Its the winter solstice as I write this post today, and I have decided write about Göbekli Tepe to celebrate that fact. Partly because I want to learn more about the ancient site myself, partly because these monoliths are usually built recognize and record celestial events like the solstice, and also because ancient history fascinates me. There is another reason too… I’ve been reading, watching some documentaries, and listening to a lot of podcasts on history, archaeology, astronomy, and religious texts lately. I’ve been coming across information on this ancient site quite a bit and it sure seems to be inspiring a lot of people, including me.
Göbekli Tepe was first discovered in Turkey in the ’60s, but it wasn’t until 1996 that work was really started by archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, and he has been there with his team ever since. What they’ve uncovered is considered to be the oldest known temple, dating back to approximately 10,000 B.C., making it almost 6,000 years older than Stonehenge. Apparently, they’ve only excavated a relatively small portion of the site, and can see through geological surveys that there are still a huge number of structures buried under the ground. Its thought that what is still buried may be even older.
The site itself is made up of a number of T-shaped sculpted 20 foot tall stone pillars, each weighing somewhere around 20 tons, and these pillars are arranged in circles.
Human beings and our instinct to create just amazes me. And also our instinct to destroy. Its weird but, after being used for thousands of years, the site was deliberately buried. Its not really known why…
youtube.com | nationalgeographic
youtube.com | when god was a girl
