beliefs of people living in Upper Mesopotamia about 11,500 years ago.
    UNESCO World Heritage.

    Also an article in Hürriyet.
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Decoding Göbekli Tepe with Archaeoastronomy: What Does The Fox Say? by Andy B on Wednesday, 26 April 2017
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Orpbit writes: On the subject of markers, and connection to cosmology, you might be interested in this article:

Decoding Göbekli Tepe with Archaeoastronomy: What Does The Fox Say? - Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Tsikritsis

We have interpreted much of the symbolism of Göbekli Tepe in terms of astronomical events. By matching low-relief carvings on some of the pillars at Göbekli Tepe to star asterisms we find compelling evidence that the famous ‘Vulture Stone’ is a date stamp for 10950 BC ± 250 yrs, which corresponds closely to the proposed Younger Dryas event, estimated at 10890 BC. We also find evidence that a key function of Göbekli Tepe was to observe meteor showers and record cometary encounters. Indeed, the people of Göbekli Tepe appear to have had a special interest in the Taurid meteor stream, the same meteor stream that is proposed as responsible for the Younger-Dryas event. Is Göbekli Tepe the ‘smoking gun’ for the Younger-Dryas cometary encounter, and hence for coherent catastrophism?

http://maajournal.com/Issues/2017/Vol17-1/Sweatman%20and%20Tsikritsis%2017%281%29.pdf

There is also an item in the Telegraph about it:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/04/21/ancient-stone-carvings-confirm-comet-struck-earth-10950bc-wiping/
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Re: Göbekli Tepe by Anonymous on Sunday, 12 February 2017
From civil engineering point of view it is more likely to be a water collection structure.
Alex Pandre
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Gobekli Tepe: a 6th millennium BC monument by Dimitrios Dendrinos by Andy B on Thursday, 12 January 2017
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An alternative viewpoint on Gobekli Tepe from Dimitrios Dendrinos, University of Kansas, Urban Planning, Emeritus

Dating Gobekli Tepe

The paper analyzes the evidence regarding the dating of the Gobekli Tepe complex. First, it examines the C14 dating information supplied by the archeologist in charge of the Gobekli Tepe excavation, Klaus Schmidt, and a number of others. This is claimed as evidence that Gobekli Tepe is of the at least PPNB period. The evidence they analyzed was obtained from both the fill, as well as from the plaster at the surface of certain Gobekli Tepe structures. The paper also examines the lithic based evidence regarding the fill at the site. Clear evidence that counters these claims is presented is presented in this paper. Although the Gobekli Tepe site can be shown to be of much later construction date than PPPNB, the paper sets as a modest aim to show that the structures at GT so far analyzed are of a later than PPNB date. Evidence covering both C14 dating, as well as architectural, urban design, urban planning, demography and art evidence is offered to back this argument. Extensive use is made of architectural elements from PPNA Natufian settlements, as well as PPNA/B settlements Hallan Cemi and Jerf el-Ahmar.

https://www.academia.edu/28603175/Dating_Gobekli_Tepe

The paper documents the date for the initial construction phases of Layer III of structures D (middle 6th millennium BC) and structure C (end of 6th millennium BC - beginning of 5th millennium BC) at Gobekli Tepe. It is a sequel to the author's September 19, 2016 paper "Dating Gobekli Tepe". It uses comparative Architecture and Design analysis from Catalhoyuk and Nevali Cori as well as Jerf El Ahmar for the dating process. It also employs Alexander Thom's schema of classifying stone enclosures, by appropriately expanding it and applying it to Gobekli Tepe. The paper also traces linkages between Gobekli Tepe, Carnac, Malta, Stonhenge and Menorca.

https://www.academia.edu/30163462/Gobekli_Tepe_a_6_th_millennium_BC_monument
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The Tepe Telegrams, Breaking News from the Göbekli Tepe Research Staff by Andy B on Wednesday, 04 May 2016
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The Tepe Telegrams, Breaking News from the Göbekli Tepe Research Staff. Correspondents Oliver Dietrich and Jens Notroff
https://tepetelegrams.wordpress.com/

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    Recent articles: Why did it have to be snakes? Making and moving monoliths by Andy B on Wednesday, 04 May 2016
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    Why did it have to be snakes?
    Snakes are omnipresent at Göbekli Tepe. Even today you may have the luck to encounter a Levantine Viper when visiting the site (yes, they are poisonous, but just let them be, they are also protected by the Washington Convention). In most cases you will only see their image in stone. Snakes are among the most often depicted animals at Göbekli Tepe. They appear on pillars, on porthole stones, on small stone plaquettes and shaft straightheners.
    https://tepetelegrams.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/why-did-it-have-to-be-snakes/

    How did they do it? Making and moving monoliths at Göbekli Tepe
    The T-shaped pillars discovered at Göbekli Tepe are big. The central pair of Enclosure D measures 5.5m and weighs in at 8 metric tons each. The surrounding pillars are smaller, but still reach around 4m. How Stone Age people were able to make these pillars and to transport them seems a mistery to many of the site’s visitors. We can however offer some answers to both questions, as we are in the lucky situation to know where the pillars come from.
    https://tepetelegrams.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/how-did-they-do-it-making-and-moving-monoliths-at-gobekli-tepe/
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Re: Göbekli Tepe by Anonymous on Wednesday, 30 December 2015
First sentence above you write 9000 BC.

This is my 2nd shallow foray (first over a year ago I believe) cuz intrigued by this built complex. Today I come by way of your Megalithic Portal pg where you write 2X in photo blurbs that it's about "9,000 BCE near the Eurphrates" [sic] citing Dr. Schmidt, sadly deceased.

Doing a side check, we can see that Wikipedia gives an extra 1000 years, with abandonment at 8000 BCE.
I assume this is radiologic data but I didn't get it.

So, do you believe we can standardize the build date to about 10,000 years BCE?
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Signs of world’s first pictograph found in Göbeklitepe by davidmorgan on Sunday, 19 July 2015
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Turkey's Göbeklitepe, the site of the world’s oldest temple, may be the home of the first pictograph, according to a scene etched into an obelisk.

A scene on an obelisk found during excavations in Göbeklitepe, a 12,000-year-old site in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, could be humanity’s first pictograph, according to researchers.

“The scene on the obelisk unearthed in Göbeklitepe could be construed as the first pictograph because it depicts an event thematically. It depicts a human head in the wing of a vulture and a headless human body under the stela,” Şanlıurfa Museum Director and Göbeklitepe excavation head Müslüm Ercan said. “There are various figures like cranes and scorpions around this figure. This is the portrayal of a moment; it could be the first example of pictograph. They are not random figures. We see this type of thing portrayal on the walls in 6,000-5,000 B.C. in Çatalhöyük [in modern-day western Turkey].”

Ercan said the artifacts found in Göbeklitepe provided information about ancient burial traditions. “There were no graves 12,000 years ago. The dead bodies were left outdoors and raptors ate them. In this way, people believed the soul goes to the sky,” he added.

Ercan said it was called “burial in the sky,” and was depicted in obelisks in Göbeklitepe, which is home to the world’s oldest-known temples.

Many of the artifacts being unearthed during the excavations in the Neolithic-era field were the first of their kind, Ercan said, adding that Göbeklitepe served as a religious center and that geo-radar works had showed 23 temple structures in the region.

Ercan said two obelisks, which are called “T” stelas since they are in the shape of the letter “T,” were found opposite each other and that they were surrounded by smaller, round-shape obelisks.

The obelisks symbolized the sacred beings that people worshipped at that time, Ercan said.

