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got it! Mysterious: His carved T-shaped megaliths at prehistoric Göbekli Tepe near Sanliurfa, Turkey.
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Mysterious: Carved T-shaped megaliths at prehistoric Göbekli Tepe near Sanliurfa, Turkey.
The world’s oldest known religious shrine, nestled on a sunny hillside in southeastern Turkey, is slowly revealing its secrets.
“When you dig a new trench, you never know what’s going to happen,” said Lee Clare of the German Archaeological Institute, which has been excavating there since 2013.
“That’s always a big surprise.”
Göbekli Tepe, which means “pot-bellied hill” in Turkish, is perhaps the most important archaeological site on Earth.
More than 7,000 years before Stonehenge and Egypt’s oldest pyramids, thousands of our prehistoric ancestors gathered around and worshiped highly decorated T-shaped megalithic columns.
“You can’t overstate its importance,” Sean Lawrence, assistant professor of history at West Virginia University, told AFP.
Scholars believe that human settlement history began in these hills near the Syrian border about 12,000 years ago, when groups of Stone Age hunter-gatherers came together to build these sites.
Göbekli Tepe is a vast sacred site that some experts believe was never actually inhabited by humans, but includes nearby hilltop ruins that archaeologists believe may be even older. may be part of.
endless mystery
Archaeologists study one of the world’s most important archaeological sites, Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey.
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Archaeologists investigate the Göbekli Tepe ruins in southeastern Turkey, one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.
No one could have predicted this until German archaeologist and prehistorian Klaus Schmidt brought the first finds to the surface in 1995.
Since then, German and Turkish archaeologists have continued their work in the sun there, and there are now long lines of tourists to consider its many mysteries.
It’s unclear even when exactly it began.
“It’s nearly impossible to ascertain the exact year,” Lawrence said.
“However, Egypt’s oldest archaeological site, the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, was built around 2700 BC, more than 7000 years after Göbekli Tepe.”
“This marks the end of Stone Age hunter-gatherer societies and the beginning of sedentary societies,” Lawrence added.
“There are many mysteries surrounding the site, including how the workforce was organized and how the site was used,” he says.
Earth Mother: One of the carved stones discovered at Turkey’s prehistoric Göbekli Tepe site depicts a woman giving birth.
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Earth Mother: One of the stone carvings discovered at the prehistoric site of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey depicts a woman giving birth.
Göbekli Tepe also inspired the Netflix sci-fi psychological thriller series “The Gift,” which focuses on the ancient inscriptions carved into its pillars.
Schmidt, who often wore a traditional white turban while excavating, puzzling over the boulders carved with images of foxes, wild boars, ducks, lizards and leopards for more than two decades until his untimely death in 2014 at the age of 61.
“Zero Point in Time”
This place was initially thought to be of a purely ceremonial nature. But Clare said they found “good evidence” of the beginnings of sedentary life, with some buildings similar to those from the same period found in northern Syria.
Turkey, a country not known for making the most of its vast archaeological heritage, welcomed the discovery wholeheartedly.
Artifacts from Göbekli Tepe are on display in the impressive archaeological museum in the nearest city, Şanlıurfa, which itself is very ancient and is believed to be where Abraham was born.
In fact, the new museum, built in 2015, boasts “the largest collection of Neolithic artifacts in the world,” according to director Celal Uludag: “Every portable artifact from Göbekli Tepe is on display here.”
Key attractions: Visitors take photos at the Göbekli Tepe ruins near Sanliurfa, Turkey.
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Key attractions: Visitors take photos at the Göbekli Tepe ruins near Sanliurfa, Turkey.
“This is civilization, a journey to the zero point of time,” said Aydin Aslan, head of Sanliurfa’s Culture and Tourism Department.
“Göbekli Tepe sheds light on prehistory, which is why it is the common heritage of humanity,” he said proudly.
“Deeper”
Last year, Turkey’s Culture Ministry increased funding for further excavations in the area as part of the Stonehills project. This includes funding for the hilltop ruins of Karakhan Tepe, about 35 kilometers from Göbekli Tepe, which some believe may be even older.
“Göbekli Tepe is not the only archaeological site, so we will investigate it more deeply,” Culture Minister Nuri Ersoy said last year.
Clare said the additional funding “gives us an exciting opportunity to compare our findings from Göbekli Tepe with newer sites of the same age in the Şanlıurfa region.”
Göbekli Tepe has breathed new life into an impoverished and long-neglected region further hit by a cross-border civil war: Syrian refugees now make up a quarter of Sanliurfa’s population.
A duck sculpture carved into one of the pillars at the prehistoric Gobekli Tepe ruins in Sanliurfa, Turkey.
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A carving of a duck on one of the columns at the prehistoric Göbekli Tepe ruins in Sanliurfa, Turkey.
More than 1 million tourists visited Sanliurfa in 2019, and it is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels this year.
“Today, Göbekli Tepe has begun to have a direct impact on the city’s economy,” Aslan said, adding that he hopes its glorious past will become an important part of the city’s future.
