One of the most intriguing names for a modern archaeologist is Gobekli Tile. This is the name of the places in Turkey where excavations of an ancient megalithic structure are underway. German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt is in charge of the work.
The story of Gobekli Tepe, which means "navel hill" in Turkish, began in 1964 when a team of American archaeologists traveled to this remote province of Southeastern Turkey. They noticed several hills that looked odd and were covered with thousands of broken flints. This is a sure sign of the activity of ancient man. However, the Americans refused to carry out excavations.
In 1994, a local shepherd noticed a group of huge stones of a strange shape, which were clearly hewn by a man. The director of the local history museum in the city of Sanliurfa, located 50 kilometers from Gobekli Tepe, learned about this. The news soon reached the ears of specialists from the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul. Schmidt came to Gobekli Tepe in 1994 … and stayed there forever. Now the excavation of the ancient structure is his life's work.
Flat megaliths turned out to be strange looking stones. Some are T-shaped with ocher colored surfaces. Obviously, this is a plant-based paint that has retained its color for thousands of years! On some of the boulders there are carved images of animals and birds: wild boars, foxes, lions, gazelles, ducks, scorpions, fish … On one stone there is an image of a naked woman surrounded by snakes. The stones themselves, most likely, symbolized people, as they had stylized "hands" pressed to the sides. Currently, 43 stones have been excavated, which form circles with a diameter of 5 to 10 meters. Around the circles are stone benches, small niches carved into the rocks, and walls of mud bricks. The height of the brick walls is about one meter, the megaliths are from one to four meters high. Archaeologists are confident that many more megaliths will be excavated in Gobekli Tepe. Several years ago, Schmidt found a half-hewn stone that the ancient workers had not separated from the stone bed. It is huge, has a length of nine meters and is located a kilometer away from the main hill, where all the megaliths lie. Obviously, there was a quarry here, where ancient builders extracted material for their construction. The nine-meter stone has a crack. In recent years, scientists have found 250 hewn stones that have yet to be excavated. Already now Gobekli Tepe is called the "Turkish Stonehenge". Carbon analysis made it possible to determine the age of the complex, it is 12 thousand years old, that is, it was built about 10-9 thousand years BC. For comparison, Stonehenge was built about 2.5 thousand years BC. e. Before the discovery of Gobekli Tepe, the most ancient megalithic complex was considered to be a complex in Malta, dating back to 3500 BC.
The buildings in Gobekli Tepe date back to the times when people did not yet know how to make dishes from clay and graze cattle. It was a hunter-gatherer culture. According to Schmidt, the builders of Gobekli Tepe did not live here permanently, but only during the periods between hunting seasons. Their dwellings were tents covered with animal skins. Many flint arrowheads have been found in Gobekli Tepe, which confirms the assumption that the main occupation of these people was hunting.
Gobekli Tepe has changed the way scientists think about the culture of hunters and gatherers. In fact, it was more advanced than previously thought, at least in this region of Turkey. But what made the ancient hunters undertake titanic efforts to build a huge stone complex? Schmidt believes he knows the answer. Gobekli Tepe was not meant to live here. There remains one hypothesis - religion. Gobekli Tepe is the most ancient temple in the world. Schmidt believes that this is not just a temple, but a funeral complex. Last year, archaeologists found human bones in soil filling a stone niche next to the megaliths. Schmidt believes that ancient hunters brought the bodies of their departed relatives to the grotto. They closed the entrance to the grotto with large boulders.
Megaliths are folded in circles, and this proves the hypothesis that Gobekli Tepe is a ritual complex. Images carved into the surface of the stones also support this hypothesis.
In the days of hunter-gatherers, this area of Turkey was not as desolate as it is now. Green forests grew here, where dozens of species of mammals were found, which allowed the hunter civilization to flourish. The climate was mild and warm. A real paradise!
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Schmidt put forward an interesting hypothesis. Many people gathered in Gobekli Tepe to build a religious complex of boulders. It was difficult for them to get enough game to feed themselves. Wild corn grew in the area, which they apparently began to cultivate. This happened about 8 thousand years BC. e. Gobekli Tepe was one of the first places on Earth where people began to grow cereals.
The changed diet has also changed human physiology. Human skeletons have become less massive and reduced in size. Around the same time, the climate became drier and hotter. The soils have become impoverished. It became more and more difficult to get food. Then people decided to leave these places. Before that, they buried their temple. As determined by archaeologists, the layer of earth, under which the stones are covered, was brought from other places. The hills in Gobekli Tepe are of artificial nature. Why the ancient people did this is unclear! Meanwhile, Turkish scientists are sure: the legend of the biblical Eden dates back to Gobekli Tepe, where in ancient times there was a real green paradise with many animals, birds and fruit-bearing plants. The Bible says that Eden is located where rivers converge. Christians believe that they mean the Tigris and Euphrates, in the bend of which there is a fertile valley. Genesis tells us that Eden was surrounded by mountains. Not far from Gobekli Tepe there are tributaries of the Euphrates, and in the distance you can see the mountains. Therefore, it is quite possible that it was here that the biblical paradise was located.
Other unique archaeological discoveries have been made in the region. For example, a sculpture of a man was found, created about 9-10 thousand years BC. e. The expression on his face is striking, as if distorted with horror. The impression is enhanced by the statue's obsidian eyes. Apparently, this is one of the very first sculptural images of a person on Earth. It is now in the Sanliurfa Museum.
Of course, claims that Eden was located at Gobekli Tepe are highly controversial, but it is undoubtedly the greatest archaeological discovery ever made since World War II.
F. Grischuk”Interesting newspaper. Mysteries of Civilization №24 2008