Author: Elisha Kayne
Humans living at the end of the last ice age conjure images of cavemen with primitive stone tools and a language of nothing but grunts and grumbles. This may have been the way prehistoric man is portrayed in stories and films, but new discoveries are proving that this isn’t the case at all. In southeastern Turkey, lies the ruins of Gobekli Tepe. It’s enormous T shaped pillars and unique artifacts are providing archaeologists, anthropologists and historians with incredible insights into an era that had been largely forgotten by the sands of time.
For eons, local farmers and shepherds walked on the mound, completely unaware of the treasure which rested beneath their feet. The tips of the substantial pillars were the only evidence that an ancient culture of some kind had taken residence there. But many assumed they were grave markers whose words had been etched away by a few hundred years of wind and rain. There’s no way they could have fathomed that the slabs of stone had been placed there by human hands an astounding 12,000 years ago.
It’s remarkable that while the last woolly mammoths were still roaming the plains, stone age humans may have been capable of erecting temples. Yet, that’s exactly the story that Gobekli Tepe is portraying. The archaeologist Klaus Schmidt first began a full excavation of the site in 1994, after researching descriptions of nearby discoveries made in the 1960’s. What he found over the next twenty years has rocked the very foundation of how the modern world views our far distant ancestors.
Before Gobekli, most historians hypothesized that advanced forms of spirituality and organized religion developed after the Neolithic revolution. Complex myths involving Gods and the temples dedicated to them were built millennia after humans had firmly established heavily populated farming communities. However, the artwork found carefully etched on the stonework of Gobekli Tepe offer an alternative theory. That human civilization may have first formed as an extension of previous religious observances. Yet, the extreme age suggests that the complex was visited by hunter gatherers, thousands of years before the birth of agriculture. If so, then the existence of such a place may indicate that hunting parties and individuals may have visited the site, as a sort of pilgrimage as they moved through the territory. Could it even be possible that some of the animals claimed by hunters were brought to the temple site as a sacrifice to the Gods? The animals depicted on the sculptures and stone carvings are certainly not of the domesticated variety. Terrifying portrayals of snakes, vultures, wild boars and lions seem to stalk passersby as they walk through the terrain. One piece of artwork in particular shows a man whose head has been severed. When glancing further up on the same relief, a vulture holds a round shape, one that looks eerily similar to a human skull. Could this also have served as a place for human sacrifices or were they simply expressing their beliefs about death and the afterlife?
Similar T-shaped pillars have been found in nearby excavation sites, yet none as large or as old as those at Gobekli. By learning more about this stone age institution, it’s possible to find more connections with their contemporaries and the civilizations which sprouted afterwards, such as the Natufian, Hassuna and Samarra cultures of the Levant and Lower Mesopotamia. Klaus Schmidt stated that only 5% of Gobekli Tepe has been excavated, which means there are vast amounts of artifacts that are sure to shed light on this mysterious period of human existence. Sadly, Schmidt passed away in 2014, but hopefully many more projects will be launched in the coming years.
Humans living at the end of the last ice age conjure images of cavemen with primitive stone tools and a language of nothing but grunts and grumbles. This may have been the way prehistoric man is portrayed in stories and films, but new discoveries are proving that this isn’t the case at all. In southeastern Turkey, lies the ruins of Gobekli Tepe. It’s enormous T shaped pillars and unique artifacts are providing archeologists, anthropologists and historians with incredible insights into an era that had been largely forgotten by the sands of time.
For eons, local farmers and shepherds walked on the mound, completely unaware of the treasure which rested beneath their feet. The tips of the substantial pillars were the only evidence that an ancient culture of some kind had taken residence there. But many assumed they were grave markers whose words had been etched away by a few hundred years of wind and rain. There’s no way they could have fathomed that the slabs of stone had been placed there by human hands an astounding 12,000 years ago.
It’s remarkable that while the last wooly mammoths were still roaming the plains, stone age humans may have been capable of erecting temples. Yet, that’s exactly the story that Gobekli Tepe is portraying. The archeologist Klaus Schmidt first began a full excavation of the site in 1994, after researching descriptions of nearby discoveries made in the 1960’s. What he found over the next twenty years has rocked the very foundation of how the modern world views our far distant ancestors.
Before Gobekli, most historians hypothesized that advanced forms of spirituality and organized religion developed after the Neolithic revolution. Complex myths involving Gods and the temples dedicated to them were built millennia after humans had firmly established heavily populated farming communities. However, the artwork found carefully etched on the stonework of Gobekli Tepe offer an alternative theory. That human civilization may have first formed as an extension of previous religious observances. Yet, the extreme age suggests that the complex was visited by hunter gatherers, thousands of years before the birth of agriculture. If so, then the existence of such a place may indicate that hunting parties and individuals may have visited the site, as a sort of pilgrimage as they moved through the territory. Could it even be possible that some of the animals claimed by hunters were brought to the temple site as a sacrifice to the Gods? The animals depicted on the sculptures and stone carvings are certainly not of the domesticated variety. Terrifying portrayals of snakes, vultures, wild boars and lions seem to stalk passersby as they walk through the terrain. One piece of artwork in particular shows a man whose head has been severed. When glancing further up on the same relief, a vulture holds a round shape, one that looks eerily similar to a human skull. Could this also have served as a place for human sacrifices or were they simply expressing their beliefs about death and the afterlife?
Similar T-shaped pillars have been found in nearby excavation sites, yet none as large or as old as those at Gobekli. By learning more about this stone age institution, it’s possible to find more connections with their contemporaries and the civilizations which sprouted afterwards, such as the Natufian, Hassuna and Samarra cultures of the Levant and Lower Mesopotamia. Klaus Schmidt stated that only 5% of Gobekli Tepe has been excavated, which means there are vast amounts of artifacts that are sure to shed light on this mysterious period of human existence. Sadly, Schmidt passed away in 2014, but hopefully many more projects will be launched in the coming years.
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