Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?

Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey's stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization

  • By Andrew Curry
  • Photographs by Berthold Steinhilber
  • Smithsonian magazine, November 2008, Subscribe
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Gobekli Tepe
Now seen as early evidence of prehistoric worship, the hilltop site was previously shunned by researchers as nothing more than a medieval cemetery. (Berthold Steinhilber)

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Schmidt returned a year later with five colleagues and they uncovered the first megaliths, a few buried so close to the surface they were scarred by plows. As the archaeologists dug deeper, they unearthed pillars arranged in circles. Schmidt's team, however, found none of the telltale signs of a settlement: no cooking hearths, houses or trash pits, and none of the clay fertility figurines that litter nearby sites of about the same age. The archaeologists did find evidence of tool use, including stone hammers and blades. And because those artifacts closely resemble others from nearby sites previously carbon-dated to about 9000 B.C., Schmidt and co-workers estimate that Gobekli Tepe's stone structures are the same age. Limited carbon dating undertaken by Schmidt at the site confirms this assessment.

The way Schmidt sees it, Gobekli Tepe's sloping, rocky ground is a stonecutter's dream. Even without metal chisels or hammers, prehistoric masons wielding flint tools could have chipped away at softer limestone outcrops, shaping them into pillars on the spot before carrying them a few hundred yards to the summit and lifting them upright. Then, Schmidt says, once the stone rings were finished, the ancient builders covered them over with dirt. Eventually, they placed another ring nearby or on top of the old one. Over centuries, these layers created the hilltop.

Today, Schmidt oversees a team of more than a dozen German archaeologists, 50 local laborers and a steady stream of enthusiastic students. He typically excavates at the site for two months in the spring and two in the fall. (Summer temperatures reach 115 degrees, too hot to dig; in the winter the area is deluged by rain.) In 1995, he bought a traditional Ottoman house with a courtyard in Urfa, a city of nearly a half-million people, to use as a base of operations.

On the day I visit, a bespectacled Belgian man sits at one end of a long table in front of a pile of bones. Joris Peters, an archaeozoologist from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, specializes in the analysis of animal remains. Since 1998, he has examined more than 100,000 bone fragments from Gobekli Tepe. Peters has often found cut marks and splintered edges on them—signs that the animals from which they came were butchered and cooked. The bones, stored in dozens of plastic crates stacked in a storeroom at the house, are the best clue to how people who created Gobekli Tepe lived. Peters has identified tens of thousands of gazelle bones, which make up more than 60 percent of the total, plus those of other wild game such as boar, sheep and red deer. He's also found bones of a dozen different bird species, including vultures, cranes, ducks and geese. "The first year, we went through 15,000 pieces of animal bone, all of them wild. It was pretty clear we were dealing with a hunter-gatherer site," Peters says. "It's been the same every year since." The abundant remnants of wild game indicate that the people who lived here had not yet domesticated animals or farmed.

But, Peters and Schmidt say, Gobekli Tepe's builders were on the verge of a major change in how they lived, thanks to an environment that held the raw materials for farming. "They had wild sheep, wild grains that could be domesticated—and the people with the potential to do it," Schmidt says. In fact, research at other sites in the region has shown that within 1,000 years of Gobekli Tepe's construction, settlers had corralled sheep, cattle and pigs. And, at a prehistoric village just 20 miles away, geneticists found evidence of the world's oldest domesticated strains of wheat; radiocarbon dating indicates agriculture developed there around 10,500 years ago, or just five centuries after Gobekli Tepe's construction.

To Schmidt and others, these new findings suggest a novel theory of civilization. Scholars have long believed that only after people learned to farm and live in settled communities did they have the time, organization and resources to construct temples and support complicated social structures. But Schmidt argues it was the other way around: the extensive, coordinated effort to build the monoliths literally laid the groundwork for the development of complex societies.

The immensity of the undertaking at Gobekli Tepe reinforces that view. Schmidt says the monuments could not have been built by ragged bands of hunter-gatherers. To carve, erect and bury rings of seven-ton stone pillars would have required hundreds of workers, all needing to be fed and housed. Hence the eventual emergence of settled communities in the area around 10,000 years ago. "This shows sociocultural changes come first, agriculture comes later," says Stanford University archaeologist Ian Hodder, who excavated Catalhoyuk, a prehistoric settlement 300 miles from Gobekli Tepe. "You can make a good case this area is the real origin of complex Neolithic societies."

What was so important to these early people that they gathered to build (and bury) the stone rings? The gulf that separates us from Gobekli Tepe's builders is almost unimaginable. Indeed, though I stood among the looming megaliths eager to take in their meaning, they didn't speak to me. They were utterly foreign, placed there by people who saw the world in a way I will never comprehend. There are no sources to explain what the symbols might mean. Schmidt agrees. "We're 6,000 years before the invention of writing here," he says.


Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple.

"Guten Morgen," he says at 5:20 a.m. when his van picks me up at my hotel in Urfa. Thirty minutes later, the van reaches the foot of a grassy hill and parks next to strands of barbed wire. We follow a knot of workmen up the hill to rectangular pits shaded by a corrugated steel roof—the main excavation site. In the pits, standing stones, or pillars, are arranged in circles. Beyond, on the hillside, are four other rings of partially excavated pillars. Each ring has a roughly similar layout: in the center are two large stone T-shaped pillars encircled by slightly smaller stones facing inward. The tallest pillars tower 16 feet and, Schmidt says, weigh between seven and ten tons. As we walk among them, I see that some are blank, while others are elaborately carved: foxes, lions, scorpions and vultures abound, twisting and crawling on the pillars' broad sides.

Schmidt points to the great stone rings, one of them 65 feet across. "This is the first human-built holy place," he says.

From this perch 1,000 feet above the valley, we can see to the horizon in nearly every direction. Schmidt, 53, asks me to imagine what the landscape would have looked like 11,000 years ago, before centuries of intensive farming and settlement turned it into the nearly featureless brown expanse it is today.

Prehistoric people would have gazed upon herds of gazelle and other wild animals; gently flowing rivers, which attracted migrating geese and ducks; fruit and nut trees; and rippling fields of wild barley and wild wheat varieties such as emmer and einkorn. "This area was like a paradise," says Schmidt, a member of the German Archaeological Institute. Indeed, Gobekli Tepe sits at the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent—an arc of mild climate and arable land from the Persian Gulf to present-day Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Egypt—and would have attracted hunter-gatherers from Africa and the Levant. And partly because Schmidt has found no evidence that people permanently resided on the summit of Gobekli Tepe itself, he believes this was a place of worship on an unprecedented scale—humanity's first "cathedral on a hill."

With the sun higher in the sky, Schmidt ties a white scarf around his balding head, turban-style, and deftly picks his way down the hill among the relics. In rapid-fire German he explains that he has mapped the entire summit using ground-penetrating radar and geomagnetic surveys, charting where at least 16 other megalith rings remain buried across 22 acres. The one-acre excavation covers less than 5 percent of the site. He says archaeologists could dig here for another 50 years and barely scratch the surface.

Gobekli Tepe was first examined—and dismissed—by University of Chicago and Istanbul University anthropologists in the 1960s. As part of a sweeping survey of the region, they visited the hill, saw some broken slabs of limestone and assumed the mound was nothing more than an abandoned medieval cemetery. In 1994, Schmidt was working on his own survey of prehistoric sites in the region. After reading a brief mention of the stone-littered hilltop in the University of Chicago researchers' report, he decided to go there himself. From the moment he first saw it, he knew the place was extraordinary.

Unlike the stark plateaus nearby, Gobekli Tepe (the name means "belly hill" in Turkish) has a gently rounded top that rises 50 feet above the surrounding landscape. To Schmidt's eye, the shape stood out. "Only man could have created something like this," he says. "It was clear right away this was a gigantic Stone Age site." The broken pieces of limestone that earlier surveyors had mistaken for gravestones suddenly took on a different meaning.

Schmidt returned a year later with five colleagues and they uncovered the first megaliths, a few buried so close to the surface they were scarred by plows. As the archaeologists dug deeper, they unearthed pillars arranged in circles. Schmidt's team, however, found none of the telltale signs of a settlement: no cooking hearths, houses or trash pits, and none of the clay fertility figurines that litter nearby sites of about the same age. The archaeologists did find evidence of tool use, including stone hammers and blades. And because those artifacts closely resemble others from nearby sites previously carbon-dated to about 9000 B.C., Schmidt and co-workers estimate that Gobekli Tepe's stone structures are the same age. Limited carbon dating undertaken by Schmidt at the site confirms this assessment.

The way Schmidt sees it, Gobekli Tepe's sloping, rocky ground is a stonecutter's dream. Even without metal chisels or hammers, prehistoric masons wielding flint tools could have chipped away at softer limestone outcrops, shaping them into pillars on the spot before carrying them a few hundred yards to the summit and lifting them upright. Then, Schmidt says, once the stone rings were finished, the ancient builders covered them over with dirt. Eventually, they placed another ring nearby or on top of the old one. Over centuries, these layers created the hilltop.

Today, Schmidt oversees a team of more than a dozen German archaeologists, 50 local laborers and a steady stream of enthusiastic students. He typically excavates at the site for two months in the spring and two in the fall. (Summer temperatures reach 115 degrees, too hot to dig; in the winter the area is deluged by rain.) In 1995, he bought a traditional Ottoman house with a courtyard in Urfa, a city of nearly a half-million people, to use as a base of operations.

On the day I visit, a bespectacled Belgian man sits at one end of a long table in front of a pile of bones. Joris Peters, an archaeozoologist from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, specializes in the analysis of animal remains. Since 1998, he has examined more than 100,000 bone fragments from Gobekli Tepe. Peters has often found cut marks and splintered edges on them—signs that the animals from which they came were butchered and cooked. The bones, stored in dozens of plastic crates stacked in a storeroom at the house, are the best clue to how people who created Gobekli Tepe lived. Peters has identified tens of thousands of gazelle bones, which make up more than 60 percent of the total, plus those of other wild game such as boar, sheep and red deer. He's also found bones of a dozen different bird species, including vultures, cranes, ducks and geese. "The first year, we went through 15,000 pieces of animal bone, all of them wild. It was pretty clear we were dealing with a hunter-gatherer site," Peters says. "It's been the same every year since." The abundant remnants of wild game indicate that the people who lived here had not yet domesticated animals or farmed.

But, Peters and Schmidt say, Gobekli Tepe's builders were on the verge of a major change in how they lived, thanks to an environment that held the raw materials for farming. "They had wild sheep, wild grains that could be domesticated—and the people with the potential to do it," Schmidt says. In fact, research at other sites in the region has shown that within 1,000 years of Gobekli Tepe's construction, settlers had corralled sheep, cattle and pigs. And, at a prehistoric village just 20 miles away, geneticists found evidence of the world's oldest domesticated strains of wheat; radiocarbon dating indicates agriculture developed there around 10,500 years ago, or just five centuries after Gobekli Tepe's construction.

To Schmidt and others, these new findings suggest a novel theory of civilization. Scholars have long believed that only after people learned to farm and live in settled communities did they have the time, organization and resources to construct temples and support complicated social structures. But Schmidt argues it was the other way around: the extensive, coordinated effort to build the monoliths literally laid the groundwork for the development of complex societies.

The immensity of the undertaking at Gobekli Tepe reinforces that view. Schmidt says the monuments could not have been built by ragged bands of hunter-gatherers. To carve, erect and bury rings of seven-ton stone pillars would have required hundreds of workers, all needing to be fed and housed. Hence the eventual emergence of settled communities in the area around 10,000 years ago. "This shows sociocultural changes come first, agriculture comes later," says Stanford University archaeologist Ian Hodder, who excavated Catalhoyuk, a prehistoric settlement 300 miles from Gobekli Tepe. "You can make a good case this area is the real origin of complex Neolithic societies."

What was so important to these early people that they gathered to build (and bury) the stone rings? The gulf that separates us from Gobekli Tepe's builders is almost unimaginable. Indeed, though I stood among the looming megaliths eager to take in their meaning, they didn't speak to me. They were utterly foreign, placed there by people who saw the world in a way I will never comprehend. There are no sources to explain what the symbols might mean. Schmidt agrees. "We're 6,000 years before the invention of writing here," he says.

"There's more time between Gobekli Tepe and the Sumerian clay tablets [etched in 3300 B.C.] than from Sumer to today," says Gary Rollefson, an archaeologist at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, who is familiar with Schmidt's work. "Trying to pick out symbolism from prehistoric context is an exercise in futility."

Still, archaeologists have their theories—evidence, perhaps, of the irresistible human urge to explain the unexplainable. The surprising lack of evidence that people lived right there, researchers say, argues against its use as a settlement or even a place where, for instance, clan leaders gathered. Hodder is fascinated that Gobekli Tepe's pillar carvings are dominated not by edible prey like deer and cattle but by menacing creatures such as lions, spiders, snakes and scorpions. "It's a scary, fantastic world of nasty-looking beasts," he muses. While later cultures were more concerned with farming and fertility, he suggests, perhaps these hunters were trying to master their fears by building this complex, which is a good distance from where they lived.

Danielle Stordeur, an archaeologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France, emphasizes the significance of the vulture carvings. Some cultures have long believed the high-flying carrion birds transported the flesh of the dead up to the heavens. Stordeur has found similar symbols at sites from the same era as Gobekli Tepe just 50 miles away in Syria. "You can really see it's the same culture," she says. "All the most important symbols are the same."

For his part, Schmidt is certain the secret is right beneath his feet. Over the years, his team has found fragments of human bone in the layers of dirt that filled the complex. Deep test pits have shown that the floors of the rings are made of hardened limestone. Schmidt is betting that beneath the floors he'll find the structures' true purpose: a final resting place for a society of hunters.

Perhaps, Schmidt says, the site was a burial ground or the center of a death cult, the dead laid out on the hillside among the stylized gods and spirits of the afterlife. If so, Gobekli Tepe's location was no accident. "From here the dead are looking out at the ideal view," Schmidt says as the sun casts long shadows over the half-buried pillars. "They're looking out over a hunter's dream."

Andrew Curry, who is based in Berlin, wrote the July cover story about Vikings.

Berthold Steinhilber's hauntingly lighted award-winning photograhs of American ghost towns appeared in Smithsonian in May 2001.


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Additional Sources

"Seeking the Roots of Ritual" by Andrew Curry, Science, January 18, 2008


 

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Comments (548)

Soooooo cool

Posted by Johnnie on February 8,2013 | 07:28 AM

Super fine! Love to hear more as work continues

Posted by Christiana Powell on January 29,2013 | 08:36 PM

".. unlike in the case of crude and dissimilar massive ancient relics (e.g. huge statues, beams and columns etc.) carved out of stone long ago in other places by using clumsy, brittle and easily breakable, often blunt and difficult to handle stone tools, the nearly identically shaped and sculpted multiple massive stone pillars etc.(with right-angled sharp edges and uniformly flat surfaces) at GT (Figure 1) strongly point to the use of considerably stronger, harder, sharper and easy to handle metallic tools which became available only after the advent of metallic age about 6000 years ago or after 4000 BC." http://creative.sulekha.com//questions-and-comments-on-the-study-of-ancient-sites-and-cultures_597851_blog

Posted by Dr. Subhash C. Sharma on January 28,2013 | 09:32 AM

As is well known, women are important sources of inspiration in sculpture, architecture and other arts. Quite possibly, this is because these ideas arise from among images which are communicated to them by men during sexual intercourse.

Posted by Michael on January 28,2013 | 08:56 AM

not in entire worlu, before B.C cunstruct so maney temples in india

Posted by sundar on January 27,2013 | 01:55 PM

I would like to see how they came up with the 11000 years old figure. its obvious we didn't come from apes that is just ridiculous imaginative propaganda based on biased assumptions, anyone who dares to explore deeper can figure that one out. And atom dating is very inconsistent since it is based on assumption that evolution is true. So i think it would be a great trend for these kind of articles to start explaining in short how they got the dates that they claim so factually, after all most artifacts don't come with a "made in china at this date" type of inscription on it.

Posted by Robert on January 24,2013 | 01:04 PM

This theory with our rather primitive ancestors that built megalithic structures seem by every discovery we make more and more hilarious. We will soon come to say that apes knew how to construct them:). Now it's only to the level of hunter-gatherers. I don't see other possibility than some aliens were on this planet. Others would give room to the theory of some ancient human advanced civilization that somehow perished. But I don't see how it would be possible. Because we discovered many megalithic structures but no sign of advanced technology. Would be reasonable to think that who had the technology took it with them. Again only ET. Otherwise would be found on Earth.

Posted by John Doe on January 10,2013 | 04:34 AM

Briefly compared to Stonehenge at the beginning of this article, it didn' mention whether researchers had persued Gobekli Tepe's astromical relevance. It seems each ancient "temple" site of this magnitude thus far discovered has been an astronomical clock of sorts, and I wonder what the astronomical significance of this site is? Perhaps the carvings relate to an ancient cosmology identified by these people and the celestial positions and/or periods are plotted on or with these stones. Stonehenge was a work in process for centuries, starting with wood structures gradually superceded by stoneworks. This site may perhaps be the same, with layers of stonework plotting a developing cosmology and/or religion. Computer programs could sort through the stones' placements and positions to corelate any relevance to the heavens. What amazes me is how, in my lifetime, much of human history has changed in light of what was then known compared with what is now known. Human civilization is multiple times older than our evidence of it, and achieved far more than we dare believe.

Posted by JCS on December 25,2012 | 01:41 PM

Maybe it's a sculpture of a family unit. The mother and father in the middle of a circle of children. Maybe the builders were expressing what was important to them at the time. That seems to be what architecture and art do: describe what's human and meaningful. Maybe the sculptures of the animals are meant to show the other "members" of their family - the animals that followed them around or always seemed to be where they wandered: scorpions, vultures and fox. The vultures would have wanted to eat the leftovers of the family meal as would a fox.Maybe the fox will become the ancestor of our dogs. Scorpions, well, they're just pests. They're always around. Maybe the place felt like a home and that's why people would go there. Or maybe the "temple" is a story that bound people together. I'm impressed with the way the hands of the standing stone hug or wrap around the tummy or waist of the standing stone. And the belt of the same figure looks almost like a chain. The pelt that hangs from it and covers the "private parts" might have been from the skin of a fox. The sculptor had a lot of imagination and ability. Clever.

Posted by Randy Purinton on December 16,2012 | 05:36 PM

I just absolutely love science and especially when something new is found that turns the world upside down and make people rethink what they thought was a fact.

Posted by ben on December 16,2012 | 11:30 AM

Clearly this is not the "first". This is like dating the Sphynx according to Egyptologists' ignorance. I have yet to see ANY credible evidence of this dating, much as the proposed dating of the Sphynx and Giza plateau. Accepted dating is simply preposterous. Compare the stone wall construction and surface tolerances of Gobelki Tepe to those of other megalithic structures. There is an absolute disconnect. With only 5% of the site excavated, I look forward to further excavation of the site and studies on the positioning relative to astronomy, similar to the work done by Bauval, West and Schoch. I personally believe Giza is not dated to 10,500 bc, as suggested by archaeoastrological studies, but one precessional cycle previous. This would also support the same positioning. Anyway, Since we know so little about the site, let's keep our minds open to a history of our race which we simply cannot explain at this point.

Posted by thetruthseeker711 on December 16,2012 | 11:21 AM

theres a bigger complex to be discovered at that site. trust me...

Posted by venancio duque on November 30,2012 | 09:23 PM

Why say this is the "first" religious site ever built. Say it's the oldest we've found, but calling it the first is just ignorant.

Posted by Jim on November 29,2012 | 12:01 AM

I find it easy to believe that humans were capable of building Gobekli Tepe without the help of aliens. Humans in their present form have been around for a hundred thousand years. In fact, the human brain has been shrinking since the advent of agriculture. Far more significant is that the dating of the structures coincide with a recent study that puts the beginning of the Indo-European languages at the same place and time. Anatolia was a cross roads between continents, and it wouldn't surprise me if our oldest and most enduring myths, memories of ancient events handed down from one generation to the next, technologies and ideas were disseminated from this area which created a more complex culture that involved larger numbers of people. It may have been the first time so many different kinds of people came together, which required a higher level of organization.

Posted by Dolora Zajick on November 15,2012 | 11:23 AM

A logical reason the site was buried was they were cavemen with a cave shortage, they built more caves covering the roofs with timber and then with soil burying them. Over time the timbers rotted and the site self burried.

Posted by Logical on November 4,2012 | 10:16 AM

I fail to understand what 'Göbeklitepe' has got to do with the Armenian massacres of 1915 in Turkey? Some commentators here seem annoyed that this site has been discovered in Turkey and not in Armenia! I was particularly disturbed by a claim of one of the commentators that "Armenians were walking on earth even before the Africans!" What an absurd claim, what a racist stand point! Perhaps those commentators would care to explain what they are really on about.

Posted by ahmetepic on November 4,2012 | 05:04 AM

The figure of the cow with a disc between its horns can also be seen on petroglyphs from the Karahunj site.

Posted by Keziah on November 2,2012 | 03:47 AM

I've seen some interesting evidence that this site was used to observe the night sky, and that the creatures and associated small round pits carved in the stones represent constellations and stars (not necessarily the same as our modern constellations but different groupings of stars as seen by Mesolithic/Neolithic people). The night sky and its changing patterns, with their relationship to annual events such as animal migrations and breeding seasons, would have been very important to ancient hunter-gatherers, and the site is positioned to give the widest possible view of the sky. The carved vulture bears a close resemblance (particularly looking at the angle of its wings and legs) to the modern Pegasus constellation, and the horizontal pattern above it is in the right position to be seen as representing the Milky Way. You can use the freely downloadable Stellarium software to look at the night sky as it was 11,000 years ago and make your own comparisons. See the Gobekli Tepe page on timothyjstephany.com for some interesting diagrams on the relationships of several of the carved creatures to star patterns.

Posted by Keziah on November 2,2012 | 03:16 AM

i think its very true

Posted by jordan on October 23,2012 | 08:41 AM

This site is so exciting it fires the imagination. I would love to help with the excavation how could I get involved ?

Posted by Robbie on October 6,2012 | 04:10 AM

In current usage the Fertile Crescent has a minimum extent and a maximum extent. All definitions include Mesopotamia, the land in and around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The major nation in this region is Iraq(formerly Mesopotamia), with small portions of Iran near the Persian Gulf, Kuwait to the south and Turkey in the north. More typically the Fertile Crescent includes also the Levantine coast of the Mediterranean Sea, with Syria,Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and the West Bank. Water sources include the Jordan River.

Posted by Fact Checker on October 5,2012 | 11:39 AM

math is the only true science.everything else is the accepted theory of the moment.scientist are arrogant why?because everything we know gets turned on its head on a regular basis?because there and expert about what.take and egyptologist.talk about stuck in a mind set of no compromise.exploring the possibilities should be the goal.not ridgid dogmas.i think anyone who cant see the evidence for older than established civilizations to have existed is a small minded,limited thinker that ignores the visual history before them.

Posted by on September 26,2012 | 08:08 PM

Would like current info on progress of work. And pictures of animal, shapes and such not indigenous tothat region during the time of construction. Thank you

Posted by Suki Houlihan on September 23,2012 | 03:39 PM

Interesting discovery.

Posted by Mark Stilt on September 18,2012 | 04:56 AM

This site was not buried, it is from a time when the population was so dense that it was necessary combine habitation and agriculture in the same locations. One of our most common errors in evaluating very ancient sites is our tendency to think that they have been buried when they are in fact being exposed by decay, collapse, and erosion over time. The requirement for sunlight meant that the agriculture had to be supported above the habitation with large pillars or even stepped supports for multiple levels. Yes, I’m referring to pyramids and yes there is plenty of evidence of those methods being used as well as evidence of massive irrigated agriculture. http://vimeo.com/album/2045605

Posted by Gary Schoenung on September 16,2012 | 11:33 AM

It is discoveries like this that makes people question our beginnings. In my mind this discovery disproves the hunter/gather theory. There is no way a bunch of hunter gatherers set a date to go meet and build a molithic structure. Hunters that have never carved anything and have just tried to survive all their life suddenly build huge structures with uncanny accuracy, intricate carvings and craftmanship. Its like going from a farmer to a master architect, it just dosen't happen. It would be more logical to assume that master architects did actually make these megaliths,but that would require an ancient civilization that these architects had come from and that is somthing that archaeologists refuse to believe for some reason It is these ruins that push me to believe that we are not the first great civilization oth this earth and that our race may be older... much much older than we have been lead to believe.

Posted by Ben on September 12,2012 | 03:36 PM

Aside from the dating and construction, no one has commented on the art. This drive for art and the carefully accurate depiction of animals speaks to intensive labor on the part of the artist(s). Even the older cave art portrays a compulsion for some kind of aesthetics, human communication and transfer of sensation for others to perceive. While we propound on some kind of hard wiring for religious motifs or motivations, there is no doubt humankind of all kinds had a hard wiring to express their deepest senses to be shared with others in some kind of artistic display. They all proclaim "we are not brutes- we are fully human" Very humblimg and downright awesome.

Posted by Mildred Bilt on September 4,2012 | 09:05 PM

I thought the discovery was made by a Kurdish Shepard?

Posted by Ilona on September 3,2012 | 09:06 AM

A few things needing considered during the deciphering of this ancient "Ark" are old fables. Nebris(pied bull), skins of Adam, the attire of Nimrod, Golden Fleece,etc.

Posted by Anthony on August 30,2012 | 10:28 AM

If this is true than this shuts up everyone who thinks that Africa is the place of the oldest human.

Posted by Chris on August 30,2012 | 09:41 AM

Perhaps it is possible, when in anticipation of a traumatic catastrophe, one can impose a self induced lobotomy, so to speak. With the hope of, or at the very least, a chance to recover and or regain some past memories at a later time. If so. This might apply to the enigma of Gobekli Tepe.

Posted by Ron Bohlouli on August 22,2012 | 08:06 PM

What an amazing discovery, but too bad from most of the comments on here.

Posted by AnOldBlackMarble on August 16,2012 | 06:38 PM

I think the stone slabs were used to tie up human sacrifices..to what end we will probably never know.

Posted by Matthew M. Ramshaw on August 13,2012 | 01:25 PM

this blows current archeological thinking out of the water, argiculture did not come first, argiculture did NOT make civilization possible, religion came first and it is religion that makes civilization possible. This will upset a lot of people. and that doesn't bother me.

Posted by Stacey Shoemaker on August 8,2012 | 05:13 PM

By far, consideration of the following phrase intrigues me as much or more than anything else about Gobekli Tepe. "To Schmidt and others, these new findings suggest a novel theory of civilization. Scholars have long believed that only after people learned to farm and live in settled communities did they have the time, organization and resources to construct temples and support complicated social structures. But Schmidt argues it was the other way around: the extensive, coordinated effort to build the monoliths literally laid the groundwork for the development of complex societies." The idea that the experience of awe and the capacity for its shared communion may have predated the necessity for figuring out how to "stay put," domesticate animals and grains to grow in the same areas, create tools to be used in exploits not yet imagined, is aweful in and of itself. Maslow's pyramid may be a circle instead.

Posted by Vally Sharpe on July 28,2012 | 04:38 PM

The structures at Gobekli Tepe are indeed similar to Stone Henge.They are both in the exact same astronomical alignment,or pattern for those not awakened.There is a particular structure that you should pay close attention too.On one of the massive blocks there is a lizard placed on the side as if walking down.The is a structure part of a Mayan Temple in Central America that has the exact same lizard-like reptile walking down one of the pillars.Two very different parts of the world,different time periods,but similar signs of worship?

Posted by jonathan11 on July 27,2012 | 10:52 PM

I find this site to be one of the most compelling finds of my lifetime .... and I remember the Moon landing. I do find one troublesome comment in this article ... one I see over and over again. It seems always assumed that every such ruin was created as a burial site. It comes to light over and over that later peoples found a by then ancient site and considered it 'built by gods' and worshipped at it and often buried their dead there. It is my suspicion that this was not a burial site, but by its orientation, more of an astronomical site, seeing that many ancient people equated the Heavens with their Gods ... Many mound sites are later found to have special passages with special alignments (as had many mounds, most especially that at Newgrange). To ancient peoples the study of the Heavens was the study of Deity. Still, I am not a trained archaeologist, and this is only a lay opinion, albeit a relatively well informed one. I, for one, shall be most interested to see what is uncovered here as the dig progresses.

Posted by Stephen Jackson on July 26,2012 | 03:11 PM

As others have stated, this site could very well be older than 12,000 years. The fact that they found organic material (such as deer bone) carbon dating to this time may just mean that hunter gatherers from that period found this site and decided to settle there. Unfortunatley, since sites such as Puma Punku, Machu Pichu, Great Pyramids, Maltese circles, Petra, & many others were inhabited by people during the past 2,000 years, it's impossible to figure out when they were originally constructed. If the world fell apart today, I'd probably find shelter in a large already built complex. However, this doesn't mean I actually built it. We do have some clues where less sophisticated structures were built on top of their original masterpieces (Baalbeck, Machu Pichu, Sacsayhuamán, etc.), so its very possible that Gobekle Tepe is even older than the carbon dating evidence provided. Is this the oldest human made structure currently discovered? It's hard to say unless we figure out a better way to date structures such as the Sphinx, Pyramids & Puma Punku. Looking at some of these ancient structures (especially the ones in South America), I can't help but think that they were constructed out of fear. Why use such massive stone blocks with no gaps or mortar in between, and make them earthquack proof?! Perhaps, the great flood took many generations to finally engulf the entire earth (after the last ice age), and the remaining inhabitants had no choice but to build way up on top of mountains. They also used massive blocks so that the rising waters and accompanying earthquacks would not penetrate or push these blocks inward killing the population inside. IMO it seems to me that earth had a thriving civilization during or before the last ice age, but had to endure some horrible conditions for many centuries after the ice melted. Eventually, the survivors were able to leave these protective areas, but without the knowledge of how they were built by their ancestors.

Posted by skybolt on July 20,2012 | 12:15 PM

Great find I hope we will see more detailed pictures of those fantastic columns. It looked like one of them showed a pictorial of the site before it was buried, with buildings and bodies of water nearby. To think our ancestors preserved there hard work leaving us some insight on the mysteries of their day for us to contemplate today and perhaps shape our thinking is really amazing to me.

Posted by Bryan mcAlister on July 16,2012 | 12:19 AM

Regardless of the name of the God[s]which are postulated, the article indicates that so called prehistoric people had the "urge" to "worship". Makes one wonder where this "urge to worship" comes from?

Posted by Brian Batke on July 11,2012 | 02:26 PM

Wow, who woulda thought the ole Smithsonian would bring out all the nutjobs commenting on their website. I didn't know about Gobekli Tepe before - this is amazing. It's obviously really early for this sort of thing, and adds some different information into the thinking about development of civilization. And it fits in with the anthropology/history of civilization stuff I remember from about the fifth grade oh so many years ago. But get a grip people, it didn't take aliens or something to do this stuff. It fits in with what we know about our past from from sites all over the world.

Posted by emjayay on July 10,2012 | 12:04 AM

Hope this does not get wheeled into obscurity as has been the mode of operandi of the Smith's since its founding. Where we come from, why we're here, and where we are going is coming full circle in these ages for mankind. I have been to Turkey - 3 years in Karamursel. This section of the country was off limits to us (USAF Security Service) because of the Kurdish diseases (Hepatitis -B)- grave robbing clothing of the dead, a common practice amongst some of the kurdis clans of the day. How this coincides with the Sumerian research, which mistakenly was displayed by the Smithsonian, because it was not known that the Sumerian writings were referring to the splicing of their dna with that of a biped in order to create what we call Modern man - biological.

Posted by John on July 7,2012 | 12:12 AM

A question. Who build it? Tribles? Ancient Men? No it is imposibble. I have an answer. It was build up by who build Puma Punku (in Bolivia). Because there is the same signature in buildings. The "H". As a provocation, his name is Horus who is Egytian (God of Sun).

Posted by ozturk on July 6,2012 | 12:31 AM

It amazes me that the only explanation modern archeologists can construct is "this must be a place of worship." Poly want a cracker? This is scientific group-think at its worst, and it's prohibiting us from honest, factual investigation aimed at uncovering the true nature of our past. The problem with these self-fulfilling premature "theories," more like "notions," is the rest of the scientific community then fashions and fits clues to support a self-fulfilling mainstream consensus, rather than following the evidence wherever it may lead. And if it doesn't fit, toss it out. It's ludicrous. I'm so tired of the "place of worship" explanation that I curdle when I hear it. More creativity is required to support this "notion" than to discount it. Stop following and start thinking.

Posted by Brandon on July 4,2012 | 04:22 PM

Gobekli Tepi demonstrates the huge gap between what historians and archeologists think they know and what they actually do know. Using current archeological information this sight should not be there. The manpower should not have existed in the necessary concentration to build it. Even the theorys being floated to explain it now are inadequate to even begin to explain construction on this scale. This complex is the product of a large concentration of well organized labor. It was produced by a mature, skilled construction industry. Whoever built it knew what they were doing and had the available time and labor to do it. They also had been producing stone structures for a long time before this facility was started. In other words it was not built by "hunter gatherers" but by a large stationary culture that we know nothing what so ever about that existed before any known civilization. It seem the "myths" of the ancients may not have been myths after all.

Posted by steve5150 on June 30,2012 | 12:47 PM

This os not a religeous mindset. If it were, it would be dated as 6,000 years old or younger.

Posted by Bill on June 29,2012 | 11:25 PM

Will it still be the oldest temple when someone discovers something 15,000 old? The site is impressive. The pictures are incredible. Maybe the 3 tenors could do a concert there.

Posted by Jeff on June 29,2012 | 07:57 PM

I am 64 years old been around a lot, seen a lot of strange things. This place only reafirms my belief we have been visited in the past, yes by aliens. To people who have asked me about God, I could care less if He is what we would consider alien, He is certainly not of this world.If he does fly around in a space ship, what does it matter?, He is still God. So there nay sayers, this is one person who has accepted God as is.

Posted by Tim Griggs on June 29,2012 | 09:31 AM

Its one of two things or maybe both, aliens helped them build it or they were as advanced as us here in the present. Either way their civilazation fell apart,somthing happened to them and the lack of reporting on ALL ancient sites worldwide by the media is like a slap in the face. Civilazation is like a pond,too many fish the pond kills 90%of them off. It then "resets" itself to sustain life again, whos to say that it cant happen to the whole planet? Just give it a thought, maybe the Mayans were right.

Posted by P Collins on June 26,2012 | 10:30 PM

Blame it on George Bush. We blame everything else on him. ‘Curious’ George has become our modern biblical escaped goat. Could that be why we love and loath mirrors? I disagree about an alien explanation for everything. We attribute everything to out-worlders. Enough! We have Baalbek in Syria. We have Puma Punku and the rest of Lake Titicaca ruins. We have the sunken ruins off the coast of Japan. I noticed that the circular structures at Gobeke are similar to the circular structures of the Anasazi only separated in time by ten thousand years. We have the Egyptian Pharaoh’s wooden Saqqara Bird model. We have the Central American golden airplane trinkets. We have the Hindu stories of Vimana. We have so many artifacts that seem out of place to us but were common to the ancients. Maybe we are in serious need of a historical parallax. Our rear-view mirror view of history may be seriously out of adjustment. In my opinion, archaeology is very much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle that we lack many pieces from. Form follows function in reality whether or not it is 10,000 years old or 10 years old. That Gobekli Tepe exists should not be embarrassing. That ooparts exist should be cause for celebration that genius is alive and well no matter what time period. That these curiosities exist merely means that we have to continue to adjust our historical speculations as new evidence is discovered. Isn’t that the Scientific Method?

Posted by Claire Jones on June 26,2012 | 12:46 PM

Turkey is the best tourist destination of them all -- hands down.

Posted by Larry Stout on June 25,2012 | 09:40 AM

The evidence that either an asteroid or a comet was the cause of the extinction event that wiped out the saber tooth tiger, mammoth, and Clovis man (given the accumulated evidence of global sediment showing increased iridium, billions of hexagonal nanodiamonds--even found at the precise time in the ice cores corresponding to the timeline of the extinction--both of which only occur with massive pressures and temperatures resulting from such an impact) most likely striking the two or more mile thick ice sheets covering the Great Lakes area at the time, it is clear that humanity had a near extinction event. Our DNA also tesitifies to this (one of two such genetic restrictions which greatly reduced our own biodiveristy). These stone circles at Gobekli Tepe cannot be assumed to be anything at all, let alone religious complexes. To me, the pillars could just as easily be there for the landing of flying saucers. If we, mankind, can progress as fast as we have done over the past couple of centuries, then I think we are simply refusing to accept evidence that, at a point that way predates our common era, we were, in fact, far more advanced than we are today. I imagine that, provided we have not killed ourselves off by then, in another one or two hundred years, we will have human colonies on the moon and on Mars. Who is to say that a much earlier, advanced civiliation had not already achieved this? What would happen to those off-world humans if an asteroid or comet cased a massive extinction event while they were off-planet? Would humans not return to Earth when doing so was safe--assuming that, with further advancement, we would be able to return without Earth-based navigation support or would have had shuttle services from an orbiting space station. To me, this makes far more logical sense than the assumption that our advancements had to be of alien origin. Gobekli Tepe looks like modern airport to me, not a religious site.

Posted by Sharon L. Sandell, MD on June 23,2012 | 02:58 PM

I just wish all those fighting Syrians nearby would Stop Think Look And wonder about the world around them. The wonders of ancient civilizations, it is all so much bigger and more glorious than them. What can they possibly achieve by their actions as before long they too will be dust upon the earth and noone will wonder at their achievements. I have seen Troy and now I must go back to Turkey to see Gobekli Teppi.

Posted by Virginia Magerl on June 17,2012 | 07:22 AM

Hm. Looks like clan symbols (scary animals, such as killer whale, eagle, etc., are usually power totems for extended septs). Could have been gathering places for exchange of property among chiefs, such as among the Pacific Northwest native peoples. As more sites in the Americas come to light, we realize that we didn't need religion or agriculture to begin to collect populations and make large structures. Interesting.

Posted by DBarr on June 14,2012 | 09:04 PM

Is it possible that Göbekli Tepe is not a temple for worshiping the gods of the hunters but it is an Ancestor- worship Shrine. The ancestors who were the great and renowned hunters of community. Since at that periods food is the matter of life and death to all member of the commune. And one who provided food to all with such bravery and heroic skillful tasks must be most respected.. And also some of the respective ancestors who had contributed to the community which can be both males and females, such as, Shaman or midwife Religion seem to come in people’s life when their ways of living is more sophisticated and more civilized. The more they are primitive they seem to look up for things that closed to them, things that tangible . Worship the ancestors after their death still . practiced among many cultures. • The 2 big T shaped pillars in the middle might be the symbol of the great hunters, the leaders of the clan, the most heroic men The smaller surrounded pillars are symbols of all the renowned ancestors who might be hunters or other people who performed the respective tasks in the community. • Animal bones that found in the site should be the left over part of food that offering to the ancestors during the worship ritual which mean to be feast among the whole community afterword. The shape of pillars, The T shape, similar to the headless ancestors. The T bars are too short might be because it’s hard to carve the longer pieces without breaking them. Since the T bars were too shot to be recognized as arms, there fore the low reliefs in shape of arms were added up at the lower part of body as to create the reality • These T-shaped pillars seem to pay tribute to the great heroic acts of their ancestors .The victory over wild beasts were praised by shapes of low-relief animals which decorated around at the lower part of pillars. (part 1)

Posted by Malichat Ua-anant on June 10,2012 | 11:54 PM

The recent interest in the possible underground structures located in the mud flats of Spain by radar may have some ties to Kopekli Tepe. It is alleged that these structures rougly shaped in concentric rings may be of the fabled Atlantis(as per Plato). The unearthing of the structures will undoubtedly be expensive and will take time. Eventually, the truth wil come out and some history rewritten.

Posted by Colin Ropponen on June 10,2012 | 09:43 PM

The religious mindset assumes that this was a temple or religious place. Why? It could just of easily be a place where people lived day to day.

Posted by George on June 10,2012 | 08:47 PM

When I heard of this site about 3 years ago i was shocked to hear scientist say it's approximately 12,000 years old, the columns with the exterior reliefs etc are amazing. When first reported the site was less than 5% un covered, I really want to know more? I am a tweener in that I believe there is abundant life in the universe, i also think we have been visited in the past by ET's. The places like Puma Punku, Baalbek and other similar sites make me think people 5 to 17,000 years ago did not do these without superior technology or help from another solar system, i want to know more. Even Stonehenge makes me say, HMmmmm.

Posted by Jim Van Landingham on June 8,2012 | 01:10 AM

Aliens did it

Posted by on May 30,2012 | 04:42 PM

Take a good look at this and start asking urself some questions. Morning friends

Posted by Cphalex jiji on May 28,2012 | 01:56 AM

The question seems to be a resounding "why are we (humans, mainstream history, education, etc.) ignoring all of these sites on our planet? The guise of religion strangles us. A means of control to blind us from the truth. Our true past, of whatever origin it may be. Incredibly sad. One wonders how much longer the charade can continue.

Posted by Austin on May 21,2012 | 05:44 PM

Anyone else get the feeling that the physical evidence does not match any hypothesis yet presented and that we really know nothing about the why's and wherefores of this place.

Posted by Ron on May 21,2012 | 05:09 PM

I am a Kurd from northern iraq, I believe that this area was occupied Zoroastrian people who were kurdish. It is know among the kurds that the profit Zoroaster was a kurd who revealed to the kurds that their is only one god, way before any religion known.

Posted by Hardy on May 17,2012 | 09:56 AM

From reading about this place, it is absolutely amazing that the people could do all of this work with out tools. But the did so. I feel that if they just wanted to remove the place then they could have just destroyed it without spending a very long time getting material to cover the whole place.

Posted by Henry Bevis on May 14,2012 | 07:50 PM

Obviously the site was buried after it was built. Is there any way to date the difference between build time and bury time? Thank you.

Posted by alumnathe on May 6,2012 | 04:02 PM

Archaeologists always want to turn a Prehistoric site into a Religious site. Ignorant academics. How could they carve such precise figures on these stones with the tools they had? This is an obvious, very ovbvious either alien site, or it dates back even farther, much, much farther back in history, perhaps even to Juicy Lucy. But this is a site, also a very obvious proof of a very advanced civilization, from Earth or from somewhere else. My vote is Somewhere Else, NOT from Earth.

Posted by MistahKurtz98 on April 30,2012 | 05:44 AM

He says, "This is the first human-built holy place." I'd agree that it may be the earliest one that is known.

Posted by Robert on April 19,2012 | 10:09 AM

What dating techniques have been used to date these finds, and what labs did the dating?

Fascinating conjectures, marvellous findings.

Religion - worship of power, origins, the unknown etc. - is the only motive we recognise as explaining mass labour efforts involved in structures like these.

Posted by JOHN COFFEY on April 18,2012 | 10:04 PM

Folks, its just another landing site for advanced civilization space craft, not a temple (religion is such a lame fall-back). It's an airport just like Stonehenge. The site has perfect visibility for such. Oh, and by the way, Noah's Ark had a brilliant geneticist on board - they only needed a freezer to store DNA, not two of each living animal. Maybe the Ark even flew. There has been alien/advanced civilization intervention on this planet since forever. It is time to broaden our views. Earth changes via flood, techtonic plate movement, volcanos, culderas, asteroid impacts, etc. easily would have taken care of filling in the site. Who in their right mind would build a fancy structure only to fill it in? That doesn't make sense. And if you had spacecraft flying around, why not imagine that there was anti-gravity technology to levitate the big stones into place and maybe even lazer tools to carve them.

Posted by Wake Up on April 18,2012 | 04:57 PM

I am doubtful that this is indeed the first Temple. Many sites exist on our coastlines that date to before the melt off of the Great Ice Age, when sea levels were much lower. Also, has anyone considered the sophistication of the Nabta Playa in SW Egypt? Astrophysicist Dr. Thomas Brophy,PhD has done an extensive astronomical study of the site which exists on 3 levels and discovered this star map and sacred site goes back to 17,500 BC.
This remarkable site is frequently ignored and may be one key to the origins of the Great Egyptian Culture we now know.

I think man's sophisticated desire to assign meaning to himself, the world, and the heavens goes back further than we know and was expressed with his construction of Temples. The discoveries have probably just begun.

Posted by Andrea Rich on April 18,2012 | 03:46 PM

I believe Gobekli Tempe is yet another example of a site that was erected at one time, and later added on to.
If genetically enhanced Adamu began to show the power of reason, and individual thought, they may well have set out to find there former masters, and upon finding the megaliths at gobekli tepe, they may have considered the site built by their gods and set about building the walls that we see built up to the monoliths.

Posted by Dennis Ogle on April 18,2012 | 12:01 PM

This area of what is now Turkey was once lush and green, and otherwise so long ago. This site in function is similar to Stonehenge, or, the Stonehenge type site now located about 87-meters under the Baltic Sea, where once when the ocean was more shallow, people watched and monitored the sky, to predict the seasons and such, and other early sites for these purposes. As history reveals itself, we look forward to new discoveries!

Posted by R.D. Schrecengost on April 14,2012 | 02:00 AM

I humbly submit my uneducated thoughts over Gobekli Tepe. I was so excited at first, but the more I searched, the more this place ran contrary to all I had ever heard of Eden. I began to wonder if anyone had considered the biblical location mentioned in the story of "The Tower of Babel." The people came together to build a great city for themselves so as not to be scattered and forgotten, to make a name for themselves and build a temple up to the heavens as gods. God came down AS THEY WERE BUILDING and confused the languages. So if Gobekli Tepe is the lower more foundation layout (an uncompleted work) of a city or temple mankind was uniting to build and the work stopped suddenly with mass confusion of no one being able to understand each other... couldnt that explain also what was mentioned as human sacrifice? Since multiple language had never be known of before, is it possible that the people mistakenly thought it was some kind of sudden insanity or disease and in terror were trying to PURGE the community? or maybe executing those in charge they deemed most responsible for bringing down such a curse that even divided husband and wife, children and parents? or even a misguided attempt to appease God by offering human sacrifice? As far as the location being buried, I would assume God left it uncovered and empty as a reminder of how mankind CAN THINK since it was not destroyed like Sodom or Gomorrah. However, like Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame with fig leaves, I would think the last group of people to leave the area buried it trying to cover what had come to be their shame. That would not surprise me. It seems to be part of our nature to try to cover our shame. I hesitated to submit this line of thinking because I have no formal training and certainly no archeology experience. Please do not flood my email with beratings as I have already admitted to my own limited knowledge.

Posted by PC Sprouls on April 13,2012 | 11:07 AM

I wonder what sort of timescale an archaeologist would assign to the period of human development necessary to culminate in a monument of such obvious skill and proportions? This would mean that even older, possibly more primitive sites remain to be discovered, in effect recording human development up to this time, and maybe a thousand or so years earlier. From this point of view, every possible scrap of material which might provide dating evidence for Gobekli Tepe must be scrupulously analysed. The possibilty looms ever nearer that true civilisation (such as required to build Gobekli Tepe) may one day be proven to stretch back 20,000 years.

Posted by Anthony Randall on April 12,2012 | 09:32 AM

"This I feel is the most important question to ask, why did we stop being part of nature and become separate from it." Because Humans don't have fur! I know that sounds like a simplistic answer to a big question. But you try running around naked in the winter,humans are disconnected because we have to be to survive. We are weaker, and far less equipped to handle the everyday exposure of life on a wild earth. Without the rise of social order and the innovation of agriculture and technology; most of us would simply not exist.

Posted by Chris Applegate on April 8,2012 | 09:02 PM

"It would be interesting to know where the name, Göbekli Tepe, comes-from, inasmuch as, Te-Pe," Ask the Turks. It means 'hill' It's only a modern name for the place - of course. Modern Turks were from far to the East originally... not even Indo-European language family but from the Altaic family. The original name for this place was probably in the proto-indo-euro family... since these folks probably carried the language and agriculture into Europe shortly after it's construction. These people represent the bridge from hunter-gatherer to agrarian. They were not strictly hunter-gatherer. They're from a time when nomads began to swirl around their proto-agri plots. The land was rich - the spoils were great. The bands gathered in a central place for ceremony, for trade, for feast, for sex and for death. This 'temple' was the slow accruing of testaments to those meetings. And it's burial was not to protect it - but to bury it and forget it - to show it's defeat by the perfected newer/newest cult of agri - dismissing the 'backward' by the newly 'modern'.

Posted by PulSamsara on April 7,2012 | 06:16 PM

Don't get too fascinated with these ancient cultures, human sacrifice was very common in the BC across the globe. On every continent and ours it was happening right up to the Spaniards arriving. I predict the professor discovers this was exactly what this site was utilized for, appeasing the various gods with human sacrifices. Not burial grounds, execution chambers.

Posted by Patrick on April 7,2012 | 06:02 PM

"They buried it on purpose. The ONLY reason to bury something is to protect it." Not necessarily. Another reason would be to forget it - remove it from memory - dismiss it's people and ways.

Posted by PulSamsara on April 7,2012 | 03:36 PM

What an amazing find along with the others in Bulgaria, and Syria. I imagine that this area is being checked for more sites predating the once believed most ancient civilization. Makes one wonder if the flood myth in the bible might have some validity? Saw a special on the history channel about civilization lost, it was very interesting. The next morning I woke up I had a funny thought while sleeping. I thought the Kardashin family reminded me of Mideastern not Europian Jews. I decided to look up the Country they come from Armenia. I was surprised that they have a legend of being related to Noah. I wondered if anyone has tested there DNA to see if they are connected like they do in Geneology nowadays. This must be very exciting time to be in archeology. History is so cool, what will be discovered next?

Posted by peter marston on April 7,2012 | 03:05 AM

some very interesting comments here.....apart from noahs ark one, thats just silly.

Posted by gav on April 3,2012 | 01:35 PM

Very pleased that archelogical excavation did not occur until the last decade of the twentieth century. Now main stream archeology must deal with a 12000 year old site when humans were supposedly small hunter gatherer groups with no written language, draft animals, wheel or any implement that could be used for construction. I do believe if the site was excavated in the late eighteenth or early twentieth century it would have been dated to a period between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. and no amount of evidence would change the assigned date.

Posted by Joseph Burns on April 1,2012 | 11:01 AM

Have anyone checked the positioning of the pillars for alignment with the astronomical features of that time period? Do the carvings on the pillars relate to each other? Is the carving stylized? Has anyone done a pollen study? A study of the soil horizons may have a clue to the area's debasement history. It may be possible that more than just farming may have affected the area...Do they have examples of the tools used? And why are we calling them temples? What about a hydrologic history map? What do the satellite imagery show? Are there familier features elsewhere that we may note? Have you checked nearby watersheds for accumulated debris?...where can I find out more? What a wonderful article. Thank you.

Posted by Maria Ladd on March 29,2012 | 05:09 PM

Why a temple? Why is EVERYTHING a temple till proven otherwise? They buried it on purpose. The ONLY reason to bury something is to protect it. Our ancestors were NOT stupid, in fact I believe we have lost much of the foundation of our history due to scientific overreach. We are NOW learning that Neutrinos exceed the speed of light which contradicts Einstein's theory of relativity. Many cultures throughout the ages protected knowledge & advanced religion. One day we will find out we are NOT as smart as we think & science will be turned on it's head.

Posted by freedom 101 on March 28,2012 | 07:45 PM

Gobekli Tepe represents the first attempt at recordation of the animals which came out Noah's Ark. And since this location is approximately 12 miles south of mount Ararat, this has cemented the fact that the flood that has been repeated throughout all civilizations is a true event. The book of Genesis said that flood was brought about by the universal GOD JEHOVAH the same God who has promised the end this ungodly system that has engulfed all humanity today. I am also confident that with global warming , that the ice on mount ararat will melt enough to reveal the remnants of the ark but this will come at a critical juncture when we have crossed the barrier of no return. which will force Jehovah to bring about HARMAGEDON .

Posted by Michael S Peters on March 21,2012 | 09:14 PM

Yes people are realizing that their is ancient tehcnology. ancient aliens or ancient technology. either way ancient tech is present.

Posted by sadd on March 19,2012 | 04:52 PM

Quick observation.
Since humans don't do anything for nothing, and since this pre-dates the concept of money and advanced language skills that can relate work orders. We simply are not looking at the same time-line civilization which built this place. And this is a strong point.
So put your imaginations in over-drive because our people didn't do it.

Posted by Michel Gingras on March 13,2012 | 10:07 PM

...Maybe its just a structure used to teach people how to hunt? I would be better to build it in stone and use a school to teach how to hunt all different animals rather than carving it in the dirt day after day, years after years...

Posted by Scott on March 10,2012 | 10:44 PM

I recently stumbled upon this article after hearing of Gobekli Tepe in a History Channel documentary. I have read every comment and was surprised to find that no one mentioned the very first thought that I had... One theory about the building of the Egyptian pyramids is the use of "earth ramps" to drag stones into place. These ramps would later be removed leaving only the structure. My question is, Has anyone considered that perhaps Gobekli Tepe was not "completed and then buried" but instead "partially completed?" That is, the builders used earth to drag stones into place and support structures and something happened before it could be uncovered. The structures that appear to be below other could be mistakes that were easier to start over than dig out and correct. Any thoughts?

Posted by M. Harris on March 10,2012 | 06:58 AM

Um - Earth calling. This site really should be getting more attention, especially since it reverses the order of settlement/agriculture. Seems to me hunter/gatherers establishing permanent settlements before domesticating either flora or fauna is a really big deal and, more or less, means we need to toss all of the conventional wisdom and return to the Scientific Method - sticking with the data and forgetting about any kind of speculation.

Even more spectacular is the change the site suggests as a disconnect from nature: that the builders saw themselves as being different from nature which would, indeed, lead to what you could call either psychotic or Platonic models of social organization.

More - these settlers apparently occupied the area for quite a while so what happened to them and why didn't they develop a increasingly sophisticated social organization. No sign of writing or even tallies.

If the answer is a closed system with no need to develop evolutionary social structures then the question becomes what were the factors that did trigger evolutionary social structures?

In short, why did the settlers around these monuments sit on their hands for however long their social order lasted while Egypt and Mesopotamia, thousands of years latter, exploded into dynamic societies whose short histories encompassed endless change both politically and technologically.

Posted by Charles Kolsrud on March 6,2012 | 01:45 AM

they always say the stones came from 1/4 mile away but there's a quarry almost exactly 2 miles southeast that looks like the source rock...

Posted by aaron houghton on March 5,2012 | 04:46 PM

The fact that limstone can be cut doesn't do anything to impact the wonder here.

To use the 1040 theme, do you think they probably thought: oh since I don't have to do my taxes, let's me and hundreds of my socially non-developed peers drag giant 20 foot high, 20 ton pieces of stone up a hill and place them in a circle and then spend countless years building around it so we can bury it and build another one again. All the money saved from taxes can feed the hundreds of workers I would need, prior to the advent of agriculture where we could effectively feed them all.

There is no way this was built by such a society.

Posted by Stig Helmer on March 5,2012 | 03:33 PM

If you think that prehistoric man could not carve a huge megalith wieghing several tons with stones, you need some very serious educating. The stones that they were carved from are limestone (somewhat soft). All a worker would need is a big flake of granite or other stone much harder than limestone. You have to realize that prehistoric man did hot have to sit around and fill out 1040's and they were probably a very patient people.

Posted by Chris on March 4,2012 | 07:42 PM

There is an amazing similarity to the Maltese Temple period (4,100-3800 BC)

Posted by Dr. Peter J. Shield PhD on March 3,2012 | 12:59 AM

Unfortunately we tend to think in terms that limit human history to what happened in the middle east. Listening to the Nat Geo documentary about Gobekli Tepe, I was struck by one really important fact, no one asked the question "What event in human development in that area made us begin to be narcissistic thinking we were separate from and better than our living environment. It is true, we are looking at the history of the people that eventually led to the out of control psychopathic culture that now dominates our planet. Consuming everything in it's path and killing off all those that think differently or get in the way. There were many other places on Earth cultures developed and blossomed but never needed the massive disconnect we have. Buddhist teachings are focused on achieving the re-connect to the living world. If a religious doctrine is based on un-doing what our culture creates in us, shouldn't we question what happened so many millennia ago to create that disconnect? We have all read UFO contact theories, from David Icke to Erich von Däniken. I don't know about any of these theories, most seem really far fetched. However, there is one undeniable fact, and that is that the peoples that came from that part of the world developed an attitude unique to the human species, they developed cultures, religions, and written abstract language that all encourage and help develop that schism between our selves and the rest of life. Is that beneficial? I don't know, look at the results of the culture we have developed. How many millions of people have died, how many species have perished, and how badly have we upset the environmental balance of our planet. This I feel is the most important question to ask, why did we stop being part of nature and become separate from it.

Posted by John Skuja on March 3,2012 | 04:48 PM

It would be interesting in 10,000 years how the discovery of a baseball stadium would be explained by scientist of the future. Hope they don't find a rule book. But with ancient history sometimes it's better to let the mystery remain a mystery with the understanding that man was not as dumb as we have been led to believe.

Posted by Robert Gates on March 2,2012 | 12:12 AM

It would be interesting to know where the name, Göbekli Tepe, comes-from, inasmuch as, Te-Pe, was a city in Egypt, we know as, Thebes... Did the inhabitants give it that name, or was it added by travelers who'd known the Egyptian name?

Posted by Mr. Raymond Kenneth Petry on March 2,2012 | 07:08 AM

If this site was indeed that old,how many other cities were buried under the Seas when the ice melted?

Posted by Jim Wilds on March 1,2012 | 10:33 PM

Gobekli Tepe merely confirms what biblical history has been trying to tell us for thousands of years. We are not the first technologically advanced civilization on earth.

The burial of this site was deliberate alright, it's called a global flood which virtually wiped out all advances made until the event itself. Humanity simply started over....again.

However, our life span doesn't encompass five, six, seven and eight hundred years like those people recorded in the book of Genesis. Noah's civilization had to have been highly advanced simply because, these people's life spans were ten times longer than ours. Their accumulation of knowledge, life experience and technology must have been astonishing.

Simply put, I truly believe they were arguably more advanced than we are today. They may have reached a state of enlightenment not yet realized by humanity today.

Posted by Mark Delgado on March 1,2012 | 08:35 PM

Agree with awareness of ancient knowledge. Pyramids in particular the Mica pyramid of SA shows Pi relationship. Gobleki Tepe intrigues me; I immediately saw that it was not religious. Its purpose was to draw lightening as I noted to NGeo at the time of the article. For further enlightening see the diagrams of the Egyptian labryinth which for all the world appear as a structure for subatomic manipulation.

Ask yourself how the Earth came to be sterilized? Oceans and land alike? Did we have a antimatter/matter relationship that was disturbed into all matter and gravity increased?

Posted by katesisco on March 1,2012 | 02:14 PM

Dear Smithsonian,

I have submitted a comment, which may have needed further information.

The program that I mentioned in my earlier submission was How to grow a planet @ 9.00 pm on a BBC2 programm on Tuesday Feb 21 st Iain Stewart was concerned.

Dr Bernard Mooney

Posted by Dr Bernard Mooney on February 23,2012 | 03:53 AM

Archaeologists are finally beginning to realize that human civilization is much older than they were for a long time willing to admit.They hate having to rewrite the pre-history books I suppose.It wouldn't surprise me one bit if sites as advanced and also older than Gobeckli Tepe in Turkey are still awaiting discovery.Perhaps the memories of "gods" among a number of ancient civilization are just distorted legends of still more ancient civilizations that have vanished from history long long ago.

Posted by Bill on February 22,2012 | 06:06 PM

Question really: how far is this located from Mount Arrarat?

Posted by Lothar Malmberg on February 19,2012 | 12:56 AM

Even with todays technology and communications but without hydraulics and precise machinery it would be all but impossible to recreate this site and then bury it for posterity. The true mystery is that the unit of measure (the megalithic yard )used in the construction is the same unit of measure used in building the egyption pyramids, the bosnian pyramids, the incan temples and can only be derieved by having a complete knowledge of the solar system and the volume and circumferance of the earth and can only be gotten using a pendulam that measures arc of the sun set and sun rise during the solstice.

Posted by Peter Mac Isaac on February 16,2012 | 09:31 AM

Obviously, this is a restaurant and most probably for space travellers, who, having gone home to turn off the gas, have every intention of returning, but didn't want us, hairy folk, spoiling the place while they are gone (they filled it in!). Check out the menus carved into stone, very posh. Of course, the local currency, gazelle bones, was always doomed, pretty much like the washer-upper, guy, who floated off to safety, when the waters came crashing in, only to die 900 years later from an ancient, sceptic splinter. smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.

Posted by dentarthurdent on February 15,2012 | 12:45 PM

if intentionally buried, does that make it an ancient time capsule?... or did they just want to to build in only one place so badly that they buried the old stuff so they could continue building in only one place, allbeit, 22 acres is quite a spread of building site... Why? or there's the fantastic explanation: "Thus Spake Zarathustra" .... the stones were put there to inspire humans to explore their potential...

Posted by Joseph Onzo on February 13,2012 | 04:34 PM

The quarry site shouldn't be that hard to locate.

Posted by Tom Durst on February 11,2012 | 06:57 PM

am i understanding correctly that this site was dilerberately buried! The caption on one of the photos seems to be saying this. If so, this seems very significant in understanding its purpose.

Posted by joseh onzo on February 11,2012 | 12:42 PM

"massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery." I call it a contradiction. Not?
B/c obviously nobody carved straight angles and intricate decorations out of meters long solid rocks of tons in weight using their teeth. Anybody who dares to claim that this can be done using stone tools should really look in the mirror more often while saying something like that.

Posted by Andy on February 8,2012 | 01:22 AM

There seems to be a large animal theme throughout....perhaps an early market or trading station for hunters..?

Posted by adam on February 5,2012 | 05:25 AM

Is it possible that this could be the site that noah and his family settled in after the year on the waters. Carvings seem to depict a separation of animals, could this be a telling of the story, after the fact. Perhaps a holding place for the creatures until all the waters had receded. The settlements under this find could have been destroyed in the flood.The fact that there are feeding troughs in each section seem to say that this was some type of holding place.Such an incredible find, so many more amazing wonders await us I am sure.

Posted by roberta murphy on January 27,2012 | 08:15 PM

I noticed that one of the stones has a vulture engraved on it. Could these have been platforms to raise the dead above the ground? I read somewhere that at one point in time, it was the custom to put the dead on platforms to be devoured by vultures.

Posted by Pam Lesemann on January 25,2012 | 03:09 PM

More likely I think, is that humans were a lot smarter than we give credit. There's evidence for many ancient civilisations that we know little about so probably best not attempt to guess at their methods but instead continue to search for proof.

Posted by Paul Filby on January 23,2012 | 03:28 PM

People obviously cooperated with each other to build these monuments. There were enough resources, food, water, flint, stone, to allow for the necessary time, and non-hunters to devote to building.

Which also meant they had time for thinking, which can best be done on a full belly.

If the area was attracting a lot of people, maybe someone with stone working skills arrived and taught others. It does not look like the work of people who were trying to invent that skill.

The decoration of the stones reflects pretty much what they saw all around them, lots of animals of all kinds. Butchering certainly would have attracted a lot of predators. Humans like decoration, that is very apparent all thru history.

Its not a big leap to want a place to celebrate Nature's bounty.

If the water source was glacial, it may have eventually dried up, which could have forced the closure of the site, maybe with the intention of coming back, if the environment changed.

Posted by Elle on January 21,2012 | 03:30 PM

Consider the following:

60 % of the bones found are gazelle, along with boar, sheep, red deer, vultures, cranes, ducks, geese, all identified as wild.

So, from this fact we know there had to be large numbers of gazelles in the area, and in fact, they still migrate thru there, twice a year. There also had to be some sort of water way, indicated by the water fowl bones. Perhaps it was a glacial stream. So, 11,000 years ago, there was plenty of grass and water, enough to support all this abundant wildlife.

There is a neolithic flint quarry nearby. This all adds up to an ideal location, the site is on the top of a hill, it would be easy to scout animal herd movements, and it had other resources (flint) nearby.

Hunters follow animal migrations, which could have led to human gatherings at this location, perhaps twice a year. Perhaps, the bounty of the animal migrations attracted more and more people to the gatherings. Maybe enough meat could be obtained to feed a family/clan for 6 months or more, until the next migration. Butchering and processing would have to take place on site, then the meat all packed up and taken.

The name of the site means "pot belly", which could also be taken as "full belly", the hill symbolizing the fullness of the land, and visible from a distance to travellers.

Posted by Elle on January 21,2012 | 03:29 PM

Look at the placement of the site. If the surrounding waterways were similar then, I would postulate that the hill was a meeting place, a forum more than a temple, maybe also used for the funerals of leaders or important personages. The monoliths are markers for the various clans to congregate at during an event, and of course the carvings would represent the clan names/totems. Would you, if you were a great hunter, want to be known as a Lion (capable predator) or a Gazelle (runs away)? Multiple animal icons might represent alliances or marriage ties between various groups. Other carving marks may represent items or services for trade that the group was 'famous' for. Blank areas on the stelae may have been for presenting actual wares or 'posters'. My theory of the diversity of the carving styles is that each clan provided its own artist(s) to work on its marker. My take on the burying of the levels present in the hill is that perhaps a change in leadership, were it an overall kingship or an oligarchy, was shown ritually as being over, with the "new generation" built atop the old polical entity. I find it extremely interesting that this hill is similar, in its levels, not actual building style,(prototype?)to ziggerauts and stepped pyramids, or the 'hills' mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh. I would appreciate any criticism showing flaws in my constructions - thanks.

Posted by Donna Cannon on January 20,2012 | 01:14 PM

After studying the carvings and images of Gobekli Tepe, I have to disagree with the temple idea.
Notice the reoccurring themes of what appears to be water and those of eggs and serpents, I believe those represent blood and the seeds of life which would make Gobekli Tepe the oldest animal nursery and breeding complex ever found.

Posted by Anthony on January 18,2012 | 07:15 PM

Thank you for the excellent photos. All the promenant stelae seem to be shaped for easy hoisting or pulling. One of the most heavily carved stelae looks like it depicts a story of life in their time, from top to bottom: a field of long grasses; then a row of adobe arched roof houses with animals on the lower roof level; then a field of long grasses; then a stone wall; then another field of long grassland; then the growth cycle of a vulture from egg to hatchling, pre-flight, etc. Below could be hazards or could be sources of food. Size of object is often relative to the value of importance given to the subject.

Posted by John Dorris on January 11,2012 | 03:15 PM

If this site dates to 10,000 years ago, where are the archeological sites between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago? Were there environmental conditions that caused a mass die off like a plague that arrested civilization for that time period? Or are there other sites out there waiting for discovery and dating. Does this site fill any blanks in the civilization time line, or does it make for more holes?
We often think of Temple sites as areas for looking within (the temple) and sites like Stonehenge for looking out. Additionally, there is a need for architecturally significant sites to be visible from afar as a landmark or destination point.
If I were at this site 10,000 years ago, my principle purpose would be to look out at the surroundings. If I were in the surrounding area, I would use this site as a point of reference.

Posted by John Dorris on January 11,2012 | 12:49 PM

This is awsome; I saw it today also in a document for the first time. I wonder why the headline is always temple. The document I saw examined it from another point of view. Anyway it's exited that they found a new one again.

I thought when I have moved to Lapland there is a big area where in Finland Lapland is only a little bit mould and then awful lot sand. It maybe also after Ice Age when the Ice and stones came down. Even it is so near the poler lattitude that it could not be that much sand. I notished it when I was walking with a carriga to collect round stones for my art.

I am waiting news from the Göpekli Tepe more.

Leiah Sariell

Posted by Leiah Sariell on January 10,2012 | 10:00 PM

"This is the first built holy place" is a little misleading. "That we know of" would be more faithful.

Posted by Charles Frith on January 7,2012 | 12:34 AM

Why we don't beleive that this temple is part of human evolution?
Why we don't beleive that whatever we used to beleive should change?
Why we should beleive that every story about a war, event and infamous people written in old egyptian,greek, latin or today english belongs to the such nations were able to apply it?
My strong opinion is that this discovery is going to shake the line of the history being taught so far.

regards

Posted by history need to be corrected on January 4,2012 | 03:06 PM

The guys who built this weren't producing food. They were consuming it. So they had to be fed, in their staggering total of man hours, from the surplus produced by others. In other words, others had to provide enough to sustain themselves and enough over to sustain the workers.
Has that ever been done by hunter-gatherers? Those we know of, Australian aborigines, Kalahai Bushmen, Eskimos and subartic tribes had, in historical times, methods of keeping their population density low because hunting and gathering couldn't feed them all. Been said that Stone Age skeletons are primarily of males, which, if true, means infanticide for sex selection, probably to keep population down.
Even in fat country such as this, at the end of the last glacial, the idea that you could feed so many non-food-producers for so long by hunting, and not hunt the place out, and organize the population to pony up the surplus of their hunting and gathering--which means more work than they needed to do to themselves survive--seems kind of dicey.
I say, open the neolithic earlier.

Posted by Richard Aubrey on January 2,2012 | 03:01 PM

With only 5% of the known area excavated, how much of the Gobekli Tepe story do we really know? Early on, we thought that Stonehedge was not an occupied site either. Now we know that there were room blocks within two miles of the ceremonial site--in addition to another ceremonial site nearby. I'm happy to entertain this discovery as the earliest known temple . . . but the first? Only until the next discovery . . .

Posted by Laura Manning on December 30,2011 | 09:17 AM

Happy New Year to you all and what an exciting year it will be I am sure as Dr Schmidt and his team unveil even more interesting artefacts from Gobekle Tepe. I visit this site every year and each time I am in awe of the monoliths, the carvings and the extent that these people went to to create such a "cathedral on the hill". Roll on 2012 when I can once again chat with the lovely family who a guardians of this very important site and to see the new discoveries.

Posted by Sally Cousens on December 30,2011 | 07:54 AM

Interesting article. Scrolled through the comments and kind of shocked by the ignorance of some people. The people who are talking about Atlantis, Noah's Flood, Ancient Aliens, claiming the temple was built by some super-advanced civilization, aruging whether it's Aremenian or Turkish, (etc.) all need to take some time studying human history before spouting off about things they don't understand. I think Gobekli Tepe helps prove what I have long believed, that human beings developed detailed cultures, religous beliefs, and sufficiently complex social structures before agriculture was invented. Of course, the invention of agriculture was probably a gradual process (not some sort of sudden revolutionary process as some people who like to make cultural evolution into some great mystery, instead of the common sense process that it is, claim), so it is well possible that the builders of Gobekli Tepe were cultivating some wild crops. However, the findings of large quantities of animal bone suggest that their primary mode of subsistence was hunting and their social structure and culture were clearly already very complex. If I had to speculate, I would guess that the place is probably a sort of burial ground, possibly for tribal elites, with the animals carved on the stones being put there to ward off evil spirits or some other unspecified danger. Then, when they were done burying people in a specific circle they covered it with debris and created a new circle, but that is just speculation, we obviously do not know for sure what the site was used for. Hopefully, more evidence will come to light as the excavation continues.

Posted by Jeff on December 29,2011 | 01:29 AM

....there is a new movie...about world's first temple Gobekli tepe,Turkey BC12000...and it changes all about we know...
and 14 more temples discovered...

www.worldsfirsttemple.com
www.gobeklitepefilm.com

Posted by Zahira on December 29,2011 | 09:57 AM

This old town, ,maybe the last zoo, before, noah take his ark and save some species

Posted by gONZALO zAPATA on December 28,2011 | 10:52 PM

For the bible scholars---could this, or something like this, be associated with the first city--"Enoch"? "Enoch" was the name of the first city, built by Cain, and named aftr his son, also named Enoch (Genesis). Cain was probably a tortured individual, who was unable to obtain his food from agriculture, and probably a fear of animal predators (and maybe a competitor with for wild game)-- as he was wandering the earth before he built the first city. When he had children, I suggest his family evolved into a cohesive clan, which he would have been the natural leader of. Would his respect and/or battle with predator animals inspire a shrine, or a protective totem? Would he prefer to worship "wild creatures", such as the original serpent, as opposed to God, who rejected his agricultural offerings beside the offerings of his brother Able? I would love to hear comments.

Posted by Mary Dickinson on December 25,2011 | 07:02 PM

In many ways, it appears humankind has gone backwards. If writing wasn't developed for another 6000 years, it seems reasonable to consider the possibility that the societies who contributed to the building of this structure communicated easily without a writing element, perhaps with what we now call e.s.p., and also consider the possibility that whoever built the structure did not need conventional tools to do it, or that the tool was small enough to take with them when they were done. like say, an anti-gravity device to render the stones light as a feather.
Short of these concepts, one must assume these are remnants of a much older, thriving social structure who maintained an effective, labor intensive governmental bond without written materials or idol worship. So, at this time the beings were likely still connected to the life force of the universe and the immense power of the oneness of the cosmos.

Posted by Dan Schulte on December 25,2011 | 01:47 PM

John Leone wrote:
"Since there isn't any evidence of a settlement at Gobelki Tempe, and there are human remains, do you think it may be a place where a high preist or preistess may have performed a 'sky burial' like they do in Tibet?"

Klaus Schmidt metioned this as a possibility.

He talks about it in this interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8DOjnZu8H4

Posted by Larkus on December 21,2011 | 03:27 PM

Iam fascinated with Gobekli Tepe.I Think until we understand fully,the concept or meaning of stone circles we will never find the motive for doing so.As to how they actually moved cut and erected the stones is beyond anyones understanding

Posted by Michael Brewster on December 15,2011 | 07:40 AM

I think that the first kind of temple must be researched in paleoastronomic sites and such temple must be without form
(musang am in Buddism; the four cosmic directions of Aztechs). Before religion there is the sacrum (Sanscrit sac - ate).

enrico calzolari
www.paleoastronomia.com

Posted by enrico calzolari on December 14,2011 | 07:35 AM

What a fascinating discovery. Seems to me the animal motifs are natural symbols for cardinal archetypes, which further supports the temple idea.

Lion = king, enlightenment, judgment
Snake = healing, coming to fruition, lover
Scorpion = danger, warrior
Vulture/birds = far seeing, visionary, elevated
Spider = web joins it all together, magician, jester

The site's discovery comes at a time when humanity needs to re-establish a firmer relationship with the natural world. Could this be synchronicity in action?

Posted by Clarissa on December 13,2011 | 02:00 AM

Hmmm, what kind of hunter gatherers do we know that build temples? Indeed, what do we know of the kind of people that do build temples, and what is prerequisite, socially, spiritually and technologically, to the desire and effort to do so?
Will we continue to describe the architects and builders of this site as hunter gatherers? If we look beneath Gobekli, would we be surprised to find the remains of an earlier, pre-existent culture or disappointed if we didn't?
Ah! Where shall we build our temple? Shall we build in the middle of nowhere or central to our locality, perhaps, on top of those old time, temples to false gods, to better impose our new order on the savage, natives?
My observation is that empires and civilisations need temples and hunter gatherers do not.

Posted by Dave Carter on December 10,2011 | 09:03 AM

I believe there to be much more that shall be found on our earth. I too think of the stargate program where there was a scene which such things and it was for the purpose of the ships to land on. But that doesn't mean that I believe these to be either. Edgar Cayce makes for some interesting reading as well. But, this is what gets me on this, if it is that early of humanity, earlier than Giza and stonehenge, they didn't have that many tools to do such a thing and it would have to take a large group to build this and how long did it take to do them, so WHO DID THIS. There is more to be found like I say and we the earth inhabitants are going to be thinking even more so of our history and it might even throw some of our previous thoughts right out the door, in beliefs as the saying goes. Many people in the church do not like knowing of such things, for it takes away some people's faith. I want the truth of our earth, of our heritage, of all this earth. For once we find out who we are then we will embrace the truth more so which will bring forth a new beginning and it will be a very wonderful transition in life. Just my opinion...peace and love to all..

Posted by phoenix on December 7,2011 | 11:10 AM

Since there isn't any evidence of a settlement at Gobelki Tempe, and there are human remains, do you think it may be a place where a high preist or preistess may have performed a "sky burial" like they do in Tibet?

Posted by John Leone on December 4,2011 | 09:19 PM

Fighting Pits...

Posted by Belle Wead on December 4,2011 | 09:17 AM

The two main pillars central to the rings:

Father and Mother of creation.

Or could represent a "Chief and Wife" tomb that they had their tribe build for them ... prehistoric Pharoahs, Kings, Queens, Lords 'n Ladies Neolithytes.

Hierachical social order is almost a necessity for the kind of engineering accomplishment displayed here ... some rudimentary "techonologists" must have been present also.

Posted by Worshipper on November 29,2011 | 09:59 PM

Well, i can say. That this findings, is only the third generation of this EARTH civilization. With our present civilization, is the fourth. There's still 2 (two) more to be discovered. With the help of our modern SCIENCE (sattelite), especially. We can achieve this! We are alienated with this findings alone and yet still too many needs to be uncovered. Modern science need not to look up. Earth underground, where, modern science needs to concentrate. If they want the truth of our existence and the history that every modern man is waiting. If paradise is here on earth, therefore, heaven is just nearby.

Posted by Julio Eborlas Jr on November 24,2011 | 07:15 AM

Hey, everybody. All our comments are worth reading. Each and every ideas we've got is worth telling. Why not we bound as one and tell those incharged of this great findings. To dig more on the near surroundings. To find more evidence of their existence and activities. I think the Turkeys government will allow them to do so. If they need a helping hand. We can provide, right! This is our HISTORY. We will tell them to, DIG!!! DIG!!! DIG!!! for more HISTORY.

Posted by julio eborlas jr on November 23,2011 | 02:40 AM

To me, the scorpion depicted on the stones at Gobekli Tepe and the scorpion depicted on the gold medallion found in Ur's Royal Cemetery collection (http://www.baghdadmuseum.org/secret_s/pages/418.htm) seem to bear some resemblance. I wonder if there are ties to the Sumerians here.

Posted by Casey on November 21,2011 | 05:52 PM

> Could this not be an early armenian, asyrian, or greek area?

This is millennia before there were any Armenians, Assyrians, or Greeks.

> Noah's Ark landed in the mountains of Ararat.

Göbekli Tepe is at least 600 km from Ararat (quick estimate from the map).

Posted by Jarkko Hietaniemi on November 20,2011 | 01:52 PM

The mound builders of North America were hunter gatherers and also cultivated crops...the area would be examined for evidence of very early farming that will either prove to be contemporary with the site or predate it. The amount of workers needed to construct just one of these prehistoric temples would require lots of food, calories to provide energy and be not only dependable but also provide peace and cohesion instead of tribal or clan wars over resources...people who hunt only for food depend on controling large amounts of territory and game which they must defend...then there is the stone tool kits, hunters produce tool kits associated with hunting. processing game and for war only...the tool kit required for building is very differant and would not be recognized or needed by hunters...good flints would not be wasted making tools for anything other then weapons...working and farming stone tools are not useful as weapons or for hunting. Stone tools for building or shaping stone in large part were derived from tools needed and developed for farming...planting, harvesting,processing grains and building...farming came first.

Posted by Robert Lemasters on October 17,2011 | 05:45 PM

The History of our world has opened it's doors. That leads me to believe something is going to happen. We know demons, ghosts, and angel like beings roam this world. If you don't think this is true wake-up! Scientists say "there are more stars in the sky then grains of sand on all earths beaches," that alone should be a wake up call. Earth is estimated to be 5-6 Billion years old the Universe 15 Billion plus. Scientists also state that man's brain tripled in just 200 years.
There are over 200 sites known under the Mediterranean Sea that predate Gobeki Tepe. Okay now you see we humans probably came from one of these ancient peoples, but who were they? Question everything you've learned and stay alert possibly some day soon humankind will meet its maker!
I suggest you google Edgar Casey I think you will be astonished.

Posted by Larry on October 13,2011 | 02:40 AM

Our ancestors were wiped out in a global catastrophe. The evidence is everywhere. Only a few survived. Today we know the survivors' story as the last 5,000 years of human history.

Posted by Bombastic on October 11,2011 | 10:40 AM

I am living now in Sanliurfa, the city which is 20 km's away from Göbeklitepe. I have visited the site the week before. The digging goes on. 200 T-shaped obelisks are awaited to be found in the area according the book of Klaus Schmidt which I read till the end just today.

I would be not surprised if the animal carvings there would came out as hidden signs or letters. Perhaps one of the first scripts?

Was Gobeklitepe at the time after the Ice-Age like a paradise for the people there with its mild climate? How could the societies of that time have had enough extra time, food, shelter etc. for the establishment of these site? They must have carved the stones just with stones. Perhaps many 10/100 years long.

The snake should symbolise the "agriculture". Could the site which includes lots of snake symbols around the birds etc (like a sea!) be a protest or hymne of the free living hunters against the new approaching neolothical "agriculture" revolution, which brought just wars,slavery,bounding to a settled location etc. but enough food? Was not Eva perplexed just by the visions of the snake (agriculture)?

But even the first sculptures of the world like the guy with obsidien eyes may hide much more mysteries from us then awaited.

Let us see what they may be.

Just for kidding : Did the people of Gobeklitepe just build the stones in ring forms as remembered symbols of the stargate of the extreterrestial space invaders? New possibilities for Mr. Daeniken.

Or are we carrying still the wedding rings of people from Gobeklitepe on our fingers?

Lots of questions, no clear answers.

Greetings

Posted by Ahmet Tasyurt on October 9,2011 | 06:13 PM

While Schmidt theorizes that hunter gatherers had to have hundreds of people working at this location to erect the monuments, and that that level of social organization led to more established patterns which became cities. There is no evidence to support that. The Temple/ rings/ stones are just as likely to have been erected by a once or twice a year gathering of the hunters, while following a animal migration. Perhaps this temple site started out as being a good vantage point to assess and plan the hunts and eventually became a site to wish blessings upon the success of said hunts. The temple complexes could easily have been built in this manner, much in the same way, thousands of years later, the Egyptians built the first pyramids, in a cyclical yearly fashion, IE when the harvest was in and there was nothing else to do. I believe that the simplest and probably most correct guess is that Gobleki Tepe did not instigate the social formation of towns, but was simply something that happened along the way of that development.

Posted by Cimbaeth on October 8,2011 | 06:44 PM

I'm in Urfa and scheduled to visit the site tomorrow. As a one-time California archaeologist whose dissertation research was on complex social organization among prehistoric hunter-gatherers, the fact that these structures apparently were built by highly organized non-agriculturalists isn't surprising, but IS deeply satisfying. If it's true, of course.

Posted by Tom King on October 4,2011 | 01:17 PM

It is ridiculous for a scientific publication with a reputation such as yours to be comparing this site with stone henge located in the uk when there are stone temples which are thousands of years older located on the islands of Malta such as hagar qim and mnajdra temples !!

Posted by Sandro Zahra on October 3,2011 | 01:50 PM

I have to confess it drives me bonkers that we have gone from dismissing this site as a medieval cemetery, to arrogantly asserting we are now looking at the world's first religious structure. We know nothing of the kind, because we don't know what else is buried, elsewhere in the world or in Turkey for that matter, hidden from sight just like Göbekli Tepe was. Second, I find interesting the number of comments resisting the idea that this is a religious site -- and I believe this too is part of our prejudice, part of the need to secularize pre-history -- this is an example of people championing science against scientific evidence. We ignorantly focus on the delusional aspect of religion, its real failures, and we fail to perceive what science is revealing to be the case: that religion is a cognitive project, a way of knowing -- an armature and framework for understanding our place in the mystery of existence.

Posted by Ilkka J. on October 1,2011 | 12:02 PM

This seems to rewrite currently accepted history. Now the question seems to be what happen in between the time of this city and the 6,000 or so years of known history. That is a tremendous gap to fill.

Posted by John Bill on September 27,2011 | 04:35 PM

This is such an interesting development in archaeology. I suspect it is more even than implied in this article and an huge development in our knowledge of our history, whatever that will eventually prove to be.

Posted by brightbluesky on September 26,2011 | 11:50 PM

It's my guess that this megalithic complex was built at the cross-roads of migratory animals meant as a megalithic 'trap' for the migrating animals. Other such 'traps' have been found elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent. The sculpted animals are mostly predators: was this meant to convey the 'predatory' role of the complex? A constant supply of food may have helped the hunter-gatherers to settle down and to induce other developments, i.e. the start of agriculture. It's my guess, of course.

Posted by Dennis Cini on September 26,2011 | 02:08 PM

Why doesn't anyone grasp the obvious? Noah's Ark landed in the mountains of Ararat. Could this not be an early armenian, asyrian, or greek area?

It certainly has nothing to do with turkey, they weren't in the area at the time the temple was built. Get someone other than a German in there, include other nationalities as mentioned and let them interpret.

Posted by Richard Vartanian on September 24,2011 | 12:22 PM

Absolutely fascinating! The history of civilization just got a lot longer and I assume it's probably even longer still!

Posted by Khadgars on September 24,2011 | 04:05 AM

For those of you who are interested in seeing some video footage of the spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7OK0elLf00 this is a video posted by a spanish tv program called " Cuerto Milenio" ever since I've seen this video I check for updates about this place.Unfortunately no much news about new discoveries so far.

Posted by Vincent on September 23,2011 | 11:37 AM

Hunter gathering societies all of a sudden get together and knock this thing out. The worlds first temple made at that skill level. And wont even figure out agriculture for another couple hundred years. It seems obvious to me that our history is much longer and deeper then the story we are writing about it. Just because we now have the light bulb that doesnt mean we r out of the dark. No, I think maybe the light bulb we have is our ego burning so bright its blinding us from seeing anything else. The people who built this thing I believe have a history that is much more then hunting and gathering. And it's our history. Schmidt, you are a silly man!!!!

Posted by D.Galiazzo on September 16,2011 | 01:56 PM

One of the acheologists believed that they covered Gobekli Tepe with sand. I don't think so, After 12,000 years I can imagine that the wind blew sand that covered this find. I disgree with his theory. I cannot figure out why they did not find remains of people. Maybe if the dig continues they may find evidence of humans. Wonderfully, interesting.

Posted by Mary Cody on September 11,2011 | 05:09 PM

It's interesting to compare these stones,..."archaeologists interpret the T-shapes as stylized human beings...", ( no heads ) to some of the paintings at Catal Huyuk,( 5400 BC ) where "the absence of a head apparently was an artistic convention for depicting otherworldly beings, dead or divine..."*
Might there possibly be an earlier expression of the same idea at Gobekli Tepe?

*Mellaart,'Catal Huyuk, A Neolithic Town In Anatolia' London 1967

Posted by Arddu on September 6,2011 | 11:28 PM

Looks kinda like a Star Trek set to me.

Posted by John on September 5,2011 | 11:30 AM

I love this sort of thing and think perhaps civilization or at least advanced humans are much much older than is thought.Im also looking for other links to interesting ancient archeology.

Posted by Chris Berry on August 16,2011 | 07:51 AM

This is just an observation, but I do find it to be a rather interesting coincidence (if it really is a coincidence. Like others, I feel that the architecture and stone work left at Gobekli Tepe was not 'invented' there. There had to be earlier predecessors. I'm also not sure that what we're looking at is a 'temple' complex or anything to do with some ancient form of religion. That may be projection on our part, as we tend to interpret any ancient building complexes as part of some emerging primitive belief system.

That being said, I do find these 't-stones' to be rather compelling. So, when I saw the site of Puerta de Hayu Marka in Peru, it set me aback. Check it out;

http://www.labyrinthina.com/amaru.htm

The portal and t-stones are remarkably similar. Maybe its just a coincidence, but maybe not.

Posted by George Gross on August 15,2011 | 09:45 AM

Early Religion and medicine are so interwoven. Selling help with and or through those totems if you will.

Posted by Michael F. on August 8,2011 | 11:40 AM

Could this not have been the frame work for a market of sorts. Consider a huge open air meat market like those found in many cities today. The images of limbs as well as the differing animals. Later some aspect of the site it thought to cause sickness to those who pass through it so it is completely buried.

Posted by Michael F. on August 8,2011 | 11:31 AM

I've always wondered how farming could develop without property rights. If farming is so productive, then hunter/gathering on the farmers land is even more so. It's a problem that never seems to bother academics.

Property rights must obviously precede civilization. Property rights means law. In the ancient world, law was a covenant between a people and their patron deity.

Gobekli-Tepe demonstrates this in spades.

Thank-you for publishing this article.

Posted by JL Vaughn on July 31,2011 | 12:15 PM

The watchers built them.

Posted by azazel on July 29,2011 | 11:58 AM

More questions then anawers.These people were able to plan, measure and cut stone, then move them into position as an organized team with leaders. Unlike Stone Hinge this site also show a level or artistic skill and an aesthetic for beauty and proportion.
The skills involved all point to these people as being very much like us with potential.
The bountiful lands that these people controled would have had to be defended against outsiders. I would think that there would be indications of thier skills a warriors such as carvings of weapons or warriors. I think of men building these stone circles but I suspect that women/families had a lot to do with this site.
My favorite carving is the one of the tools used to move the stones...looks like a plow but it is two wooden tools a wedge and a lever.

Posted by Robert Lemasters on July 24,2011 | 07:11 AM

Göbekli Tepe’s (9600 - 8200 BC) proportional grid http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1637257069669.65733.1784037402&l=555f0e181d

Posted by Arturas Jazavita on July 23,2011 | 04:37 PM

Why is it that practically every archeological site is immediately tagged as having religious significance? I look around my town and see very few churches so why do religious fanatics always see a temple when they see an ancient building. Why don't they immediatelty tag a newly discovered building as an office building, or a barn, or home, or fitness center? I see a lot more of them than churches. A million years from now future archeologists will be digging around here and find millions of "temples", but we will have called them skyscrapers, sports stadiums, and large homes. I thinks what they have found in Turkey are homes, not temples. Places where people lived, not prayed. There is NO evidence of religion in those stone cuttings, only that humans cut them for SOME reason. This is not the oldest civilization either. There had to be generations of artistic talent passed down to who ever carved those stones. No built those structures as a first time event. They show ages of learning in the technology to carve bas relief sculptures. It wasn't learned there and then. It is totally possible that mankind 12,000 years ago had no religion at all, and therefore would NOT have built temples at Gobekli tepe.

Posted by JMPotratz on July 22,2011 | 01:15 AM

I definitly agree with the idea that there is more to be found. As far as idea that they were more advanced then us well that is right down scary. Because they could make such elaborate stone structures I wonder if they made things such as coins. On the internet it says that the oldest coins that we know of are only about three thousand years old. I think that the fact that those monuments exists suggests that there might be coins much older then we think. The Gobekli Tepe is a great discovery but the sad thing is that entire period exists in history that we know nothing about.

Posted by Gigles on July 21,2011 | 05:32 PM

Please stop seeing hunter gatherers [I prefer 'foragers']as 'slow': it is we who have forgotten what they knew, not the other way around. I agree with the suggestion that older finds have simply bio-degraded: Gobekli Tepe must be a culmination of prior technology. Specifically, I believe 'megalithic' stone work developed out of wood-working; wood is easily obtainable in 'big chunks'. I am actually most interested in 'who these people were', based-on whether they can be archaeologically connected to later known sites. Thanks!

Posted by Tom E. Lehman on July 20,2011 | 12:58 PM

THE TRUTH. GOBEKLI TEPE, located in historic ARMENIA,HOLY ARARAT(ARMENIAN PLATEAU, ARMENIAN HIGHLAND)"what is today turkey" ARMENIA:The cradle of civilization

Posted by alex on July 20,2011 | 11:45 AM

What is amazing to me is that these megaliths and the carved representations of animals on them had to have some fairly deep antecedents. People don't (and didn't) develop out of nothingness the technology to build such structures, the artistic techniques to create the carvings, or the symbolism that they carry (whatever this may be).

Caroline M.'s post of July 13 suggested that prior structures might have been made of biodegradable material. This sounds reasonable, but I would suggest further that the people who created the megaliths at Gobekli Tepe were more immediately preceded by others who created less sophisticated stone structures and carvings. Perhaps these were developed over time among related tribes of hunter-gatherers who eventually established some sort of confederation or other unity that would have been essential to organize the construction seen at Gobekli Tepe.

Space-age technology that is able to peer beneath the ice of Saturn's moons, or far underground on earth for mineral, could very possibly find such earlier stone work. Maybe archeologists like Schmidt should consider using such technology to scan a wider area throughout the region for such predecessor structures.

Posted by Eduardo Hernández Chávez on July 19,2011 | 05:58 PM

Perhaps they were 'cages'? The carving depicting what animal was in the cage....?

Posted by Eric Jacobson on July 18,2011 | 02:50 PM

Hmmm agriculture before religion or religion before agriculture? What about art before all else. I know when my tummy is full and I have no worries for a while I begin to ponder things about myself and my environs. I also have time to watch and listen and sometimes I smoke a little herb which makes me think a little deeper albeit sometimes not so rational but that's the whole point. Our ancestors that built this spectacular sight known as Gobekli Tepe gazed out upon a different world than what we see today. There were fears about the unknown and serious praise to themselves and others that came with knowledge. Information was and still is something we yearn for and ultimately hold our teachers in the highest regards. Maybe just maybe they were burying secrets of their society. Secrets that enabled them to have power over their advisaries and secrets that if fell into the wrong hands would be used against them. After all, it must have been very important to them or they would not have taken the time to set them in stone.

Posted by J Brewer on July 15,2011 | 12:57 PM

Once a month a fertile woman produces one fertile ovum. At the same time one fertile man produces several billion fertile sperm. This situation cries out for legislation! Nevertheless, it points out that there are an abundant excess of males in the world's population. Excess males, with time on their hands, spell trouble for would-be rulers. Therefore I propose that many of these worldwide, huge megalithic structures were a way to employ idle hands during the off season. Roman highways, Stonehenges, coliseums, pyramids in Egypt and Central America, and so on-all busywork. Without them there would be constant rebellions to put down. No work? Let's have a war.

Posted by Charles Walker on July 14,2011 | 01:07 PM

One doesn't merely whack two rocks together and get a Gobekli Tepe. Those ruins thusfar unearthed represent high points on a continuous spectrum of technological development which must have begun long before and developed over time, perhaps millenia. This stands our understanding of the development of civilization on its head.

Posted by Charles Walker on July 14,2011 | 12:58 PM

In this article, it is claimed that Gobekli Tepe is the first thing built by hominids that is more structurally complex than a hut. I beg to differ. It is the only INTACT strucure more complex than a hut. It is much more probable that there were structures more sophisticated than huts, yet still not as grand as Gobekli Tepe. We just don't know of them anymore because they were probably made of something biodegradable like wood, and are long gone to archaeologists.

Posted by Caroline M. on July 13,2011 | 07:24 PM

Where is GOBEKLITEPE? It is in Turkey. Turkey; the center of civilsations.

Posted by Arif GUNGOR on July 13,2011 | 07:32 AM

Well that is just preposterous. That goes against the accepted views of current archaelogy. I am scandalized.

Posted by Michael Hunt on July 13,2011 | 05:11 AM

hey my name is ron and i find all this intersting, but one question that have is if acnient people were so advanced in astrology, mathematics, and stone carving techniques why would scientist say that our ancestors were nomads hunter gatherers and basically below average intelligence.

Posted by ron winters on July 9,2011 | 10:39 AM

This type of discovery to me, raises a question of if no tools were invented yet, nor discovered in the digs, then how the carving and the limestone foundations? Also in the pictures of the stones, I see several unexplained carvings that have to mean something. For example: there is an 'I' on almost every stone (some of them are sideways) this means something. I believe they mean different days or different 'page' so to speak. there is meaning in the carvings. they were not just carved there for background. And the detail in every carving is very graphic and has to be a part of the overall picture. Why have these things been seen yet??? And why and how is it me that sees this first?????
waiting for comments..........

Posted by Maj. William H. Palmer on July 9,2011 | 04:20 AM

Let's look at the evidence. The limestone was chiseled out with stone tools, which fit the period of the time, and no advanced "machinery" was found. My guess here is like every good product, there is a good technique of construction behind it.

Let's assume at this time, all they used was pick axes to dig the stones out. This would of been the pre-curser of technology that the Egyptians used. Apparently, the excavation, movement, and placement of megalithic stones up to as far back as 10,000 years ago was a known procedure and spread throughout different cultures throughout the world.

Ask yourself then, how could all of these cultures develop this technique? .. You guessed it.. circumnavigation of the globe and contact with other civilizations that were taught this method.

You can bet that cultures must of been travelling around the globe as far back as maybe.. 8 to 9 thousand years ago and with them they brought the knowledge of how to build these large monuments.

The Sphinx is over 10,000 years old, and was there BEFORE the pyramids were built. Originally it was a lions head because the cultures at that time made sculptures of animals, not humans. It's easy to see when you stand back and look at all the evidence.

Keep digging folks, there's way more to find.

-CM

Posted by Caveman on July 6,2011 | 09:48 AM

This just proves that everythig we were taught in school is very far from the truth. I would make the comparison of us knowing about a cup full of water compared to the ocean!!! We just doubled the history of humanity.. This is truly facinating to say the least! It will be possibly hundreds of years befor we understand this spactacular discovery. We still don't know what the Great Pyramid was built for, what its function was, or what it represents truly.... This just makes me feel that we are not only in the dark about our past but have greatly underestimated the intellect and technology our ancient ancestors possesed. I do believe they were further than we are now in understanding the universe and our purpose here!!

Posted by Brock Salazar on July 3,2011 | 12:16 AM

Diverse animal carvings, a lack of fertility idols, most “sacrificed” animals are “ceremonially clean”, the “first” place of worship. The site is curiously close to where Noah’s Ark is supposed to have landed. There would seem to be an obvious connection.

Posted by Scott Alm on July 1,2011 | 10:20 AM

This is a mystery yet to be understood or properly explaned. For hunter gatheras to expend such energy on such a project basically repeating over and over the same pattern of structures and carvings non of which represent prey necessary for survival is a mystery to me. Early cave drawings always represented animals of prey. I agree with the observation that we cannot see the world thru the eyes of all ancient people as if they were children and we are so much more enlightened.

Posted by jerry waltersw on June 30,2011 | 11:14 PM

The first time I read about it I was amaze with the discovery, I´m from mexico and I like archaeology, If you see the development of cultures there is a mix of religiosity and social structure, what if this place were a point of gadder of clans and the first structures with figures were of the different clan´s "names", I said this because the warriors of ancient mesoamerica cultures represent themselves as images of deadly animals(jaguars or eagles) and not of dears or ducks. this is my point of seen things, I think this place is the most important discovery related to man kind until now.

Posted by Isaias Castro Bedolla on June 30,2011 | 11:10 PM

The most ancient human being has ten thousand million years! 10.000.000:5000 (academic history) and voila! We have 2000 opportunity for a new civilization! So, we should think on a new paradigm. The guardians of the mankind's knowledge have leave a message in Gobekli tepe to the future generations. The academics will not find the key. It is not an evil place, it is not a temple! Even today I speculate that the high knowledge belongs to a 0.001 per cent of the world population and is 500-1000 years in the future. To preserve the message they built it in stone and buried it. They were humans like us, maybe they testify something they want to warn us: an ice era, an axe earth deviation, a pole ice inversion, a meteor impact...

Posted by Aurelio on June 25,2011 | 08:40 PM

I find this excavation extraordinary. I first found about about Gobekly Tepe from National Geographic, so did some research on it, and it seems it quite late for the Geographic to have covered it, but that is a minor point.

It appears as if its some form of totemic animalism, in the sense that the carving depict creatures. But, before organised religion, and the fact that the culture that erected these massive structures were hunter-gatherers, it is an extraordinary find, and, as the Geographic says, religion (or at least some form of worship) could well pre-date agriculture which could mean a major overhaul of contemporary Neolithic understanding that we have presently, especially if we accept that with the rise of early civilisation we get the beginnings of organised worship and religion. This could then mean possibly that religion could have *possibly* been a factor and a cause for the beginnings of agriculture AND early civilisation. It turns it on its head.

I find it fascinating. A really important discovery that could alter our understanding of both early hunter-gatherers, as well as early worship and religion.

Posted by Kev on June 25,2011 | 01:50 PM

No matter what Gobekli Tepe was, it is changing the way we see our history. This and other megalithic sights around the world are finally being looked at through realistic and common sense points of views. We should be not only rethinking why these ancient cultures (spread throughout the world) have had consistent and common beliefs, not only with the so called "Gods" of their time but with the unbelievable and unfathomable structures of their time. From Central and South America to Egypt and Turkey.....Sacsayhuaman, Machu Pichu, The Great Pyramid, mathematics beyond what we can imagine for their time and feets of stone masonry that we cannot duplicate or would have to use massive amounts of machinery to replicate. Come on people its time we really focus energy on understanding where we came from and what these ancient cultures were trying to tell us. All I know is i've never been more interested, excited and totally intrigued in all my life. I am excited to see more and learn more about what we, as humans, have accomplished. And in an earlier age than we ever thought possible. Its time to start rewriting history for humanity and rethinking our views on religion and society. These are not just clues or theories about what these people are doing. They left these behind in stone for us to see. As we will try to do for future explorations when we are no longer here. We may not know why or how or what these past generations are trying to tell us, but they didnt go forth and build these giant structures for the hell of it. They were connected to more than what we see or feel today. Lets open our minds....there more here than what we see.

Posted by Rick Martel on June 24,2011 | 08:57 AM

Perhaps its time to re-visit the concepts of 'worship' and 'religion' within the context of the lives and the environment of the time? Hunter gathers do not need to spend all their time gathering food in a time of plenty. They do not generally catch wild game, then take it to another place to butcher it and then take it to yet another place (village etc.) to eat it. They would be practical people, organising their lives around what was logical and relatively efficient.
Also no need to pass on the knowledge of what they were hunting to be passed on by stone markings - this would be passed on, as ever, by the collective experience of their society - father to son etc.
More likely that these were spiritual places to make sense of their world at that time and to pay tribute to the world around them - perhaps visited frequently to coincide with animal migrations?

Posted by Mike Tones on June 23,2011 | 04:13 AM

Saying that the hunter-gatherer human spend all his/her time hunting or gathering, or in other words, fighting ONLY to survive, is like saying that doctors live in hospitals.

Hunting/gathering was a job, perhaps even a part-time one, but not, in any sense of the word, a life style. We must stop trying to explain our fore-father's lives in only economic terms.

Great article, though this place doesn't seem like a temple to me.

Our civilization is much GREATER than we think!

Abd El-Rahman
Alexandria, Egypt

Posted by Abd El-Rahman on June 17,2011 | 11:43 AM

Hello,

Hate to dampen everyones enthusiasm but perhaps this place is evil. It reminds me of a bunch of stockyards where livestock was rounded up and slaughtered. People buried this place to never be used again. A place of art and beauty would not have been buried intentionly. All the animal bones found here indicate slaughterhouse. Perhaps it is the gateway to hell and should remain buried as some previous people believed. Even Stonehenge was used for sacrifices. Cant imagine this was a place of worship even the pyramids are simply large tombstones.

Posted by leber on June 11,2011 | 10:40 AM

As what I got from their explanation and site where it is located. Because nobody knew when was the Great Deluge happened. Only the place where the NOAH'S ARK settled. Mt. Ararat is part of Turkey and Gobecti Tepe was maybe the best place for Noah and company, to thank GOD. I LOVE THIS NEWS, HOPING TO VISIT AND SEE THIS PLACE OR BE A PART OF IT.

Posted by Julio G. Eborlas Jr. on June 8,2011 | 05:54 AM

... that this site has an order of 16 is not astonishing at all , because the really old cultures where maternal , therefor preserving , like in computing storing data,trying to store everything that has been found out ,by ORIENTATION following the row

1 2 4 8 16 ... divisions of the whole

astronomy/astrology was maternal moon oriented and its very likely that the animals show an early zodiak matrix of 8 or even 16 star constallations , the most obvious in the sky allready there -
Scorpio !!!

Posted by vimal on May 30,2011 | 09:04 PM

Could it be that Gobekli Tepe was a school of learning and a sort of a gentlemen's club for hunters? They taught civilization 101 and traits of wild game. They say Adam named all the animals, maybe they were passing along the customs and traditions relating to the animal world.

Posted by Ron on May 30,2011 | 11:35 AM

How do we know that this "temple" was even a site of religious worship? It could have been more to immortalize the history of these people, rather than praising the "gods" for ending the Ice Age, as archeologists have proposed.

Either way, even if Gobekli Tepe was used as a temple (which is highly unlikely), it would be unlikely to change the anthropological makeup of the society which constructed it. Just because people wanted to worship, it is probable they would continue as nomadic hunter gatherers, and merely come back to the site every so often to occasionally honor the gods.

It is more likely for a society which has already established an agricultural system to worship the gods, to celebrate the cyclical and dependable harvest. But for hunter-gatherers, it is more likely that a construct depicting the local fauna was merely intended to help their descendants know which animals to hunt and which ones to avoid. There would be no time to philosophize about the meaning of life or spirituality, life would be a constant struggle to survive.

Either this was not a temple, the carbon-dating is inaccurate, or the people who constructed it had already developed agriculture.

Posted by Just A Kid on May 27,2011 | 03:20 PM

I've known for a long time that human civilization is much older than what modern science would have us believe. The fact that this site has been carbon dated at 11-13 thousand years old means that humans emerged from the last ice age as a fully formed civilization. Turkey is also the site of a large sprawling underground "city" capable of holding more than 20,000 people. One theory is that this was a refuge for ancient humans during the last ice age. If this is true then it is easy to see how humans could not only survive the last ice age but also prosper and advance themselves despite the harsh environment. A civilization capable of carving an entire underground city in stone would actually find it easier to erect stone structures above ground, especially after the weather improved.

Also, I do not see this as any type of religious site. Nothing at the site has been found to indicate worship or ceremony of any kind. It appears to me to be more like an ancient encyclopedia of known fauna. Like a Noah's arc carved in stone.

Posted by Gary Reid on May 1,2011 | 02:38 PM

I notice rows of holes on the tops of several of the monuments. For what purpose?

Posted by Cal on April 30,2011 | 03:08 PM

Thanks to "Ancient Aliens" I now know of this fantastic site on earth! Everything I was taught in school I have thrown out of my mind... I am now on a re-education mission.

Posted by THE AIRBRUSH GOD on April 25,2011 | 08:49 PM

a documentary has newly been made by a Turkish director.cant wait to watch.

Posted by M. KOCA on April 21,2011 | 05:43 PM

hi, im so enthused about this find!!! i wonder if anyone else sees what i see when looking at these formations? ever notice how they really make you think of crop circles? i wonder if there's any connection????? if anyone has any theories, i'd love to hear them!!!can't wait to hear any and all stories related if any.

Posted by gary lindley on April 16,2011 | 11:01 AM

The one thing that is really bugging me about this find is that they already know from using the ground penetrating radar, that there are sixteen of these "religious" formations. The base sixteen is not what would be considered a mathematical concept that would likely evolve at this moment of human development. Bases 2, 5, and 10 are much more practical and understandable for what we think we understand about the humans at this time period, base 16 only recently has become a commonly used base due to computer programming.

Posted by gene on April 15,2011 | 08:54 PM

The conjecture in this article oddly is that the builders of this site were hunter gatherer tribes. The logistics and engineering required for a project like this require an advanced, large, and mature culture. Since the site dates to the end of the last ice age, one must remember that the vast majority of civilation lived very close to the shorelines (as is the case today) and nearly all cities of that time will now be under water.

Posted by Bill Allemann on April 15,2011 | 12:24 PM

has anyone looked into the concept that the animals on the stones could be signs telling where to get the meat that thay want. COULD THIS PLACE ON THE HILL BE THE LOCAL BUTCHER SHOP?

