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Gobekli Tepe - The World’s First Temple - 7,000 Years Older Than Stonehenge

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Bianca
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« Reply #45 on: May 30, 2009, 07:38:59 am »











Schmidt paints a picture suggested by the stones’ shapes and their animal carvings.

Supported by other leading researchers, he interprets the stones to be human effigies: The capitals form their heads, and arms are carved down their sides—similar to what he’d seen on later statues like those excavated at Nevali Çori. Quarried about a hundred meters (320') away, the giant, seven-ton limestone slabs (one of which still lies there, unfinished) were likely shaped with flints, dragged to the site, carved and erected. Broken flints are so ubiquitous it’s impossible to walk without treading on them.

By carbon-dating the layer of humus that has accumulated over the site since its intentional burial, and considering the tiny calcium-carbonate stalagmites on the stones, Schmidt has put that event at 10,800 to 10,000 years ago.

But 1500 years prior to that, when the stones were erected, “there was a human and animal population explosion here,” he says. “It was the end of the Ice Age.”






                                               





Walking gingerly atop the baulks that separate each excavation unit, we arrive at a stone that Schmidt finds particularly intriguing. A busy scene is pecked into its west-facing side, and it seems to tell a complex story. “See these three images with the rounded tops?” the archeologist asks, pointing to a row of shapes along its top edge. “Each of those … is associated with a different element.” Sure enough, the first depicts a bird, the second an unidentified four-legged beast and the third a frog. “Air, earth and water,” says Schmidt convincingly. The story appears to continue below. A vulture, clearly identifiable by its hooked beak and claws, plays with a ball. “That’s the sun,” Schmidt continues. Summing up, he says the story represents the creation of the cosmos: the sun and three earthly elements. “At least, that’s our interpretation so far.

“There’s no doubt that it was religion that brought people together here,” Schmidt says, looking at the assemblies, which predate Stonehenge by some 6500 years. “It’s the first place that images of deities are seen.” He tells me that earlier art depicted natural things like animals and people. But here, he points out, there are three levels of symbolism: the human heads forming the capitals of the stones; the animals carved on their sides; and some non-human, non-animal symbols: an H-shaped icon and a round image with a quarter-moon shape beneath. But, he admits, “We really have no idea” what they mean overall.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2009, 07:50:10 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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