Gobekli Tepe - Garden of Eden?

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by MelT, Mar 6, 2009.

  1. Maybe, maybe not:)

    I'm interested in early archeaology, particularly a site in Turkey called Gobekli Tepe.It was built about 11, 000 BC and possibly earlier (that's about 8,000 years before the pyramids) at a time when man was a hunter gatherer and was just literally on the verge of developing agriculture and animal husbandry - right there - for the first time. The development of some forms of wheat literally began in fields near here. 'Civilisation' - allegedly, began here. There are no other buildings from that period anywhere in the world, so it's thus far the oldest stone building known. I think it's date will be pushed back even further to about 13, 000BC once it's fully excavated. Remember if you look at these pictures that they were built at a time when we had no metal to carve stone with, everything is hand done with other stones.

    I don't agree with some of the conclusions of this article, but it's a good introduction to it as a site. The whole of Turkey is filled with places almost as ancient, and we're only beginning to discover how much is there this last couple of years. These links are in german, but they give a good view of the place:

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBfxUq6Z1KM&feature=related"]YouTube - Gobekli Tepe 1[/ame]
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmSIG4qV2Sg&feature=related"]YouTube - Göbekli Tepe Stelenscan (Türkei)[/ame]

    Here's an article about it in archaeology mag: http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html
    .

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe

    The astonishing discoveries at the world's oldest temple may tell us more about the Garden of Eden


    By Sean Thomas
    http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/1410,...rkey-gobekli-tepe-garden-eden-klaus-schmidt,2
    FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 17, 2006
    I am standing above an archaeological dig, on a hillside in southern Turkey. Beneath me, workmen are unearthing a sculpture of some sort of reptile. It is delicate and breathtaking. It is also part of the world's oldest temple. If this sounds remarkable, it gets better. The archaeologist in charge of the dig believes that this artwork has connections with the Eden story. The archaeologist is Klaus Schmidt; the site is called Gobekli Tepe.

    In academic circles, the astonishing discoveries at Gobekli Tepe have long been a talking point. Since the dig began in 1994, experts have made the journey to Kurdish Turkey to marvel at these 40-odd standing stones and their Neolithic carvings. Is the Eden story is an allegory of the move from hunter-gathering to farming?

    But what is new, and what makes this season's dig at Gobekli so climactic, is the quality of the latest finds - plus that mind-blowing thesis which links them to the Garden of Eden. The thesis is this. Historians have long wondered if the Eden story is a folk memory, an allegory of the move from hunter-gathering to farming. Seen in this way, the Eden story describes how we moved from a life of relative leisure - literally picking fruit from the trees - to a harsher existence of ploughing and reaping.

    And where did this change take place? Biologists now think the move to agriculture began in Kurdish Turkey. Einkorn wheat, a forerunner of the world's cereal species, has been genetically linked to here. Similarly, it now seems that wild pigs were first domesticated in Cayonu, just 60 miles from Gobekli.


    The astonishing discoveries at Gobekli Tepe have long been a talking point among academics
    [​IMG]
    This region also has Biblical connections, tying it closer to the Eden narrative. Muslims believe that Sanliurfa, a nearby city, is the Old Testament city of Ur. Harran, a town down the road, is mentioned in Genesis twice.

    Even the topography of Gobekli Tepe is 'correct'. The Bible describes rivers descending from Paradise. Gobekli Tepe sits in the 'fertile crescent' between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The Bible also mentions mountains surrounding Eden. From the brow of Gobekli's hills you can see the Taurus range.

    But how does this intoxicating notion link to the architecture of Gobekli, and those astonishing finds?

    Klaus Schmidt says: "Gobekli Tepe is staggeringly old. It dates from 10,000BC, before pottery and the wheel. By comparison, Stonehenge dates from 2,000BC. Our excavations also show it is not a domestic site, it is religious - the world's oldest temple.

    This site proves that hunter-gatherers were capable of complex art and organised religion, something no-one imagined before."

    As for the temple's exact purpose, Schmidt gestures at a new discovery: a carving of a boar, and ducks flying into nets. "I think Gobekli Tepe celebrates the chase, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. And why not? This life was rich and leisured, it gave them time enough to become accomplished sculptors."

    We may never know why the hunter- gatherers buried their ‘temple in Eden'
    So why did the hunters of Gobekli give up their agreeable existence? Schmidt indicates the arid brown hilltops. "Gathering together for religion meant that they needed to feed more people. So they started cultivating the wild grasses." But this switch to agriculture put pressure on the landscape; trees were cut down, the herds of game were dispersed. What was once a paradisaical land became a dustbowl.

    Schmidt explains that this switch took place around 8,000BC. Coincidentally, the temple of Gobekli Tepe was deliberately covered with earth around this time.

    Klaus Schmidt, the archaeologist in charge of the dig, believes that Gobekli Tepe's artwork has connections with the Eden story
    [​IMG]
    We may never know why the hunter-gatherers buried their 'temple in Eden'. Perhaps they were grieving for their lost innocence. What is unquestionable is the discoveries made in Gobekli Tepe, in the last few weeks, are some of the most exciting made anywhere in half a century.
    Schmidt shows me some workmen scraping earth from a rock relief. It is marvellously detailed: it shows scorpions, waterbirds, and river life. I suddenly realise I am the first person other than an archaeologist to see it in 10,000 years..."

    As I said, not all of the above reflects my views, I'm just posting to inspire thought:)

    To me, the idea that we over-used the resources there and eventually destroyed the local ecology is very believable.

    MelT
     
  2. #2 420stonedpanda, Dec 2, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 2, 2011
    If you're interested (I know this is very old), I just got home from a lecture by Klaus Schmidt on the latest research and excavations there at the British Museum, utterly incredible some of the new finds they're still making there. During this excavating season they un-earthed two more of those beautiful anthropomorphic (So clever that the archaeologists there realised they were meant to resemble humans) T shaped megaliths with the most brilliant, ornately carved reliefs (can't find pictures of the specific ones, but the two latest ones he showed were so much more intricate and detailed than all of the ones with a single animal on the front, with lots of different animals and humans and even some interacting).
    He also gave some really precise dates (c9600BC-c8200BC), and he seemed basically 100% certain about the end date, but also thinks there's a chance of there being something even older underneath, though he was quick to say that that's entirely speculation.

    Seeing some of the carvings on the megaliths has such a profound effect on me, it opens such a poignant window onto the early human imagination, as well as telling us so much more about neolithic systems of worship. Gobekli Tepe (and all the other similar sites in the region) really makes me wish i'd chosen to specialise in Mesopotamia instead of Egypt, but oh well...

    Also, I should say that Schmidt is actually one of the cleverest people i've been lucky enough to speak to, as well as having a brilliant German accent when he speaks English.
     
  3. not sure how accurate this one is but found an english version talking about the site:

    [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H2CjkuZF9k&feature=related]Gobekli Tepe: Proto-Indo-European Settlement - YouTube[/ame]
     

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