You should visit Gobekli Tepe which is the world’s oldest temple. Discover archaeological site Unesco heritage is located in southeastern visit Turkey
Researchers in Turkey are about to embark on an excavation at the ancient site of Karahan Tepe and they believe it’s much older than Göbekli Tepe, the famous “zero point of world history.”
Göbekli Tepe is a c. 12,000-year-old archaeological site in Anatolia, Turkey. One characteristic feature of the site is the abundance of monumental stone pillars, often arranged in a circle and elaborately...
Arkeofili [external link], a Turkish online magazine and portal dedicated to archaeological news and reports on archaeological sites and discoveries in Turkey and the world approached DAI’s …
Göbekli Tepe, the ancient Neolithic site in eastern Turkey, features many animals among its motifs. One of the most prominent of the creatures depicted there is the snake. It is interesting therefore that the snake features across Anatolia in the folklore of Turks, Kurds, Yezidis and Iranians in a couple of prominent incarnations. One incarnation […]
Arkeofili [external link], a Turkish online magazine and portal dedicated to archaeological news and reports on archaeological sites and discoveries in Turkey and the world approached DAI’s …
Yasmine Seale visits the new museum at the site of Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey
Gobekli Tepe has made lots of people scratch their heads. Even though it was uncovered during the ‘60s, it’s significant impact was just fully realized in 1994. This historical site is situated in the southeastern part of Turkey, approximately 12km northeast of the city of Şanlıurfa. Despite this, it predates the country’s establishment by a … Continued
Arkeofili [external link], a Turkish online magazine and portal dedicated to archaeological news and reports on archaeological sites and discoveries in Turkey and the world approached DAI’s …
We are pleased and honored to welcome back as June Author of the Month Andrew Collins. Join Andrew during June on the AoM Message Boards to discuss his new book Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods Göbekli Tepe is a name familiar to anyone interested in the ancient mysteries subject. […]
At 12000 years, Gobekli Tepe is the oldest known stone ruins whose builders are unknown. Excavations at Gobekli Tepe point to the possibility that the builders of Gobekli Tepe may have been the Native inhabitants, the Denisovans or the Anunnaki Ancient Astronaut Aliens. Located in Turkey, Gobekli Tepe is
Ancient structures uncovered in Turkey and thought to be the world's oldest temples may not have been strictly religious buildings after all, according to an article in the October issue of Current Anthropology. Archaeologist Ted Banning of the University of Toronto argues that the buildings found at Göbekli Tepe may have been houses for people, not the gods. Göbekli Tepe [Credit: Geolocation] The buildings at Göbekli, a hilltop just outside of the Turkish city of Urfa, were found in 1995 by Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute and colleagues from the Şanlıurfa Museum in Turkey. The oldest of the structures at the site are immense buildings with large stone pillars, many of which feature carvings of snakes, scorpions, foxes, and other animals. The presence of art in the buildings, the substantial effort that must have been involved in making and erecting them, and a lack of evidence for any permanent settlement in the area, led Schmidt and others to conclude that Göbekli must have been a sacred place where pilgrims traveled to worship, much like the Greek ruins of Delphi or Olympia. If that interpretation is true it would make the buildings, which date back more than 10,000 years to the early Neolithic, the oldest temples ever found. However, Banning offers an alternative interpretation that challenges some of Schmidt's claims. He outlines growing archaeological evidence for daily activities at the site, such as flintknapping and food preparation. "The presence of this evidence suggests that the site was not, after all, devoid of residential occupation, but likely had quite a large population," Banning said. Banning goes on to argue that the population may have been housed in the purported temples themselves. He disagrees with the idea that the presence of decorative pillars or massive construction efforts means the buildings could not have been residential space. "The presupposition that 'art,' or even 'monumental' art, should be exclusively associated with specialized shrines or other non-domestic spaces also fails to withstand scrutiny," Banning writes. "There is abundant ethnographic evidence for considerable investment in the decoration of domestic structures and spaces, whether to commemorate the feats of ancestors, advertise a lineage's history or a chief's generosity; or record initiations and other house-based rituals." Archaeological evidence for domestic art from the Neolithic period exists as well, Banning says, such as the wall paintings at Çatalhöyük, another archaeological site in Turkey. Banning suggests that the purported temples may instead have been large communal houses, "similar in some ways to the large plank houses of the Northwest Coast of North America with their impressive house posts and totem poles." "If so, they would likely have housed quite large households that might provide an extremely early example of what the French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, called 'house societies,'" Banning said. "Such societies often use house structures for competitive display, locations for rituals, and explicit symbols of social units." Banning hopes that more excavation at the site will ultimately shed more light on how these buildings were used. In the meantime, he hopes that researchers will not automatically assume that the presence of art or decoration in structures at Göbekli and elsewhere denotes an exclusively religious building. "It is … likely that some of these buildings were the locus for a variety of rituals, probably including feasts, mortuary rites, magic, and initiations," he writes. "Yet there is generally no reason to presume a priori, even when these are as impressive as the buildings at Göbekli Tepe, that they were not also people's houses." Source: University of Chicago Press Journals via EurekAlert! [October 06, 2011] Labels ArchaeoHeritage, Archaeology, Greater Middle East, Near East, Turkey TANN you might also like Newer Post Older Post
Prior to Göbekli Tepe it was assumed , that Sumerian society was the first advanced civilisation. 6,000 years before the invention of writing neolithic cultures carved intricate designs, sigils an…
Pseudoscience and genuine archaeological mysteries surround humanity's oldest known temple. But was it the world's first astronomical observatory?
