Gobekli Tepe tour eastern turkey “The World’s First Temple”

Particular attention was paid to the excavations at Göbekli Tepe after the publication of the book "They built the first temple - the mysterious sanctuary of Stone Age hunters.” It was r

Gobekli Tepe

“The World’s First Temple”

Tel: (UK Office) +44 0560 285 8907 Tel: (Turkish Office) +90 432 215 20 92

Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in

south-eastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt is

uncovering one of the most startling

archaeological discoveries of our time;

massive carved stones about 12,000 years

old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric

people who had not yet developed writing,

metal tools or even pottery The megaliths

predate Stonehenge in Great Britain by

some 6,000 years The place is called

Göbekli Tepe or in Kurdish, Girê Navokê, and

Dr Schmidt is convinced it’s the site of the

world’s oldest temple What was so

important to these early people that they

gathered to build (and ultimately conceal)

these stone enclosures? The megaliths

within the enclosures were placed here by

people 6,000 years or more before the

invention of writing

Particular attention was paid to the

excavations at Göbekli Tepe after the

publication of the book "They built the first

temple - the mysterious sanctuary of Stone

Age hunters.” It was realised that these

were the remnants of the oldest purpose

built cultural/religious structure in the world yet to be discovered, and on the broad evidence found here we see the beginning

of the human story in a context to which we can all relate

Discovered by a solitary Kurdish shepherd, Savak Yildiz, in 1994, Göbekli Tepe is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the last 50 years Others would say one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time: a site that has revolutionised the way

we look at human history, the origins of religion and faith

The most important fact is the staggering age of the remains Carbon-dating shows that the complex is at least 12,000 years old, maybe even 13,000 years old That means it was built around 10,000BC By comparison, Stonehenge was built in 3,000

BC and the pyramids of Giza in 2,500 BC

Göbekli Tepe is thus the oldest such site in the world yet to be discovered, and by a significant margin It is so old that it

probably predates settled human life Its initial construction period is referred to as Pre Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) meaning that

it is pre-pottery and pre-writing; Göbekli Tepe hails from a part of human history that

is unimaginably distant and at the end of the last Ice Age Most importantly, this is in all likelihood a religious or cult site, not a settlement site; there is no evidence of anyone having lived here It would also seem

to be associated with the cycles of life and death, a theme we shall return to several times The construction was a huge effort, and Dr Schmidt believes that hundreds of people came from far and wide for specific cultural or religious rituals over an extended period of time, and then went back to their territories and their daily lives The site was only used for very important events; perhaps rituals associated with birth and death, the changing of the seasons or to mark the migratory patterns of wildlife While no burial evidence has been found Dr Schmidt says these could be behind the walls; “we must be patient to answer these questions

and only excavate what we need.” One

possible use for the site may be the practice

of sky burials or excarnations As an

interesting aside, excarnation is a funeral

practice of the Zoroastrian faith originating

in nearby Iran in which bodies are exposed

to the elements and to scavenging birds like

vultures, kites and crows in stone structures

called “Towers of Silence”; this practice still

continues in parts of India However, the

problem with uncovering sites like this is

that the very process of excavation actually

destroys the site The goal therefore, is to

protect the site as much as possible while

learning as much as one can Consequently,

the process is going to take a very long time

and is as far removed from the buccaneering

style of archaeology espoused by early

archaeologists such as Schliemann in his

excavations at Troy and made popular by the

Indiana Jones films as it is possible to be

How do they give the site a cultural and

historical context? With no pottery and no

writing there can be no indication of how

these ancient people perceived themselves

The team had to compare archaeological

sites, taking materials from Göbekli Tepe and

other sites which are related by archaeology

and which can be carbon dated and

compare these findings The practice of site

burial also gives an indication of age and

suggests a cultural context that is replicated

in other parts of the Fertile Crescent area

Göbekli Tepe was in use, in its various

phases, for a period of about 2000 – 2500

years To give this some perspective, only

2000 years have elapsed since the birth of

Christ

Because it is so ancient and so unexpected,

Göbekli Tepe has been, and remains in many

respects, an enigma to archaeology

Consisting of a series of stone circles (and

some rectangles) containing T-shaped pillars

bearing exquisite carvings of animals, birds,

insects and abstract human figures, this

ritual complex was constructed at the end of

the last Ice Age by unknown individuals,

who rose far beyond the conventional

understanding of the hunter-gatherers who

occupied the Eurasian continent at this time

Many of the “T” shaped stones which stand

within the stone walled circles are clearly

representations of human figures Experts believe that the stones were moved, the same way that the Egyptians moved stones

