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Göbekli Tepe: Temples From 10,000 B.C.

Provocative article in today's Quora arguing that the Göbekli Tepe culture represents not only the earliest known example of an organised and peaceful society, but possibly the earliest written language (some 20 symbols are carved into the pillars), earliest use of advanced tools, earliest plant domestication and irrigation, earliest use of sleds for construction and possibly even the wheel and the earliest production of beer and bread.

https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-Göbekli-Tepe-find-change-our-view-of-human-history

Further discussion about the possibility of symbols at Göbekli Tepe being a form of script.

In particular, the H-like symbol and the circle bracketed by two C shapes bear a close resemblance to the Luwian/Anatolian hieroglyphics for house (or possibly door) and god respectively.

Given the likely use of Göbekli Tepe as a place of worship, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that symbols carved there were intended to indicate "this place is a doorway to (or house of) god(s)".

Göbekli Tepe predates the Luwian script by some 8 millennia though and is even at least 3,000 years older than the Vinča script, which is emerging as a strong candidate for the oldest known writing. If therefore these symbols do become accepted as a form of proto-script, this would be yet another example of Göbekli Tepe rewriting (no pun really intended) the history books once more.

It has long been thought that Proto Indo-European and its predecessors such as Eurasiatic, Proto-Uralic and Borean left no written evidence.
Just possibly, on those remarkable T-shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe, we are looking at it.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330759548_World's_First_Known_Written_Word_at_Gobekli_Tepe_on_T-Shaped_Pillar_18_Means_God tepe1.JPGtepe2.JPGtepe3.JPG
 
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eeeek!

maybe crocodile/alligator - is komodo dragon a possibility? And something dog or catlike.... so wolf or jaguar?
The Nile crocodile once ranged over portions the middle east (Egypt, Israel, Iraq etc.) during times when it wasn't dry (like the last few thousand years. "Note: some people believe the leviathan in the Bible was a giant Nile crocodile, not to far away from the site". Large monitors may have lived there as well.
 
Some sites do refer to this relief as a crocodile:

wolverine2.JPG

but with its short, round and bear-like head, small ears, front-facing eyes, a hint of whiskers around the muzzle and apparent claws, I wonder if it could be a wolverine:

wolverine.JPG
wolverine3.JPG

The wolverine's European habitat has shrunk a bit over the millennia and is now limited to the Balkans and northern mountainous regions but, 10,000 years ago, I reckon there was a fair chance of this aggressive predator prowling around Göbekli Tepe.
 
BBC article this week provides an update on the latest excavations at Göbekli Tepe.
Previously thought to be used only for periodic religious gatherings, the latest findings include residential areas and a cistern-based form of irrigation or public water supply.
Re-write those history books once more! Some 6,000 years before the construction of Stonehenge started, there was a thriving Mesolithic urban settlement at Göbekli Tepe:

tepe.JPG


https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210815-an-immense-mystery-older-than-stonehenge
 
BBC article this week provides an update on the latest excavations at Göbekli Tepe.
Previously thought to be used only for periodic religious gatherings, the latest findings include residential areas and a cistern-based form of irrigation or public water supply.
Re-write those history books once more! Some 6,000 years before the construction of Stonehenge started, there was a thriving Mesolithic urban settlement at Göbekli Tepe:

View attachment 43772

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210815-an-immense-mystery-older-than-stonehenge
It also pushed back the line of initial civilization to before the end of the last ice age. Some of Göbekli Tepe structures go back to 11K BC
 
It also pushed back the line of initial civilization to before the end of the last ice age. Some of Göbekli Tepe structures go back to 11K BC

Although Göbekli Tepe was located well south of the glacial ice sheet during the last Ice Age.
This area of what is now Turkey was likely to have been temperate or semi-arid woodland 13,000 years ago and therefore rather more hospitable than the semi-desert conditions today.

ice.JPG
 
Although Göbekli Tepe was located well south of the glacial ice sheet during the last Ice Age.
This area of what is now Turkey was likely to have been temperate or semi-arid woodland 13,000 years ago and therefore rather more hospitable than the semi-desert conditions today.