Significance: Gobekli Tepe (GT) probably represents the origin of civilisation for most of the world today. Most of us are connected to it ...
Addressing an earlier question from the comments, here is some more information on one of the most impressive pillars from Göbekli Tepe, Pillar 43 in Enclosure D. Updated 05/03/17 with some more in…
The locals of Urfa in southern Turkey are said to have the patience of Job. That’s probably less to do with enduring thousands of years of conquest, and more to do with the presence in their midst of a cave where the prophet was tormented. It’s claimed the next cave along is where Abraham was born and suckled by a gazelle.
Significance: Gobekli Tepe (GT) probably represents the origin of civilisation for most of the world today. Most of us are connected to it ...
Since its discovery in 1994, 10,000-year old Göbekli Tepe has been an enigma, gradually revealing its ancient secrets to archaeologists and scientists.
A paper by authors Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Tsikritsis, titled 'Decoding Göbekli Tepe with archaeoastronomy: What does the fox say?' published in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, vol 17, no. 1. (2017)
Gobekli Tepe is the world’s oldest Megalithic site. Learn all about its origins and the top things to do there. Read more.
Göbekli Tepe is the most ancient site of humans practising religion. Schmidt called it the first human-built holy place. The religion originated here. - Göbekli Tepe Turkey - World’s oldest temple? - Travelure ©
Göbekli Tepe is the world's oldest example of monumental architecture; a 'temple' built at the end of the last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago. It was discovered in 1995 CE when, just a short distance from...
very telling phrase in the first video, "Yes, the earlier sculptures and megaliths (discovered at Gobekli Tepe) were more competent...
Göbekli Tepe is the most ancient site of humans practising religion. Schmidt called it the first human-built holy place. The religion originated here. - Göbekli Tepe Turkey - World’s oldest temple? - Travelure ©
Significance: Gobekli Tepe (GT) probably represents the origin of civilisation for most of the world today. Most of us are connected to it ...
Farmers have been here for as long as anyone can remember, thousands of years in fact. As a local farmer near Urfa, southeastern Tur...
Urfa Museum Turkey. A Statue Showing a Totem figure giving birth from Gobekli Tepe the Archaeological site of the Worlds oldest known religious structure. Predating Stonehenge by over 6000 years. Discovered by Klaus Schmidt © Neil Beer www.neilbeer.com Photography Swansea
This article provides details about the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. The story suggests that the site may be a place where the hunter-gatherer way of life was supported rather than that of the coming agricultural revolution in the Fertile Crescent.
Farmers have been here for as long as anyone can remember, thousands of years in fact. As a local farmer near Urfa, southeastern Tur...
Archaeologists suspect that Karahan Tepe (also known as Keçili Tepe), built by the same mysterious civilization as Göbekli Tepe, is even older.
Researchers in Turkey are about to embark on an excavation at the ancient site of Karahan Tepe and they believe it’s much older than Göbekli Tepe, the famous “zero point of world history.”
Gobekli Tepe is the oldest temple in the world and the greatest archeological discovery of modern times. How to visit this off the beaten track marvel.
