Göbekli Tepe

Archeological site of the beginnings of the Neolithic (more precisely Neolithic preceramic has) or of the end of the Mesolithic . It is located at the south-east of Anatolia, area of current the Turkey, close to the border with the Syria. In south-west the town of Sanliurfa is.

Into French, Göbekli Tepe is translated by " the mountain of Nombril" , in reference to its form. On this site rests the oldest stone temple never discovered (dating estimated between - 11500 and -8000 before our era). One would have needed several hundreds of men to build it, and work would have lasted from three to five centuries. Civilization Mégalithique at the origin of this site is still very badly known.

The temple would have been gives up in 8000 av. JC, leaving time (or the man) to hide the site. (Neolithic preceramic B)

Localization

The site is a 15 meters high artificial hill for a diameter of 300 meters. This one is located on the culminating point of a lengthened mountain. The top of this hill is a point of observation which dominates the area: one can see there the mounts Taurus and Karaca Dağ in North and the East, and, in the South, the valley of Harran which extends as far as Syria. Only the western sight is restricted by the neighbouring mountains. The zone exploited by the man would be of 300 with 500m ² according to the estimates.

Modern history of the site

Göbekli Tepe was recorded in such an amount of which archeological site in 1963 within the framework of research turco - American. A team of American archeologists, whose Peter Benedict noticed several strange hills covered with thousands of broken Silex, which is an unquestionable sign of human activity. But the scientists did not have time or finances to carry out excavations.

Three decades later, a shepherd of the area seen a group of stones to the strange forms leaving the dusty ground. The “redécouverte” of the site came to the ears from the conservatives from the museum from the town of Sanliurfa, with fifty kilometers. The persons in charge of the museum contacted the adapted ministry, which, in return, was put in relation to the German Institut of Archeology at Istanbul.

Excavations

The site was thus the object of excavations starting from 1995, year during which the Musée of Şanlıurfa and the German Institute of Archeology (DAI, Berlin) began the excavation of the site. Klaus Schmidt directs the archaeological building site since the beginning. In 2006, the excavations depended on the Université of Heidelberg, the Université of Karlsruhe, associated, dealing with the referencing of the artefacts discovered.

The temple

The archeologists then updated a monumental sanctuary, among oldest known in occident, preceding approximately 70 oldest centuries Egyptian Pyramides . The temple in him even is a artificial Colline, with the made not carved dry stone walls. Each part being a round construction Mégalithique. To date, four enclosures drawn by enormous limestone pillars weighing more than 10 tons were released. According to Klaus Schmidt, " they symbolize human assemblies, and the raised stones, laid out in circle, represent characters stylisés". Certain indices leave us think that many things remain to be discovered. Within sight of the way in which the stones are carved, the stone was probably extracted with stone pickaxes.

A few years ago, Klaus Schmidt and its team discovered a stone in form of T, with half extracted from a stone bed with lime, with one kilometer of the site. This enormous stone is 9 meters long and was apparently intended to join the other pillars of Göbekli. " The stone is split, it thus owed casser" , explains Schmidt, " when that arrived the manufacturers probably gave up it to begin another " of it;.

All that shows us that there are probably other stones this height which were not discovered yet. Indeed, the geomagnetic analyzes of the artificial mountains of Göbekli Tepe indicate that at least 250 additional stones would be still hidden in the ground.

To date, forty monumental stones in form of T and reaching 3 meters in height one be left ground, majority engraved. On certain pillars, one can see many animals finely represented (Serpent S, Canard S, Grue S, Taureau X, Renard S, Lion S, Sanglier S, Vache S, scorpion S, Fourmi S). Some of these engravings were voluntarily unobtrusive, perhaps in preparation of other representations.

Sculptures

There are also isolated sculptures seeming to be representations of Sanglier or Renard. Considering they are made clays, and particularly cracked, it is difficult to determine it. Statues in the same way standard were found with Nevali Cori and Nahal Hemar. The workshops of sculpture having created these statues would be located on the plate him even, of the not finished pillars having been found in situ. Basins in the shape of bowl in the argillaceous rock were found, technical perhaps already used to make argillaceous sculpture and mortar, in the Epipaléolithique.

There are also phallic forms and geometrical reasons in the rock, whose dating is unknown. They are to be brought closer to the cultures sumérienne and Mésopotamie, as well as sites of Asia Mineure and Egypt of the same time, like Byblos, Nemrik, Helwan and Aswad.

Analyzes sediments

The layers of remains accumulated at the bottom of the lake of Van, in Anatolia, make it possible to include/understand the changes of climate. The researchers of the Université of Potsdam and University of Bonn, in particular, took there carrots to determine, for example, the number of Diatomée S, number which varies according to the depth and thus according to the importance of the rains. The types of Pollen S trapped inform us about the vegetable cover of the time. The whole was made in collaboration with the international scientific Programme of continental drillings (ICDP), under the name PaleoVan - Van Lake Project.

Their conclusion is surprising: here 11.500 years, Turkey gains 9 degrees quickly and covers Chêne S, of Génévrier S and of Amandier S. This softening of the Climat could have caused the progressive Sédentarisation of the tribe at the origin of the site.