“We have a small-size pig sculpture in our museum. It was found in front of central stelas in the ‘C’ temple. It is believed that these stelas symbolized the sacred beings for the people of Göbeklitepe. People of this era used to gather in these temples at a certain time of the year to take vows and worship. After this ceremony, they returned to the plains, their living spaces.”

In the meantime, the infrastructure work for the construction of a preservation roof in the excavation area has been finished.

”We are carrying out works for the preparation of the roof project, aiming to protect the artifacts unearthed in the Göbeklitepe excavation area,” said Ercan. “Professor Klaus Schmidt initiated this project before he died ... We have finished the infrastructure work of the roof project, and now we are ready to construct it. It is a EU project and in the tender phase. Our goal is to start construction by the end of the year and finish it in eight months.”

Source: Hürriyet
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    Re: Signs of world’s first pictograph found in Göbeklitepe by ColinBerry on Sunday, 08 May 2016
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    Yes, it's an excarnation site. That was my first thought when seeing the layout with those "T-shaped pillars" read bird perches and concentric dry stone walls, reminiscent of that site in the Golan Heights investigated by Rami Arav. I can't for the life of me understand why it's being described as "the first temple" when there are vultures in the ornamental artwork!
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      Re: Signs of world’s first pictograph found in Göbeklitepe by ivanjohnson on Thursday, 27 April 2017
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      Now that's very interesting! That's the first I have heard that idea - very good thinking. With reliefs of animals and officials/hunters/warriors/priests/gods watching over the dead as they are slowly consumed. Towers of Silence - the original Zoroastrians! Takht-e Suleyman is not too far from there.
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Ancient Göbeklitepe pioneer Schmidt passes away by davidmorgan on Thursday, 24 July 2014
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Professor Klaus Schmidt, a pioneer of excavations in Göbeklitepe, known as the “zero point in history” in the eastern Turkish province of Şanlıurfa, died of a heart attack while swimming in Germany at the age of 61.

Schmidt had been working at Göbeklitepe for 20 years for the German Archaeology Institute. Through his works, he proved that the Neolithic-age ancient site was the world’s oldest temple.

He had published books on the Göbeklitepe excavations in Turkish, German, Italian and Russian, along with countless scientific articles and work on exhibitions and conferences across the world.

Şanlıurfa Provincial Culture and Tourism Deputy Director Aydın Aslan said they were saddened by his death, adding that Schmidt had a significant role in the promotion of Göbeklitepe. “We are in great shock,” Aslan said.

The archaeological remains in Göbeklitepe, which date back to 10,000 BC and are considered one of the most exciting recent archaeological findings, show that hunters and gatherers of the Stone Age, while struggling to survive and meet their basic needs, also tried to understand nature, believing in superpowers and/or gods and came together to worship. Built thousands of years before previously known temples, Göbeklitepe has changed the way scientists think about the Neolithic Period and the birth of civilization.

Since 2008, Schmidt had been working with a team of German archaeologists. His schedule was two months of excavation in the spring and two months in the fall. In 2011, Schmidt was interviewed and revealed that roughly 5 percent of the site has been excavated. In 1995, Schmidt purchased a house in Şanlıurfa. Last March, he said a canal-like formation was unexpectedly discovered during the construction of the two roofs.

It is not yet clear whether the fall excavations will start in September or who will head the excavations.

Source: Hürriyet
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    Re: Ancient Göbeklitepe pioneer Schmidt passes away by KaiHofmann on Monday, 28 July 2014
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    His death is a grievous loss. I met him 12 years ago, when he was showing me maps of the Göbekli tepe excavation area, a very nice man. He helped me with starting my own company... He also did a lot for public relations and to awake the interest in archaeology in Germany. I´m really sad to hear from his death.
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    Re: Ancient Göbeklitepe pioneer Schmidt passes away by davidmorgan on Saturday, 09 August 2014
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    Another article in Hürriyet:
    "FULL STORY: How 'the world's oldest temple' changed history".
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Neolithic Near East wetter and more fertile than today by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 25 June 2014
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A new study describes the characteristics of agriculture at its beginnings by comparing kernel and wood samples from ancient Near East sites, with present day samples. It is the first time that direct evidence is able to reveal humidity and fertility conditions of crops, as well as the process of cereal domestication developed from the Neolithic (12,000 years ago) to early Roman times (around 2,000 years ago).

The study was co-directed by Josep Lluís Araus, professor from the University of Barcelona (UB), Juan Pedro Ferrio, Ramón y Cajal researcher at Agrotecnio of the University of Lleida (UdL), and Jordi Voltas, professor from Agrotecnio. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers Ramon Buxó, archaeologist and director of the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia-Girona, and Mònica Aguilera, UdL researcher who is now working at the Paris Natural History Museum, also participated in the study.

Researchers used crop physiology techniques to analyse archaeobotanical remains. In total, they looked at 367 barley and wheat kernels, and 362 wood samples obtained in eleven archaeological sites from Upper Mesopotamia (including present day south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria).
Progressive domestication

Researchers compared the size of kernel remains with present day samples to determine the evolution of crop domestication. “The methodology used to date does not reproduce real size; it measures width and length of charred kernels”, explains Josep Lluís Araus. “We have reconstructed cereal kernel weight and have seen that it increased for a longer period of time than it was thought, probably during several millennium”. According to the researcher, the initial selection of kernel was “unconscious”, in other words, the first farmers selected the biggest kernels, so size increased progressively.
Wetter and more fertile soils

Sample analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotope compositions —a technique used in crop physiology and improvement— was a key factor to describe the conditions of the area. “Carbon isotope composition enables us to evaluate water availability for crops. It reached its maximum level 9,000 years ago, and then it decreased progressively until the beginning of our times”, explains Araus. However, researchers have not found conclusive evidence that irrigation was a common practice. “This information together with cereal kernel weight allows us to assess the productivity of ancient crops”, highlights Josep Lluís Araus.

Nitrogen isotope composition provides information about the soil’s organic matter and fertility. Juan Pedro Ferrio (Agrotecnio-UdL) affirms that “although they were dryland crops, it can be ascertained that nitrogen was much more available than today: undoubtedly, soils were much more fertile than nowadays”. Moreover, a progressive decrease in soil fertility can be observed, probably due to over-exploitation or the use of less fertile soils, but also to more extreme climate conditions.
Evolution of human communities

These data enable the researchers to describe more precisely agronomic conditions and the evolution of human populations linked to agricultural practices. “The study relates conditions like water availability or soil fertility to crop yield”, says Araus. Past yields, compared with average calorie needs of one person, enable the researchers, for example, to have a rough idea of the crop area needed to feed the population. “This information can be used to know more precisely the borders of past settlements and the evolution of human communities. The aim is to include all this information in models in order to better understand the past.”

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/05/2014/neolithic-near-east-wetter-and-more-fertile-than-today

Subm

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Re: Göbekli Tepe by NickK on Tuesday, 17 December 2013
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A must see site but anyone planning to go should be aware that they have just constructed a wooden frame to hold coverings to protect the site which does affect the experience of visiting. This is a temporary structure and there will be a state of the art roof constructed possibly next year. The site may be closed for some periods during construction.
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Re: Göbekli Tepe by Anonymous on Sunday, 08 December 2013
Interesting,
However I do not see any religious aspects here.
It simply looks like a breeding ground for crocodiles.
All the other animals carved are typical food for the predator. The T-stone walls are similar height to hold a platforms for people.
This may have been a way to control crocodile population. Could have been for entertainment. Or it was a crocodile farm for meat.
My opinion, MikeB.
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Birthplace of religion Göbeklitepe aims for more recognition by davidmorgan on Thursday, 28 November 2013
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Cultural officials in Şanlıurfa hope to introduce the wonders of the Stone Age site of Göbeklitepe to the world following the recent discovery of objects in the oldest temple known to man.