Posted by david e lewis on April 13,2011 | 08:20 PM

Hello!

We thoroughly enjoyed this article. As we will soon be travelling in Turkey very soon, we were wondering whether the site accepts visitors? And if so, what would be the nearest town/way to get there?
Many thanks!
MB Barlow

Posted by MB Barlow on April 11,2011 | 09:22 PM

I’ve written a short story about Göbekli Tepe almost as soon as I’ve heard of it – in 2008. I’ve translated it to English for a literary event, and since there is no other venue for me to publish it that would have so many readers, I just put it up on the internet.

Here it is, as a google document.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y4kfWNXjXaJ2d-ljUDiJ5v9h3k8cV6a83e1QVyyfywA/edit?hl=en&authkey=CJGU_JMH&pli=1#

It’s a bit more on the philosophical side – investigating the discord between instinctual practices and the recognition of the symbolic form, and it also touches the Schmidt aspect of the new interpretation of standard marxist staple – first came the city, then the temple. It really seems that it was the other way around, which is all kinds of amazing in my eyes :) The superstructure drives the economic base forward – that makes art the most important of human practices.

Thanks for your time!
JBF

Posted by DiscoVampire on April 5,2011 | 05:29 AM

Considering the current history of civilisation was written by biased and uneducated europeans of the early 19th century, and the resistance to accept the so called "tribalism or savagery" of the east and africa, its no wonder civilisations have been discovered which contradict modern thought, just like the strong and somewhat violent beleivers of judaism who can not accept other cultures as being older and more advanced, such as hinduism. Until the middle eastern religions (judaic, christian and islam) put down their weapons and accept their history is only recent compared to the many forgotten or murdered out of existance civilisation have benn given legitimate thought we will continue to contradict ourselves and end up confused!

Posted by Danny on March 29,2011 | 07:31 AM

We have been on this planet a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things. We should feel humbled by the fantastic feats accomplished by these ancient builders.
It always makes me grin when man thinks he has answers and knows whats what. we certainly have ego's.
The older i get i saw the reverse true for me..i realized how little i know not how much.
We have not scratched the surface of our true history and perhaps books on it should be left open ended.
I congradulate the individuals who were responsible for such an exciting and fantastic discovery.
Lets all stay open minded because we really don't have the right not to be.

Posted by Herman on March 6,2011 | 08:27 PM

I find it fascinating how many dismissed the site until one particular person "saw" it, and I wonder how many other places or peculiarities exist that are simply waiting for that right person to come along to "see" them. It seems, however, there are just too many mysteries for how many "experts" there are to really study them. (I am right now watching some show on the History Channel regarding many mysterious and ancient sites.) I get the impression in both paleontology and archeology that every new find seems to throw most everything farther back than expected.

Posted by john on March 5,2011 | 05:47 PM

Does anyone look for habitation tools broken dishes around the the US capitol building? The Statue of Liberty? These modern day mega structures are built and those that build them don't necessarily live at their feet. Keep digging. we have in historical times have experienced contraction and movement in cultures and civilizations The written record and discovery of such records have allowed us to piece together our history as we know it. Go back 500 years,Troy,Macchu Pichu and such were in the realm of Myth.

Posted by Michael Leonard on March 5,2011 | 05:25 PM

how were the dates arrived at to detemine the age of this find? if anyone knows could you send me an email on the procedure. also has there been any early writings that might confirm or help confirm the dates.

Posted by gord utz on March 1,2011 | 07:29 PM

We All have The Right To Question And Seek Out Our Existence With An Open Mind, And Not Suppressed By Know It All Mentality. We Have The Need To Keep Learning, What Else Have We Not Found Yet! This Is Great Keep Digging I Do Say.

Posted by Dave on February 27,2011 | 11:57 PM

What we, as the less informed or educated take out of this is a mirror of who we are. The Person who loves history will see something to be astounded by, and will find joy in the greater picture of our past. The religious will see further proof of their god/goddess and will find joy. Even the Follower of the arts will find something of unique importance here. It's the nature of man when faced with something as profound as this (to our previous view of history) to try and bend it to reinforce their own beliefs.

Posted by Chase on February 25,2011 | 10:14 PM

@oneoarout
Do you really think this would be published if that were wrong?
Try 2500 years jacka55. There are no temples that are 25000 that have been discovered by us. Are you kidding me? Do YOUR research. wow.
Maybe because THEY DONT EXIST that this guy can't fathom their presence. Really? Your going to bring sexism into this? Just wow.

Posted by DTAX on February 17,2011 | 05:14 PM

also, yes, humans would spend years on such a 'project'. At a time of uncertain climate,as well as burgeoening domestication of animals and plants, not always successfully, it is natural that humans without science would turn to a "cult", especially if a ruling elite ordered them to. (Think of the Pyramids). they did not need to find shelter, they built shelter. And perhaps they couldn't find any food, especially if it is dated to the Younger dryas period.
There is no clear cut answer for places like this, but no idea should be completely dismissed, just because we haven't seen anything like it before.

Posted by Jenny on January 27,2011 | 05:55 PM

I find some of these comments unreal. Hunter gatherers "didn't exist" in this area? What, because you've excavated the entirety of this area yourself and come up with conclusive proof this isn't a possibility, have you?

It's a shame that christians grab onto to hard work of scientists and archaeologists and mould it to their own ends. I have read the bible, and have made my own mind up.
I wholeheartedly agree with the poster below.

The western world is Christian because one powerful roman emporer converted out of numerous available religions at the time. The Romans conquered England, then the British went about colonizing and "civilizing" people. we'd all till be praying to the Norse Gods if the Romans hadn't been successful.

This is an amazing discovery by itself, and, when taken into context with sites such as Catalhoyuk, is not totally out of the norm. Many times our understanding of dates in terms of Agriculture, material culture and social complexity are pushed back as new sites are found.

11,000 BC, 12,000 BC, or 9,000BC, it's a wonderful site, and will hopefully contribute to our understanding, and my own research in years to come.

Sometimes I wish people would not constitute 15 minutes of googling "research" and would seek to understand things as a whole, in context and in detail before making ill-informed comments.

Posted by Jenny on January 27,2011 | 05:51 PM

I find it interesting that many people are trying to tie this find into the Genesis account of the garden or even the first settlement after Noah's fantastic voyage to save humanity, when in fact given the genealogy or generational time line as written in the Bible this site is more than 5000 years older than Adam. I believe this is proof, actual scientific evidence of an alternative history that is so hugely separated from modern religions that it will surely be absorbed into some pseudo rationale that will explain it as proof of the Biblical account if one only has faith. There are many interesting details that have incredibly been left out of this conversation. First of all there is no evidence other than the structure itself that man was even there.... no pottery, no furnishings no broken jars, and most notably no tools at all... and this structure is in almost pristine condition and much of it is still to be unearthed. Some of the comments I'm reading remind of stories that children tell themselves so that they can still believe in Santa Clause, after all he gives you things when you behave too, and belief in him only requires faith.

Posted by joe on January 24,2011 | 12:22 AM

IT IS SHAME TO SEE HOW THE ENTIRE WORLD WATCHED THE KILLINGS OF ARMENIAN IN 1915 AND DID NOTHING, NOW WATCHES HOW THE KILLER REWRITES THE HISTORY AND DOES NOTHING. IT MAKES THEM GUILTY AS MUCH AS THE ACTUAL KILLER. THAT'S ALL I GOT TO SAY, SHAME ON YOU WORLD.

Posted by Arman G. on January 17,2011 | 06:06 PM

Christians who believe that God is love and forgiveness need to fulfill God's desire that those who receive God's love and forgiveness share it with everyone else in the same way it was received: unconditionally.

As far as Gobekli-Tepe is concerned, we need to understand is that humanity has sat on the globe for about 200,000 years but only portions of the last 13000 years is remembered.

It is quite possible that God came 200,000 years ago to work with humanity and develop society. As these attempts failed, God left and returned at various times over the 200,000 years to try and create society, which took place about 5000 years ago (whatever the real number is I don't know - I am just guessing when townships began to arise).

If the Bible story of a biblical flood is true, it is possible that Gobekli-Tepe was the actual site of the flood. If so, the site might produce the first-known evidence of Nephilim, these extra-tall, extra-strong, extra-long living creatures like Methuselah.

Look at the way the stones are set into the mountainside. it's a fortress, and could have been where the Garden of Eden was. People who already suggest this to be true, I believe, are right on this one.

People keep insisting on proof of God's existence. To do so would eliminate faith. You have to believe in order to see this as proof, but it's where you have to start. If you don't, then the evidence doesn't make any sense.

Beware of the end. We are running out of resources, and the seals and plagues of revelation will fall upon us then. We are at the end of our heyday, the end of the Philidelphian church of Revelation. The human population has tripled since 1950, and there's no sign of stopping soon.

Christians who believe that God is love and forgiveness need to fulfill God's desire that those who receive God's love and forgiveness share it with everyone else in the same way it was received: unconditionally.

Posted by Reverend.Roy on January 12,2011 | 04:33 AM

I have researched this and I see some flaws in your work. One being that it is actually 12,000 years old, not 11,000. Also, you didn't bother to explain how Klaus Schmidt found this massive structure. The answer is he was working in his field when he discovered a point protruding from the ground. He sought a shovel and began to unearth the unknown structure. I hope you will consider this and change your work.

Posted by Danya Ewing on January 10,2011 | 07:03 PM

Perhaps the problem is that people no longer take the bible seriously. I understand science's emphasis on proof but if what the bible says is true, then Noah, who possessed the knowledge of maritime technology, did exist. He landed on mount Arat and his progeny filled the vallleys. Guess where Mount Arat is. Turkey. It should be the land of first for post deluvial man. Nobody should be surprised. He brought civilization with him one of the characteristics of civilization is monumental art. Isn't that interesting. His book is in the psueda-pocrapha. I have the book and anyone can purchase it at a book store.

Posted by Solomon on January 10,2011 | 01:32 PM

Such a wonderful find ... and there are surely many more. Who would have imagined that such a sight would have been intentionally buried? I still feel disappointment for the science of anthropology .... this must surely be a burial site. This is always the assumption, but stone circles are, of course, always astronomical sites. Burials came later by peoples who had lost the knowledge of the use of such sites. As this site appears to have been buried by its builders, I hope Mr. Schmidt is not too disappointed if he does not find a cemetery at the base of this complex. Science requires that we constantly question all of our underlying assumptions. The assumption of the simple minded hunter gatherer, who achieved nothing before large scale agriculture may be finally that which we find buried at this site. Respectfully submitted.

Posted by Stephen Jackson on January 9,2011 | 11:17 AM

Obviously to anyone with an interest in the ancient history of mankind .. in prehistory ... is riveted by this discovery. I think it so very fortunate that tis was not unearthed by the Spanish Inquisition or someone like a Taliban or (name your religion here) other extremists who would have immediately destroyed it, lest this reality challenge their world view. The level of expertise in stone work is amazing. Yet as a lifelong student of art, I am even more amazed by the carvings, something about which I have yet to hear a word. These are not primitive, childlike representations. They have depth. The ribbon carved into one of the pillars looks almost abstract, and so modern to my eyes, that when I first saw the photograph I thought it must surely be a hoax. It is not. May we please put to rest that human civilization is only 5,000 years old now? Thank you.

Posted by Stephen Jackson on January 8,2011 | 02:24 PM

Perhaps, being located in an area which experiences powerful devastating Earthquakes, having once (or even twice or more), all their pillars knocked to the ground decided to bury them to keep them erect and planned to excavate them at some later time when it was deemed safe to do so. I just hope I live long enough to see what is found when more of the area is uncovered. At almost 75 I need them to get a move on.

Posted by Sid Smith on January 6,2011 | 05:54 PM

I would like to go visit Gobekli Tepe one day, I do wish they could have excavated more than 5 percent of the site. Why can they get more help to speed the process.

Posted by Jacki on January 6,2011 | 06:33 AM

oneoarout - Are you serious? Do you have source that can show us proof of these so called temples built around 25,000 years ago. I think you are seriously misinformed.

Posted by Ramses on January 5,2011 | 12:39 AM

Folks always seem to take things of historical signifigance and make something political out of them. Poor, silly, lost humans. May God help us we search out who we are.

Posted by Robert Hensler on January 1,2011 | 07:54 PM

Don't archaeologists read others' work? There are temples in the Greek isles dating to 25,000 years ago. It's just out of ego that Schmidt needs to turn this magnificent site into a glorification of himself by claiming to be "first." More cult of the self than scientist. Maybe because those earlier temples were matriarchal, this guy can't fathom their importance.

Posted by oneoarout on December 31,2010 | 06:53 AM

Folks, A lot of pablum and supposition is being bantered about here....one big GLARING obvious and IMPORTANT question remains...WHO built this 'temple'??...because ignorance or BLINDNESS would keep us from accepting that HUMANS could build that place, and then BURY it, without ANY assistance...when, during that time, they certainly were more concerned with STAYING alive and finding SHELTER...not spening YEARS to build a stone temple, with perfect animal carvings on them.

Ya....humans did that. ( eyeroll )

Posted by Ess Gee on December 28,2010 | 01:28 PM

This is an other flow to conventional theories of anthropology and evolution of mankind, there is no way that such huge structure were made by some even hunter gatherer which were not even suppose to exist in that particular era, by carbon dating the site is about 9000 B.C, another indication of truth to ancient mythology, Gods in the sense of creating humans and our ignorance of our ancestors, where we came from, defiantly a major part is made in earth, but the remaining...

Posted by Luk on December 26,2010 | 07:44 AM

It is clear that, despite the needless commentary, from different sources,that if only five per cent of the site has been excavated, then we need to wait for further discovery.

Energy could be exercised in bringing to bear further excavation, as this site has the promise of great discovery.

I would like to visit the site. It is a page in our story and for that reason I would like to be there to at least read one of the pages.

Intuition could well inform.

Posted by Terence O'Neill-Joyce on December 23,2010 | 02:39 AM

I visited Turkey four years ago and heard about Goebekli Tepe but my tour group did not get anywhere near it. I was then and am still fascinated by the little information available. The article in the Smithsonian reminded me of the site, and I hope for descriptions of what was discovered since 2007. Have the archeologists written any reports since then? Where can I find them? If there is something to see, I may visit site. I am an armchair archeologist.

James

Posted by James N. Grahmann on December 19,2010 | 11:42 AM

Seems farfetched to think that the first temple site in the world would be this elaborate. This article sucks the mystery right out of the place. How about the 3-dimensional cat-like carving on the one pillar? Think how think the pillar had to be before the cat was carved from it. How amazing it would be to bury a whole complex that big under 20 feet of sand! The writers act like people do this everyday and it's no big deal. Sure. Early man just dragged all these pillars to the site and lifted them... just like that... lol!

Posted by David on December 18,2010 | 05:47 PM

Aliens built that.

Posted by Balthazar Ballzak on December 17,2010 | 08:27 PM

I am totally facinated by this discovery, and the above comments.

I am a "hobby" level anthropolgist, but by education I am an engineer. What subconsciously catchs my thoughts when I look at discoveries like this is, "Where did they get the knowledge to plan this, construct this, ... do this." They did not just put down their weapons and take a break from hunting. The implication is that there is a developed civilization that produced the people who built Gobikle Tepe.

It fills a time slot for the History channel s.a. "Acient Astronauts" but I think there is an extremely remote change that something like that actually ever happened.

Posted by A'rthose on December 17,2010 | 05:29 AM

Hi all! I was interested in the dating method used to find the date of 11000 years - confirm that would be 9000BC? Thanks!

Posted by Keith Robertson on December 5,2010 | 01:14 AM

I would like to know what has been transpiring at the site itself while all of this very interesting discussion has been going on? What new discoveries? New photos? What other scientists are now working at the site? What about cross-disciplinary assessments and commentary? I appreciated reading all comments that were well-written and presented intriguing pieces of information, and I personally enjoyed the variety of viewpoints concerning the origin of this ....(whatever it is). This is how we figure out an approximation of 'the truth'--by seriously considering a variety of viewpoints. (remember the story of the 5 blind men describing an elephant? The man with his hand on the elephant's belly surely thinks that the man describing the beast's long nose is perpetuating a hoax, at the very least.)

Posted by Renee Romancia on November 25,2010 | 02:21 AM

If it's 11,000 years old (big if), it would predate the hypothesized origin of the Proto-Indo-European people by several thousand years. In that case, calling it specifically Armenian (one branch of Indo-European) is ridiculous. Lots and lots of people moved through Northeast Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor during prehistory, and there's been a lot of displacement and intermixture over the eons. It's totally absurd for any modern group to claim a unique link to any truly ancient site (eg Celtic nationalists who claim Stonehenge as their own despite it predating the rise of Continental, let alone British Insular Celtic culture). But as for the claim that this site's dating refutes "all evolutionary claims", that is simply nonsense. Even if this very ancient date is correct, it falls within the neolithic period, not the paleolithic. But even if some site somewhere DOES make us have to push back the earliest date of neolithic civilization a few thousand years, how could that possibly be taken as a refuations of "all evolutionary claims", most of which deal with hundreds of MILLIONS of years of biological development, not a few thousand years of cultural development. Finds that lead to the fine tuning of our understanding of the chronology of human cultural history is the NORM in anthropology and archeology.

Posted by John Richardson on November 20,2010 | 10:51 AM

Yiğit Yener,

I am an Armenian, we come from Yozgat on my grandfather side, and from Musa Dagh on my mother's side. We were thrown into the burning deserts of Syria in order to dissappear. But we still exist.

We want to make peace with you Turks. Let us solve this last remaining issue, and then let us be brothers.

Let us learn from our ancestors in Goebekli Tepe, what their message was? Respect for the universe, respect towards animals, living in harmony with nature and with our brothers,sisters all over in the world.

Peace from an Armenian brother,
Harout

Posted by Harout on November 17,2010 | 10:38 AM

Go back to 1071.

Posted by Yiğit Yener on November 15,2010 | 04:37 AM

There was no Armenia 11000 years ago. They were at these times "Armenia" 2300 years ago. By the way, No part of Turkey belongs to Armenians anymore, because they killed many people in the northeast of Turkey, so they were moved to Syria. Nobody was killed during those days. The old or sick people died, as it often happens. The genocide which we have to think about are the worst ones, such as the French people made in Algeria, or nazi people made in whole Europe. Even napoleon killed many innocent people. These times, both Russia and America attacked Afghanistan. America also killed or moved over 2 million people from their homes, in Iraq. Many African countries attack each other and kill the civilians for Uranium or petrol.

Posted by Yiğit Yener on November 13,2010 | 08:26 AM

HUMANS ARE VEGETARIANS, NOT HUNTERS. ORIGINALLY WE WERE SCAVANAGERS. DNA STUDIES TELL US THIS.

It is amazing to have to re write history with thid discovery.! The concept that religion was first, and seeds dropped in these temples sprouted, and gave man the idea of farming makes sense.

DNA studies ( see BEYOND STONES AND BONES) Newsweek article has a good explanation) tells us humans were hunted, not hunters, actually scavangers. The concept of us being omnivorous therefore has also to be reviewed, and researched because this might be erroneous too.

Medical studies by the American College of Cardiology, by Dr. Esselsteyn from the Cleveland CLinic, and Dr. Campbell ( Cornell/NIH- THE CHINA STUDY) all lead me to believe indeed, in spite of over 98,000 years of Homo Sapiens' evolution, our physiology has not evolved. This would explain why in developed nations where animal based diet dominates, cardiovascular disease and cancer are the top three causes of death. However, these are practically unheard of in primitive groups who still eat a vegetarian diet, and very rarely consume animal products.
Thanks
G Kaplan, MD

Posted by G Kaplan, MD on November 12,2010 | 10:59 PM

The construction of the temple at Gobleki about 500 years before the first beginnings of agriculture in that area (and on Earth) supports Mesopotamian and more specifically Sumerian "mythology" that states that their young gods, the Igigi instructed humans in the ways of new technologies and forced them to do their work of building temples for the older gods, the Anunaki.
Whatever the source of the myths, it is interesting that a new race is created by minor gods inbreeding with ancient humans. They are then forced to do their work and are in turn instructed in new technological methods, agriculture likely being one.
Thus oral creation myths passed on by Sumerians and Babylonians support the idea of primitive hunter gatherers moving to god worship and temple construction prior to agriculture.

Posted by Tim on November 5,2010 | 11:33 AM

I really am amazed at how many people are making asses of themselves over what country or group it made it. It is a Turkish temple in as much as the region in which it exists is currently call Turkey. There is no great conspiracy trying to claim that Turkey and it's people existed that long ago and created it.
Ruins and such like this are generally associated to that which the public will be able to relate. The general public couldn't tell you where Armenia was, but most of them could probably point out turkey on a map.
For those that wish to complain about it anyway, it wouldn't Armenian anymore than it would be Turkish as neither culture existed in 9000BC.

Posted by Brian on October 24,2010 | 01:18 AM

good reading

Posted by jerry on October 23,2010 | 02:45 AM

Here's how your cultures stay illiterate,poor and underfed.
Continue fighting 6000 year old wars.

Posted by Name on October 19,2010 | 12:33 AM

Noah landed 150 miles to the east,where he settled,according to Moslem legend.

This may predate even Noah,or be a stopover on his way to Knossus.

Posted by Name on October 19,2010 | 12:17 AM

When Noah "built an altar to God"....do you suppose it was two legs and a slab on top? Or was it something more curious and grand, to celebrate God's Grace and survival of life on Earth as well as START agriculture with a new climate and the need to plot times and seasons integrated with the altar.

It could have been buried out of respect or out of a desire to hide the truth of the Ark.

Why would you need houses, a town, etc. when your house has been and is a giant box with a WHOLE BUNCH (technical term) of rooms and laundry and waste facilities? With all the animals offloaded, the Ark would have made a great little town for a while...
and it probably didn't disintegrate right away...until it was used for firewood or separate construction.

Posted by Watcher on October 19,2010 | 04:11 PM

Cool!! thanx for the new info--plse keep us updated --

Posted by LAURA on October 19,2010 | 09:55 AM

@Wouter Voskuyl : Thanks for that piece of information. I have been trying to find out if it was possible to visit the place.Too bad that it sounds like it is not. Dont understand why they cant just have one tour a day or something for a small group. They could charge money for it and it seems something like this should be shared.

Posted by Me on October 18,2010 | 10:41 PM

Two weeks ago we try to visit Gobleki Tepe but we could't enter the site because the security man told us to leave from order from Ankara. I hope some time returning and may enter the site!

Posted by Wouter Voskuyl on October 12,2010 | 09:16 AM

..it's pretty obvious that the prehistoric people you claim made this had some help,.. that nobody seems to want to talk about.
- related news, Druids get recognized as an official religion in the UK.0ctober 2010. they recognized nature as the supreme entity... correctly so.
The fact is,.. standing stones are like tuning forks, for the natural magnetic grid of Earth, the standing stones are all at major power points... that is why they destroy the previous culture, and bury it.. destroy history and nature,, just the the us in Avatar. Its like that all over Earth.

Posted by Scott Shaubel on October 4,2010 | 09:36 PM

The comments posted here are worse than the wild guesses made by the people examining the site, but not by much.

Posted by Ron on September 29,2010 | 07:56 PM

Agriculture is a step back in evolution. The Garden of Eden was natural and provided for all the basic needs. What could be better than that?

Posted by ericswan on September 13,2010 | 01:55 PM

As a matter of fact, there is something incongruous about the carving on the stone slabs. There is no connection between the shape of the stones and the decorations: they seem to be randomly placed. And there is no stylistic coherence between the various images carved. Some are more stylized, others more naturalistic. They nearly seem to come from different visual contexts and cultural backgrounds. Obviously one needs some better photos to analyse carefully this delicate matter.
But the fact remains: a kind of feeling that something is not quite right from a strict esthetical point of view.

Posted by piero crida on September 9,2010 | 06:42 AM

Those who do not see the relevance whether this is a Turkish or an Armenian site and offer condescending "get over it..." advice, probably also have not seen any problems with the eradication of Native American populations by Colonial/Imperial powers, and do not currently see the relevance of the ongoing expansion of Zionist settlements which have changed the identity of Land of Palestine and have left a few million people homeless, and have not felt or recognized the pain of the 1.5 million Armenians who have sacrificed their lives on the Altar of humanity and many other millions who were exiled worldwide begging at the doors of embassies to struggle for a dignified life.

There is strong evidence that there was an Armenian Orion-Orrheonis (Greek)- Our-hai Cult at Edessa. The Sumerians note that their ancestors were Arattans -from ArArAt. The list can go on if one were to investigate. So the rhetoric that 11,000 years there was no Turk or Armenian is invalid.

What was the message of those early Temple builders. The animistic nature of the carvings indicate a level of respect they held towards living creatures, something that modern man has forgotten to keep, the evidence of which is massive extinction of species and accelerated death of the Earth- AYA- our Fertile Mother.

It is crucial to use the discovery of this Sacred Ancient site as a basis not only to highlight the atrocities of what mankind is capable of, the systematic ethnic cleansing of an entire population, but moreover, how humanity is capable of forgetting such atrocities, how our current selfish humanity puts the economic and political interests in favor of the pursuit of Truth and Justice, and it is finally important to highlight the Forgiveness of humanity, that if the Turks recognized and apologized the atrocities of the past, the Armenian people will extend their token of fellowship and brotherhood to the Turkish people, who after all, belong to the same family of BEING.

Posted by Jonathan on August 31,2010 | 12:47 PM

That is why the Armenian people are still poor today.they are already discussing the history, instead of today.My Armenian fellows; it is science and culture not history platform.Say something about that.Please give up your resentment.

Posted by Burak on August 5,2010 | 06:52 AM

Given the obvious level of structural and artistic sophistication evident at Gobekli Tepe, I am amazed that Peters and Smith have concluded that this is the work of pre-agrarian, hunger-gatherers. The stone-working and artistic skills clearly apparent in the photographs of the Gobekli Tepe site, did not spring into being over night. The skills needed to quarry, move and position stones of substantial heft, and then adorn these monoliths with sophisticated carvings of animals and insects, would have evolved over a long period of time. This should be self-evident. The article acknowledges that "at a prehistoric village just 20 miles away, geneticists found evidence of the world's oldest domesticated strains of wheat; radiocarbon dating indicates agriculture developed there around 10,500 years ago, or just five centuries after Gobekli Tepe's construction.

My guess is that if they keep digging in the neighborhood, they will be able to close this 500-year gap between the hunter-gatherer temple and the local agrarian village. Indeed, I suspect that further research will reveal that it was an agrarian, rather than a hunter-gatherer society that gave these pre-historic human beings "the time, organization and resources to construct temples."

My advice: keep digging.

I would like to close by expressing my admiration to the accomplishments of these ancient human beings, to who we are all related--and with the hope that what being revealed of their work at Gobekli Tepe will enrich our understanding of what it means to be involved in humanity.

Posted by Ralph Mills on June 26,2010 | 10:50 PM

Hey hey, No it is not a Turk site. This city is Armenian. These are our grand grand fathers. Turks made genocide! Now someone may say, "The Americans killed much more people in Iraq in only a few years than Turks killed Armenians." But noooo, this is not genocide. Because Americans are bringing democracy to Iraq. No no no! It is not a genocide.

Posted by Armo Dian on April 28,2010 | 10:33 PM

I've seen the images of scorpion, lion and other animals sculptured.Maybe they could represent constellations; its strange to find scorpion in ancient iconography.An ancient astronomic calendar that could represents stars related with hunting and shooting season.

Posted by Erik on April 15,2010 | 07:24 AM

@Linards
Maybe you should define what a nation is. Here I do it for you: “A nation is a grouping of people who share common history, culture, language or ethnic origin.” Possibly you think that 9000 years ago people were making meaningless noises instead of a language that was understood by the group of people. All this figures drawn on the stones are astronomic signs. Are you suggesting that people couldn’t speak in common language but could possibly create this signs or had any idea of astronomy? As we can see your claim that there were not nations 9000 year ago is totally baseless and false.

Have you seen the movie “One Million Years BC”? Are you basing on this movie? Even if you do the movie is about one million years BC not 9000 years ago. What a joke! Indeed, the crack is very bad especially when you use too much.

Posted by Hayk on April 12,2010 | 06:35 PM

It isn't the "oldest". And it wasn't a "temple' for "worship" - please don't displace modern delusions of "religion" onto ancient cultures. It was an observatory for the tracking and recording of the patterns of recurring celestial mechanics that periodically create the conditions for terrestrial catastrophe on a global scale.

This important site has been mismanaged and misunderstood by entrenched orthodoxy who still refuse to accept and take seriously the obvious fact that all ancient cultures, as far back as at least approx. 50,000 years had a sustained scholarly, scientific interest in the precession of the equinox - for very practical reasons having to do with the survival of the human species.

For more info, read Hamlet's Mill...

Posted by visionismind on April 11,2010 | 07:50 PM

Argh! Nationalist crackpots mixed with pseudoscience crackpots! The article is great, great find too, but most of the comments sections is a shame.

Nations didn't even exist back then, there were no Turks, Armenians, Persians, Germans, French, Americans, or anything like that at all. People lived in bands of a few dozen individuals and everybody not from your band was a foreigner! And don't even start on the math kookery! People claiming they have found out that the tangent of 90 degree is finite? Please!

Posted by Linards on April 9,2010 | 05:12 AM

I read all the comments and see just a few scientific way of thinking in here. Some people say let’s not politicize the finding, ok Let’s not. But if we speak about finding than we got to mention the finding’s location and the last known nation or group of people that lived on that location. For example some people say that this might not be the oldest temple and they may be right. But in science something considered oldest if there is no finding older than that. Saying this, the last know people lived in this location were Armenians and they who spouse to be associated to this finding not the Turks. We all know there was no nation called Turks 11 century ago. So why don’t all these so called scientists speak scientifically?
Finally, this is just the beginning. The future findings will provide us information about indo-European ancestors who were living on the lend of ArArAt (ArArIch – means CREATOR in ArMenian, amazing can you see the similarity? The Ar root? Or ArIan? Or ArEg – means sun in ArMenian? I hope you can! The Ar root here plays something with creation of the earth, life, something big). So continue digging it!

Posted by Hayk on April 5,2010 | 08:21 PM

I read all the comments and I am surprised that some people are claiming that their holy nations somehow root back to 12000 years ago!!!. After reading all those comments, as a result of a long brainstorming period I came up with the FACT (for me it is a FACT, you believe or not) that my grand grand grand... (to many "grand" words here) father built that stone thing. According to our family records, the first man in my family had evolved just there, where you call "gobekli tepe". It is a long story. But here we are now. In this case, it seems that during long years of human journey, many different nations (Armenians, Turks vs vs... ) had came there and as a result they killed my ancestors and now they are claiming the ownership. Can you claim the opposite? That thing, temple or whatever my grand father built is belongs to my family OK! Stay away from my private property!

gokhan kaya from URFA

Posted by Gokhan Kaya on March 29,2010 | 01:17 AM

I would like everyone to think about this, Armenians are proto-Indo Europeans and Indo-Europeans go back 9000 years so if indo europeans go back 9000 years think about the proto-indo europeans, Which are Armenians..... Use some common sense here please and you will discover that Armenians go back way before 10,000 years!

Posted by Estella on March 28,2010 | 06:54 PM

I only would like to add that you guys are forgeting one piece of fact that Kingdom of Urartu was located there! Which Were Armenians!

Posted by Lilith on March 28,2010 | 06:48 PM

I feel really sorry that people dont really like reading books and history and argue instead please go back and read ! and I really dont want to argue becuase if I start I will surely state some great facts but the one thing here is that It can not be called Turkish becuase turkey was established in 1922 but not 11,000 years ago! Two, There are history facts and books that are so ancient in Europe that are still kept and state that Armenians have lived there for years and for those that say that armenians only have 2,000-3,000 years history please read books Armenians go back more than 10,000 year and I would like to comment on one of the proffesors who supposably was Armenian, go read your history and I have never read any comment that an Armenian said "Shame on us" I really feel pity on those who dont see the real facts and for turks there are real history you may buy history and some people will fall for it hey put guess what Truth is going to come out one day, It doesnt have to be today but sooner or later it will. And lastly Armenians have lived in that area and they were split kingdoms and I bet some people dont even know that Cilicia were armenians too! So go back and read and try to find out all the word meanings because if you translate those words as well you will find out. One last comment for the Persian, how and where did you even come from? Claiming that its Persian, first if you all read Persians do have lands that once were Armenians as well and I would only tell all Armenians dont Worry about this scam!Turks themselves are digging the hole and guess who falls in the whole? of course the one Who digs the hole.

Posted by Lily on March 28,2010 | 06:36 PM

when did archeology learn how to date stone? Or are they merely going by the stratified rock layers around? For example Harem-aket, misnamed the sphinx, which it surely is not, is old enough to have been eroded by water, and not flood water at that.

The sun gates in Peru which when lined according to solstice and exquinox points dates bate at least 10,500 which is as old as the aforementioned (and world's largest statue by the way) would have to be just to have been weathered by water.

The current dates are obviously not founded on true 'objective science' and must be called into question or the very method of scientific endeavor itself comes into question.

If, and that's highly suspect, this temple complex is 6,000 years old, there are at least two sites one old and one new world EVEN older. This is not even mentioning the Osirian temple complex adjacent to harem-aket herself.

Qui bono?

Posted by sceptic on March 26,2010 | 05:53 AM

Human beings have had to have been around for millions of years, so going back only 11,000 years is really not much if you consider the time it took for us to evolve to what we are now. I'm impressed, but I'm not really impressed. I want to know more about any unexplained technological leap, though, and wonder about what pieces of the puzzle we are still missing.....

Posted by Xtina on March 25,2010 | 11:39 AM

I am Armenian and I believe these site is our ancestors. Turkish people kicked us from Anatolia. But we were very happy to live in Anatolia. Why did they kick us I don't understand. Anatolia is ours and one day we will get back it. Well, you might say that, American people killed 1.5 million civilian people in Iraq, but it is not true. Because United States are bringing democracy to Iraq. It is true that Turks kicked us, may be thousands of Armenians. So turks make genocide. But it is not true that United States is making genocide. I hope it is clear.

Posted by William J. Morgon on March 18,2010 | 08:01 AM

I am Armenian and I believe these site is our ancestors. Turkish people kicked us from Anatolia. But we were very happy to live in Anatolia. Why did they kick us I don't understand. Anatolia is ours and one day we will get back it. Well, you might say that, American people killed 1.5 million civilian people in Iraq, but it is not true. Becuase United States are bringing democracy to Iraq. It is true that Turks kicked us, may be thousands of Armenians. So turks make genocide. But it is not true that United States is making genocide. I hope it is clear.

Posted by Michael Thomson on March 16,2010 | 03:20 PM

There is a well preserved Armenian temple, not far from Gobekli Tepe, in a small island called Aghtamar on the Lake Van. This 1,000 AC century Armenian temple or church has carvings outside its wall; now the style of those carvings are similar to the style of carvings on the stones of Gobekli Tepe, although there are differences in the subject. It is amazing how there is similarity in style with thousand years of separation between those two works. Armenian artists who did those carving on Agthamar had the same genes of the artists who did the carvings in Gobekli Tepe, they inherited their genes. . The Assyrian reliefs for example are very different from those of Aghtamar and Gobekli Tepe, the Assyrian reliefs, which you can see them in museums now, are more life-like. Of course Dr. Shmidt is not allowed by the Turks to make any hints and relationship between those two works; the Turks, who have stolen the historical Armenian lands and homeland after killing all its Christian population, in what came to be known as the first genocide of the 20th century, are hardly to admit that there was once a country called Armenia with millions of Armenians living there just in their backyard and on the same lands which the Turks are now living on. The Turks hate Armenia and Armenians because they remind them of the negative side of their own history in Asia Minor which they like to ignore or forget. But justice will be done someday and that is what the Turks are afraid of, hence their sensitivity toward anything Armenian.

Posted by Atlantean on March 16,2010 | 11:45 AM

I am a Turk, and I feel sorry about the things happened in 1915 to Armenian people.

But I don't understand why this subject is being discussed under this archaeological topic. It is just irrelevant. As said in many comments, there were no nationalities 10.000 years ago. There were no Armenians and there were no Turks. It is not any stretch of an imagination to think that people changed location a lot since the last 10.000 years...

And today, this archaeological site is within the border of the country named Turkey. The writer of the article is just stating the location of the site. As you would guess, If the location of the site had been written as "Armenia", nobody would be able to find this archaeological site, because there is no city named "Urfa" within the current boarders of Armenia. This is just this simple. But who cares!!

As I said I feel sorry about the things happened in 1915, whatever other Turks say, I don't care. But it is just nonsense to see this being discussed here.

Posted by Ufuk on March 16,2010 | 03:45 AM

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy It is not Turks ok!!! Look at these animalsss. Don't they looks as the Armenians??? Can't you see that these temples belong to 10 thousand years ago Armenians. If you look carefully you can see that these are Armanian. OK.

Posted by Aaron Mutap on March 16,2010 | 03:27 AM

The moment I saw the carvings and reliefs, it struck my mind strongly. We have even now hundreds of 'temples' in Tamil Nadu, southern state of India, which has had a unique civilization for thousands of years. there are similar temples standing on monolithic stone pillers, more intricately carved and the similarity is the shapes of animals and birds what we have and what I see here. As Shmidt said, the makers of the temple came from great distances, where there was extensive forestation and animal kingdoms. This also points out that it might be the Tamilians could have travelled all the way up north to these locations 11,000 years ago. As you all are aware, there is the place called "Ur" in Iraq. "Ur" or "Oor" literally means 'town' in Tamil, even now - A place for dwelling.
I am not sure Dr. Schmidt would have thought in these lines.
Search for 'Ancient Tamil Temples' and take a look at the pictures and you will realize what I am trying to say.

Posted by Shanmuga Nathan J on March 15,2010 | 08:05 AM

Dan: The point is not, as you say, the article is mentioning Turkey so people know where it IS. Dr. Schmidt is forbidden to say that there is a possibility those stones were erected by the ancient Armenians or the ancient ancestors of modern Armenians AND THAT IS THE POINT. In Turkey since the Ottoman times its forbidden to mention the word "Armenia," any mention of that name would upset a Turk because Turks fabricate history and say they lived in Anatolia since thousands years ago and did not come there as invaders in early middle ages from the east and from Central Asia. The Turks do not have the sense of saying the truth, anything that upsets them is false. Dr. Schmidt knows this Turkish attitude and is keeping quite. He knows or else Turkey will expel him and will not allow him to come back again. So Dan you are lucky that you are living in USA, the land of freedom and in enlightenment, and say what you want to say. Outside US mostly they are in darkness, specially in Turkey.

Posted by Atlantean on March 12,2010 | 08:53 PM

You people need to calm down. Over 10 millenia ago this land was not called Armenia either - thus it does not belong to Armenia. Only the humanoids living there at the time knew what it was called. To say they were Armenian is ignorant. The article is mentioning Turkey, so people know where it IS. Good lord....

Posted by Dan on March 11,2010 | 08:20 PM

Gobekli Tepe holds such a fascination for all the inheritors of the Middle-Eastern cultural-religious complex and is so terribly old that it upsets all the tables of our prehistory. I think we should respect Dr. Schmidt's intuition that the site has religious significance. It could be transference of our own awe at the hoary antiquity of the complex, but one has to admit that it would require a very long, broad and deep commitment to build such a thing aeons before the wheel's advent... that kind of motivator is what we would call 'religion' nowadays. The fact that there is a lot of art expressed in the edifice suggests significance beyond the ordinary, sacredness if you will. To think that people at the dawn of civilization would create something so grand shows that art and spirit are inspirational to practical arts.

Posted by Rev. John on March 4,2010 | 01:31 AM

"The stories in the bible come from somewhere and many have been proven accurate by archeology. Could this be the ancient site of the Tower of Babel?"

Many more have been proven INaccurate by archaeology. For example, all of Exodus never happened. Contemporaneous sources all suggest that the Synoptic Gospels are completely fabricated in essentially every detail.

In short, your book is make-believe. Better luck next time.

Posted by bfwissil on March 4,2010 | 12:18 AM

No TIM, this has nothing to do with the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel came much later on by thousands years and was build by bricks, burned large bricks and not by stones (Genesis 11:3). The tower and the city were build after the smaller flood, not the big flood of about 12,000 years ago, that small flood was recorded by Sumerians and happened around 3000 years BC, and most of the water came toward rushing from the Gulf in the south destroying everything in its path but it did not reach the Mts of Ararat further north. It is after that flood that they build the Tower and the City, or they started building towers.

Posted by Atlantean on March 3,2010 | 07:50 PM

The stories in the bible come from somewhere and many have been proven accurate by archeology. Could this be the ancient site of the Tower of Babel? Gen. 11 records a place where all tribes gathered together, likely in the plains south of the Ararat Mt.s in a place plain called Shinar, which may mean "between two rivers." In this place, wandering tribes committed to come together and not be separated;a huge family reunion if you would. There, they built a city and began work on a tower for corporate cultic practice. City building was already evident before this in Gen. These artisans were skilled as to "make a name for themselves." In order to sustain "togetherness" hunters and gatherers were forced to domesticate animals and cultivate crops. The work on the city and tower suddenly ceased and the people who were there were dispersed. The dispersion caused them to not be able to reproduce this level of work for quite some time. This dispersion accounts for the grains and vegetables and livestock making its way from this area around the world.

Posted by Tim on March 1,2010 | 12:09 AM

five percent of the total area has been excavated so far.although no signs of any settlement are found as yet,but what about rest of the area?how can one ascertain that nothing indicating a settlement would not be found from that portion of the mound? it is also admitted that sites of almost the same age are found in the catchments of Gobekli Tepe,with traces of settled traits. Would it not be appropriate to wait for further results?

Posted by zubair shafi ghauri on March 1,2010 | 01:04 PM

two thoughts come to mind when reading about this wonderful bridge to our history. first, it appears that the unifying theme of the temple could potentially transcend the religious differences that exist today among our myriad religious groups, and second, what a material challenge this discovery appears to be to those who choose not to believe in a unifying or supreme being.

Posted by bo rhodes md on February 28,2010 | 02:25 PM

I am of the opinion that each stone circle in the site known presently as Gobekli Tepe was a classroom and the whole complex of circles amounted to a school complex with various grades and different kinds of teachings. When not in used for teaching purposes they served as playground for children. The carvings on the stones were for signs and marking purposed only. As to their living quarters..they lived in tents.

Posted by Armenian Atlantean on February 28,2010 | 10:05 AM

As a white Armenian descendant I claim this site as mine as a means of reparation for evils done to me in the past.

Now since that is settled. Would anyone care to purchase it from me?

Posted by poopiehead on February 26,2010 | 04:42 PM

Oh, I like how women are a 'small minded special interest group.' Charming.

This special interest group is only half the planet, after all! As well as half of both Armenia AND Turkey!

