Archaeological Site Older Then Stonehenge

Posted by Joshua S. Hill

April 24, 2008

With the most recent excavation at Stonehenge, archaeology has once again taken a front seat. For many, Stonehenge is the archaeological interest shown so that they can say they take interest in at least some part of human history.

However one of the most important archaeological finds of recent times has taken place on the border of Turkey and Syria. Klaus Schmidt, of the German Archaeological Institute, was the first to find the planets oldest temple complex, at Gobekli Tepe.

“This place is a supernova,” said Schmidt. “Within a minute of first seeing it I knew I had two choices: go away and tell nobody, or spend the rest of my life working here.”

And though the stone circles that have been excavated are small affairs when compared to Stonehenge, their age and their carvings are what make them special. Only four of an estimated 20 circles have been excavated, and they have found T-shaped pillars in the center, towering 5 meters above a circle of lesser stones.

On their faces are carved reliefs of boards, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions, these stones have been dated back to as late as 9,500BC; that’s 5,500 years older than the first cities that arose in Mesopotamia, and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge.

These stones are from so far back that not even did the inhabitants have writing or the wheel; they didn’t even have pottery or domesticated wheat. This came before the farm, when hunting and gathering was the main way to sustain your family.

“Everybody used to think only complex, hierarchical civilisations could build such monumental sites, and that they only came about with the invention of agriculture”, said Ian Hodder, a Stanford University professor of anthropology who has directed digs at Catalhoyuk, Turkey’s best known neolithic site, since 1993. “Gobekli changes everything. It’s elaborate, it’s complex and it is pre-agricultural. That alone makes the site one of the most important archaeological finds in a very long time.”

Some believe that these sites are fertility sites, a fact that has been picked up by the local tourist board. However Schmidt is skeptical, leaning towards a different opinion.

“I think here we are face to face with the earliest representation of gods,” said Schmidt. “They have no eyes, no mouths, no faces. But they have arms and they have hands. They are makers.In my opinion, the people who carved them were asking themselves the biggest questions of all. What is this universe? Why are we here?”

Schmidt points to other factors as well. He believes the hilltop was a site of pilgrimage for communities within a radius of around a hundred miles. The tallest stones all face south-east, looking over contemporary sites that are no less remarkable than Gobekli Tepe.

Photos Courtesy of German Archaeological Institute

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