to build the pyramids; manpower, levers, ropes and wooden beams and rollers

Göbekli Tepe sits at the northern edge

of the Fertile Crescent – an arc of mild climate and arable land from the Persian Gulf to present-day Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Egypt – and would have attracted hunter-gatherers from Africa and Levant Dr Schmidt has found no evidence that people permanently resided on the summit of Göbekli Tepe itself Neolithic communities rarely established domestic environments on hill tops, preferring valleys

or possibly caves and other sheltered spots nearer to supplies of water; he believes that this was a place of worship on an unprecedented scale – humanity’s first

“cathedral on a hill.” Göbekli Tepe means

“Belly Button Hill” or “Hill of the Navel.” The reference to the navel is frequent amongst ancient peoples in the naming of places that are central to their world view or to the importance of life, death and renewal For example, the natives of Easter Island in the Pacific, and on the other side of the world, referred to their island as Te Pito O Te Henua- the Navel of the World; in other words, a source of life and an intimate connection with a “Great Mother.” Is the name Göbekli Tepe, a modern Turkish name,

an echoe of a distant and ancient cultural memory?

In what must be one of the great ironies,

Göbekli Tepe was first examined (and dismissed) by University of Chicago and

Istanbul academics in the 1960s As part of

a sweeping survey of the region, they visited the hill, saw some broken slabs of limestone and assumed the mound was nothing more than an abandoned medieval cemetery In

1994, Dr Schmidt was working on his own survey of prehistoric sites in the region After reading a brief mention of the stone-littered hilltop in the university of Chicago researchers’ report, he decided to go there for himself From the first moment after his arrival, he knew the place was extraordinary and that if he didn’t leave then, as he later said, he would be there for the rest of his life

A year later he returned with five colleagues and they uncovered the first megaliths, a few buried so close to the surface they were scarred by ploughs As the archaeologists dug deeper, they unearthed pillars arranged

in circles They found no signs of a settlement; no cooking hearths, houses or domestic rubbish pits, and none of the clay fertility figurines that litter nearby sites of about the same age The archaeologists did find evidence of tool use, including stone hammers and blades Even without metal chisels or hammers, prehistoric masons

wielding flint tools would have chipped away at softer limestone outcrops, shaping them into pillars on the spot before carrying them a few hundred yards to the summit and lifting them upright The entire hill and its surrounding area is littered with the remnants of these ancient tools

Joris Peters, an archaeozoologist from the

Ledwig Maximilian University in Munich,

specialises in the analysis of animal

remains Since 1998, he has examined

hundreds of thousands of bone fragments

from Göbekli Tepe area Peters has found

cut marks and splintered edges on them,

signs that the animals from which they came

were butchered and cooked He has

identified tens of thousands of gazelle

bones, which make up more than 50% of

the identifiable total, plus those of other

wild game such as boar, sheep and red deer

Also present in large numbers are the

remains of Aurochs, a very large, aggressive

and now extinct breed of oxen once

common across the near east and Europe

He also found bones of a dozen different

bird species, including vultures, cranes, ducks

and geese These bones indicate that the

people who lived here had not yet

domesticated animals or farmed land in a

systematic manner These, of course, are the

creatures we see carved on many of the stele

at Göbekli Tepe It is interesting to note that

the animalistic and mystical themes

represented at Göbekli Tepe are

progressions not so far removed from the

extraordinary cave paintings left by man in

other regions and from much earlier times

Fragmentary human bones were also found

in the mix offering a tantalising hint at what

may have gone on here

Dr Schmidt says that the monuments could not have been built by “ragged bands of hunter-gatherers.” To carve, erect and bury rings of seven-ton stone pillars would have required hundreds of workers, all needing to

be fed and housed, hence the eventual emergence of more settled communities in the area around 10,000 years ago Stanford University archaeologist Ian Hodder says

“This shows social cultural changes come first, agriculture comes later” Another important requirement would have been a life and economy that was bountiful enough

to provide the leisure time for people to contribute the time and resources for such a construction over such a long period of time

Clearly the site represents the cusp between nomadic hunter gatherer life and settled life, although there has never been a clear break;

nomadic and semi nomadic lifestyles still exist today, for example, in spite of the growing urbanisation of this region

Similarly, hunter gatherer and settled lifestyles must have co-existed and possibly competed for many generations

