World's Oldest Temple Discovered In Turkey, Archaeologist Claims (PHOTOS)

A German archaeologist by the name of Klaus Schmidt has claimed discovery in Turkey of the world's oldest temple. Called Gobekli Tepe, it predates Stonehenge by six thousand years, and Smithsonian magazine writes that "the find upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization:"

Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple...

...Schmidt points to the great stone rings, one of them 65 feet across. "This is the first human-built holy place," he says...

...And partly because Schmidt has found no evidence that people permanently resided on the summit of Gobekli Tepe itself, he believes this was a place of worship on an unprecedented scale--humanity's first "cathedral on a hill."

Scroll down for photos of the site from the Smithsonian magazine. (More photos here, full story here.)

Comments

[newbridge]

Wonder how this jives with the Palin theory - man and dinosaurs lived together. Notice, they didn't find dinosaur prints at the site. How does the fact that Jericho has existed as a city for 9,000 years square with the old testament and the new earthers - the earth is 6,000 years old indeed!!! Everyone who thinks knows the true importance of this find.

[Mason]

I've read in connection with various ancient sites constructed of large heavy stones, including this one, that the people who constructed them did so without knowledge of the wheel. Apparently, they did not use the wheel to facilitate moving the stones, but that does not necessarily mean that the wheel was unknown to them. We know, for example, that the Ancient Egyptians used two sticks and a rope to scribe a circle in the ground. If they were smart enough to master the geometry of the circle and the various geometrical figures that fit within the area bounded by two overlapping circles with the same circumference (i.e., the vesica piscis), how could they not have realized the utility of the wheel?

They must have decided not to use the wheel for religious purposes. Why?

A possible answer is that the wheel, or circle was sacred because it symbolized the Creator. Therefore, constructing wheels to move large blocks of stone would have been regarded as an unforgiveable profanity against God. Using round-shaped objects such as logs and pulling the heavy stone monoliths over many similar sized logs laid side-by-side with a few feet of space between them probably was an acceptable use of the circle form because logs were found in nature. As the stone moved forward, laborers picked up the logs behind the stone and laid them in front of the stone.

Does this theory make sense, or am I alone on this?

[Mason]

To construct a vesica piscis, which has been called the womb for the creation of geometric form, scribe a circle of any radius using a compass. When the circle is complete, lift the anchor that marks the center of the circle you've drawn and, without changing the radius, position the anchor of the compass anywhere on the line of the circle you've drawn and scribe another circle. You'll now have two circles with the same size radius that partially overlap. The vesica piscis is the area where the circles overlap.

Without changing the radius of the compass, now position the anchor at one of the two points where the circles intersect, scribe another circle, and repeat after positioning the anchor of the compass at the other intersection point of the first two circles.

Now, connect the intersection points of your circles on the vesica piscis using a straight edge and admire your handiwork. You've created two perfect same-sized equilateral triangles sharing a common baseline inside the vesica piscis.

By continuing to position the anchor at different intersection points of circles and not changing the radius, you can scribe other intersection points, connect them with a straight edge, and draw other perfect geometric figures. You will precisely create the proportion for Pie and the golden proportion without having to figure them out mathematically or measure them.

Voila! Sacred Geometry.

[FZliveson]

Isn't it amazing how many ways a hair can be split by willing fools?
As it says in the introduction to "Brave Heart;"

"History is written by those who have hanged heroes."
That is to say that those in power, are in control of the texts and the "facts"
that are taught.
With regard to this historic structure and others, supposedly built before the advent of
iron tools, how did these people cut, carve and otherwise shape these stone items?
Lazy people would say; "They just had a lot of time to use sharp sticks with sand and
worked and worked." Religious people would say; "This is all fakery because everyone
knows mankind was created by God only X00 years ago." Scientists would say; "There is the same amount of silica sand in these sites as many other around the globe." And politicians say; "How can I make personal political or economic gain from this discovery.­..Who cares what it is or who built it?"

[olivesforbreakfast]

You were doing good til the last sentence. You were on a roll. I was with you.

The fact is, we care what it is. Not only that, we care a lot.

In short, history, even the kind that super seriously ancient, means a lot.

