Posted on 02/27/2025 6:04:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Excavations at Göbekli Tepe continue to yield findings. Researchers found living quarters of an ancient civilization, which disproved earlier theories that the site served solely as a ceremonial pilgrimage destination.
Göbekli Tepe, a Neolithic archaeological site situated in the Germuş mountains of southeastern Anatolia, close to the border of Syria... its construction occurring up to 15,000 years ago.
The enormous T-shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe, some reaching heights of up to 5.5 meters, are the oldest examples of monumental architecture discovered to date. These pillars were carved from flint at a time when metal tools were not yet used, demonstrating architectural skills.
So far, only about 10% of the Göbekli Tepe site was excavated, and it is likely to take around 150 years to excavate the full site. Archaeologists estimate that there are still 15 more enclosures buried underground, one of which could be up to 15,000 years old...
Excavations also uncovered small grinding mills and flint sickles, indicating that its builders may have practiced agriculture. Remains of plants and animals reflecting the diet of the time were found, suggesting a continued tradition over several millennia. This could mean that humans began settling into permanent locations and building cities 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
Strange that the WEF would get involved with blocking progress into our shared human past. They should just stick to screwing up gov’ts and global economies.
If Howard Carter worked like today’s archaeologists, we still wouldn’t know about King Tut.
I think you’d enjoy Jimmy Corsetti at Bright Insight.
“The complex would have been constructed by groups of hunter-gatherers who periodically gathered to celebrate rituals related to the animals represented on the pillars of the site,” stated Klaus Schmidt, the late archaeologist who led excavations until his death in 2014.”
I agree with you. That statement is pure conjecture with nothing to back it up.
A truly good archeologist would admit more often that “we do not have answers to many things, as often what we do find is not enough to fully understand what we found”.
Paging Graham Handcock...
When time permits I will definitely check him out. Thanks!
Note the ability that they had to make pottery. If is fired articles, you have to understand clay-working technology, the ability to construct a kiln which can sustain the temperature of firing the articles without falling apart; the kind of fuel to keep it going at a high enough temperature; possibly forming the clay on a potter’s wheel, etc. Are these “hunter-gatherers” also artisans? (A lot of assumptions about the people of the time.)
Not arguin'; just sayin'.
But thanks so much for this post. i've been quite interested about Anatolia and Lake Van and Ararat for a long time. (Gives me something to talk about with the owner of the Turk-run restaurant that I often go to!)
FWIW.
Its hard to believe an educated individual would come up with that.
And to merge that concept with hunter/gatherers is just insane even if it was proposed as a once a year celebration or something the work involved could crush several small tribes.
Then again this is a field where there are some pretty silly stories we are expected to believe so maybe maybe it didnt strain credulity among those academics.
A theory like that combined with a discovery older than Egypt (”because everyone knows Egypt was the first”), its hard to believe anyone gave him the funding.
The key word is flint, which is a very fine amorphous or cryptocrystalline hard material which like naturally-occurring obsidian or man-made glass exhibits conchoidal fracture that can produce large flakes when properly struck to initiate a crack that carries through to the edge.
Think of what the breakage looks like when the pellet from a BB gun strikes your window. The pellet strikes the glass, initiating a crack front that propagates in every direction until it meets and goes through the surface on the other side. The cracks which go laterally almost 90 degrees from the BB trajectory can go a long way with a circular fron to make really big flakes.
This process is how sharp tools, like arrowheads, were made in the stone age, and sill are. Here is an example how this process, called "knapping" is done:
You can't do this very well with crystalline rocks, igneous (granite), metamorphic (marble), or sedimentary (sandstone, limestone, shale) because the cracks don't propagate th same way.
It's my guess that the stones of Gobekli lent themselves to the knappin procee of carefully striking out pieces with directional blows that removed fragments just wher one wants. Note that te artisan in the video used a piece of elk antler to gt some big flakes. But I know that Our North American natives used the deer antler points to make the smaller chips as well. (actually, in the Houghton, Michigan mines, the rocks there have large copper nodules that could be pounded into knapping tools, but not very good knives.)
Or maybe my imagination is just working too hard for this perceived possibility of how Gobekli's animals and plants were inscribed on flint rocks without carbon steel chisels and hammers.
So much of it is purely conjecture. What I was taught in school, way back in the 60’s was mostly wrong.
This is an amazing site and....apparently, similar sites in the whole region.
When new discoveries are made of ancient structures it just opens the door for new questions. We know so little about our ancient ancestors. It would be difficult for us today to build the same structures even with modern equipment.
It’s the first Motel 6. People need a place to stay while there.
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