Religious practices

Basing itself on the important representations of animals, Schmidt indicates that it must be a question of a shamanic culture to be brought closer to the culture sumérienne and Mésopotamie. The presence of engraving of decorative points and geometrical, frequent reasons in these cultures, would seem to corroborate this assumption. One finds reasons using for the points as to Byblos, much of reasons identical to Nemrik, Helwan and Aswad. One can thus suppose close ritual practices.

With the beginning of the year 90, the prehistorian Jacques Cauvin advanced the thesis which the development of the religiosity pushed the men to gather to live and celebrate the rites in company. Göbekli could give him reason.

Importance of the discovery

This site of Göbekli Tepe shows in particular that the Humanité laid out, at one Pre-agricultural time , of sufficient means to set up a place of imposing worship, idea which contradicts the assumption that the Agriculture would have preceded any erection by important constructions. It is probably the work of a tribe of Chasseur-cueilleur S.

Schmidt speculates in the fact that the site played a major ¨rôle in the transition to the Agriculture; it supposes that the social organization necessary to the creation of these building supported an organized exploitation of the Blé. Knowing that Göbekli Tepe is located in the area of called Turkey the fertile Croissant, and knowing that studies were shown that it is probably the place of origin of the Engrain (alternative of the Blé), first Céréale used by the man, it then include/understand the importance of this assertion.

That says any trace of Plante S or of animal domesticated was not found. One did not find durable dwellings more, out of stone. Thus this transition remains an assumption still today. However one found, buried to 4 m of depth, i.e. dating from the same period as the temples, the tools, like Racloir S, Pointes of arrows, bones of animals (gazelles, hares), seeds wild and carbonized wood. That proves with the found Silex, a durable human presence. That consolidates the idea that the men of Göbekli nourished Gibier exclusively, plants and fruits which they found in nature, without being stockbreeders or farmers.

" However, " according to Klaus Schmidt, " a strange thing occurred into 8000 before JC., during the transition towards agriculture: Göbekli Tepe was buried deliberately, and not by a mud flow. For unknown reasons, the builders decided to bury the site. The ground that we withdraw on the stones was placed here by the man. All these hills are artificielles."

References

Note : More the share of the elements presented in this article result from the consequent bibliography presented in lower part.

Bibliographical sources

Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (Hrsg.): Die ältesten Monumente der Menschheit. VOR 12.000 Jahren in Anatolian, Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung im Badischen Landesmuseum vom 20. Januar (a) zum 17. Juni 2007. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2072-8.
MediaCultura (Hrsg.): Die ältesten Monumente der Menschheit. VOR 12.000 Jahren in Anatolian. DVD-ROM. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2090-2.
David Lewis-Williams and David Pearce, " Year Accidental revolution? Early Neolithic religion and economic change" , Minerva, 17 #4 (July/August, 2006), pp. 29-31.
K. Pustovoytov, Weathering rinds At exposed surfaces off limestone At Göbekli Tepe. Neo-lithics 2000,24-26 (14C-Dates).
K. Schmidt, Göbekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey. With preliminary Carryforward one the 1995-1999 Excavations, Palèorient 26/1, 2001,45-54.
K. Schmidt, Sie bauten die ersten Tempel. Das rätselhafte Heiligtum der Steinzeitjäger. Munich: C.H. Beck Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-406-53500-3.
K. Schmidt, Göbekli Tepe and the rock'n'roll art off the Near East, TÜBA-AR 3 (2000) 1-14.
Klaus Schmidt: Sie bauten die ersten Tempel. Das rätselhafte Heiligtum der Steinzeitjäger. München 2006, ISBN 3-406-53500-3.
Klaus-Dieter Linsmeier, Klaus Schmidt: Ein anatolisches Stonehenge. In: Spektrum der Wissenschaft - Spezial. Spektrum-Verl., Heidelberg 2003,2, S. 10-15, ISBN 3936278350, ISSN 0943-7996.
Klaus Schmidt: Göbekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey. With preliminary Carryforward one the 1995-1999 Excavations. In: Palèorient CNRS ED., Paris 26.2001,1, 45-54, ISSN 0513-9345.
Klaus Schmidt: Frühneolithische Tempel. Ein Forschungsbericht zum präkeramischen Neolithikum Obermesopotamiens. in: Mitteilungen DER deutschen the East-Gesellschaft. Berlin 130,1998,17-49, ISSN 0342-118X.
K. Pustovoytov: Weathering rinds At exposed surfaces off limestone At Göbekli Tepe. In: Neo-lithics. Ex Oriente, Berlin 2000,24-26 (14C-Dates).
Klaus-Dieter Linsmeier: Eine Revolution im großen Stil. Interview put Klaus Schmidt. In: Abenteuer Archäologie. Kulturen, Menschen, Monumente. Spektrum der Wissenschaft Verl. - Ges., Heidelberg 2006,2, ISSN 1612-9954.
J.E. Walkowitz: Quantensprünge der Archäologie. In: Varied neolithica IV, 2006, ISBN 3-937517-43-X.

Random links: