Posted on 04/23/2013 10:17:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
"Wow," exclaims the visitor from New Zealand, a place, after all, with a human history shorter than most. For from a wooden walkway we’re gazing down at an archaeological site of giddying age. Built about 9000 BC, it’s more than twice as old as Stonehenge or the Pyramids, predating the discovery of metals, pottery or even the wheel. This is Göbekli Tepe in south-eastern Turkey, generally reckoned the most exciting and historically significant archaeological dig currently under way anywhere in the world, and there are neither queues nor tickets to get in.
Wow for a number of reasons, then, though it’s neither the access nor the staggering implications of the site’s age that has particularly impressed the man from distant Auckland. Neolithic Göbekli Tepe is also remarkably beautiful. From the partially excavated pit rise circular arrangements of huge T-shaped obelisks exquisitely carved with foxes, birds, boars and snakes or highly stylised human attributes including belts, loincloths and limbs. We’re profoundly moved by this glimpse into a radically recast prehistory, and mystified too. Even the archaeologists hard at work on this September morning can only speculate about its function, not least because the stones appear to have been deliberately buried.
“This series of sanctuaries is the oldest known monumental architecture,” explains the excavation leader and approachable on-site presence Professor Klaus Schmidt. “Maybe burial was already part of their concept from the very beginning.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“I can’t think...”
Maybe you should have stopped right there.
That was kind of my point.
Who knows what we might find there.
So saying that it was "before...." when we truly have no idea when those things were discovered is rather presumptuous.
Absence of evidence should not be assumed to be evidence of absence.
Puzzle piled upon puzzle as the excavation continued. For reasons yet unknown, the rings at Göbekli Tepe seem to have regularly lost their power, or at least their charm. Every few decades people buried the pillars and put up new stones—a second, smaller ring, inside the first. Sometimes, later, they installed a third. Then the whole assemblage would be filled in with debris, and an entirely new circle created nearby. The site may have been built, filled in, and built again for centuries.
I wonder if Fred Flintstone lived there. Maybe we have discovered Bedrock.
The use of the materials names (not food, that was merely a nonsequitur) varied in date from place to place, but isn’t known to be used that early.
And yet not only were they working with stone but they were working with big stones.
They thought that metal was first worked in the middle east around 4200 BC. They they found Varna. And found worked metal from 4600 BC and in Europe.
And now they found a copper chisel that is from 5500BC in Prokuplje Serbia.
The more we find the more the dates keep getting pushed back.
Saying "before we know metal was used" is correct. Saying "before metal was used" is not.
People have worked with stone for 100s of 1000s of years, including some possible small images of animals and such; one apparent stylized statue of a human dates back 400K years. Stone was used to work stone at this site. But it appears you’re really just objecting to the writing in the article.
For underground dwellings check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_Underground_City
I object to things stated as fact rather then stated as opinion or quantified with the statement that with our current level of knowledge this is what we believe.
And yes I understand that this was written by a travel writer rather then a scientist but my objection stands.
I think civilizations probably started because people saw the advantage of forming themselves into groups for safety.
What do you think?
Culture we’d recognized as human started in small groups; civilization by definition means construction of cities.
Thanks for that link. I had seen info on Derinkuyu before, but couldn’t remember the name of it. Makes one wonder what compelled them to live undergound.
True, and this is simply a city that is starting to be uncovered.
It seems that this would be a normal city for it’s time.
Religious beliefs are the basis of the origins of Palaeolithic art
Eurekalert | Friday, March 26, 2010 | FECYT & SINC
Posted on 03/31/2010 6:33:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2484270/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.