Imagine if the ancient library at Alexandria hadn't burned down. Can you imagine that? Its loss is one of the greatest lamentations of history.

[olivesforbreakfast]

Maybe it was a spa. Look at the second picture. There are birds and wave-like images of water. Maybe that is where water flowed and the big thing on top is where you hung your towelie things to dry while you went for a massage. Am I joking? No way. If these people were doing this level of architecture and stone carving, they must have had a sense of hygiene and sensuality, too.

Maybe they even had their own Bette Midler who came in to sing sometimes. That little boxie thing on the right in the second picture might have been her stage..

[wltdnfaded]

LOL, that's funny.

[iLLogicaL]

I agree that it's ridiculous to proclaim that this is the world's oldest temple. I doubt we went straight to something like this as our very first place of worship. I'm guessing there's a buried tree stump or strangely shaped rock somewhere that was actually our first temple.

[bliss0027]

when they say worlds oldest, they mean the oldest found.....­.obviously there were places of worship before this, but the vast majority have not been preserved

[Kiba]

This isn't really a new discovery. Excavations have been going on at the site for more than a decade.

The early period (stratum III) was pretty basic. Unworked stone pillars connected by crude walls to form circular enclosures. It was built by hunter-gatherers, and got more elaborate as the centuries passed.

It shows a level of organization not normally seen in pre-Neolithic societies. Cultivation of grain is thought to have begun in this area, though. Long before it was cultivated, it was gathered. Social organization may have arisen from local tribes banding together to protect wild grain sources from herds of wild animals.

[notb observer]

These monoliths are more beautiful than the ones at the various henges in England. The raised relief sculpting makes them look very modern. I wonder if the henge monoliths might also have had surface decoration as these do...

As for the claim that the site has some religious bearing, I would assume that the archaeologists are in a pretty good position to draw conclusions based on the amount of material there. There are also other artifacts that might have led them to their conclusion. For example, the strange looking pit or altar (?) in the second picture.

It's interesting that there are more and more discoveries leading archaeologists to completely rethink their theories of human evolution and cultural development. Not long ago there was another story about findings that challenged the idea that hominids originally evolved in Africa, and that the entire process of mass migration proceeded west to east into Asia. It now seems possible that it was actually the other way around...

Too bad that the old testament starts just after the really interesting stuff relating to our ancestry and descent... I don't recall any mention of any henges in far away England. Now why would god omit such an important detail in his chronology of what he apparently created ? Maybe he just wasn't as well traveled as he's given credit for ;)

[Kiba]

Schmidt has had some bizarre ideas about the place. At one time he opined that it was a temple for a death cult, and the animal totems were there to protect the dead. Nice idea, but there are no burials at the site.

The figures do share some resemblance to shamanic animal totems, but no one really knows the significance.

[pigmiddle]

It is not unreasonable to posit the idea of a funerary element in the case of the temple. Most religions evolve around the concept of the the brevity of life and the question of existence. You do not find human remains lying around on cathedral floors . Actual burial can be anywhere . Possibilities include 'sky ' burial on the lines of the Parsees, the North American Natives, or the Tibetans .Altars are essentially tables of offerings . The individual pillar dolmens scattered across Europe in places like Brittany or Menorca might have served some such purpose, removing the dead from the view of their fellows and placing them beyond the reach of earthbound predators , leaving them beneath the heavens for whatever God or Gods they acknowledged. The subsequent removal of any remains would be in keeping with concepts of the ritual (and literal) avoidance of pollution. In this case the disembodied arm on one of the pillars might provide a clue.

[Tenley]

Okay, they could put together a megalithic structure, level it, balance it, and do intricate carvings on it -- yet, according to the experts here who just tell us this like it's a fact, hadn't figured out how to do something as fancy as make pottery out of mud or a tool out of something more sophisticated than a bone? Yeah right. I mean it defies common sense to think this was done by a people totally backward.

[sociocanuck]

I fail to see why exactly it must be a temple site, and not something without religious connotation. Okay, there's evidence. But it's one that requires interpretation to get there...

[Dogma]

Look at the slide show. It's fairly obvious that it is a 'temple' and completely consistent with places like Easter Island or Stone Henge or Carnac.

