The Astounding Gobeckli Tepe and Implications for Human Historical Development

In a recent essay (Civilization as a Survival Tool) I summarized the accepted theory of the development of civilization.  It is a rational and well-founded theory.  Now I am going to tell you why that proposition may be wrong.

The conventional theory holds that religious temples appeared after agrarian societies developed specialization of labor and urban centers.  Most evidence supports this finding, but human spirituality has much older roots.  Paleolithic hunter gatherers expressed their beliefs in burial practices, sometimes with a few artifacts, going back more than 50,000 years.  35,000 years ago, graves began including artifacts with increasing frequency in the form of food, jewelry, tools and weapons.

The conventional theory holds that religious temples appeared after agrarian societies developed specialization of labor and urban centers.  Most evidence supports this finding, but human spirituality has much older roots.  Paleolithic hunter gatherers expressed their beliefs in burial practices, sometimes with a few artifacts, going back more than 50,000 years.  35,000 years ago, graves began including artifacts with increasing frequency in the form of food, jewelry, tools and weapons.

Burying the dead with implements used in life implies ancient humans believed there was more to a person than just their corporeal bodies.  Inhumation protected the deceased from scavengers and the elements indicating the individual retained value after death.  Tools, weapons, food and other personal effects were scarce items that required valuable time to make or acquire.  Why would a dead person need a stone knife or food unless they were entering an afterlife?   Clearly, before the construction of ziggurats or pyramids, hunter gatherers believed in something beyond the living world.

Stone circles likely also denote a belief in a spiritual world.  They are surprisingly common in the Neolithic Era with more than 1,000 documented circles from the British Isles to the Middle East.  The ancient Chinese and Mesoamericans built them too.  Generally, circles are 3,000 to 5,000 years old, after humans settled into agrarian societies.  The megaliths at Stonehenge came from hundreds of miles away.  Logically, only groups that generated food surpluses had the time to drag megaliths and raise them into place.  Some include graves, some are Neolithic astronomical calendars and some have mixed uses.  Maintaining a permanent calendar to record seasonal change had obvious practical purposes.  Measuring celestial movements was necessary for agrarian societies to know in advance when to plant and harvest crops.

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Aside from the practical uses, the creation of circles implies a spiritual belief in the seasonal changes themselves.  I wrote in October about Samhain, the precursor to Halloween.  Samhain’s origins in the mists of pre-recorded history reflect a belief not just in a soul but spiritual forces in animals and inanimate objects such as the earth, sky, weather, and sun.  The stones erected in circles likely had their own spiritual value which played a role in Neolithic beliefs about bringing about and celebrating the changes in season.  (Halloween, Melding the Ancient and the Modern)

In the early 1990s German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt began examining a previously overlooked site named Gobeckli Tepe.  Located in southern Turkey near the Syrian border, most of the site still has not been explored and will not be for some time due to the instability of the region.  What we know though is truly amazing.  Ground penetrating radar has revealed 200 buried megaliths arranged in 16 circles.  Archaeologists have excavated one of the circles (and part of four others) concluding it was constructed in about 10000 BC.  That is not a typo, Gobeckli Tepe is 12,000 years old.  The age of the site is just one of many features that could re-write what we know of ancient beliefs.

In 10,000 BC, the now arid Turkish plain looked much different.  The last Ice Age ended around 12,000 BC.  The warming temperatures and receding ice transformed the area into a lush savanna.  Gobeckli Tepe sat atop a hill overlooking a veritable cornucopia of edible plants teeming with herds of roaming game.

Digging down Schmidt uncovered large 7-10 ton stone megaliths in circular formation, some as tall as 16 feet.  The builders added stone walls and perhaps a roof.  Differentiated layers of artifacts indicated Neolithic humans occupied the site for about 2,000 years.  The age of Gobeckli Tepe is nothing short of astounding given other ancient human sites.  Egyptians built most pyramids from 2800-2300 BC at the dawn of recorded history.  Gobeckli Tepe is only the oldest known stone circle, it is over 8,000 years older than Stonehenge and most other stone circles and three times older than the Great Pyramid.

The age of the site is but one of many amazing features.  The megaliths were honed into a “T” shape and many adorned with lions, vultures, foxes, scorpions and other animals.  Over time, one circle would be buried and another built on top.  Then comes another puzzling detail.  After 2,000 years of continuous use, the inhabitants inexplicably buried the site and abandoned the area.  Burying the site required months of work transporting tons of dirt and debris to cover the circles.  Most ruins are abandoned after a cataclysmic event left as they stand to be buried naturally or gradually fall apart.  Why did Gobeckli Tepe’s builders seemingly abandon the site suddenly with no apparent cause?  Why go to lengths to cover Gobeckli Tepe?

Schmidt unearthed little evidence of everyday use within the excavated circle.  Red deer birds and others species bones recovered near the site were all wild.  The lack of domesticated animals leads to another incredible detail of Gobeckli Tepe: the builders were still hunter gatherers.  Somehow, in spite of having to remain on the move with only the tools they could carry, Neolithic humans made enormous efforts to build this complex.  They took the time to quarry, shape and transport enormous megaliths and then decorate them with carved animals.

Though Schmidt has no explanation for the intentional burial, he has concluded Gobeckli Tepe is the world’s oldest temple.  Schmidt has turned the theory of civilization upside down.  Instead of developing agrarian practices which led to urban settlements and then religious temples, Schmidt argues Neolithic humans built religious centers first and then began farming.

The theory is interesting, but for now is only that, a theory.  Less than 5% of the Gobeckli Tepe site has been excavated.  It seems premature to draw definitive conclusions from only one circle when 15 remain buried considering many questions remain unanswered.

Unearthing Gobeckli Tepe may lead to a new theory on the development of civilization.  However, History is not always progressive.  Our ancestors advanced in sophistication and order but also regressed.  We can find examples large and small.  The fall of the Roman Empire resulted in a loss of organization, interaction and culture that took over 1,000 years to recover.  The Greek Antikythera Mechanism is a small-scale example.   With 30 gears arranged in a shoebox sized container, the user could crank the Antikythera Mechanism to predict solar and lunar movements and even the track the dates of Greek athletic competitions.  Some have described the Antikythera Mechanism as the world’s first computer.  Unfortunately it sank with a ship in the Aegean Sea before the innovation could spread.  Consequently, mechanisms of similar complexity did not reappear for a millennium.

Our ancestors constructed amazing things with primitive tools in a hostile environment.  I find these achievements to be wondrous and fascinating and I hope that comes across.  Maybe these articles will inspire interest in the debates professionals and amateurs have about our shared history.