I know you have a number of links to info on Gobeki Tepe.
Why not post the most intelligent and levelheaded and let some new folks learn about this amazing archeological site?
As I recall the site is at the top of a mountain so just dragging the enormous stones up to the site is an amazing feat.
The truth is, imho, the level of discussion about that site hasn't resulted in the edification of the participants. If I had to make a wild guess, there are as-yet unknown remains of contemporary settlements in the immediate vicinity, meaning that there was a permanent population near the place, and they built it for their own cults (whatever they were) and the settlements thrived from what we would now call the tourist trade; in the medieval sense that traffic would be considered pilgrimages. The source of the large stones may be nearby, but if not (and even if) there will be found some kind of causeway or unpaved roadway, probably leading to the nearest waterway. Such structures have been identified at Stonehenge and other places, and antedate the monuments, because they were evidently used in the construction.
KEYWORDS: anatolia;
archaeology;
catalhoyuk;
catalhuyuk;
gobeklitepe;
godsgravesglyphs;
prehistory;
sanliurfa;
turkey