The use of the site covered both PPN periods

A and B when there were marked changes in economy, social structures and lifestyles;

these changes are reflected in the structures

on site If you look at Göbekli Tepe as part of

an arc of peoples from Iraq through Syria/Southern Turkey and down through Jordan and Israel you will notice that it was

a common practice to literally bury old houses when building a new one It was also

not uncommon to use old and abandoned dwellings as burial sites Göbekli Tepe's buried temples give rise to a misunderstanding If this social and cultural pattern were re-enacted at Göbekli Tepe then this would explain the burial of site buildings and the destruction, or ritual breaking, of pillars and sculptured objects that appears to have been the case The result would have been what was actually a small working complex since, as time passed, the bulk of it would have been buried under mounds which of course would have added to the mystery of the site for those who came here The life of site was experiencing a cycle of construction/ redundancy/burial/ reconstruction that paralleled the lives of the people over thousands of years What these cycles were and how they were determined can only be guessed at but it is clear that it all occurs within a pattern that could have been motivated by life cycles, calendar cycles or even clan or tribe politics We are seeing it exposed in a very short period of time and this gives a somewhat distorted view of the site's time line of construction and use The real curiosity about the site is that as time passed the quality and sophistication of the work declined Possibly, these hunter gathers had more time to devote, on a seasonal basis than more settled agricultural communities who, with few exceptions, have much harder lives, often poorer diets and certainly less time The very first grains to be cultivated can be traced back to a range of

hills about sixty kilometres away and one

should not forget that even semi nomadic

peoples would sow wild and semi wild

grains to be harvested at a later time

Transition was gradual and patchy and this

seems to be reflected in the decline of

Göbekli Tepe Certainly the changes in shape

of the structures are matched by the

changes in traditional dwelling construction

that marked the transition from PPNA to

PPNB

One question posed by many of those who

read about Göbekli Tepe is simply related to

the how rather than the why Without

written accounts it is impossible to be sure

of the why; we can speculate and indeed,

there has been a great deal of speculation,

much of it of a “mystical” nature The “how”

is a rather more straightforward matter

Gobekli Tepe comes from a period that is

referred to in common parlance as the

“Stone Age” This is a term we are much

more familiar and happier with After all, we

see Stone Age remains around us and they

are a part of popular culture - think of

Stonehenge in Wiltshire It might help

therefore, to make some comparisons

Göbekli Tepe is far older than anything else

to date but there are only so many ways in

which one can sensibly and intelligently

work with stone and as the popular

terminology suggests, these were people

who were good with stone

There are many examples: Seen below

Map details are not important here; basic

design and layout are There are obvious

similarities due to the limitations placed on

construction by the raw material

Specifics of design are far more cultural in

nature although this too can generate

themes and stylistic similarities across

regions and times Clearly this is a most

astounding place, a place of worship, built when the surrounding countryside was lush and fertile Only 5 - 6% of the site has been excavated so far, and radar scans show that that there are at least a further 20 such structures under the soil Some of the huge monoliths weigh as much as 50 tons each, showing carved reliefs of animals and figures many of which are extraordinarily

sophisticated, even “modern” in appearance Some designs are highly stylised while others are far more representational Some may be simple representations of animals; others may represent scenes of the hunt or of animal life

Cgantiija Temples, Malta 3500BC Scara Brae, Orkney Islands Scotland 3200BC Gobekli Tepe 10,000 BC

Modern fox in typical mid leap as

depicted on stele at Gobekli Tepe

with its prey (a small rodent?)

marked by an arrow This stele is simply the

depiction of fox hunting and given the

location of the image and the work involved

one might suspect that this stele identifies a

clan or tribe by a fox totem or by what they

may have believed to be shared

characteristics Interestingly, although foxes

do feature in the mythical and religious

spectrum in south west Asia, they are almost

entirely absent in the near east Foxes

however are prolific and adaptable

creatures, the remains of which do feature

quite strongly in the in-fill material used to

bury the enclosures at the site

In two of the pillars, cranes or ibis are

depicted as a part of a wider scene

However, a cursory glance at these particular

birds will produce a sense of a mistake The

legs of all birds, and this is particularly

noticeable in large long legged birds, have

legs that articulate forwards These birds

have legs that articulate backwards This is

particularly noticeable in the picture below

Clearly, what we are not looking at is a

depiction of a large bird; it is the

representation of a man dressed as a bird It

is inconceivable that the makers of these

reliefs could have made such a fundamental

error as familiar as they would have been

with the creatures they depended on for life,

so why this depiction? There could be a

number of reasons Firstly, given the location

of these particular pillars they could have a

ritualistic or shamanistic context where in

altered states of mind the shaman crosses over to a spirit world where revered animals and humans somehow merge; this is something that is depicted in cave and cliff paintings by primitive peoples that go back