Humankind is believed to have first met organized religion in Anatolia, and now the aim is to make this known by many more people.

A campaign was launched in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa yesterday to promote Göbeklitepe, which scientists believe is home to the world’s oldest temple.

As part of the campaign, an exhibition of ceramic tiles carrying the photographs of the objects found in the 12,000-year-old temple was opened Nov. 24 at the Kemalettin Gazezoğlu Culture and Arts Center. Sponsored by Doğuş Holding, the exhibition, opened by Labor Minister Faruk Çelik, will come to Istanbul in February. A website, http://www.gobeklitepeturkey.org, was also launched simultaneously.

Ece Vahapoğlu, the coordinator of the campaign, told a group of journalists invited to the opening ceremony that the importance and beauty of Göbeklitepe should be known by more people. “The mystic structure of Şanlıurfa captivates us all, and Göbeklitepe has a special place in our hearts,” she said. “I hope that everybody who visits Göbeklitepe will share our excitement,” Vahapoğlu added, thanking the sponsors who made the project possible.

The archaeological remains in Göbeklitepe, which dates back to 10,000 B.C. and is considered one of the most exciting recent archaeological findings, show that hunters and gatherers of the Stone Age, while struggling to survive and meet their basic needs, also tried to understand nature, believing in superpowers and/or gods and coming together to worship. Built thousands of years before previously known temples, Göbeklitepe has changed the way scientists think about the Neolithic Period and the birth of civilization.

Göbeklitepe, whose planners and builders remain a mystery, consists of not only one, but of many Stone Age temples. Excavations and geomagnetic results revealed that there are at least 20 installations, which in archeological terms can be called a temple. The pattern principle seems to be that there are two huge monumental pillars in the center of each installation, surrounded by enclosures and walls, featuring more yet more pillars. All pillars are T-shaped and of varying height, ranging from three to six meters, while averaging about 40 to 60 tons in weight. On the pillars are carvings of animals as well as abstract symbols, sometimes picturing a combination of scenes.

Foxes, snakes, wild boars, cranes, wild ducks are the most commonly figures inscribed on the flat surfaces of the pillars. In addition to the carving are some three-dimensional sculptures that take the shape of a predator depicting a lion, descending on the side of the T-pillar.

Discovered in 1963

The site was first discovered in 1963, but it was not until 1995 that the importance of it became known. Since then, Professor Klaus Schmidt has been heading the excavations in Göbeklitepe: “There were many settlements of hunter-gatherer societies,” he said. “Göbeklitepe was a worship center for those people. The builders of the temple were the first ones to ask ‘what is the universe?’ and ‘why are we here? First came the temple, and then came the city.”

As the excavations and works on the findings continue, it is still unknown as to how these enclosures were designed and built at a time when people were unaccustomed to and unfamiliar with settlement and agricultural activities. Humankind’s history may be rewritten when those questions become answered.

Source: Hürriyet
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Eastern Turkey's Ancient Wonders: Göbekli Tepe by bat400 on Monday, 21 October 2013
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Given the power to travel in time, which period would you choose for your tour? Well, here’s one to consider: the early Holocene. Well, to be more precise 9,600BC in what is now eastern Turkey. That period and place are known to have been pivotal in human prehistory, although they left precious few traces.

It was during this time that certain plants and animals were domesticated, which led to the farming revolution and permanent changes in human technology, culture and diet. What better moment could there be to delve into? And now, thanks to some incredible recent discoveries close to the ancient city of Urfa (officially now Sanlıurfa, but usually called simply Urfa), we have a tangible physical trace of that momentous turning point in humanity’s development.

One morning in 1994, Professor Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul, went for a walk in a range of low hills nine miles north-east of Urfa. It was not exactly an aimless amble: Schmidt had been excavating several neolithic sites in the area and was on the hunt for more. In his pocket was a list of interesting locations generated by a 1960s survey. One, marked as of minor interest, was a small hill, Gobëkli Tepe, the “belly-shaped mound”. Approaching it, Schmidt saw something promising in the shape: “It was clearly manmade.”

The hills in this area are given over to sheep and goats, while the valley below is the scene of intensive mechanised agriculture. The agrarian revolution has hardly had a beautifying effect here in its original home, but Schmidt knew this had once been a rich savannah, alive with wild animals and birds. As he reached the highest point, he began to pick up flint arrowheads, dozens of them.

Local landowner Mahmut Yildiz, who was with him, led him to the only tree on the hill, right at the top. It was tied with ribbons, and Yildiz told how locals believed it was a holy site. Schmidt spotted several large rocks about a metre long and a third as wide. A quick inspection suggested these were manmade, and ancient.

“I knew right then,” Schmidt tells me as we survey the site, “that this place would occupy me for the rest of my life.”

What he had found was the most significant stone age discovery of the century, perhaps of all time. The large monoliths proved to be the tops of five-metre-high standing stones, vaguely human-shaped but carved with animal figures. Radar investigation revealed the stones to be laid in a circle, and that there were a further 20 such circles.

When the first carbon-dating was done, the results were staggering. Gobëkli Tepe was between 10,800 and 11,600 years old, making it the most ancient monument ever found by more than five millennia. According to the textbooks it could not exist: human hunter-gatherer societies at that time simply did not possess the skills and resources to construct such a place. But here it was, a stone age marvel that had ripped up those very textbooks.

And what was it? Temple? Burial mound? Meeting hall? No one knew. But one thing was certain: Gobëkli Tepe would one day be known to every schoolchild on earth and was destined to become a major travel destination, ranked alongside the Great Pyramids, Persepolis and Stonehenge.

These days you drive up to the site, and the stony ground has been cleared sufficiently for the occasional tourist bus to park. Word is starting to spread. Yildiz has brought in a makeshift table and sells postcards and books. Most days he has a few customers, sometimes several dozen.

As you approach the site, you see a few huts but not much else. The ground is still dotted with arrow flints. Then you round the hill. Even if you’ve seen the pictures of the site on the internet, it is quite extraordinary: an area of hillside the size of three tennis courts dug out to a depth of seven or eight metres to reveal dozens of huge monoliths. There is a raised boardwalk so you can move over the area easily, watching the archaeologists at work.

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'World's Oldest Temple' May Have Been Cosmopolitan Center by davidmorgan on Saturday, 24 March 2012
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Ancient blades made of volcanic rock that were discovered at what may be the world's oldest temple suggest that the site in Turkey was the hub of a pilgrimage that attracted a cosmopolitan group of people some 11,000 years ago.

The researchers matched up about 130 of the blades, which would have been used as tools, with their source volcanoes, finding people would have come from far and wide to congregate at the ancient temple site, Göbekli Tepe, in southern Turkey. The blades are made of obsidian, a volcanic glass rich with silica, which forms when lava cools quickly.

The research was presented in February at the 7th International Conference on the Chipped and Ground Stone Industries of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in Barcelona, Spain.

Only a tiny portion of Göbekli Tepe has been excavated so far, but what has been unearthed has been hailed by archaeologists as astounding for its great age and artistry.The site contains at least 20 stone rings, one circle built inside another, with diameters ranging from 30 to 100 feet (10 to 30 meters). The researchers suspect people would fill in the outer ring with debris before building a new circle within.

