"That's exactly what happened! I was just a kid but ... "
Posted on 04/23/2013 10:17:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
"Wow," exclaims the visitor from New Zealand, a place, after all, with a human history shorter than most. For from a wooden walkway we’re gazing down at an archaeological site of giddying age. Built about 9000 BC, it’s more than twice as old as Stonehenge or the Pyramids, predating the discovery of metals, pottery or even the wheel. This is Göbekli Tepe in south-eastern Turkey, generally reckoned the most exciting and historically significant archaeological dig currently under way anywhere in the world, and there are neither queues nor tickets to get in.
Wow for a number of reasons, then, though it’s neither the access nor the staggering implications of the site’s age that has particularly impressed the man from distant Auckland. Neolithic Göbekli Tepe is also remarkably beautiful. From the partially excavated pit rise circular arrangements of huge T-shaped obelisks exquisitely carved with foxes, birds, boars and snakes or highly stylised human attributes including belts, loincloths and limbs. We’re profoundly moved by this glimpse into a radically recast prehistory, and mystified too. Even the archaeologists hard at work on this September morning can only speculate about its function, not least because the stones appear to have been deliberately buried.
“This series of sanctuaries is the oldest known monumental architecture,” explains the excavation leader and approachable on-site presence Professor Klaus Schmidt. “Maybe burial was already part of their concept from the very beginning.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Sometimes I wonder if mankind had to live ‘underground’ due to something like a nearby supernova.
Put Gobekli complex was buried on purpose ... why have such a complex arrangement of structures then cover it with sand and abandon it?
"That's exactly what happened! I was just a kid but ... "
Earth quake, robbers, lack of water. See any trees in the area?
ping
I don’t know *why* they buried it but I’m glad they did! Have you looked at photos of the carvings? They’re in pristine condition. Look like they were done last week. It’s an astounding find and most people say “gobble gobble what?” when you try to tell them about it. ;o)
I have guessed that the pillars with “T” shape were holding up roofing timbers. The carvings do not appear to have been heavily weathered the way the Sphinx was, from rain and flowing water.
FYI
June 2011 of National Georgraphic had a great coverage of this wonderful find. Here’s a link:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text
Sadly, the authors of that article are not too bright:
“We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art, and religion. Now the world’s oldest temple suggests the urge to worship sparked civilization.”
Wouldn’t that be obvious to anyone who can think?
I agree. Cities have always grown up around churches and temples. I wonder if the cultivation of grain was at least partly in response to a need to feed ancient visiting pilgrims (for a price, of course).
That supports the view that those living today are the only smart ones that gets it and all those early beings were a bunch of “hayseeds” that actually looked to an outside source as the creator.
I wonder if the monoliths themselves might be remnants of some even older civilization; their hard square edges and the detail of the carvings are very sophisticated. They almost look like some sort of antediluvian highway support pillars.
The carvings are interesting to contemplate as they are not carved into the stone monoliths, but sit in relief on the surface. That required an amazing amount of carving to produce the monoliths; 12,000 years ago.
When the King NutTar and his Queen Ishtar saw it after it was completed, the Queen didn`t like all the animal cartoons which she said ranked of ox bestiality and lizard fetishes.
So the King ordered it buried coz it was offensive to his Queen`s royal eyes.
He killed the neo-cartoonical architect and found another architect who was schooled in the Pre-Byzantine style which has a lotsa domes and spires and arches and loudspeakers and beards. However, the animal fetish memory was forever enshrined into the name of the new city, Ish-Dung-Bull, not far from this site,by the new royal architect who was of friend of the old dead royal architect, who was from San Francisco.
But it could not be fully suppressed and soon spread to Paris. This royal ban on erotic fetish cities is what started the Trojan War soon afterwards. Centuries later the neo-cartoonical school was re-born in Sodom and Gomnorreah.
So you’re sayin’ that Mighhty Mouse did not come to save the day?
We have firm dates on all these events?
Umm wow. I followed the link and was reading through it while watching TV. I looked up and there it was on the History Channel too.
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