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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