T-shaped limestone blocks line the circles, and at their center are two massive pillars about 18 feet (5.5 m) tall. Statues and reliefs of people and animals were carved on these blocks and pillars. "Some of the stones [the big pillars] are bigger than Stonehenge," said Tristan Carter, one of the obsidian researchers and a professor of anthropology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. (Research on the site has been ongoing since 1994 and is led by Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute.)

Even more puzzling is what has not been found. The buildings contain no hearths and the plant and animal remains there show no signs of domestication. Also, so far there have been no buildings found that archaeologists can confirm were used for everyday living.

Taken together, the research indicates the site was created by hunter-gatherers, rather than farmers, who came from across a large area to build and then visit the site for religious purposes. This research is backed up by the style of some of the obsidian and stone tools which suggest that people were coming from Iraq, Iran, the Middle Euphrates and the eastern Mediterranean.

The discoveries made at Göbekli Tepe over the past two decades have led to a great deal of debate. Ted Banning, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto in Canada recently published a paper in the journal Current Anthropology arguing that interpretations of the site may be off. Banning suggests the stone-ring structures may have been roofed and used as houses, albeit ones filled with art that may have served as both a domestic space and religious area.He also suggests that the people of Göbekli Tepe could have been growing crops, pointing out that some of the stone tools would have been useful for harvesting and that, at such an early point in history, it is difficult to tell the difference between wild plants and animals and those that humans were trying to domesticate.

Banning told LiveScience that he needs to review the team's latest obsidian results before he can give an informed comment on it.

Volcanic evidence

To try to solve some of the mysteries surrounding the site, Carter's team has used a combination of scientific tests to match up the chemical composition of the artifacts to the volcanoes from which the obsidian originally came.

"The real strength of our work is this incredible specificity; we can say exactly which mountain it comes from, and sometimes even which flank of the volcano," Carter told LiveScience in an interview. [History's Most Destructive Volcanoes]

At least three of the obsidian sources are located in central Turkey, in a region called Cappadocia, which is located nearly 300 miles (500 km) away from Göbekli Tepe. At least

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Similar to other sites? by glen on Sunday, 04 December 2011
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It is often fatuous to draw similarities to distant sites. Gobekli temples are round and so have been compared to Stonehenge (even by Steven Fry on QI); the megaliths are carved in relief and so compared to Malta and Tiwanaku! They are a similar age to neighbouring Syria's Tel Aswad, but this obvious connection is hardly instructive.
Can anyone make anything of the many similarities to the Menorcan talayotic sites such as Torre d'en Gaumes? The T-shaped megaliths, propped with dry-stone walling, placed onto slotted plinths, and encircled. The controversy over their function as roof-pillars. Their multiplicity in close proximity. The likelihood of 'sky-burial' as prime ritual. The hill-top location in dry climate. So many shared factors are surely worth thinking about. How sure are we of the taula and talayots' age?
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Re: Göbekli Tepe by coldrum on Sunday, 23 October 2011
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Oldest Monumental Center in the World Attracts New Conservation Efforts

The 11,000-year-old Early Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe is now an object of new conservation efforts, even while archaeological excavations and research continue.
Oldest Monumental Center in the World Attracts New Conservation Efforts

More than 10,000 years ago, before settled agriculture and the rise of civilizations, hunter-gatherers were erecting and carving T-shaped monolithic pillars weighing as much as 20 metric tons atop a mountain ridge in present day southeastern Turkey, using nothing more than simple flint tools. The stone material was acquired from a quarry 100 meters distant. There were no wheels to help. They hadn't been invented yet. Like Stonehenge and other similar sites in the British Isles, questions about who these people were and why they built these monumental structures remain unanswered, though not for lack of various anthropological and archaeological interpretations. Only five percent of the site where these stones were placed has been excavated by archaeologists, so it is a bit early to draw major conclusions. But even while archaeologists are busy at work uncovering more of the site, conservationists are pushing forward with plans to protect, conserve, and showcase the site for posterity.

This is important, because the site is Göbekli Tepe, first discovered through surveys in 1964 and now considered the oldest known set of religious structures in the world. Its value lies in its potential to profoundly change our understanding of a critical period in the development of civilization. Most notably, its evidence suggests that hunter-gatherers were capable of conceiving and building monumental complexes, a capability that has long been assigned first to the earliest people who could form sedentary communities based on agriculture. As the site excavator, Dr. Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute says: "First came the temple, then the city."[1]


More needs to be done before the revolutionary theory can be substantially supported, but while the excavation and research chugs along, a team of conservationists are already laying plans and marshaling the resources needed to ensure that the site, as it is uncovered, does not crumble away into oblivion, a fate that seems to have threatened so many other significant world cultural sites after the excavators have left the scene.

Reports the Global Heritage Fund (GHF), a non-profit conservation organization based in Palo Alto, California, "The site and its extant remains are threatened by looting, exposure and insufficient management of the site and its resources".

As a case in point, just over a year ago, a 30-kilo stele was removed from the site by looters, closing the site for 11 days. Moreover, erosion of the exposed structures caused by the natural freeze/thaw cycle continue to affect the original integrity of the structural surfaces and carvings, and the lack of a comprehensive site management plan means that the site's long-term stability and sustainability are in question. Now the GHF, with the help of the Turkish Government and other institutions and organizations, is spear-heading an effort to address all of those issues.

"A great number of new scientific breakthroughs are expected in the next 10 years as new areas and stratigraphy are investigated", reports the GHF about the site, "However, if it is decided to excavate new areas, then additional conservation and shelter funding will need to be secured. One of the most pressing issues is the repair of broken stelae."[1]

Above, one of the T-shaped monoliths. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

As the construction of a shelter to protect the site is an urgent need, shelter design proposals are being submitted from six different firms under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute. The shelter, once constructed, will be designed so as to minimize site impact by i

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    Re: Göbekli Tepe by siobahnagain on Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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    Surely, this was the reason Gobekli Tepe was buried to preserve the temples and carvings?

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Re: Gobekli Tepe - was the Temple a House? by AngieLake on Thursday, 20 October 2011
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Piles of ancient rubbish could prove incredible temple that's 6,500 years older than Stonehenge was actually a house
By Martin Robinson

Last updated at 1:56 PM on 19th October 2011

It has long been considered the world's oldest temple and even thought by some to be the site of the Garden of Eden.
But a scientist has claimed that the Gobekli Tepe stones in Turkey, built in 9,000 BC and 6,500 years older than Stonehenge, could instead be a giant home 'built for men not gods'.

Ted Banning, a professor at the University of Toronto, has branded it 'one of the world's biggest garbage dumps,' with piles of animal bones, tools and charcoal found there proving that it was an ancient home rather than a religious site.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050908/Gobekli-Tepe-Temple-thats-6-500-years-older-Stonehenge-house.html
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    Re: Gobekli Tepe - was the Temple a House? by Andy B on Friday, 21 October 2011
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    This is the paper that prompted this, from Current Anthropology October 2011
    So Fair a House: Göbekli Tepe and the Identification of Temples in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East(pp. 619-660)
    E. B. Banning
    DOI: 10.1086/661207
    http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/661207

    Archaeologists have proposed that quite a number of structures dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B in southwest Asia were nondomestic ritual buildings, sometimes described specifically as temples or shrines, and these figure large in some interpretations of social change in the Near Eastern Neolithic. Yet the evidence supporting the identification of cult buildings is often equivocal or depends on ethnocentric distinctions between sacred and profane spaces. This paper explores the case of Göbekli Tepe, a large Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Turkey that its excavator claims consisted only of temples, to illustrate weaknesses in some kinds of claims about Neolithic sacred spaces and to explore some of the problems of identifying prehistoric ritual. Consideration of the evidence suggests the alternative hypothesis that the buildings at Göbekli Tepe may actually be houses, albeit ones that are rich in symbolic content.

