12,000 year old temple complex discovered in Turkey

Hi,
i havent seen this posted yet but as the title states a new discovery in turkey places the temple atleast 5,500 years before the complexes at mesopotamia

theyre theorizing it was a place for fertility rites but to
quote from the article

www.eurasianet.org...

But the site is devoid of the fertility symbols that have been found at other Neolithic sites, and the T-shaped columns, while clearly semi-human, are sexless. "I think here we are face to face with the earliest representation of gods", says Schmidt, patting one of the biggest stones. "They have no eyes, no mouths, no faces. But they have arms and they have hands. They are makers."

anyone seen anything more on this?
first thread made here for me so

(added link)

[edit on 18-4-2008 by Jbird]

No I have not. BUT - could you give us at least ONE link?? It would be very cool to be able to actually read the article..

J.

The article seems to have been posted today.

www.eurasianet.org...

This seems to be the only source so far. More news may appear later. I hope it does; this certainly seems interesting.

yea i just found the thread sorry :x
i had the same link as you posted

There was a nice piece in Fortean Times about a year ago on the site.

gobekli tepe

The wikipedia entry is also a good resource.

This sounds really interesting, but it would be more if we were able to get a good link to it.

-fm

If i'm correct, the article is about
Göbekli Tepe

Göbekli Tepe (Turkish for "Hill with a Tummy") is a hilltop sanctuary built on the highest point of an elongated mountain ridge about 15km northeast of the town of Şanlıurfa (Urfa) in southeast Turkey.

The site, currently undergoing excavation by German and Turkish archaeologists, was erected by hunter-gatherers in the 9th millennium BC (ca 11,500 years ago), before the advent of sedentism. It is currently considered the oldest known shrine or temple complex in the world, and the planet's oldest known example of mounumental architecture. Together with the site of Nevalı Çori, it has revolutionised the understanding of the Eurasian Neolithic.

Link to source (Wikipedia)


www.lswn.it...


Dr. Klaus Schmidt


Göbekli Tepe Current view of the excavation area
©Copyright 2002-2006 German Archaeological Institute, dainst.de

On Google Maps


www.megalithic.co.uk...
Picture # 1

Picture # 2

Picture # 3

Now it would be funny if i'm wrong

I just came across a recent article in which an very interesting interpretation is presented.

To Schmidt and others, these new findings suggest a novel theory of civilization. Scholars have long believed that only after people learned to farm and live in settled communities did they have the time, organization and resources to construct temples and support complicated social structures. But Schmidt argues it was the other way around: the extensive, coordinated effort to build the monoliths literally laid the groundwork for the development of complex societies.

Source

here's an Andrew Collins write up about Gobelki Tepe,which is where I first learned about it,there was also a Discovery Channel special about the the whereabouts of Eden that refered to this site,it's a really amazing place ,I will be following the latest findings about this for a long time.

Cygnus Mysteries

Yet another reference to Turkey and alternative theories for the origin of civilization! Very interesting. There is an article that I read a few weeks back that relates -- Göbekli Tepe is briefly mentioned towards the end of it.

This article lays out the hypothesis that agriculture may have actually started up in the Turkey region rather than the Levant like we're currently led to believe. Agriculture is, of course, intimately connected with civilization.

Here is one of the images from the article, showing the origin of the founder crops and animals with their geographical relation to Turkey.

They love the turks at the moment for some reason... Would love to know what that is... charisma and dark good looks aside of course!

So cool, man...Turkey seems to have some very interesting prehistoric cultures we are finding out... I would love to visit Catalhuyuk for instance.

reply to post by Siblin

Siblin ,that's a really great set of articles ,the antiquity of these finds as well as the astounding level of preservation ,is sure to change a lot of the assumptions we've always held about the development of civilization as a whole I can't wait to find out more about this

12 000 year old temple found in Turkey

reply to post by invisiblewoman


It depends on what assumptions we're talking about. It is an assumption that agriculture preceeded civilization. That assumption is indeed being challenged by Schmidt, based on the finds at Gobelki Tepe.

The timeline for the development of agriculture and civilization is not really based on assumption but on evidence. As can be seen in the comments on the link provided by Siblin, there is not a lot of agreement on the evidence for the very early beginning of agriculture.

The ruins of Gobelki Tepe apparently do not represent civilization in the true sense. Evidence (the lack of signs of habitation) indicate that this was not a city but a sacred site. There is no evidence of large scale cooperation in agriculture or any other endeavor other than the construction of the site itself. To the contrary, the depictions on the stones indicate a hunter/gatherer lifestyle. This is the basis of Schmidt's hypothesis.

Gobelki Tepe is the oldest example of massive construction. It predates all known civilizations by a large span of time. That it seems to predate agriculture is a fascinating new piece of information about our past. The primitive construction also serves as a technological "missing link", helping show that our forebears did not require outside help to develop civilization, nor were they preceded by highly advanced cultures. Mankind has been going through a process of two steps forward and one step back for a very long time.