Posted on 10/25/2023 10:08:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Excavators at the site of Gobekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey have uncovered the life-size statue of a wild boar, carved out of limestone. According to a statement by the German Archaeological Institute, the statue dates to the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (c. 8700–8200 BCE)... Described as Turkey's Stonehenge, Gobekli Tepe predates that site, as well as the Egyptian pyramids and even the invention of writing, by more than 5,000 years.
The boar statue was discovered within the remains of one of the site's buildings, dubbed Special Building D. Placed on top of a long and decorated bench between two pillars, the boar occupied a central position within the building. The decorations of the bench include depictions of snakes, human faces, and geometric designs. Roughly the size of an actual boar, the statue is 4.5 feet long and a little over 2 feet tall...
While there is plentiful evidence of Neolithic religion around the ancient Near East, almost all of this evidence postdates Gobekli Tepe by thousands of years, although the tower of Jericho, which some believe to have also been a cultic installation, possibly dates to only a few hundred years later.
Gobekli Tepe includes a number of circular enclosers, consisting of massive T-shaped pillars, some as tall as 16 feet and weighing 50 tons. Many of the pillars are ornately decorated with elaborate carvings, including depictions of vultures, scorpions, lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, donkeys, snakes, human figures, and more. Some of the anthropomorphic figures even include details such as arms, legs, and clothes...
Given that human bones were also found, others believe the Göbekli Tepe ruins may have been a Neolithic burial ground where funerary rituals and perhaps even excarnations were practiced.
(Excerpt) Read more at biblicalarchaeology.org ...
Some of the videos I have seen about the site state that only about 5% of the area has been excavated.
Amazing stuff, still to be discovered
Btt!
>>There was no currency or coinage in that era.
There is a theory that credit was developed before money.”
There was currency. Grain and foods, Stone for Tools, Finished stone tools, baskets, textiles, animal skins, Etc. were all currency. But the most valuable was the knowledge and craft skills to create these finished products to trade. The proverbial trading between the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker. These were not ignorant cave men. The narrative that they were “primitive hunter gatherers” is absolutely wrong, they had agriculture, animal husbandry, and an industry of civilized trade.
They claim “pre-pottery” as an indicator of primitive caveman ignorance. There are still traditional cultures that don’t need clay pottery. Wood makes perfectly fine bowls, and the art of basket making is very advanced and viable. Baskets and textiles can even be woven to hold liquids. Liquid proof baskets and animal skins have been used as cooking vessels by using hot rocks. Burlap is one of the crudest of woven goods. Yet it holds water fine once soaked and swollen.
Gobekli Tepe also is where the oldest evidence yet has been found of the brewing of barley (= beer).
Actually, southeastern Turkey is very close to the Fertile Crescent, where organized farming and urban planning began about 11,000 years ago.
That was one giant step up the standard of living ladder for a lot of people.
How was wealth transferred before coins and currency?
Good question - since monetary systems did not really exist before 1,000 BC, and those same systems have been routinely collapsing for the last 3,000 years!
Actually, southeastern Turkey is very close to the Fertile Crescent, where organized farming and urban planning began about 11,000 years ago.
That was one giant step up the standard of living ladder for a lot of people.
You must have watched “Connections”
https://youtu.be/NcOb3Dilzjc?t=1703
Thanks for the chance to visit with James Burke again.
I have not seen a grown man wearing a leisure suit in at least 40 years.
That is REAL ancient history...!
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