The Fredonia Shakespeare Club recently was hosted at the home of Joyce Haines. President Karin Cockram welcomed Club members to the meeting. After a brief business meeting concluded, a paper by Judi Lutz Woods on Gobekli Tepe was presented. Here is a summary:.

Gobekli Tepe is a discovery that shifted the entire story of human evolution and what our ancestors really were doing thousands of years ago. Gobekli Tepe is in the ‘Stone Hills’ in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains, in Turkey. 

It is 12,000 years old, 6,000 years older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. It was built at the end of the last Ice Age, when anthropologists believed humans were hunter gathers, nomadic and unable to form real complex societies.  

The discovery changed history by proving that complex monumental architecture and organized religion existed before agriculture, flipping the long-held belief that agriculture was the catalyst for established civilization. 

Instead Gobekli Tepe proves that hunter gathers were in fact capable of sophisticated belief systems and communal religious rituals.

  In fact, perhaps it was the driving force that led to settled agricultural life.  The discovery compels a complete reevaluation of the origins of civilizational social complexity and the Neolithic Revolution. 

Only 5% of Gobekli Tepe have been excavated, with new discoveries being made almost daily.  When first discovered it was believed that Gobekli Tepe was an isolated temple built by wandering hunter-gatherers. But new finds at Karahan Tepe and Sefer Tepe have shattered that theory.  The evidence is undeniable: these weren’t nomads. They were the first settled society, and they were far more sophisticated than we ever imagined.

The evidence now confirms they were all part of a sophisticated supercivilization in Southeast Turkey.  More sites are being excavated right now in the area in a zone called ‘Tas Tepeler,’ meaning ‘Stone Hills’, and covers an area of 124 miles in width.

Goobekli Tepe was first discovered in the 1960s, but quickly dismissed as just an ancient medieval cemetery, common in that area.  It was not until 1994 when German archaeologist Klaus Schimidt after reading the notes from the 1960s survey decided to take another look.  Coming up to Gobekli Tepe, pot belly hill in English, a hill rising 50 feet above the flat landscape.  He quickly recognized this was man made.  He began extensive excavations, which he continued to direct until his death in 2014.  He thought this was an isolated structure, the first temple on earth.

That view changed after his death with the discoveries at Karahan and Sefer which confirmed this was a huge complex settlement of hunter gatherers. 

They found grinding tools used to grind cereals, large cisterns and channels designed to collect rainwater and evidence of multiple occupation of single structures rebuilt over time. 

They also found remnants of wild animals and wild grains indicating the people were still hunter gatherers yet lived communally in a complex community.  

 More sites are being excavated right now in the area in a zone called ‘Tas Tepeler,’ meaning ‘Stone Hills’, and covers an area of 124 miles in width.

Gobekli Tepe consists of large circular enclosures made from massive T shaped pillars.  Some of the pillars are up to 18 feet tall and weigh as much as 50 tons.  Many have intricate carvings of various animals, symbols and other shapes. The carvings suggest a sophisticated religion built by organized communities before agriculture, challenging the long-held belief that agriculture is what led to organized communities.

 A typical structure consists of a circle of standing pillars each circle is about 30 feet in diameter.  Smaller pillars surround the area.

Some think these T-shaped pillars once held up a roof of thatching or other material. While others think they represent deities. 

A stone bench is on the inside of the circle, presumably for people to sit during a spiritual ceremony

The construction was conducted over a span of 1,500 years. Researchers have found 8 distinct phases of the construction; each adding more structures and repairs due to landslides that occurred in the area.

  The carvings on the pillars are of animals, mostly serpents, foxes, and boars, but also gazelle, wild sheep, ducks, and vultures. The engravings on the pillars are in both low and high relief.

One very interesting point is that the earlier phases have more detailed engravings than later construction.

The site of Gobekli Tepe is now a major tourist site with thousands of visitors to the site each year. A walkway has been built around the site so visitors can look down into the huge site, seeing for themselves the 11,000-year-old remains.