Gebekle Tepe is a large hill lying on the Armenian Highlands in the upper reaches of the Euphrates River. Mankind learned about this place in the 1960s during an American scientific expedition. It has been suggested that there is a Byzantine burial here.
Matter of chance
Farmers, trying to expand their land, were plowing the soil at the base of the hill when they discovered stone masonry. The find did not surprise them, for they had seen similar things here more than once. The men wanted to throw the slabs to the rest of the trash, but saw that they contained a high relief. Soon, information about the artifacts reached the staff of the archeology museum of the city of Sanliurfa.
One of the steles discovered.
Specialists went to the place, many fragments of silicon were found, fragments of pillars having a T-shaped shape - it became clear that this place was built by a man, and in the end he was also hidden.
Older than Stonehenge
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During the research, at least five levels of the ancient structure were discovered. With the help of radiocarbon analysis, it turned out that the structures found belong to the XII millennium BC. Archaeologists have suggested that the buildings were used as a cult center for hunting communities. This conclusion was made because cultural farming did not yet exist at that time, and numerous tablets depicting various animals and people could show hunting scenes. There were also stelae with a single image of animals, which supposedly were the totem of the tribe.
Before our era, society was not primitive
Massively placed T-shaped stone slabs served as a roof support, since they were located parallel to each other in the center of the building. And here it is important to note that the mass of many supports was more than 20 tons. The largest orthostat was 7 meters high and 3 meters wide, the weight of the giant was a fabulous 50 tons. It is estimated that it would take 500 people to transport such a pole. It is unlikely that such a large number of able-bodied males lived near Gebekle Tepe; moreover, there were no signs of settlements of that time nearby. Most likely, people gathered here for the needs of the entire region.
The construction process of the complex as seen by the artist.
The discovered structure was once a kind of cult complex. It is no longer possible to understand what religion was preached here. It can be unambiguously argued that already 12,000 years ago people were not primitive. They thought about something eternal, expressed their thoughts in works of art. This is not in line with the modern view of history. After all, we sincerely believe that those people were undeveloped, straying into tribes, surviving by hunting and collecting fruits. In order to build a complex, even remotely similar to Gebekle Tepe, the rudiments of a complex society are needed.
It is not clear why people left here and skillfully hid the cult complex from prying eyes. The main version is that our ancestors went closer to the water.
The intricate name of the complex is translated from Turkish as "Umbilical Hill".
Excavation and study of the area continues today, there are still many discoveries ahead. Interestingly, in 2010, a stone slab with the image of a woman's head was stolen from the location, after which the entrance to the excavation site is prohibited to outsiders. Three years ago, scientists checked the analysis of symbols on one of the walls of the temple and reported that the drawings represent the position of cosmic bodies. They were compared with a constellation map of that time and came to the conclusion that in 11,000 BC a meteorite could fall on the planet, the climate changed. A plaque was found with the image of a man without a head. Obviously, this is how the ancients showed what was happening. It is important to note that later came the so-called late Dryas, which was distinguished by a significant cooling.