Turkey is a mysterious and interesting country in every sense. It is here that the archaeological shrine - Göbekli Tepe is located. This is the oldest megalithic structure to date, created by people of the Stone Age.
About Puzatom Hill (this is how the name Göbekli Tepe is translated) has been known for a long time. Many archaeologists believed that genuine antiquities were hidden in the depths of this very promising hill. According to the most daring assumptions - antique. After all, only eight kilometers from the hill is the city of Sanliurfa, which was once called Edessa. And Edessa was well known in antiquity and was mentioned more than once in the New Testament. In this Edessa, according to legend, the remains of the Apostle Thomas are buried.
Klaus Schmidt's discovery
When the great Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern, Edessa ended up in Byzantium. It was rightfully considered one of the cities where people adopted Christianity very early. So most researchers thought that a hill not far from Edessa could hide, for example, an ancient temple or even an early Christian church. Archaeologist Peter Benedict believed that this was a Byzantine cemetery, because on the hill every now and then they found cut stones "from the graves". Archaeologists, of course, really wanted to unearth this cemetery. But the Turkish authorities were adamant: if Göbekli Tepe is a cemetery, then they flatly refused to disturb the ashes of their ancestors. Moreover, the Americans asked for the right to excavate. Peter Benedict never got permission to even lay exploration pits.
Peter Benedict's brother by profession, the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt was much wiser. He was remarkably familiar with the Turkish mentality and acted simply: he bought a house in Sanliurfa, that is, he joined, so to speak, into the ranks of the local population. Moreover, while remaining a member of the German Institute of Archeology, Schmidt became the head of its Turkish section and an employee of the museum in the same Sanliurfa. For the Turkish authorities, he ceased to be "some kind of foreigner" and became his own man. And all these manipulations Klaus Schmidt did for the sake of one great goal - to finally unearth Göbekli Tepe.
Benedict identified the stone fragments he examined as belonging to the Byzantine era. He reported this in a short article published in the University of Chicago Bulletin for 1963. His conclusion was that the traces of the pre-pottery Neolithic on the hill were covered by Byzantine burials. Klaus Schmidt, who had just returned from the excavation of a Neolithic settlement in Nevali-Chori, immediately realized that the stone fragments belong to the Early Paleolithic. If a sanctuary and a monumental sculpture were discovered in Nevali-Chori, why shouldn't similar finds be found under a 15-meter layer of earth in Göbekli Tepe?
Archaeologists from Nevali-Chori were very lucky: after the construction of the Ataturk Dam near Sarmat, this place had to go under water, so from 1983 to 1991 archaeologists carried out so-called rescue excavations there. Göbekli Tepe was not going to disappear anywhere, but Klaus Schmidt found a way to get around Turkish law. And in 1994, archaeological work began on the Puzaty Hill. Moreover, Schmidt decided to excavate only part of the hill, the southern slope. Geomagnetic studies carried out by experts have shown that the Göbekli Tepe hill is literally stuffed with stone ring structures. In total, they counted 20. For twenty years of work, Schmidt excavated only four of them.
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He himself claimed that “this place (Göbekli Tepe, - author's note) is like a supernova” and that “from the very first minute I saw it, I realized that I had only two ways - either to get out of here forever and not say a single word to anyone, or stay and explore this object until the end of your days. " Schmidt stayed. And his efforts were rewarded with an incredible discovery: the hill hid not Byzantine graves and not a simple Paleolithic site, but the oldest known buildings of the pre-ceramic Neolithic era. According to modest estimates, the finds from Göbekli Tepe date back to the 9th millennium BC, that is, they are more than 10 thousand years old. Another thing is interesting: the structures "from the hill" were not destroyed by anyone. They were built, renovated and operated for about 2 thousand years,and then they were completely covered with earth (they used about 500 cubic meters of soil) and a hill was erected over them, which, many thousands of years later, and by other people, was named Puzaty.
Hidden in the deep
The stone rings of Göbekli Tepe are built on the same principle as Stonehenge. Only instead of triliths (a special kind of stones), megalithic structures are assembled from T-shaped steles. These three-meter columns are interconnected by walls of raw stone, one or more steles are installed in the center of the circle. The floors in each sanctuary are paved with burnt limestone, and low stone benches are set along the walls. And these constructions were found in the earliest cultural layer. Archaeologists have established that the ancient people mined stone for construction in nearby quarries. They found "unfinished" columns there: one on the northern slope, two on the southern. In the layer above the layer with the burnt floors, the scientists discovered square or rectangular rooms, the floors of which were carefully polished. And even higherthat is, closer to our time - no buildings, only traces from the use of land for another purpose: after filling the sanctuaries with earth, the hillsides became fields, they were cultivated by farmers …
The very discovery of buildings of such deep antiquity is a sensation for science.
Even if these were buildings made of unremarkable stone. But the stone from the Göbekli Tepe hill is not only hewn or polished - it is dotted with wonderfully carved animals and pictograms. The animals are very recognizable. On the columns, you can easily identify lions, foxes, bulls, gazelles, wild boars and other animals. An ancient workshop was found on the western slope, in which stone carvers worked. An unfinished figure of a lion has been preserved there. In one of the caves on the western slope, they found a relief depicting a whole herd of young bulls. The columns themselves are also quite remarkable. Some of them are equipped with a weapon in the lower part, some have a belt tightening the "waist". Researchers believe that the stones placed on the upper end of the column represent stylized heads - that is, the columns schematically depict people.
These images are interpreted as referring to the cult of ancestors, and animals as totems of the genus. In this case, Göbekli Tepe, where there are no residential buildings, is considered as a common holy place for several tribes with temples where rituals were held. The vultures on the columns, according to scientists, testify to the method of burial of ancient people. As in similar monuments in this region, the heads of the dead were separated from the bodies and kept at home, and the bodies were given to be eaten by vultures. This was called heavenly burial. So Edessa, next to which Göbekli Tepe is located, was built in distant antiquity and was mentioned more than once in the Old Testament, the dead man without hindrance and quickly got to his gods in heaven. However, scientists think so. What the ancients thought and why they fed the vultures with congeners - no one will tell us about this anyway.
Dig - do not dig
It took Schmidt 20 years to excavate, systematize and study the material. And he opened only a fifth of all structures. It is known that they are all built in a similar way, but only just. Each of the 16 remaining stone rings may contain a new riddle or a new answer. Nobody knows if there is a stone carving and what it represents.
People from Göbekli Tepe had not yet discovered writing, had not invented wheels and a potter's wheel, did not know how to melt metal, did not cultivate the land and did not raise livestock, they were engaged in hunting and gathering. And now try to understand: why should these primitive hunters and gatherers build a whole "city" of megalithic temples? What did they believe in? What were they afraid of?
If you have answers to these questions, then you have solved the secret of Göbekli Tepe. Scientists do not yet know the answers. But they - according to Klaus Schmidt's calculations - have at least half a century in reserve. It will take approximately that long to open the remaining 16 stone rings. However, had it been Schmidt's will, he would have left them underground and studied - without opening them.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 11, Nikolay Kotomkin