View attachment 43965
Point is previous to this site, no previous people - civilization existed before the ice age on the time scale nor not a temperature scale
 
Point is previous to this site, no previous people - civilization existed before the ice age on the time scale nor not a temperature scale
I think the only possible rival in terms of age is the "Danube Culture" at Lepenski Vir, dating from around 11,500 years ago.
Located in what is now Serbia, this is some 2,000 km north-west of Göbekli Tepe and the earliest structures at the site may well have been started at the tail end of the Ice Age.
 
Long and detailed article by historian and writer Andrew Collins, exploring astronomical alignments at Göbekli Tepe.

Whilst the tone is slightly pseudosciency, he does make a fair case that the prominent vulture carvings and the alignment of the "viewing stone" suggest that the constellation of Cygnus (aka the Northern Cross) had particular significance to the architects of Göbekli Tepe and possibly symbolised rejuvenation/rebirth.

pic1.JPG

pic2.JPG

pic3.JPG


https://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Gobekli.htm
 
Karahan Tepe, some 46 km southeast of Göbekli Tepe has only recently started to be excavated and studied.
It features stone benches, a carved human face, water reservoirs and even T-shaped monoliths, similar to those at its more famous cousin - or maybe I should say grandson, as initial investigations suggest that Karahan Tepe predates Göbekli Tepe.

tepe2.JPG


tepe1.JPG


Initial archaeological reconnaissance suggests there may be a further 10 or 12 Tepes, or mound-based settlements/temples in the region.
Looks like archaeologists will have their work cut out for decades to come and historians will have to re-write those books about Mesolithic civilisation.


https://sailingstonetravel.com/karahan-tepe-kecili-tepe/
 
Karahan Tepe, some 46 km southeast of Göbekli Tepe has only recently started to be excavated and studied.
It features stone benches, a carved human face, water reservoirs and even T-shaped monoliths, similar to those at its more famous cousin - or maybe I should say grandson, as initial investigations suggest that Karahan Tepe predates Göbekli Tepe.

View attachment 46557

View attachment 46558

Initial archaeological reconnaissance suggests there may be a further 10 or 12 Tepes, or mound-based settlements/temples in the region.
Looks like archaeologists will have their work cut out for decades to come and historians will have to re-write those books about Mesolithic civilisation.


https://sailingstonetravel.com/karahan-tepe-kecili-tepe/
At 12,000 years old, Gobekli Tepe predated humanity's oldest known civilizations. Its megalithic temples were cut from rock millennia before the 4,500-year-old pyramids in Egypt, 5,000-year-old Stonehenge in England, or 7,000-year-old Nabta Playa, the oldest known astronomical site. So if go back 12k years perhaps more than how is the other nearby site much older? Perhaps the sphinx is older then either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx_water_erosion_hypothesis
 
Here's an interesting coincidence (or IS it he asked knowingly?).

One of the Göbekli Tepe symbols is strikingly similar to a traditional shamanistic symbol from Western Australian aboriginal culture:

View attachment 31023

http://brucefenton.info/2017/10/12/a-global-aboriginal-australian-culture-the-proof-at-gobekli-tepe/

Yes, one symbol carved into one pillar is very similar if not identical to the one painted on that Native Australian man, even if that symbol is all over Gobekli Tepe and is widely used in that man's culture or several Aboriginal cultures, I'm not sure it proves much. They are fairly simple patterns and I'd say that this is simply coincidence.
 
Some sites do refer to this relief as a crocodile:

View attachment 31020

but with its short, round and bear-like head, small ears, front-facing eyes, a hint of whiskers around the muzzle and apparent claws, I wonder if it could be a wolverine:

View attachment 31021
View attachment 31022

The wolverine's European habitat has shrunk a bit over the millennia and is now limited to the Balkans and northern mountainous regions but, 10,000 years ago, I reckon there was a fair chance of this aggressive predator prowling around Göbekli Tepe.