from the earliest of times to relatively recently Secondly, they could be depictions

of cultural events such as dance at festivals Thirdly, they could be depictions of other central events such as the hunt Looking at the stone on the left, the bird is a part of a wider scene that includes a fox and, at the top, an auroch It is common amongst people who are familiar with hunting to use subterfuge to approach prey Human beings are not fast or strong; they have to use guile

In the left stele a person, a hunter is approaching the auroch using a disguise A fox is in the picture maybe there as a totem

of the hunter or a symbol of luck- or simply

a companion in a spirit world

Apart from straight forward depictions

of familiar animals the stones at Gobekli Tepe are clearly rich in symbolism, including for example swarming

snakes with representations of spiders which

were considered powerful totems and while

the significance of spiders may be somewhat

elusive, snakes play a prominent part in the

folklore of this region to this day

On the right is a depiction on the side of a

stele of symbols representing the sun and

the moon, both crucial indicators of the

passage of time and the appropriate

messengers of the months and seasons

The pillar below contains an image of what

appears to be a net full of snakes Snakes

were considered to have powers of

immortality because the shedding of skin

was seen as a renewal of life This theme is

extremely ancient and comes to life most

powerfully in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the

Sumerian Deluge Epic in which a herb that

gives immortality and which was given to

the hero Gilgamesh by the Flood Survivor

Utnapishtim is stolen and consumed by a

serpent The theme of the serpent lives on in

this region today in the tales of the

Sahmaran a mystical creature living in

caverns far beneath the earth

The Site Layout

The various stele and carved stones

described above are grouped together in a

number of enclosures that cover a relatively

small area The images on them, as can be

seen from the photographs are raised reliefs

but some are actual freestanding sculptures

The enclosures are grouped on the south

facing slope of the hill with their entrances

facing south

Enclosure A, the first circular structure to be excavated, is referred to as “the snake column building” because depictions of the snake dominate the carvings on the T-pillars

One is of a “net” containing snakes Another pillar, however, depicts a “triad” of bull, fox and crane, positioned one above the other

Enclosure B measures nine metres in diameter when measured from east to west, and 10 to 15 metres north to south It is the only complex dug to floor level, revealing the terrazzo floor surface Two central pillars have a large fox depicted on them One central pillar, no 9, is 3.4 m high; pillar no

10 is 3.6 m high; their weight is 7.1 and 7.2 tonnes respectively The complex was clearly built to “house” these monolithic pillars, which prove how well-versed our ancestors were in working with large stones, not merely in quarrying them but in shaping, moving and decorating them Archaeologists believe that about 200 T-pillars originally stood at Göbekli Tepe

Enclosure C is referred to as ”the circle of the boar”, as it depicts various wild pigs This enclosure contains some of the finest reliefs discovered so far There remain nine pillars around the wall, but several were removed

at some point in the past One pillar shows

a net of birds As later cultures are known to have caught migratory birds in nets, could this be a custom that was practised much earlier than assumed? Complex C is also of interest because a U-shaped stone has been found there which is deemed to have been

the access stone This stone has a central passage of 70 centimetres in width, and one side of the U is topped with a depiction of a boar; the other side unfortunately is missing Again, the U shape and the boar underline the craftsmen’s technical expertise in carving, which is shown even more so on pillar no 27, featuring the earlier-mentioned three-dimensional reptilian creature

Enclosure D is referred to as “the Stone Age zoo” Pillar no 43 has a very curious constellation of images that includes, on the left hand side, a vulture holding an orb or egg in an outstretched wing Equally curious

is the possibility that this particular image is

Pillar “43” from the “stone age zoo.”

