http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text/1 National Geographic show tonight. Click on link for National Geographic Videos and articles on Mankinds OLDEST temples...much older than Watchtowers date for a flood and Adams creation. Why argue about a few years when WTBTS chronology is off by thousands?
Göbekli Tepe
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| Göbekli Tepe | |
| Location | near Sanliurfa |
|---|---|
| Region | Southeastern Anatolia Region, Turkey |
| Coordinates |  37°13′24″N 38°55′21″E ? / ? 37.2233°N 38.9224°E ? / 37.2233; 38.9224 Coordinates: 37°13′24″N 38°55′21″E ? / ? 37.2233°N 38.9224°E ? / 37.2233; 38.9224 |
| Type | Temple |
| History | |
| Periods | pre-pottery Neolithic A–B |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | well preserved |
| Website | references: [1] Megalithic Portal |
Göbekli Tepe Turkish: [gøbe?kli te?p?] [2] ("Potbelly Hill" [3] ) is a Neolithic hilltop sanctuary erected at the top of a mountain ridge in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, some 15 kilometers (9 mi) northeast of the town of Sanliurfa (formerly Urfa / Edessa). It is the oldest known human-made religious structure. [1] [4] The site was most likely erected by hunter-gatherers in the 10th millennium BCE and has been under excavation since 1994 by German and Turkish archaeologists. [5] Together with Nevali Çori , it has revolutionized understanding of the Eurasian Neolithic. [6]
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[ edit ] Discovery
Göbekli Tepe is located in southeastern Turkey. It was first noted in a survey conducted by Istanbul University and the University of Chicago in 1964, which recognized that the hill could not entirely be a natural feature and postulated that a Byzantine cemetery lay beneath. The survey noted a large number of flints and the presence of limestone slabs thought to be Byzantine grave markers. This work was first mentioned in print in Peter Benedict's article "Survey Work in Southeastern Anatolia" (1980). In 1994, archaeologist Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute of Istanbul noted Benedict's article and visited the site, recognizing that it was in fact a much older Neolithic site. Since 1995 [7] excavations have been conducted by the German Archaeological Institute of Istanbul and the Sanliurfa Museum, under the direction of Schmidt (University of Heidelberg 1995–2000, German Archaeological Institute 2001–present). The hill had been under agricultural cultivation before being excavated. Generations of local inhabitants had frequently moved rocks and placed them in clearance piles and much archaeological evidence may have been destroyed in the process. Scholars from the Hochschule Karlsruhe began documenting the architectural remains and soon discovered T-shaped pillars facing south-east. Some of these pillars had apparently undergone attempts at destruction, probably by farmers who mistook them for ordinary large rocks. [8]
[ edit ] The complex
Göbekli Tepe is the world's oldest known religious structure. [4] The site, located on a hilltop, contains 20 round structures which had been buried, four of which have been excavated. Each round structure has a diameter of between 10 and 30 meters (30 and 100 ft) and all are decorated with massive, mostly T-shaped, limestone pillars that are the most striking feature of the site. The limestone slabs were quarried from bedrock pits located around 100 meters (330 ft) from the hilltop, with neolithic workers using flint points to carve the bedrock. [9] The majority of flint tools found at the site are Byblos and Nemrik points. That neolithic people with such primitive flint tools quarried, carved, transported uphill, and erected these massive pillars has astonished the archaeological world, and must have required a staggering amount of labor. [10]
Two pillars are at the center of each circle, possibly intended to help support a roof, and up to eight pillars are evenly positioned around the walls of the room. The spaces between the pillars are lined with unworked stone and there are stone benches between each set of pillars around the edges of the wall. [11]
Many of the pillars are decorated with carvedreliefs of animals and of abstract enigmatic pictograms. The pictograms may represent commonly understood sacred symbols, as known from Neolithiccave paintings elsewhere. The reliefs depict lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, donkeys, snakes and other reptiles, insects, arachnids, and birds, particularly vultures. (At the time the shrine was constructed, the surrounding country was much lusher and capable of sustaining this variety of wildlife, before millennia of settlement and cultivation resulted in the near–Dust Bowl conditions prevailing today.) [8] Vultures also feature prominently in the iconography of the Neolithic sites of Çatalhöyük and Jericho; it is believed that in the early Neolithic culture of Anatolia and the Near East the deceased were deliberately exposed in order to be excarnated by vultures and other carrion birds. (The head of the deceased was sometimes removed and preserved—possibly a sign of ancestor worship.) [12] This, then, would represent an early form of sky burial, as practiced today by Tibetan Buddhists and by Zoroastrians in India. [13]
Few humanoid figures have surfaced at Göbekli Tepe, but they include the engraving of a naked woman posed frontally in a crouched position that Schmidt likens to the Venus accueillante figures found in Neolithic north Africa, and a decapitated corpse surrounded by vultures in bas-relief. Some of the T-shaped pillars picture human arms, which indicate that they represent the bodies of stylized humans (or anthropomorphic gods). The wider stone member atop the T-shaped pillars is thought to symbolize the head; thus the pillars as a whole have an anthropomorphic identity. [14] One example is decorated with human hands in what could be interpreted as a prayer gesture, with a simple stole or surplice engraved above; this may be intended to signify a temple priest. [15]
Until excavations began, a complex on this scale was not thought possible for a community so ancient, and with such primitive quarrying tools. The massive sequence of stratification layers suggests several millennia of activity, perhaps reaching back to the Mesolithic. The oldest occupation layer (Layer III) contains monolithic pillars linked by coarsely built walls to form circular or oval structures. Four such buildings have been uncovered, with diameters between 10–30 meters (33–98 ft). Geophysical surveys indicate the existence of 16 additional structures.