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      Re: Gobekli Tepe - was the Temple a House? by Anonymous on Thursday, 10 March 2016
      It was a zoo
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    Re: Gobekli Tepe - was the Temple a House? by Andy B on Friday, 21 October 2011
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    Just to recap, the more widely accpeted idea from Schmidt is that it was the urge to worship that brought mankind together in the very first urban conglomerations around Gobekli Tepe. The need to build and maintain this temple, he says, drove the builders to seek stable food sources, like grains and animals that could be domesticated, and then to settle down to guard their new way of life.

    So if this is blown away it begs the question - why did they settle down?

    At least no photo of Stonehenge or King Arthur in the Mail this time!
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National Geographic Photos and Text - June 2011 Issue by bat400 on Sunday, 12 June 2011
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See the National Geographic June 2011 issue article, "The Birth of Religion" with photos and diagrams of the site. Many of the photos and some of the article also appear on their website: story excerpt, and
photography.
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Göbekli Tepe: Making us rethink our ancestors by Andy B on Monday, 31 January 2011
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Göbekli Tepe: Making us rethink our ancestors

German archaeologist Professor Klaus Schmidt first came to Turkey in 1978 for research but it wasn’t until 1994 that he realized the importance of Göbekli Tepe, an early Neolithic site in the southeast of Turkey. He tells us about site’s discovery, its importance, what has been uncovered to date and also has a message for those who traffic in antiquities.

Nothing left to discover? Think again. In this high-tech era, how many of us really expect any more major archaeological finds to be made? Professor Schmidt has been fortunate enough to be involved in just that.

His interest in the Stone Age started when he was at elementary school and that eventually led him to Göbekli Tepe, some 15 kilometers northeast of Şanliurfa, in 1994. The press is calling the site the “oldest temple” in the world, as it dates back to the tenth millennium BC, predating Stonehenge, for example, by seven millenia. What does Dr. Schmidt think? “It would be better to call it the ‘oldest yet found and excavated’ place of cultic activity,” he underlines. “The constructions at Göbekli Tepe do not satisfy the concrete definition of a ‘temple,’ but the tag ‘oldest temple’ illustrates the site’s standing in human development quite well.”

So how did the site’s significance come to light? “I was in Turkey with a fellow archaeologist to visit some Neolithic sites and Göbekli Tepe was one of a number of destinations,” he explains, noting: “The site was marked and shortly described by American archaeologist Peter Benedict in the 1960s because some stone tools were found there. However, its real significance went unnoticed until we went there. Not only did we stumble upon fragments of large sculptures but we also realized that the mound is artificial; it was quite obvious that this couldn’t be a natural hill. The whole place was also covered in flint chunks and chips, stone tools and traces of human activity. Some small mounds of rock and debris show tool marks. One large piece of limestone looked very familiar -- it resembled the T-shaped head of pillars I knew from Nevali Çori, an Early Neolithic place some kilometers to the north, where I worked in an excavation project before. But unlike Nevalı Çorı, where they were found only in the context of several special buildings, those pillars seemed to appear everywhere at Göbekli Tepe, which made it stand out as something unique. Although there are other sites with T-shaped pillars in the region, Göbekli Tepe is totally unique in its monumentality. To date, none of the other sites in the area have been researched to the same extent as Gobekli Tepe. “

The German Archaeological Institute (DAI) supported him when he requested to start a dig at the site. “Fundraising is always the crucial part in every archaeological undertaking,” he underlines and adds, “The excavations at Göbekli Tepe have been financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (German Research Society), a self-governed research funding society financed by the German states and the federal government, since 1995. We’ve been excavating at the site since then alongside Turkish archaeologists from the museum in Şanlıurfa, as well as international students and colleagues – archaeologists and colleagues from other disciplines. We do not work during summer, but in the cooler seasons, even though one gets used to the heat and we make sure to have large stocks of drinking water at the site: I now spend on average eight weeks there in spring and eight more in the autumn. “

Hunter-gatherers must have worked together

Göbekli Tepe has captured the public’s imagination and, on one website alone, theories such as a link to astronomy and astrology given the circular arrangement of the stones are being heatedly discussed. Others are a talking about how carved reliefs and pictograms on the pillars at Göbekli Tepe support Babylonian and

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Re: Göbekli Tepe: History in the Remaking by Anonymous on Wednesday, 03 March 2010
The complex carvings of birds at Gobleki deserve serious consideration. Their symbolism may lead to the historical realities behind legends of the 'Bird Men' of ancient Mesopotamia who 'flew with' Cygnus the Vulture, the 'Watchers' of The Book of Enoch, cherubim who guarded the Tree of Life and the Ark of the Covenant and Angels, both early and late.

The Mystery Behind the Deliberate Burial of Three Ancient Megalithic Stone Circles
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Göbekli Tepe: History in the Remaking by Andy B on Thursday, 25 February 2010
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A temple complex in Turkey that predates even the pyramids is rewriting the story of human evolution.

They call it potbelly hill, after the soft, round contour of this final lookout in southeastern Turkey. To the north are forested mountains. East of the hill lies the biblical plain of Harran, and to the south is the Syrian border, visible 20 miles away, pointing toward the ancient lands of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, the region that gave rise to human civilization. And under our feet, according to archeologist Klaus Schmidt, are the stones that mark the spot—the exact spot—where humans began that ascent.

Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the story of human origins. Schmidt has uncovered a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. The site isn't just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years ago—a staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agriculture—the first embers of civilization. In fact, Schmidt thinks the temple itself, built after the end of the last Ice Age by hunter-gatherers, became that ember—the spark that launched mankind toward farming, urban life, and all that followed.

Göbekli Tepe—the name in Turkish for "potbelly hill"—lays art and religion squarely at the start of that journey. After a dozen years of patient work, Schmidt has uncovered what he thinks is definitive proof that a huge ceremonial site flourished here, a "Rome of the Ice Age," as he puts it, where hunter-gatherers met to build a complex religious community. Across the hill, he has found carved and polished circles of stone, with terrazzo flooring and double benches. All the circles feature massive T-shaped pillars that evoke the monoliths of Easter Island.

Though not as large as Stonehenge—the biggest circle is 30 yards across, the tallest pillars 17 feet high—the ruins are astonishing in number. Last year Schmidt found his third and fourth examples of the temples. Ground-penetrating radar indicates that another 15 to 20 such monumental ruins lie under the surface. Schmidt's German-Turkish team has also uncovered some 50 of the huge pillars, including two found in his most recent dig season that are not just the biggest yet, but, according to carbon dating, are the oldest monumental artworks in the world.

The new discoveries are finally beginning to reshape the slow-moving consensus of archeology. Göbekli Tepe is "unbelievably big and amazing, at a ridiculously early date," according to Ian Hodder, director of Stanford's archeology program. Enthusing over the "huge great stones and fantastic, highly refined art" at Göbekli, Hodder—who has spent decades on rival Neolithic sites—says: "Many people think that it changes everything…It overturns the whole apple cart. All our theories were wrong."

Schmidt's thesis is simple and bold: it was the urge to worship that brought mankind together in the very first urban conglomerations. The need to build and maintain this temple, he says, drove the builders to seek stable food sources, like grains and animals that could be domesticated, and then to settle down to guard their new way of life. The temple begat the city.