It's fairly abstract, it looks a little more crocodile like to me, at least snout-wise. Ultimately it could be any number of mammals or reptiles though, perhaps it's even something mythical.
 
Karahan Tepe, some 46 km southeast of Göbekli Tepe has only recently started to be excavated and studied.
It features stone benches, a carved human face, water reservoirs and even T-shaped monoliths, similar to those at its more famous cousin - or maybe I should say grandson, as initial investigations suggest that Karahan Tepe predates Göbekli Tepe.

View attachment 46557

View attachment 46558

Initial archaeological reconnaissance suggests there may be a further 10 or 12 Tepes, or mound-based settlements/temples in the region.
Looks like archaeologists will have their work cut out for decades to come and historians will have to re-write those books about Mesolithic civilisation.


https://sailingstonetravel.com/karahan-tepe-kecili-tepe/
That face looks like one of the Belmez faces ;)
 
Karahan Tepe, some 46 km southeast of Göbekli Tepe has only recently started to be excavated and studied.
It features stone benches, a carved human face, water reservoirs and even T-shaped monoliths, similar to those at its more famous cousin - or maybe I should say grandson, as initial investigations suggest that Karahan Tepe predates Göbekli Tepe.
https://sailingstonetravel.com/karahan-tepe-kecili-tepe/
The story of Karahan / Keçili Tepe is somewhat jumbled and confusing. For some reason multiple articles about the site refer to 'obelisks' when discussing the T-shaped pillars of the same sort found at Gobekli Tepe. There are also variations in claims about the two names Karahan and Keçili. Most accounts say they're one and the same, but some use the names for two different landforms / locations. The suggestion Karahan Tepe is older than Gobekli Tepe is relatively recent. Some older accounts suggest the reverse - i.e., that Karahan Tepe is younger.

It was discovered in 1997, and there were excavations underway (intermittently) years ago. It's not clear how much of the site has actually been excavated and evaluated as of 2020 / 2021.

A somewhat more detailed account of the site can be found in Andrew Collins' report from his visit in 2014:

http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Karahan.htm
https://www.academia.edu/8030198/Ka...pes_Sister_Site_-_Another_Temple_of_the_Stars
 
refer to 'obelisks' when discussing the T-shaped pillars of the same sort found at Gobekli Tepe. T

If there is no evidence that the T-shaped stones originally supported a roof structure, I don't see why the term obelisk shouldn't be employed.

I particularly liked the photo of the huge T-shaped stone, which was only partially excavated.
I guess we'll never know why it was abandoned and not erected like the others:

tepe.JPG
 
If there is no evidence that the T-shaped stones originally supported a roof structure, I don't see why the term obelisk shouldn't be employed.
'Obelisk' has a specific meaning in terms of form or shape. One might even say that its point is the point ...

An obelisk (/ˈɒbəlɪsk/; from Ancient Greek: ὀβελίσκος obeliskos; diminutive of ὀβελός obelos, "spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. ... Ancient obelisks are monolithic; that is, they consist of a single stone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk
 
Ah right.
So describing these things that seemed to sprout up all around the world as obelisks, was similarly incorrect ...
Yes. In most cases the shiny recent ones were typically labeled as 'monoliths' - another example of a mis-applied label.
 
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I guess I took it for granite that they were synonyms and, as a pillar of the Fortean community, I vow to leave no stone unturned in employing the correct term henceforth.

To remind me, here's a picture of Obélix carrying an obelisk - I guess he was given that name because of his pointed head ;)

IMG_1437.PNG
 
I guess I took it for granite that they were synonyms and, as a pillar of the Fortean community, I vow to leave no stone unturned in employing the correct term henceforth.

To remind me, here's a picture of Obélix carrying an obelisk - I guess he was given that name because of his pointed head ;)

View attachment 46749
I though Obèlix was always portrayed carrying a menhir
 
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