Posted on 07/11/2026 9:35:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
Göbekli Tepe was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018, and it's not hard to see why. Image credit: Resul Muslu/Shutterstock.com
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Did a cataclysmic comet impact 13,000 years ago spark the rise of civilization? That's the explosive claim behind a study of carvings at the world-famous site of Göbekli Tepe, which researchers say encode not just a catastrophic comet strike, but the world's oldest solar calendar.
Located in southern Türkiye, Göbekli Tepe is a pre-pottery Neolithic complex that is estimated to be around 12,000 years old. Analyzing an intricately carved pillar at the site, the study authors propose that V-shaped symbols represent days of the year, with a total of 365 markings divided into 12 lunar months plus 11 additional – or epagomenal – days.
The summer solstice, meanwhile, is depicted as a bird-like deity – possibly representing the constellation Virgo, where the sun would have been located at this time of year – with a V around its neck. According to the researchers, representations of figures with similar V-shaped necklaces at associated sites have been interpreted as “time-controlling or creator deities”.
Carvings at Göbekli Tepe are thought to represent the world's oldest calendar. Image Credit: Dr Martin Sweatman
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Because the carvings appear to track both the movement of the Sun and the phases of the Moon, the study author suggests that the pillar represents the world’s earliest lunisolar calendar.
Perhaps even more astonishingly, the ancient engravings seem to illustrate the changing positions of constellations in the sky, indicating an appreciation of the concept of precession 10,000 years before it was first documented by the Ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus.
Yet the study’s most striking find relates to a separate pillar, which appears to illustrate the Taurid meteor stream moving through the constellations Aquarius and Pisces over a period of several weeks. This barrage of bolides has been proposed as the source of a comet strike some time around 10,850 BCE, which may have triggered a mini Ice Age known as the Younger Dryas.
It’s important to note that the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis is strongly opposed by many researchers, who say there is no evidence that the event was caused by a collision. As such, all of these arguments should be taken with a large pinch of salt.
Nevertheless, the study author proposes that Göbekli Tepe itself may have been constructed as a memorial to this hypothetical strike.
“It appears the inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe were keen observers of the sky, which is to be expected given their world had been devastated by a comet strike,” Dr Martin Sweatman, the sole study author from the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement. “This event might have triggered civilisation by initiating a new religion and by motivating developments in agriculture to cope with the cold climate,” he said.
VIDEO AT LINK.................
In his write-up, the researcher develops this idea by explaining that “religion might already have existed elsewhere… but the Younger Dryas impact might have triggered a novel, catastrophic form.”
“Fear is a powerful organizing principle in human society and the Younger Dryas impact would undoubtedly have inspired great fear and awe. Thus, this event can provide the motivation for the grand construction projects of Göbekli Tepe and related sites,” they say.
Such a fearful religion – which may have centered around a “skull cult” – might therefore have provided the spark for large-scale communal organization and the building of monumental structures, effectively “triggering the origin of civilization,” the researchers conclude.
The study was published in the journal Time and Mind.
An earlier version of this article was published in August 2024.
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PinGGG!.....................
You mean vultures? The iconography turns up all over the region. That and human skulls are starting to show up. I’m guessing some ritual sacrifices were the order of the day.
Graham Hancock nods.
It’s difficult for me to imagine a pre-pottery civilization.
Or any other society before we could hoist one.
The comet strike itself is reasonably doubted. Many attribute the cold period to Volcanoes.
But Virgo would have been around the spring solstice back then because of precession.
Perhaps even more astonishingly, the ancient engravings seem to illustrate the changing positions of constellations in the sky, indicating an appreciation of the concept of precession 10,000 years before it was first documented by the Ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus.
Yet the study’s most striking find relates to a separate pillar, which appears to illustrate the Taurid meteor stream moving through the constellations Aquarius and Pisces over a period of several weeks.
No. The Taurid meteor shower is called that because when the orbit of the meteoroids (mostly dust) intersects with Earth's orbit they appear to be coming from Taurus. The direction of Earth's axis does not change that. It would just change the season they arrive in and how high in the sky Taurus is. Also, differences between then and now would not show an appreciation of the concept of precession. It would just show what the observation was at the time. The knowledge of precession required hundreds of years of observation.
It looks like the author doesn't understand precession. Hopefully the original researchers did and it just got lost in the writing.
So that's what a money pit looks like.
All these zig-zag marks and a round ball at the bottom look kinda like a comet depiction to me................
Looks like the bridge of the Stone Age Era NCC-1701-C Enterprise.
Nanodiamonds and impact microspheres, black mat found across America along with Carolina bays suggest an impact in younger dryas period ~13000 years ago. Also drove large mammal extinction.
That’ll buff right out!.....................
Shocked Quartz is also a clue as to an impact...............
“It’s difficult for me to imagine a pre-pottery civilization.”
That jumped out at me, too. We always think in terms of metals (iron, bronze) and stone. But I never thought about the invention of fired pottery and (probably much later) glass.
It is truly amazing what we continue to find of ancient civilizations and the work required to piece together knowledge about that civilization.
“a separate pillar, which appears to illustrate the Taurid meteor stream moving through the constellations Aquarius and Pisces over a period of several weeks”
Is there a picture of this pillar?
You can’t take a word these people write seriously. Because they apparently don’t believe in thermodynamics.
World heritage site...unesco.....the requirements and control are then transferred to the un.
Kepler among us . NO/s. Who knew?
What really sucks is the Turkish government is dragging their feet in allowing the excavation of these sites. They are too busy trying to find a way to maximize profit of them instead.
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