Layer II, dated to Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) (7500–6000 BCE), has revealed several adjacent rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime, reminiscent of Romanterrazzo floors. The most recent layer consists of sediment deposited as the result of agricultural activity.
[ edit ] Dating
The PPN A settlement has been dated to c. 9000 BCE. There are remains of smaller houses from the PPN B and a few epipalaeolithic finds as well.
There are a number of radiocarbon dates (presented with one standard deviationerrors and calibrations to BCE):
| Lab-Number | Date BP | Cal BCE | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ua-19561 | 8430 ± 80 | 7560–7370 | enclosure C |
| Ua-19562 | 8960 ± 85 | 8280–7970 | enclosure B |
| Hd-20025 | 9452 ± 73 | 9110–8620 | Layer III |
| Hd-20036 | 9559 ± 53 | 9130–8800 | Layer III |
The Hd samples are from charcoal in the lowest levels of the site and would date the active phase of occupation. The Ua samples come from pedogeniccarbonate coatings on pillars and only indicate a time after the site was abandoned—the terminus ante quem. [16]
[ edit ] Architecture
The structures are round megalithic buildings. The walls are made of unworked dry stone and include numerous T-shaped monolithic pillars of limestone that are up to 3 meters (10 ft) high. Another, bigger pair of pillars is placed in the centre of the structures. There is evidence that the structures were roofed; the central pair of pillars may have supported the roof. Some of the floors are made of terrazzo (burnt lime), others are bedrock from which pedestals for the large pair of central pillars were carefully carved in high relief. [17]
The reliefs on the pillars include foxes, lions, cattle, hyenas, wild boar, wild asses, cranes, ducks, scorpions, ants, spiders, many snakes, and a small number of anthropomorphic figures. Some of the reliefs have been deliberately erased, maybe in preparation for new designs. There are freestanding sculptures as well that may represent wild boars or foxes. As they are heavily encrusted with lime, it is sometimes difficult to tell. Comparable statues have been discovered at Nevali Çori and Nahal Hemar.
Monolith with bull, fox, and crane in low relief
The quarries for the statues are located on the plateau itself; some unfinished pillars have been found there in situ. The biggest unfinished pillar is still 6.9 meters (22.6 ft) long; a length of 9 meters (30 ft) has been reconstructed. This is much larger than any of the finished pillars found so far. The stone was quarried with stone picks. [citation needed] Bowl-like depressions in the limestone rocks may already have served as mortars or fire-starting bowls in the epipalaeolithic. There are some phalloi and geometric patterns cut into the rock as well; their dating is uncertain.
Creation of the circular enclosures in layer III later gave way to the construction of small rectangular rooms in layer II. But the T-shaped pillars, the main feature of the older enclosures, survived, indicating that the buildings of Layer II likewise served as sanctuaries. [18] Schmidt believes this "cathedral on a hill" was a pilgrimage destination attracting worshipers up to a 100 miles (160 km) distant. Butchered bones found in large numbers from local game such as deer, gazelle, pigs, and geese have been identified as refuse derived from hunting and food prepared for the congregants. [19]
The site was deliberately backfilled sometime after 8000 BCE: the buildings are covered with debris, mostly flint gravel, stone tools and animal bones that must have been brought from elsewhere. [20] The lithic inventory is characterised by Byblos points and numerous Nemrik-points. There are Helwan-points and Aswad-points as well.