Göbeklitepe: South-Eastern Turkey's 12,000 Year-Old Obelisks

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Balkan Travellers
Text by Haldin Aydingün

Challenging commonly held ideas about human history, Haldin Aydingün describes the T-shaped obelisks of Göbeklitepe in south-eastern Turkey - a sanctuary from the 10th millennium BC. Erected 10,000 years before the founding of the Roman Empire, 8,000 years before the appearance of the Hittites and 7,000 years before the building of the Great Pyramids, the hilltop ruins near the town of Urfa was established by hunter-gathers.

I got down from the dig team's minibus and started walking towards the excavation area. The sun wouldn't be up for while, but it was already light. It struck me that the environs had been fixed up since I was here eight years ago. Göbeklitepe has now become a well-known place, both in nearby town of Urfa and in the world at large.

The Göbeklitepe monuments were created twelve thousand years ago. In other words, 10,000 years before the founding of the Roman Empire, 8,000 years before the appearance of the Hittites, and 7,000 years before the building of the Great Pyramids.

I am standing amidst evidence that could upset everything we know about our remote past. Imagine such an age that it is still thousands of years to the discovery of metal and that the best cutting tool available is made of a piece of flintstone, with which you will hack 25-ton obelisks out of the bedrock and, carving those frightful animal figures on them, drag them here and erect them. We are talking about a project that required the simultaneous toil of two thousand men, a project so big for its time as to be considered gargantuan. Why did these people feel a need to erect such a complex of buildings? Perhaps we will never learn the answer to this question. It is thought that this was a cult centre since everyone, dig director Prof. Dr. Klaus Schmidt included, are in agreement that it was not a site used for vital needs such as hunting and shelter.

http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1029

Excellent photos at the link