[elcojonu]

The Orient is more interesting to me.
There have been finds in China that are twice as old.

[Dogma]

Turkey is considered the Orient.

[Twinkie]

Awesome. Though it would be safer to say they're the oldest temple ruins yet discovered, not the first ever temple. That's a bit of an ego trip on Mr Schmidt.

Come to think of it, Klaus Schmidt is like the German equivalent of John Smith. Is this a hoax? :P

[olivesforbreakfast]

this is how i see it, too. calling it the oldest discovered temple makes sense, not the 'oldest ever'. that's an absurd claim.

maybe it was an ego trip, but just maybe, something was lost in translation. just to give him the benefit of the doubt, could it be that klaus schmidt spoke in german and we are relying upon an inferior translation of his words?

it would be fun if he's reading this if he would write in and explain how he sees it.

[deancostanza]

this very significant ..........­.we have no idea how we got here......­......

[Ishmael1]

So we find an 11,000 year-old site in southeastern Anatolia. At the time of the temple's heyday, it would have sat squarely along possible trade routes between the Tigris-Euphrates valley and the upper Black Sea Basin. Check out this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_Flood

Robert Ballard of Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute has found traces of Neolithic civilization 300 feet below the current shoreline of the Southern Black Sea. At the time of this temple's construction, that entire area was above the shoreline and home to it's own Neolithic agricultural society. The carbon 14 dating of fresh water mollusks found in the Black Sea was 7,000 years. It would also be along the line of communication that would tell of the Deluge and spawn the legends of Gilgamesh and Noah.

[SOLERSO68]

So this site is 4000 years older than Gilgamesh, right?

[Ishmael1]

Yes. That would appear to be the case. I don't know if it actually was strictly used as a temple. I would imagine that any such ancient gathering place would also serve the function of a marketplace for trade. Considering it's location, I would tend to believe that it also served that purpose as well.

[ptc5672000]

Impossible cannot be more than 6000 years odl Sarah Palin says so.

[cobobs]

Why the pre-sum.pt­ion that the ancient people were inf.erior or only engaged in religion? Contemplate how long (or short) it would take for evidence of our existence to disappear: http://www.worldwithoutus.com/did_you_know.html

[SOLERSO68]

I agree with you. To say that they were "only" engaged in religion would amount to not really thinking it through. Even the utterly, totally-completely eternity obsessed Egyptians had to raise crops, build things, beget, etc., and so on. And from written records we know that intellectually, emotionally, they were the same as we. There have to be some psychological differences because of the massive contextual separation BUT, we are more alike with the ancient than different. I do not believe that were it possible to move between times, it could be done by either us or them, we ease.We would have no trouble speaking to each other once a commmon language was established.

[olivesforbreakfast]

solerso68 wrote: 'We would have no trouble speaking to each other once a common language was establishe­d.'

you must have voted for obama. the repubs would have us saying, 'be afraid. be very afraid. you don't know who these people are or what they want.'... :-)

[SOLERSO68]

This is what was translated from an assyrian Temple from around 3000 BCE. the caps arent mine but from the site i lifted it from:
CHRONICLE OF THE FIRST WAR BETWEEN ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA: "I WENT TO BABYLONIA. FROM THE CITY RIKSU-SHA-ILI WHICH IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOWER ZAB RIVER AS FAR AS THE CITY LUBDI I CONQUERED. I KNOCKED DOWN THEIR TOWNS AND BURNT THEM WITH FIRE, THEIR POSSESSIONS AND THEIR PROPERTY I CARRIED OFF TO MY CITY ASHUR. I WENT TO THE LAND SUHA - VARIOUS TOWNS WHICH ARE IN THE MIDST OF THE EUPHRATES I CONQUERED. THEIR POSSESSIONS WITHOUT NUMBER I TOOK AWAY. I TORE UP THEIR FIELDS. I CUT DOWN THEIR ORCHARDS"
So i think "bastion od democracy" is unlikely : )

[ArchAngel]

Hmmm, most likely this ancient person was concerned about WMDs and also wanted to bring democracy to those he conquered.­..

[plaidlemur]

The Ashur Doctrine?