of a man dressed as a vulture since, like the

crane images, the legs do not articulate

correctly for a bird Lower down the pillar

there is a scorpion and the imagery is further

complicated by the image of a headless

ithyphallic man While all the animal images

at Göbekli Tepe look to the enclosure centres

one image of a bird on this stone (possibly a

rock partridge or other prey bird) looks

outwards to the edge- it is the only one to

do this Some pillars are indeed so profusely

decorated—much more intensively than in

the other complexes—that “zoo” is quite an

apt description Once again, there are two

central pillars (numbers 18 and 31), though

other pillars reveal symbols, like one in the

shape of the letter H as well as one with an

H turned 90 degrees The site has revealed

other symbols, specifically a cross, a resting

half-moon and horizontal bars—possible

evidence that the origin of writing is likely to

be much older than is currently assumed

Combined, these four complexes—and

others, some under excavation—are a series

of ovals and resemble the layout of the

oval-shaped Stone Age complexes found on

Malta This is all the more remarkable as

Malta’s oval shapes were considered unique

A “rock temple” lower down on the slope is

equally oval in shape and has an opening to

the “burial chamber” Whereas at other sites

these openings are so narrow that a human

could not navigate to the interior, here it is

wide enough to enter Elsewhere on the site,

on the northern slope of the hill, there is a

rectangular complex named “the lion

column building” Its four pillars have

depictions of leonine creatures, which could

also be tigers or leopards One flat stone has

a 30-cm-high graffito of a squatting woman

who appears to be in a birthing position or

possibly prepared for ritual coitus This

particular representation seems to be a later

addition to the Lion Pillars enclosure as a

bench plate and it is of a different style and

quality to the other images This last image

is, so far, unique at the site as all the images

of humans and animals (where gender is

identifiable) are male In addition, there

were numerous statues displaying phalluses,

either as ithyphallic images or as free

standing phalluses on their own around the

site and on one important pillar

Gobekli Tepe Plan

Excavations at Göbekli Tepe are an on-going process with many years of careful work and study ahead Only about a quarter of the suspected 200 T-pillars have been discovered so far, and not all the structures have been unearthed In short, further surprises are undoubtedly in store The site clearly demonstrates that things which we thought were much more recent are in fact far older, and all present in one site, located

in a region which shows that a civilisation worthy of that name existed there in the 10th millennium BC, millennia before anyone would have dared to imagine just a few decades ago

In an ancient and important site such as this much speculation has been produced

regarding the place of Göbekli Tepe in the cosmic scheme of things with all sorts of possible linkages being made with other ancient sites that have supposed mystic, even magical properties

Some people in archaeo-astronomy think that the site may have been linked with the stars in a way similar to that which has been tentatively suggested for the 7500 year old stone circle at Carahunge in Armenia Dr Schmidt says he wouldn’t exclude this but has not found any evidence to date and it is always possible that the site, like others, has

a duality of purpose The site is clearly orientated, but the enclosures are orientated southwards and down the plain where the people might have come from and not in relation to the night sky or any apparent Ithyphallic man from Göbekli Tepe

astronomical feature; looking at the

topography of the area an orientation based

on an approach or ceremonial path is most

likely This would seem reasonable and

certainly consistent with other ancient

monuments around the world such as the

orientation of Stonehenge in England with a

sister Henge along a ceremonial pathway

The same may be said about the monuments

at Nazca in Peru Even within the Christian

tradition we have an understanding of the

ceremonial pathway- the maze at the centre

of Chartres Cathedral in France “represents”

one such pathway, a journey to

Jerusalem-and mythology around the idea of a

labyrinth is very ancient The urge to

“process” as a part of ritual is as old as

humanity itself it would seem

Each year since excavations began new

stones and reliefs are uncovered which help

us to both understand the meaning of the

site and its people as well as posing even

more questions And as there are still many

questions to answer, the archaeological

teams and their local excavators will be here

for at least another 20 years As already

mentioned, we know that the site was

intentionally buried because of the nature of

the in-fill material and this is a fact which

has clearly contributed to the excellent state

of preservation of the standing stones, their

images and carvings Importantly, the act of

burial of this important site was no mean

feat and would have taken a considerable

amount of work and organisation

Where did these people get their technology

from? There are a number of settlements

being excavated in the region now and

evidence shows that the people were hunter gatherers or at least pastoral and nomadic

These people were inventing new cycle of life and new farming societies; previously they would hunt, gather their kills and move from area to area This was the slow start of

a structured farming community The hypothesis is that Göbekli Tepe was a cultural and religious focal point for these people and a new and evolving way of life

This was the first time and the first region in the world to make this giant leap, and we know this from evidence from sites around the globe It took a long time for other regions around the world to independently move from being hunter gatherers to being farming communities in what was a very gradual process, 6000 years ago in the New

