It’s called Gobekli Tepe — “Potbelly Hill” — and some archaeologists believe it contains the ruins of the first place of worship or even sacrifices. Some pillars and artifacts found in the region date back several thousand years, even before the Stonehenge was erected. Göbekli Tepe is located in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of modern day Turkey.
There have been radical theories about the purpose of the structures. But what archaeologists are not debating on is the age of these mounds. Built around 9,000 BC and covered in dirt by 8,000 BC, the site baffles even the most knowledgeable scholars. The consensual thought is that humans from the hunting-gathering stage started a civilized society and to appease the gods, created this ceremonial mound. Before covering it with dirt, or because of natural reasons people and animals got buried in it. Well, if it is confirmed that it is a ceremonial place, then we might have stumbled upon the first time that humans ever built.
Built before the pyramids we built Gobekli Tepe structures, so old, so monumentally they’re changing our understanding of the ancient world. Located on the edge of the Fertile Crescent the cradle of civilization in southeastern Turkey lies the massive limestone pillars rise into the air. These multi-ton blocks once formed majestic open-air enclosures they were erected nearly 12,000 years ago during the New Stone Age when humans still lived as hunter-gatherers before Gobekli Tepe. We thought the invention of agriculture sparked our great transformation to civilization and religion, but this site predates agriculture turning that theory on its head. Gobekli Tepe covers an area of 12 football pitches. In the small fraction of the site excavated. So far archaeologists have discovered layers of structures spanning more than a thousand years.
The most majestic enclosures are some of the oldest, they’re alive with mysterious symbols and the images of wild animals at the center of each two large megaliths some six meters in height with curious human-like features. It must have been a massive undertaking requiring hundreds of workers who came from far away lands to build, but on how did they use these mysterious structures is something baffling. Examining the artifacts a new theory begins to emerge opening a unique window into our very early spiritual world. The human-like pillars may represent Animal god maybe totems or protectors and a vulture-like bird lifting in the air.
what could be a disembodied head into the air may hint at ritualized sky burials. The evidence points to Gobekli Tepe as the world’s first known sanctuary. Multiple temples built over more than a thousand years forming an ancient cult center bringing people from across the region together for worship. If so the people who built and worshiped here would have needed a steady supply of food and perhaps out of this demand agriculture was born. Worship may have given rise to agriculture not the other way around. It’s a groundbreaking revelation that puts Gobekli Tepe at the center of human history and the start of faith in us.
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