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Since I'm based in Berlin, I talk a lot with German archaeologists. There was a lot of buzz over here about Gobekli Tepe, and this story had been reported in Germany, but not in the English language media. Because it's such an incredible find, Schmidt's under a lot of pressure, so it took me about a year to arrange my visit for a time when he was digging in Urfa.
What was your favorite moment while covering Gobekli Tepe?
Watching the sun come up over the stones was an incredible moment. They're huge, and it's hard to imagine how primitive hunters carved them without metal tools. And yet there is a sense of mystery about them that I found a bit off-putting. I wanted to feel some deep connection or resonance, but the symbols and shapes are so far removed from anything I am familiar with that I felt like a total stranger.
Have any problems arisen since they started excavating the site?
Schmidt had good reason to be worried about the press: A major German magazine ran a cover story on the site last year suggesting it was the historical basis for the Biblical story about the "Garden of Eden." Because Muslims consider Adam a Muslim prophet (like Abraham, Moses and Jesus) when the Turkish media got a hold of the story there was a lot of pressure for him to stop digging at "Adam's birthplace"—a holy site. So Schmidt was very intent on stressing to me that the area was a very nice place to live in prehistoric times, but not literally "paradise," for fear I'd give the misunderstanding new legs.
Were there any interesting moments that didn't make it to the final draft?
I also spent some time talking to people in Urfa about the site. Most locals have never been there, and have a lot of strange ideas about it. Most of all, they see it as a way to bring in tourists. Urfa is in a fairly poor part of Turkey, so cultural tourism is a big deal. But the site's not ready for a flood of visitors—it's still being excavated, it's on a hill at the end of a bad dirt road, and the only people there are archaeologists, who are working as fast as they can to figure out what the site is all about and don't have a lot of time to show visitors around. When they're not excavating, the archaeologists cover a lot of the pillars up with stones to protect them from the elements. One local tourism official asked me why Schmidt was working so slowly, and when I thought he could start sending tour buses to the top of Gobekli Tepe. I didn't have a good answer. Schmidt's trying to find money to build a visitor's center nearby, and perhaps build walkways or something so that tourists can see the stones without damaging the site.
Are there any theories about what led to the site's abandonment?
Schmidt thinks society outgrew it, sort of. His theory is that they served the needs of a hunter-gatherer culture somehow, and as those hunter-gatherers developed agriculture and domesticated animals their spiritual needs changed radically enough that the temples at Gobekli Tepe no longer served their needs.
Why was the site initially dismissed by academics?
The big broken stones on top of the hill—actually fragments of pillars—were mistaken for medieval gravestones, and the academics doing the original survey in the 1960s simply didn't look any deeper. The site is remote enough that only a few archaeologists had ever been there. Usually prehistoric settlements in the region are found near water sources or rivers, so finding something like this on top of a dry plateau was really surprising.
Are there any astronomical implications here? With the creatures and circles, surely someone must see this possibility.
Posted by Roy W. Lohr on October 24,2008 | 03:12PM
Perhaps this is the tower of Babel?
Posted by Bill on October 24,2008 | 06:11PM
There is an article titled "The World's First Temple" by Sandra Scham in the November/December issue of Archaeology. This is published by The Archaeology Institute of America. Anyone can get a copy or subscribe.
Posted by sue hobgood on October 25,2008 | 03:24PM
What an incredible find; and thousands of kudos to the arch- aeologist who did more than "give it a glance". It's too bad that the peoples who built the temple(?) have to contend w/present day politicos/religions. Let science reign!
Posted by Diana Mayabb on October 26,2008 | 02:18PM
Wonderful; I am immeditly struck by what appears to be Mayan carvings on stela. Except for the "Dogan Myth" of the "Pale Fox". The stela of a long arm reaching from on high, and a fox. See images of the Dogan People from the Book "the Pale Fox". the images of the fox, the frist fallen angele is obviouse and important on Gobekeli Pillar. But is it the medium (rock), or is it the artist that creates the similarities in the images to the Mayan style. Are the designs on the top of the capped pillars structual or ornamental? If they are magical symbols, then the powers of observation are at play, and you will be able to see withhin the mind of the artist. {the rocks were carved by men. Men do not charge.) If the symbols are magical; a way for man to control his enviorment - ,you know, like science, it's the same thing. Understandable.
Posted by Candace Scrivner on October 30,2008 | 07:50AM
What a magnificent find; I had never heard of it, so I really enjoyed reading this brief interview and the accompanying article. That people in a pre-mechanical society could make such a stunning complex is just as extraordinary as the the building of other notable ancient wonders -- the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall, Stonehenge, and Macchu Piccu, to name but a small sampling -- absolutely made my jaw drop. Sure do hope Schmidt is able to preserve the site, not only for the decades' worth of exploration to come, but for posterity thereafter. Brilliant work by both the archeologist and the writer -- and a huge thanks to both!
Posted by Mekhong Kurt on November 1,2008 | 07:56PM
Why do they think this is 11,000 years old? Carbon dating? This would make it much older than other ancient sites. Of course, creationists think the earth is less than 10,000 years old and evolutionists think all you need to create man is vast amounts of time. I don't think we know much about our origins or our history on the planet. Period.
Posted by vmitch on November 9,2008 | 02:35PM
Paleontological evidence suggest that our species has been on the planet for 200,000 years. In this perspective 11,000 years ago is relatively recent. Something happened then that made humans afraid of nature – as the fearful creatures carved upon these stones suggest. The repeated ritualistic burying of these stones may have been an attempt to master this fear. To no avail. The invention of agriculture grew out of the fear that nature would not provide. The creation of armies grew out of our fear of each other. The invention of writing grew out of our fear of forgetting. Technology grew out of our fear of being mastered by nature. Most of our time on this planet we have lived with nature not against it. We need to return to that time before these temples if we are to survive our fear.
Posted by Armando Busick on November 15,2008 | 09:37AM
The power of symbols on the stone age human mind is readily apparent at this magnificent site. Symbols are the origin of all concepts (as noted previously) embedded within the written word. We know the Chinese language of ideograms is derived from a common library of symbols, as were the Egyptian and Mayan glyphs. This sacred and mysterious use of common, organized symbols at Gobbekli Tepe undoubtedly represented elements in a particularly important story to those who were initiated into the mystery. The common, organized human effort to comprehend existence, and coexistence, through the laborious creation of huge, powerful, structures covered with common symbols is a tangible sign that modern humans had arrived. The makers of Gobekli Tepe may have been conquering their fears in the construction of this site, but in doing so they demonstrated their ability to conquer nature through the transformation of rocks into sculpture and the capturing life's images onto stone.
Posted by Jake on December 5,2008 | 04:04PM
I was fortunate to visit this site in May (2008). No officials were there at the time, only the watchman (the land owner, I believe). He did a good job--not letting me into the excavation area. Darn. Nevertheless, was utterly captivated by what I saw. In the pictures for this article I can see inches of excavation progress from the last season of work. This is the site to watch developments. Thanks to Smithsonian Magazine for the article.
Posted by James K. Gronsand on December 23,2008 | 11:08AM
I am thankful for the archaeologists continuation of excavating this extraordinary find. I believe that the people who built the stone towers were terrified of the vile and scary creatures whose likeness they carved into the stone. I am looking forward to more answers as the work progresses.
Posted by Miki A. Cook on February 3,2009 | 12:54PM
What a fantastic discovery for me to "discover" via the MAIL newspaper this morning. I love stuff that shows us what was happening a long time ago. I find the fact that the area was so fertile and abounding with life very telling, the world has changed so much throughout the centuries that no one can presume anything from what we see today. I still love reading about all the remains of mammoths found in the Tundra, there must have been vast amounts of food available in their day to support such creatures. I hope much more detail is available for armchair archeologists like myself, not spoilt by too much conjecture about meanings because some folk learn one fact and when it is disproved later they do not realise and so hang on to wrong information ( a bit like the theory of Recapitulation). Keep digging!
Posted by kay mckinney on February 28,2009 | 02:59AM
The engineering, the masonry, the artistry! This site is too much for words. Congratulations to the archaeologist. Your article was very informative and the photographs were wonderful. I will be very interested to see further information as it becomes available. SOME of the comments were hilarious, though. How I have laughed! I suppose some of the commenters were just too excited to think, to spell check or to get their facts straight before writing. At least I hope it was just excitement...otherwise it seems that those who built these fabulous monuments might have come from a more "civilized" or at least a more intelligent culture than ours. Have we regressed?
Posted by K. Roscoe on February 28,2009 | 09:15PM