World and 7000 years ago in Asia We know from genetic studies that the very first cultivated grasses or grains come from this locality and looking around you today you will see the huge importance that agriculture and specifically wheat production, spurred on by the massive South East Anatolian (GAP) irrigation project, still has to the people of this land Göbekli Tepe

is where it all began; in a sense, history has come full circle

Certainly looking at the architecture of the enclosures at Göbekli Tepe they are reminiscent of the dwellings of the people of the region at this time and even of the dwellings and holy places of other peoples far removed in time and place Our ancient history has certainly become much more interesting and complex The cultures that subsequently followed Göbekli Tepe had domesticated pigs, sheep, cattle and goats and cultivated wheat species Other domesticated cereals such as rye and oats also originated here But another site, Karahan Tepe, 63 kilometres east of Urfa in the Tektek Mountains, deserves attention Discovered in 1997, it has been dated to about 9500–9000 BC, which puts it firmly in the same time frame as Göbekli Tepe It also has a number of T-pillars as well as high reliefs of a winding snake and other carvings similar to those at Göbekli Tepe Covering an area of 325,000 m2, Karahan Tepe is much

bigger than Göbekli Tepe The stone pillars

are spaced 1.5 to 2.0 metres apart and

protrude above ground level, waiting for

archaeologists to expose them fully Other

carvings include a torso of a naked man and

polished rock with stylised goats, gazelles

and rabbits The “T” shaped pillars were also

discovered but in conjunction with domestic

arrangements at Nevalı Çori just a few

kilometres away from Gobekli Tepe at a

location which is now submerged by the

lake which formed behind the Ataturk Dam

It is the close interaction of the domestic

with the ritual at Nevali Cori that makes the

total absence of domestic structure or

evidence of domestic activity so marked at

Göbekli Tepe Indeed, in other later Neolithic

sites such as Çatalhöyük near Konya, the

close interaction between the sacred and the

domestic is a marked factor of the newly

emerging urban and village life of close knit

settled communities The process that led to

communal settled life was a long drawn out

one and was probably initially driven by

improvements in climate that made the

business of gathering food and hunting

easier Nomadic peoples have always met at

certain times in specific places to exchange

information, celebrate life and death,

perform religious rituals and arrange

marriages and partnerships As conditions

improved and food was easier to gather,

hunt or produce one can envisage a process

whereby the times spent at gatherings became longer and longer until eventually there was some community remaining at a meeting or sacred place almost continuously At Neolithic sites across the near and middle east this seems to be the pattern and the ritualistic nature of the gatherings continued in proximity to or even within the domestic spaces of the new communities Göbekli Tepe is unique, so far,

in that there is no associated domestic environment nearby

It is simply too early to draw any conclusions from these sites, except from the fact that our history has been pushed considerably further back For example, in the case of Jericho, which produced great excitement because of its Biblical connections archaeology produced a mixed, and in some instances, a disappointing picture

Excavations at Jericho, early enthusiasm notwithstanding, did not produce mighty walls that had been destroyed by the trumpet blasts of Joshua What it did produce was a complex picture of its early inhabitants living a life in the PPN A period that featured bizarre and disturbing funereal practices where people lived with and amongst their dead; burials were associated with buildings and they were to be found below floors, under houses, between walls and within the large central tower

discovered in Jericho After a period of time bodies were exhumed, skulls removed and then, with faces reconstructed from plaster, seem to have been kept as ritual objects What is interesting is that at Jericho, with one single exception of five skeletons, the bodies of infants and children remained undisturbed The practice of removing the skull as a ritual object would seem to indicate that unless a person survived to a certain age, life in the community both before and after death was not assured This practice, following on from the practice of abandoning old dwellings as burial sites, is repeated across the region at the time and would have obvious implications for some phases of Gobekli Tepe’s life

Since the 1950s new discoveries, coupled with modern techniques and advancing science and technology have contributed to our knowledge of the period between 10,000–4000 BC This relates specifically to the level of “civilisation” our ancestors had achieved during this time frame and without question, across south eastern Turkey even older towns and holy places are waiting to

be uncovered However, it is equally clear that entering into the mind-set of these hunter-gatherers and how they saw the animals they depicted on stone and what they believed happened to the dead is a difficult subject and for which there are no definite answers Göbekli Tepe will certainly produce many more surprises in the years to come but already, other sites both in Turkey and beyond are competing for Göbekli Tepe’s fame Although few can be quite as enigmatic it’s likely they will all reveal that they are part of our history and relevant to our understanding of our origin, but not as

we know it