This theory reverses a standard chronology of human origins, in which primitive man went through a "Neolithic revolution" 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. In the old model, shepherds and farmers appeared first, and then created pottery, villages, cities, specialized labor, kings, writing, art, and—somewhere on the way to the airplane—organized religion. As far back as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, thinkers have argued that the social compact of cities came first, and only then the "high" reli

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Re: Göbekli Tepe: Standing stones from humanity oldest temple by Anonymous on Saturday, 13 February 2010
As it was a Kurdish shepherd that discovered the site it would be better to call it by its Kurdish name - GIRE NAVOKE. especially as the Turks are but fairly recent invaders into Anatolia.

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    Re: Göbekli Tepe: Standing stones from humanity oldest temple by Anonymous on Saturday, 13 February 2010
    Fair dues, Anon, so the "Turks" only arrived from central Asia in around 1000 CE and the "Kurds" (Persian Mede invaders) arrived about 600 BCE. Neither of them know the original name of the place that was built 9000 years before either. So in truth neither of them can claim name to it.
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Göbekli Tepe: Standing stones from humanity oldest temple by bat400 on Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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Submitted by coldrum ---

The massive limestone monoliths weigh between ten and twenty tons and are weirdly carved with fantastic scorpions, lions, spiders and snakes that testify to the difficult hunter’s life. Unearthed after thousands of years of deliberate forgetfulness, these silent pillars stand in a circle located only a few miles south of the ancient town of Sanliurfa, Turkey, the legendary birthplace of the prophet Abraham.

Göbekli Tepe may have been accidentally rediscovered by a shepherd, but it’s provenance is no mistake. Carbon dating has estimated the site to have been built in approximately 12,000 B.C., turning prior theories about our Neolithic hunter/gatherer past upside down.

Archeology Magazine reports that before the discovery of Göbekli Tepe, experts believed that societies in the early Neolithic were organized into small bands of hunter-gatherers and that the first complex religious practices were developed by groups that had already mastered agriculture. Scholars thought that the earliest monumental architecture was possible only after agriculture provided Neolithic people with food surpluses, freeing them from a constant focus on day-to-day survival. A site of unbelievable artistry and intricate detail, Göbekli Tepe has turned this theory on its head.

In other words, Göbekli Tepe was built before the invention of pottery, Sumerian writing tablets, the wheel, Stonehenge and the Pyramids at Giza.


And why here?



Scanning the immediate valley area 1,000 feet below reveals an arid climate. Summer temperatures can easily soar to over 115 degrees Fahrenheit while winters enjoy rainy deluges. However, when speaking with Smithsonian magazine, Klaus Schmidt, an archeologist at the German Archeological Institute in Istanbul, observed:

“Imagine what the landscape would have looked like 11,000 years ago, before centuries of intensive farming and settlement turned it into the nearly featureless brown expanse it is today. Prehistoric people would have gazed upon herds of gazelle and other wild animals; gently flowing rivers, which attracted migrating geese and ducks; fruit and nut trees; and rippling fields of wild barley and wild wheat varieties such as emmer and einkorn. This area was like a paradise."

And according to Schmidt, it was a paradise that was lost.

Farming changes the landscape. Trees are cut down, constant plowing leaches away valuable minerals and rivers are dammed, drying up the filtering swamps. Eventually, the soil became overstressed and crop returns were diminished.

The once lush climate became the dry, hilly plain now seen today.


For more, see the Examiner.
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    Re: Göbekli Tepe: Standing stones from humanity oldest temple by davidmorgan on Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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    Is that 12,000 B.C. figure correct? Or should it be 12,000 B.P. (before present).
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Re: Göbekli Tepe by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 27 May 2009
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Nice video of this in the BBC's series The Incredible Human Journey, viewable on BBC iPlayer here.
The bit you want is at 49:15.
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Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Anonymous on Sunday, 01 March 2009
As many will know, the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, has highlighted the story of Gobleki Tepe prominently in the last few days - a Very Good Thing!
The sudden plummeting of temperatures around 10,000 BC marked a huge and very sudden change in global climate, and this DURING the final meltdown of the Ice Age (this is the time held by some scientific authorities as the time of a 2nd Global Superflood (the first being around 14,000 BC, and the 3rd around 8,000 BC). I hesitate to mention that Plato's Atlantis was allegedly destroyed at the same time as the 2nd.
I've often felt that the placing of the Garden of Eden in Mesoptamia, which clearly only ever had two rivers, is not the right location, compared with the Anatolian plateau which has a large number of rivers to choose from, including Euphrates and Tigris. Interestingly, the Turks have always held that Abraham's birthplace was not Ur in what is now Iraq, but in the town now called Sanliurfa (Sanli is an honorific like the old Soviet hero-cities - the traditional Turkish name is Urfa). The Sanliurfa area of Turkey, therefore, has a strong claim to being the original Eden, whatever that was.
What the original Garden of Eden was is now irretrievably lost in time, but it is not out of the question to suggest that it has an equivalent in the ancient Egyptian "Golden Age" when gods walked with men, which is a recurring theme in legends and mythologies worldwide. But, obviously, much more needs to be uncovered at Gobleki Tepe before we can draw any firm conclusions. I, for one, will watch developments with extreme interest.
As a curious side thought, the images of the Gobleki Tepe monoliths reminded me a lot of the monoliths at Tiwanaku in Bolivia. They were in the same sort of location as well - apparently sunken pits. Probably just a coincidence, but you never know!
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    Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Anonymous on Sunday, 08 March 2009
    when i searched the hills around the site on google earth, i found numbers, 1- 9 i think, huge numbers, there's also x's and other strange marks. what are they?
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      Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Anonymous on Sunday, 19 December 2010
      Yeah , I've notice that to.

      I don't know what they are.
      With GE i measured "1" and it's length it's roughly 50 meters
      Can someone give an answer?
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    Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Anonymous on Saturday, 11 June 2011
    Same here... I'm from La Paz, 45 minutes from tiwanacu site, gobekli tepe so reminded me to tiwanacu absolutely, i googled both names and ended up here.
    Cheers!
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Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Anonymous on Sunday, 01 March 2009
Hey - What if the original 'temple' at Gobekli Tepe did have a roof (probably wooden logs) covered with soil and grass - after all the site is 'just below the brow of the hill' - so that it was then 'underground - inside the womb-shaped hill - for ritualistic reasons. Then - after a period of disuse and probably during an earthquake, the heavily-loaded roof fell in, burying the 'temple'. On that basis, it's not necessary to invoke the idea that the inhabitants 'buried' their temple - possibly because it wasn't 'delivering the goods' any more...! The fact that it now has to be unearthed is probably down to natural / geological events...
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    Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by BolshieBoris on Tuesday, 12 May 2009
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    I would have thought that if there was a roof the archaeologists would have discovered c-datable traces of wood beneath the debris.
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    Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Feanor on Tuesday, 06 September 2011
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    It has been shown that the site was buried with sand non-native to the hill it sits upon. The fill was transported there by Human Conveyance, as they say. Whether the place fell into disuse due to changing belief systems, or could not be supported because of the increasingly dryer climate remains to be discovered. But the fact is, the site was buried with purpose and no doubt done with appropriate rituals directing it.
    Fascinating place, and the more they discover the weirder it becomes.
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Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Anonymous on Sunday, 08 February 2009
That site may have nothing to do with hunter gatherers.What is being said there has nothin to do with religion.The markings have a lot to do with the stars and their positions.The T is telling us what went one way is now going the other.There are markings on the pillars that give you the paralel of the 33rd and what was once upright is now laying over on its side.
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    Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Anonymous on Sunday, 01 March 2009
    Presuming it was buried by the same society that built it, to whom might they likely be communicating such astrophysical insight? It's 3 weeks since you posted. I'll log back in here again sometime in coming weeks to see if you've added more detail to your case. Is there any link you see to the Precession?
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Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by coldrum on Friday, 30 January 2009
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It’s the last day of the excavating year at Gobekli Tepe, the hill-top neolithic site whose circles of huge decorated T-shaped stones are at least 5,000 years older than any other monumental structure ever found.

Workmen have already buried the bases of the stones in rubble to protect them from the winter rain. Now they are laying raised walkways into the centre of a site that was previously off-limits to visitors.

In between shouted instructions, the German archaeologist who has been excavating the site since 1994 sums up four more months of digging. "This is not like an ordinary excavation, uncovering a wall here and the corner of a house there," Klaus Schmidt says, standing at the highest point of a 15-metre high artificial mound that covers nine hectares.

"In 14 years, we have uncovered barely five percent of what is here. There are decades of work ahead."

Apart from a new transverse cut to the left of the main dig, and the excavation of a small, late circle that probably dates from about 8,500 B.C., little appears to have changed since March. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

But there have been striking discoveries: a U-shaped stone sculpted with leopards and a boar that Schmidt compares to the Lion Gate at Mycenae; two almost life-size sculptures of a boar and wild cat found embedded within the rubble walls surrounding one early enclosure.

Schmidt and his team have also uncovered a hollowed-out stone, roughly four-foot square, lying cracked in the middle of one of the circles.

"We found similar stones in other enclosures, and we assumed they are some sort of door", Schmidt says. "The position of this one makes us wonder whether the circles weren’t vaulted," like the trulli of southern Italy, or the famous bee-hive houses at Harran, just south of Gobekli Tepe.

Potentially much more significant, although almost invisible to the untrained eye, archaeologists have also uncovered evidence that the builders of at least one of the oldest circles had dug roughly five meters down through the mound before erecting the standing stones on the bedrock.

"For the time being this is just hypothesis, but this leaves us wondering whether the site dates back to before [c. 9500 b.c.], when the earliest circles were built," Schmidt says. "Piling up a five-meter mound is not the work of one night."

Whatever the carbon-dating eventually shows, Gobekli Tepe stands at the cusp of what is arguably the biggest social revolution in human history - the transformation of semi-nomadic hunters into settled farmers.

Archaeologists now know a great deal about the whens and wheres of the birth of agriculture.

DNA tests on wild wheat growing on Karacadag, a mountain just east of Gobeklitepe, suggest it may have been the source of early cultivated strains. At Nevali Cori, a neolithic village 40 miles northwest of Schmidt’s site, archaeologists found seeds of domesticated einkorn wheat dating from 9000 b.c.

But debate still rages - and probably always will - about what it was that led neolithic groups to transfer almost all their energies into farming.

For many experts, climate change was behind the transformation. Global temperatures had been warming gradually since the last Ice Age. Between 10,800 and 9,500 b.c., they suddenly plummeted again.

The Greenland ice cap cooled by roughly 15 degrees. Rain stopped falling on the Fertile Crescent. "The region where grasses could be cultivated shrank to the very upper edges of the Middle East, northern Syria and southeastern Turkey," says Ofer Bar-Yosef, MacCurdy Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Harvard and a doyen of paleolithic studies.

"Even there, resources were limited - people wanted to keep them for themselves."

But the location, age and sheer size of Gobekli Tepe have led some to posit a radically different explanation f

Read the rest of this post...
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    Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by stugsie on Tuesday, 01 February 2011
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    Another explanation is that these and similar sites such as Stonehendge, the Egyptian pyramids, Mayan temples etc. are boondoggles. Financed by the local rulers to keep their subjects occupied so they don't ferment revolution. Generally the local oligarchy will have concocted some type of mumbo jumbo to justify their social position and then they finance public works to get as many people as possible complicit in maintaining the ideology which underpins the status quo. This is why it is difficult to find evidence of slave labour on these sites, it would be hard for an ideology to survive for very long if it's monuments and places of worship were built and maintained by coercion.
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    Re: Ancient Pagan Temple Site Yields New Archeological Clues On Origins Of Farming by Anonymous on Monday, 05 September 2011
    Simply because there is no direct evidence of farming at this site, doesn't mean these megalithic structures were completed by semi-nomadic tribes. Just immagine how many men it would take to quarry and move one multi-ton stone up that hill to this location. There is no way that a hunder-gather village of a few hundred peoples could expend that type of energy, and support ongoing improvements over generations without a localized, established food supply.
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The World's First Temple by Andy B on Wednesday, 15 October 2008
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At first glance, the fox on the surface of the limestone pillar appears to be a trick of the bright sunlight. But as I move closer to the large, T-shaped megalith, I find it is carved with an improbable menagerie. A bull and a crane join the fox in an animal parade etched across the surface of the pillar, one of dozens erected by early Neolithic people at Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. The press here is fond of calling the site "the Turkish Stonehenge," but the comparison hardly does justice to this 25-acre arrangement of at least seven stone circles. The first structures at Göbekli Tepe were built as early as 10,000 B.C., predating their famous British counterpart by about 7,000 years.

The oldest man-made place of worship yet discovered, Göbekli Tepe is "one of the most important monuments in the world," says Hassan Karabulut, associate curator of the nearby Urfa Museum. He and archaeologist Zerrin Ekdogan of the Turkish Ministry of Culture guide me around the site. Their enthusiasm for the ancient temple is palpable.

By the time of my visit in late summer, the excavation team lead by Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute has wrapped up work for the season. But there is still plenty to see, including three excavated circles now protected by a large metal shelter. The megaliths, which may have once supported roofs, are about nine feet tall.

Göbekli Tepe's circles range from 30 to 100 feet in diameter and are surrounded by rectangular stone walls about six feet high. Many of the pillars are carved with elaborate animal figure reliefs. In addition to bulls, foxes, and cranes, representations of lions, ducks, scorpions, ants, spiders, and snakes appear on the pillars. Freestanding sculptures depicting the animals have also been found within the circles. During the most recent excavation season, archaeologists uncovered a statue of a human and sculptures of a vulture's head and a boar.

Read more at
http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html
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Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by Anonymous on Thursday, 09 October 2008
What if the "mound", since there have been references made to the "navel" of the earth represents, literally, a pregnant females belly. My understanding is that the mound was also built by man, but was that before the ceremonial structures were assembled (so that they were up on top of the hill), or was the mound created by the intentional infill that supposedly was carried out when the site was being abandoned? It is also speculated that possibly this was the moment in our history that hunting and gathering ceased to be a main source of sustenance, and agriculture began as it was necessary to feed all of those people who had gathered to participate in the construction of Gobekli Tepe. Feedback?
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Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by Anonymous on Thursday, 21 August 2008
Erected by hunters and gatherers?! 7 tons? How they made it?It looks they had a little of some "gods" help in they work:).
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Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by Anonymous on Thursday, 24 July 2008
are there any books on the site?
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Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 23 April 2008
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Now that the Google Earth view has been updated you can see this at: 37.2233°N, 38.9224°E.
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    Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by vlad on Thursday, 24 April 2008
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    What do you mean by UPDATING, mr David Morgan. There is a usual lack of details in this place. If you cannot discern the objects at the Eye
    Altitude of about 2,500 metres (or 600 m rule at the left), it`s not worth trying.
    Vlad
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    Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by davidmorgan on Thursday, 24 April 2008
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    I'm not sure what you're talking about, Vlad.
    The view used to be as fuzzy as 5km east, as in "We are sorry, but we don't have imagery at this zoom level for this region".
    Now we can pinpoint it exactly (and not use the vague coordinates from Wikipedia).
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    Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by TheCaptain on Thursday, 24 April 2008
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    I updated the Portals coordinates for this yesterday, and they now get you a direct view in good detail of this site. Use the Flash Earth or Google maps blue aeroplane icons near the top of the page.
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by vlad on Thursday, 24 April 2008
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    Thank you, davidmorgan. It`s really exquisite. But I can swear that when
    I tried before, directly through my own connection, it was still bad.
    Now it`s all OK. And thank you for your fast reaction.
    Vlad
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    Re: 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by vlad on Thursday, 24 April 2008
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    Thanks to you too, The Captain.
    Vlad
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7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists by Anonymous on Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Circles of elaborately carved stones from about 9,500BC predate even agriculture.

