A pillar at the Gobekli Tepe temple near Sanliurfa, Turkey, the oldest known temple in the world
Posted on 02/23/2010 8:21:35 AM PST by Palter
A temple complex in Turkey that predates even the pyramids is rewriting the story of human evolution.
They call it potbelly hill, after the soft, round contour of this final lookout in southeastern Turkey. To the north are forested mountains. East of the hill lies the biblical plain of Harran, and to the south is the Syrian border, visible 20 miles away, pointing toward the ancient lands of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, the region that gave rise to human civilization. And under our feet, according to archeologist Klaus Schmidt, are the stones that mark the spot—the exact spot—where humans began that ascent.
Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the story of human origins. Schmidt has uncovered a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. The site isn't just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years ago—a staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agriculture—the first embers of civilization. In fact, Schmidt thinks the temple itself, built after the end of the last Ice Age by hunter-gatherers, became that ember—the spark that launched mankind toward farming, urban life, and all that followed.
Göbekli Tepe—the name in Turkish for "potbelly hill"—lays art and religion squarely at the start of that journey.
A pillar at the Gobekli Tepe temple near Sanliurfa, Turkey, the oldest known temple in the world
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
“You’d need a telescope to see the rings.”
Exactly my point. And while Uranus can be seen with the naked eye, even it wasn’t discovered until 1781. Neptune and Pluto are out of the question. The claim by some that the Sumerians had this knowledge by any method is nonsense. As far as Copernicus goes, I’m not sure even he believed what he had devised (he waited until he lay on his deathbed to announce his findings). The development of the Copernican System is one of the primal monuments of human ingenuity.
Serious question:
How do they know the temple was built 11,500 years ago?
I know about carbon dating and such, but that just tells you how old the rock is, not when somebody built something with it.
'And because those artifacts closely resemble others from nearby sites previously carbon-dated to about 9000 B.C., Schmidt and co-workers estimate that Gobekli Tepe's stone structures are the same age. Limited carbon dating undertaken by Schmidt at the site confirms this assessment.'
&
'In fact, research at other sites in the region has shown that within 1,000 years of Gobekli Tepe's construction, settlers had corralled sheep, cattle and pigs. And, at a prehistoric village just 20 miles away, geneticists found evidence of the world's oldest domesticated strains of wheat; radiocarbon dating indicates agriculture developed there around 10,500 years ago, or just five centuries after Gobekli Tepe's construction.'
Fascinating.
“As far as Copernicus goes, I’m not sure even he believed what he had devised (he waited until he lay on his deathbed to announce his findings).”
I understand he delayed to avoid ex-communication, but I defer to those with a better understanding of Roman Catholism.
Yo Stormer—I agree with you. How could you read what I wrote and think othwerwise?
Here's one from a website on Sumerian Astrology that claims to show just such a knowledge.
Sorry - I always think otherwise.
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