An immense mystery older than Stonehenge

[Jilly_in_VA]

Reshaping previous ideas on the story of civilisation, Gobekli Tepe in Turkey was built by a prehistoric people 6,000 years before Stonehenge.

When German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt first began excavating on a Turkish mountaintop 25 years ago, he was convinced the buildings he uncovered were unusual, even unique.

Atop a limestone plateau near Urfa called Gobekli Tepe, Turkish for "Belly Hill", Schmidt discovered more than 20 circular stone enclosures. The largest was 20m across, a circle of stone with two elaborately carved pillars 5.5m tall at its centre. The carved stone pillars – eerie, stylised human figures with folded hands and fox-pelt belts – weighed up to 10 tons. Carving and erecting them must have been a tremendous technical challenge for people who hadn't yet domesticated animals or invented pottery, let alone metal tools. The structures were 11,000 years old, or more, making them humanity's oldest known monumental structures, built not for shelter but for some other purpose.

After a decade of work, Schmidt reached a remarkable conclusion. When I visited his dig house in Urfa's old town in 2007, Schmidt – then working for the German Archaeological Institute – told me Gobekli Tepe could help rewrite the story of civilisation by explaining the reason humans started farming and began living in permanent settlements.

The stone tools and other evidence Schmidt and his team found at the site showed that the circular enclosures had been built by hunter-gatherers, living off the land the way humans had since before the last Ice Age. Tens of thousands of animal bones that were uncovered were from wild species, and there was no evidence of domesticated grains or other plants.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210815-an-immense-mystery-older-than-stonehenge

[Ponietz]

1. Schmidt did incredible work but his findings were unsatisfying

Beer is the best hypotheses for the source of civilization.

What Clare and his colleagues found may rewrite prehistory yet again. The digs revealed evidence of houses and year-round settlement, suggesting that Gobekli Tepe wasn't an isolated temple visited on special occasions but a rather a thriving village with large special buildings at its centre.

The team also identified a large cistern and channels for collecting rainwater, key to supporting a settlement on the dry mountaintop, and thousands of grinding tools for processing grain for cooking porridge and brewing beer. "Gobekli Tepe is still a unique, special site, but the new insights fit better with what we know from other sites," Clare said. "It was a fully-fledged settlement with permanent occupation. It's changed our whole understanding of the site."

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. I also watched some kind of documentary a while back

that strongly suggests beer actually came before bread, not the other way around, as is the conventional explanation.

[Javaman]

8. the water was probably, for the most part, undrinkable.

beer makes it better...for many reasons. LOL

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Probably not the issue. Not several thousand years ago in most places.

But apparently it is incredibly easy to ferment whatever and get beer.

[cstanleytech]

14. My bet would be that they started at first to use the beer to moisten crushed grains

to make primitive crepe/pancake like foods on hot flat stones and eventually they discovered a way to use it to make a primitive bread.

[captain queeg]

2. I've read several things lately about the importance of beer and wine to the ancients

Some theories have it as the earliest driver of civilization for several reasons.

[2naSalit]

3. K&R

[Firestorm49]

4. Great article. Thanks

[bucolic_frolic]

5. I imagine hut-dwellers were looked down upon by cave dwellers

just like flatlanders today

[Warpy]

15. I can't imagine caves were more than temporary shelter

They're dark, dank, and likely to be occupied by something that eats people. Oh, and they're full of toxic bat guano. Not good for long term living.

Cave burials, on the other hand, seem to have been more common use.

People seem to have gone more for large rock overhangs than deep caves. They weren't dank or dark, there wasn't much guano to make them sick, they allowed smoke to escape easily while giving protection from rain, and they could easily see if something else was already living there.

I vaguely remember that's how the Natufian culture was found,

[bucolic_frolic]

16. For all those downsides they had the time to leave a lot of artwork in caves

If he were alive then, Jerry Sanders would tell you "Real men have caves!"

[Javaman]

7. if there is one ancient location that creeps me the hell out, it's this one.

I'm not one to believe in mysterious bullshit woo crap, but this one, anytime I see it, it always give me the creeps.

[evolves]

11. Why is that?

What vibe do you get?

[Javaman]

12. I think because it's so old and the artifacts recovered from it

are just uniquely odd. As if finding an alien race that has no commonality with humans today.

[evolves]

13. Interesting perspective

Makes a great deal of sense. Thanks for sharing.

[Warpy]

10. With no altars, offerings or sacrifices

I've thought "museum" might be closer than "temple." In addition, I do hope they searched the dust around the bases of the stones carefully, one thing those carvings cry out for is paint.

I think they were more akin to totem poles than cathedrals, a pre neolithic place you could take the kiddies to see graphic art of the origin stories of their people. It strikes me that these people were trying to remember, so they carved it into stone.

As stones weren't repainted, various clans having moved on (there was a huge migration out of the region into Europe), the sites were filled in and new sites erected. The newer sites were always a little smaller than the oldest, possibly reflecting loss of population. One thing we do know is that they were still reeling from the Younger Dryas, which seems to have changed climate permanently

What finally killed the site was the establishment of more permanent settlements like Catalhoyuk, where the illustrations appeared on dwelling walls.

We're only beginning to find this stuff and it's fascinating.

[Nasruddin]

17. How Art Made the World

There was an interesting episode (or part of one) in the series "How Art Made the World" about this place.
Schmidt is in it - still alive when it was made (~2005).
Can't remember which episode - after the one about the Neolithic caves.
Might be findable on PBS, also Netflix DVD.

[Nasruddin]

18. How Art Made the World

There was an interesting episode (or part of one) in the series "How Art Made the World" about this place.
Schmidt is in it - still alive when it was made (~2005).
Can't remember which episode - after the one about the Neolithic caves.
Might be findable on PBS, also Netflix DVD.