As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable on the planet.

"This place is a supernova," said Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on a windswept hilltop 35 miles north of Turkey's border with Syria. "Within a minute of first seeing it I knew I had two choices: go away and tell nobody, or spend the rest of my life working here."

Behind him are the first folds of the Anatolian plateau. Ahead, the Mesopotamian plain, like a dust-coloured sea, stretches south hundreds of miles. The stone circles of Gobekli Tepe are just in front, hidden under the brow of the hill.

Compared with Stonehenge, they are humble affairs. None of the circles excavated (four out of an estimated 20) are more than 30 metres across. T-shaped pillars like the rest, two five-metre stones tower at least a metre above their peers. What makes them remarkable are their carved reliefs of boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions, and their age. Dated at around 9,500BC, these stones are 5,500 years older than the first cities of Mesopotamia, and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge.

Never mind wheels or writing, the people who erected them did not even have pottery or domesticated wheat. They lived in villages. But they were hunters, not farmers.

"Everybody used to think only complex, hierarchical civilisations could build such monumental sites, and that they only came about with the invention of agriculture", said Ian Hodder, a Stanford University professor of anthropology who has directed digs at Catalhoyuk, Turkey's best known neolithic site, since 1993. "Gobekli changes everything. It's elaborate, it's complex and it is pre-agricultural. That alone makes the site one of the most important archaeological finds in a very long time."

With only a fraction of the site opened up after a decade of excavation, Gobekli Tepe's significance to the people who built it remains unclear. Some think it was the centre of a fertility rite, with the two tall stones at the centre of each circle representing a man and woman. It is a theory the tourist board in nearby Urfa has taken up with alacrity. Visit the Garden of Eden, its brochures trumpet; see Adam and Eve.

Schmidt is sceptical. He agrees Gobekli Tepe may well be "the last flowering of a semi-nomadic world that farming was just about to destroy", and points out that if it is in near perfect condition today, it is because those who built it buried it soon after under tons of soil, as though its wild animal-rich world had lost all meaning.

But the site is devoid of the fertility symbols found at other neolithic sites, and the T-shaped columns, while clearly semi-human, are sexless.

Read more in the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/apr/23/archaeology.turkey
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Re: Ceremonial site casts ancient man in new light by nickp on Tuesday, 18 March 2008
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do you not feel that there's an inherent danger in trying to ascribe many of the things our ancestors did to religion? thats the kind of thinking that, for years, led to the nasca lines being attributed to ceremonial purposes, instead of guideing lines to water sources. certainly, religion was an important factor to the ancients, but i feel that a full belly was more important! religious ceremony, invariably involving animals, was, as much trying to think like the animal, therefore making the hunt easier, as worshipping the animal itself! perhaps Gobleki Tepe was more likely a school than a church, teaching people how to hunt said leopards, and which (poisonus) snakes and spiders to avoid?!
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    Re: Ceremonial site casts ancient man in new light by Aluta on Saturday, 06 September 2008
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    There really was no division in many if not most ancient societies between what we call religion and things like finding water and teaching and hunting. That separation came later.
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Ceremonial site casts ancient man in new light by Andy B on Tuesday, 18 March 2008
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One of the most intriguing developments in archaeology in recent decades is the serious study of ancient ceremonial life. Previously, "ceremonial objects" were the odd bits left over after archaeologists had identified arrowheads, cooking pots and other objects with more or less obvious functions.

Sometimes, these leftovers were exceptionally beautiful works of art, but it was considered unscientific speculation to attempt to reconstruct the beliefs behind their creation and use.

Now, however, it's generally recognized that ceremonial objects and structures can provide key insights into many facets of ancient cultures. In fact, some archaeologists think ceremony was the key to the origins of civilization.

In the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Science, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt is interviewed about his work at the 11,000-year-old site of Gobekli Tepe ("navel hill") in Turkey.

According to Andrew Curry, the author of the Science article, Gobekli Tepe is situated on the most prominent hilltop for miles around. It consists of at least 20 underground rooms that contain a number of T-shaped stone pillars that are 8 feet tall and weigh about 7 tons. The pillars are engraved with images of animals, including leopards, snakes and spiders.

This is not a place where people lived. It's as far away from water as you can get in this region. Instead, it's a place of ceremony. And, according to Schmidt, it's "the first manmade holy place."

To find such a large ceremonial center at such an early time period suggests that it was the need for communal rituals that first brought people together. Agriculture, pottery, domesticated animals and cities all came later.

Perhaps it was religion and not technology that fomented the Neolithic Revolution and led to the rise of civilization.

Archaeologist Steven Mithen, in his book After the Ice, writes that it was at Gobekli Tepe "that the history of the world had turned."

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2008/03/04/sci_lepper04_ART_03-04-08_B5_PF9FMIP.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101
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Gobekli Tepe - Paradise Regained? - Fortean Times by Andy B on Thursday, 02 August 2007
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One of the most important archæological digs in the world, Gobekli Tepe in Turkey has revolutionised our understanding of hunter-gatherer culture. But could it also be the site of the Garden of Eden?

I am in a rusty Turkish taxi. Ahead of me, the brown hills roll endlessly towards Syria; from my car I can see a little village of mud houses and open drains.

It’s not the most auspicious of places. Yet, if reports are correct, I am heading for the most amazing archæological dig in the world.

More: Fortean Times:
http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/505/niobe_rock_goddess.html
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    Re: Gobekli Tepe - Paradise Regained? - Fortean Times by Andy B on Thursday, 02 August 2007
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    Thanks for this link Nicola. I didn't know you can now read FT online, I shall be bookmarking it to return.
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Gobekli Tepe - Paradise Regained? - Fortean Times by Anonymous on Thursday, 02 August 2007
    Should be:
    http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/449/gobekli_tepe_paradise_regained.html
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Gobekli Tepe - Paradise Regained? - Fortean Times by Anonymous on Saturday, 04 August 2007
    Nice theory, but I'm a fan of Bahrain, or even the Indus Valley, being Eden.
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Gobekli Tepe - Paradise Regained? - Fortean Times by Anonymous on Saturday, 04 August 2007
      Probably time to reread The Epic of Gilgamesh.
      [ Reply to This ]

Re: Göbekli Tepe by Andy B on Friday, 15 September 2006
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Göbekli Tepe, also known as Göbekli Höyük, is one of the most important Pre-pottery Neolithic sites in the Near East. It is located in the Urfa region of Southeastern Anatolia, which is part of what is known as the fertile crescent. it has many unique features that make it stand out among other sites in the region. The many examples of sculptures, megalithic architecture, and the site's strange topographical setting on a mountaintop have led many scholars to interpret Göbekli Tepe as an important Neolithic ritual sanctuary

More from Manchester University:

http://www.art.man.ac.uk/ARTHIST/ay2091/sites/Gobekli/Gobekli%20Tepe.htm
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We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.