Posted by Dusty on February 25,2010 | 02:39 PM

I forgot to mention that those Atlanean Armenians, who were white in complexion, even reached the Caspian Sea and lived by its shores. There was a king by the name of Ar, 'Ar' comes from Ar-men, 'Ar' being the name of the capital city of the island of Armenia in the Atlantic ocean. This king Ar with some followers traveled south, even now those living in the Caucasus region know how harsh the climate is there to live, he reached Egypt and established a civilization there and teached the local Egyptians many things. But before King Ar there were some other Atlanteans already established in Egypt who had come directly from Atlantis.

Posted by The Atlantean on February 24,2010 | 01:22 AM

Yes, ancient Armenians came from Atlantis before that continent sunk; they brought with them horses (introduced horses) into Asia Minor and Caucasus, they brought with them the shape of the cross inside a circle which was one of their symbols for the Sun God, also they came with advanced knowledge of mathematics and the cosmos specially that of the constellations. By and by those Atlantean Armenian new comers absorbed some local primitive tribes into their ranks mostly doing the farm work and taking care of domesticated animals for them. Some of those advanced Armenian Atlantean tribes migrated later on toward south into the Mesopotamia and established the Sumerian civilization there with the help of some local primitive tribes who became servants and looked to ancient Armenians as their teachers who teached them about building, farming, craftsmanship, and about the planets of our solar system. The patriarch Abraham was of Ancient Armenian descent with lineage going back to Atlantis. The name 'Armenia' comes from Armen which some kings used in the island called Armenia which was part of the continent of Atlantis which was composed mainly of three big islands in the ocean presently knows as Atlantic Ocean. Later on some of those Armenian Atlanteans would go back toward the direction of the West; they were not able to find any remains of their island in the Atlantic ocean so they settled in the island of Britain or Britannia. There were two floods, the big one happened in 12,000 or 10,000 BC, and the second smaller one in around 3,000 BC

Posted by The Atlantean on February 24,2010 | 12:41 AM

These appear to be precursors of the 'Towers of Silence', a circular walled place, usually on a hill, where Zoroastrians leave their dead to be picked upon by wild animals. It is considered propitious if the remains are picked upon by large flying predators, 'emissaries' from the heavens, such as eagles, kites and such like.
If true, the current Parsi method of disposing their dead may have originated in the Harran plain and spread to Iran, thus predating Zoraster. So, this is apparently not a site of a temple or garden of Eden.

There is no hint that this has anything to do with Europe as suggested in the BBC documentary.

unfortunately the interesting article and comments are marred by the usual foundation less ethnocentric/political claims, in this case Armenian and even more fantastic Hinducentric claim. The connections here appear to be to the greater Middle East and Central Asia. Urfa is considered the birthplace of Abraham (much later) in the local tradition.

Posted by BB Nazeer on February 24,2010 | 09:48 PM

"Temple". Could just be a big Neolithic gathering-place, for trade. A market. Without hard scientific evidence, everything in this article, like many of the comments here, is just conjecture.

Posted by Motorod on February 23,2010 | 11:55 PM

First of all, congratulations on this fascinating discovery; it's breath-taking.
Let us not argue about whether this temple belongs to the X nation or the Y nation; this is a priceless heritage for all the mankind.

History keeps many inhumane actions of almost all the nations. Ottoman Empire might have used force on Armenians but it is also Armenians that were once deviated by Russians and commited the Hodjali Genocide on Turks;just like many other wild acts that the humanity commited throughout the flow of history.

Once, Armenians and Turkish people -along with Greeks, Jews, Arabs and many other nations- lived together in harmony as next-door neighbours. I, myself, have very Armenian and Kurdish friends. Let us try not to blame what "politicians" or "emperors" do on "the people" and celebrate what we have together in common. I believe that Armenians, Turks and all the people -not the armies or governments, I mean "people"- have what it takes it to accomplish this (utopia?).

Kind Regards,

Ali from Istanbul, Turkey

Posted by Ali on February 23,2010 | 11:51 AM

Is it holy because you call it a temple or a temple because it's holy. It's a ancient site. It's stones. It could have many uses.

Why must it be religious? Why can't it be an example of an industrious mind. why can't it be anything but something to do with a fallacy? Be skeptical people. It is nothing but what it is.

Posted by russell on February 22,2010 | 01:49 AM

According to the Bible, the Hittites (sons of Heth) and tribes of Aram (namesake of Armenia) inhabited that region circa 2200 b.c., and those ruins are accredited to the Hittites, so that's about 7,000 extra years pinned onto the Hittites' timeframe, who were thought to have been imagined by the writers of Genesis until modern archaeology confirmed that it was the biblical Hittites who built the megalithic structures.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 22,2010 | 10:27 PM

An old joke among archaeologists says that when you really cannot tell what a find is, then you call it "religious", to everybody’s satisfaction. This is because the concept is not falsifiable, and always meets the tepid sympathy of any modern believer in any of the "high" religions. Instead of obscuring the meaning of ancient human endeavors with unnecessary blinders, I see that we have once again the opportunity to examine the creative product of our prehistoric ancestor with an open mind. Art? Yes, perhaps even fun.

Posted by coconaut on February 21,2010 | 09:11 AM

it's very sad to see people are not talking about the value of this discovery for all humans. But some people are murmuring like "it's ours not theirs", or "it's armenian temple", or "they killed us bla bla bla".

this is a scientific discovery and only %1 of it are on the ground. there are much more to learn from here.

Escpicially for ideolojic reasons please don't forget that this site is important for human race, and it's roots.

I can understand that some armenians are raised with lies for ideological purposes. if someone thought me from the early childhood these theories it must be hard to think reasonably. but please try to use your logic before make everyone laugh at you.

If i can arrange my schedule I'll be visiting Gobekli Tepe this april and experience it. Please try to get rid of meaningless hatred and visit this place. it's a much more bigger thing than armenia or turkiye or any other country in the world.

Posted by Tolga Akmazoglu on February 11,2010 | 07:13 AM

Dont be so quick to call it a "temple".
Nor it is a burial place.

We know one thing certainly; we do not know what it is.

If it was made by (as there is no other known entity on the earth) humans, its existence destroys;

- all the (so-called) biblical history tales,
- all the evolution claims (because man is supposed to be a hunter gatherer not a builder at that time).

Posted by D.! on January 17,2010 | 04:43 PM

how to understand those buildings ? how to understand what we are ? how to understand life ? men ? sex ? death ? what is reality ? where is the end of universe ? why we are ?

those who built that had questions too, but by evidence some anskwers. this is those anskwers that it would be nice to know. but there is a lot of work to do before a first glance of light upon their civilisation and knowledge could be done.

Posted by Darkon31 on December 19,2009 | 07:54 PM

Amazing!!! - I have lived in Turkey -3 yrs living in Adana a city not far from Urfa - the experiences and guidance of this oh so beautiful county I know as the cradle of civilization, long before the records show the birth of the things we knew - now we know even more - and yet still more to come. When I return to Adana I will definitely travel to this region - again simply amazing!
Thank you for making this available to the multitudes. So appreciated.
Arohanui from New Zealand

Posted by Darrelle Stevens on December 2,2009 | 04:47 AM

I visited this site in October and seeing it and actually reading about it are two different things...I highly recommend anyone who is interested in this to visit in the Spring.

Posted by Pam on November 18,2009 | 10:24 AM

I LIKE TO CONTACT YOU PEOPLE BECAUSE I KNOW THE NAMES OF GOD AND GODDESSES OF URFA GOBEKALI. YAGIESH THANKS

Posted by yagieshwar t on November 13,2009 | 07:36 AM

I'm very interested in these findings, and I'm sure there will be other finds that predate these. What would Zacharia Sitchin have to say of these findings.

Posted by Maria Smith on November 11,2009 | 11:32 PM

It is most unfortunate that small minded special interest groups, be they Armenians or women, are trying to pervert this marvellous discovery. But then so are local tour guides in Urfa

Posted by Bill on October 27,2009 | 05:15 PM

The comment made by "Kate" in November last year was perfect. I intend to print it, frame it and hang it on the wall. Well done Kate.

Posted by Terence Griffiths on October 6,2009 | 10:07 AM

I seriously wonder if allowing comments by anybody on scientific articles is such a good idea.

Posted by Luc Mtl on September 21,2009 | 11:29 PM

" Comment after stupid irrelevant comment!!! [...] Zakmann"

Thanks Zakmann for saying it clear as it is. Man... this is more than ancient history, this is 11,000 years ago, just a week or two after the end of Ice Age. There were NO Turks, Armenians, or anything like that in those times.

The people who lived around this site and built these structures so long ago, have since been wiped away, they have been dispersed like dust in the wind, and they have "melted" a long time ago into the whole common blood of humanity.

Saying that politicizing this find is utterly foolish is an understatement.

Posted by Luc Mtl on September 21,2009 | 11:15 PM

what a remarkable find!!!we must all be happy that in every passing years new discovery has been found,it helps us learn and know how we truly live our lives during that times..so no need to argue about who's who ..but instead let us be thankful to all those people doing the hardwork just to find new things for the benifits of all of us!!!and let me say "thanks"for another wonderful discovery!!!

Posted by Salvador Ebreo on September 18,2009 | 07:49 PM

We humans have expressed on planet earth for over seven billion years. There have been thousands of civilizations on our planet, erased by the realities of nature...pole tumbles, ice ages, plate changes and human actions. Our now is just a continuation of our journey, our return to our true eternal expressions,children of eternal perfection. I agree with those who hold that this is the latest " oldest discovery ", there are many , many more to be discovered.

Posted by raul valenzuela on September 12,2009 | 11:57 PM

The report on the finds in this area explain the continuing interest by current external agencies in the north Iran/Iraq/Turkey [land of Nod]homelands. There will be more to find-just hope that the population are allowed to hear about these. I would disagree with the theory of it being ' a temple'. Agreeing with 'Jake Aug 9th 2009-Why this pre-occupation, by archaeologists, of declaring newly dug up/out remains, as temples? What is wrong with a 'university', or 'museum', or 'alternative living spaces' or 'we don't know...yet'

Posted by Chris Stansfield on August 30,2009 | 06:14 AM

This information is all new to me , and I find it most overwhelming.

Roy

Posted by Roy L Malveaux on August 27,2009 | 10:55 AM

Hunters describing hunters. That is a description of affinity.

Posted by A Human Being on August 26,2009 | 02:18 PM

A non-archaeologist opinion of Gobekli Tepe!

The so called educated are often blinded by their own knowledge! They usually look for what they are trained to look for. Temple? Maybe, but you have to accept the theory they had developed a formal religion?

More likely an educational place, early Colosseum, or a gathering place. A place where their children learned the names of the animals, stories of the animals, bragging of the hunt, what to fear, the world around them. A place of entertainment where the stories of their ancestors were passed on by the elders. The world as they saw it, attempted explanations for the unexplainable things they feared, discussions of their superstitions, flood stories, earth quake stories, wars, etc.

Not to mention the place was built like a fort and on a hill like forts usually are.!

Posted by Jake on August 9,2009 | 01:39 PM

Gobekli Tepe is truly a world heritage site. As many have written any time one sees the sort of executed stone work at this site it indicates an on going tradition rather than a seed point. The megaliths do not point to a start up technology in stone but rather a high point for that time. A plausible rationale for the rarity of this find, from the time period, is "cultural" continuity in places such as the Fertile Crescent. Additionally, the changes in stone ages would have brought on a huge paradigm shift. It is known that the only reason this site exists at all is that it was buried. It is possible that many others were not. The points previously made of great temples made of wood in this time period seems almost undeniable given this site's great work in stone and the accessible forests that must have existed.

If Hattusha is probably not associated with modern/existing regional cultures any claim beyond that point, in the past, would seem to be wishful thinking. One other translation I have heard for Gobekli Tepe is "hill with a naval" it is possible that this is a holdover from a remnant "cultural memory" as a place of emergence in origin mythology.

This site needs massive funding for accelerated discovery.

Posted by M. L. Johnson on July 25,2009 | 04:28 PM

The standing stones are representations of people, the uprights have arms and hands carved in relief. Ref: 'The Incredible Human Journey', BBC films. And genetic analysis has shown that this is the place where wheat was first grown. The site also tells us how quickly people could move, once the ice was retreating within a short time after the date of Gobeklii Tepe, people were living in Southern England.

Posted by john hall on July 23,2009 | 04:11 PM

Congratulations to the Kurdish nation on this discovery of a magnificant culture so many years ago

Posted by Sheila Mosley on July 15,2009 | 05:14 PM

It is very disappointment to see that people still look for some ethnic connection, ethnic distinction.

so what? aren't all the human beings are coming from same ? Adam and Eve and the creation of God? ( of course many may disagree , but this is my belief)

some say , urfa is armanian , some say urfa is turkish some say urfa assuryian , biblical records say urfa is the birth place of Abraham... Which one is true.. there is one true fact that we are somehow all linked to eachother even if we do not eachother or their color or ethnicity..

So let's please not pollute this discovery with the racial, national and political conflicts and issues.

Regards to All

Posted by Orkun Akar on July 15,2009 | 08:46 AM

TO Debbie Oneal

Regarding to Ostrich resemblance, I am not sure the certainty of the resemblance, however, There is an extinct animal called Arabian Ostrich which we can only find the drawings and bones.

So there is a chance for this resemblance.

Posted by Orkun on July 15,2009 | 07:50 AM

I understand the Armenian point of view - and though I find it inappropriate in this context, I applaud their indignation and pugnacity. Genocide can do this to a nation of people, no? I am hopeful more sites are found soon, and a base of reference is established to spur greater understanding of our grandfathers. Fantastic carvings.

Posted by brian nagle on July 13,2009 | 03:24 PM

Again, kudos to Schmidt and friends - like KV5 this will surely be remembered as one of the "tipping points" in archaeology and physical anthropology.

I would however encourage all readers to research the material implicit in the many scientific papers already published on the site before indulging in amusing irrelevancies.

For example, some were contending that the site was plainly a hoax by virtue of the fact that exposed limestone (which is comparatively soft) would have eroded away the artistic details denoted in the many pictures published of the excavation. True, but for the fact that the site was plainly buried under a deliberately man-made mound; thereby preserving said details.

The additional conjecture about it being a modern hoax 'since metal tools didn't exist' is equally droll. Limestone is a perfectly viable medium which can be worked handily with either a deer antler (and a great deal of elbow grease), or rounded stream pebbles of varying dimensions. Indeed, limestone is so soft that striking it with a steel chisel is more likely to sheer off bits you'd prefer remain! Talk to your sculptor friends; they will verify this.

Although I'm sure all nationalistic arguments are well-meant and germane to the geopolitical environment in which Gobekli Tepe (under whatever name you choose) survives, it should be noted that nothing like Turkey or Armenia existed in any form 9,000 B.C. There are perfectly good forums for such political views to be aired before concerned and appreciative readers - it is a shame to waste the enthusiasm and vigor of these points in what by all accounts is a dispassionate archaeological forum.

I for one will champion the preservation and exploration of this site (and any additional sites nearby). That is of course presuming that they do not fall prey to submersion through the region's very real need for water development under the Southeastern Anatolia Development Project (GAP).

Carry on!

Posted by David Lovering on July 7,2009 | 12:40 AM

Did anybody read the VERY significant point that there was no sign of any settlement. Permanent or temporary, people leave signs like cooking fires, trash heaps, and the other debris of life. This site has zero-zip-nada! It " gives me furiously to think" that it is a much greater mystery. No fields of early wheat, no other signs of permanence except the stones (up to 16 tons)with some VERY good detailed figures on them. the photos in Smithsonian mag were great, full of detail and symbology. Check it out!

Posted by Larry Hoskinson on June 16,2009 | 03:11 AM

Comment after stupid irrelevant comment!!!

Try reading the article before posting and do some research.

This is an archeological discovery it has nothing to do with politics or geopolitics or lost civilisations that never existed. There is nothing documented that is older in India or China - or for that fact anywhere else at the moment that is published. This is to date the oldest discovered complex stone built site (of this age) undergoing excavation in the world.

There is almost certainly no connection with other much later civilisations as sighted by posters above for example the Egyptians or Minoans or even Stonehenge. Please note Stonehenge's earliest dating is around 3100BC. As sighted in the Article above there is approximately 6000 years between two sites and no archeological connection between the two. The only sites that contain similar discoveries are local to the area - some these of the these are Nevalı Çoriand, Çayönü and Nahal Hemar. Çatalhöyük (dates to approximately 7500BC) seems to contain some similar iconography however, this is an urban site with integrated places of worship and the architecture appears to be vastly different.

One of the few suppositions that could be made based on this site is that there may be earlier sites displaying earlier subtypes of the same building styles and techniques - If they have Survived. What is remarkable about this site as stated before is its survival and it's deliberate burial.

The site chronology at Gobekli Tepe has been established using Carbon 14 dating techniques and Lithic analysis.

Posted by Zakmann on June 9,2009 | 08:12 AM

Do any of the animal images corespond to constelatrions ? Whilst the idea that the animal images are of scavenger type animals that might strip the corpse ritually carying it to the sky of gods has any thought been given to a particular region of the sky and could the scorpian like image provide a key ? Is thier any consideration to what the hut like images are ? could they be rough representaTIONS OF THE roof entered dwellings of chatal huyack where the eagle image is common?

Posted by j kearney on June 8,2009 | 12:14 PM

Amazing site. The only thing I see more amazing is the obvious war still being raged over the origins of this ancient site. The claim whether it's Armenian is like the Druids claiming Stonehenge. Would that make the Armenians kin to the Druids? Until you're able to visit the site AT THE TIME the first individual bumped the first rock on the site for whatever reason, you're better discussing how many angels will fit on the head of a pin. Politicizing this site based upon a commentators remark of current location is silly. That mentality is what continues to fuel the stupid war of (take your pick).

Posted by Jane on June 3,2009 | 06:52 PM

The earliest Temple yet discovered! What a wonderful find, and an inspiring article to read. I am inclined to disagree, however, with the notion that "Civilization" started when people began to live in cities. I believe that civilization began when people invented methods of remembering their finds or history. When a gorup of families, who had traveled together for generations, began to pass on their culture or knowledge of shelter building, tool manufacture, food gathering, hunting, and, dare I say, medicine, songs, stories, music, and ethics, etc. At the point when people began too pass along, to their tribe, what they had learned from their ancesters, as well as what they had discovered during their lives, we have a civilzation. Just because a group of people are nomadic, does not mean they are barbarians or uncivilized. Civilization started long before 15,000 BCE.

Posted by Thomas on May 31,2009 | 02:13 AM

Would someone please explain to me just how these things were carved? This goes back so far in antiquity and since there were no tools capable of cutting rock (eg.pyramids ). Just how did these ancient people cut out these things and move them with such precision????????????? There is a whole lot more to this story than we are told.

Posted by D Danitz on May 27,2009 | 01:40 AM

The arguments that some of the people on this forum are having regarding Armenia and Turkey are wholly irrelevant and reflect a lack of understanding about the true importance of this site. This site is 11,000 years old - before there was even the notion of having nations or countries or borders. This site belongs to humanity, and reflects the change in our culture/brains that led us from being hunter gatherers to settled peoples and who eventually created the civilisation we have today. I would like to visit this site before I die, it is the most incredible find I have read about, bar none.

Posted by Julian Boyle on May 25,2009 | 08:10 AM

I think rather too much is being made of this discovery. The hoary age of the monument is remarkable as with other such sites in the area but we should have expected such sites to exist and I have no doubt that more will come to light. Such creations are merely extensions of the sort of creativity and spirituality that are already evident in cave and rock carving, painting and sculpture from much earlier periods in Europe and elsewhere. Man is a creative and 'spiritual' species and both facets of the human psyche have and will always be employed to try to make sense of the world in which we live from the materials to hand. If this site is ritualistic in nature as seems likely, is it as historically and culturally as important as evidence of a sense of an afterlife in the mind of the Neanderthal? I don't think so. I am not underestimating this discovery, it represents extremely important evidence in the understanding of the cultural evolution of mankind. But that is all it is, evidence of a step along the way, a step that we laready knew had been taken. It is not evidence of a revolution nor a nameplate for the Garden of Eden!

Posted by Thomas David Roberts on May 25,2009 | 07:06 AM

The Nephilim? Flood covered sediment? Village?

Posted by Shane Snider on May 24,2009 | 11:00 AM

The article reveals an important site that requires serious work and analysis. Conjecture is interesting but not the domain of serious science. I look forward to reading about the site in future years.

Posted by Bob S on May 6,2009 | 06:49 PM

This find clearly shows that mankind "fell" from grace and de-volved,not evolved.

Posted by Tom on May 4,2009 | 11:14 AM

What a stupid discussion. Armenian or Turkish or Kurdish or whatever. This is an amazing finding for mankind. This may change the history of mankind. Maybe there were no cavemen, or no unconscious hunter groups. from the beginig of the history everything for life was thought to man. the discussion above is a shame for us. I recommend you to see this temple not to discus in such a stupid manner. I saw them from very close.they are very fantastic.

Posted by balb on April 22,2009 | 04:45 PM

the map places this site squarely in the center of traditional Kurdish territory, in reality the currents of time and human emigration have clouded the ethnic make up of the builders of this incredible site to such an extent that it's impossible to assign them any current ethnogenic grouping beyond the most general and even that would only be conjecture.

armenians and turks... get over yourselves

Posted by shoey on April 21,2009 | 07:37 PM

Gobekli Tepe is a truly wonderful place. I find the Armenia/Turkey argument completely fatuous, as it is quite likely that both moved into the lands of a completely different people. I do not, for one moment accept Klaus Schmidt's assertion that 'this is the first human-built holy place', although I do accept his work as superb. If nothing else, the beast which no-one seems to be able to identify is not the work of a 'hunter-gatherer yokell', done at the end of a season, when all are gathered at the place. It is a sophisticated work of statuary, and obviously the work of a professional. It must also have been done, even with softish limestone, as well as, at best, a horn chisel, over a long period. It leaves open the possibility that a 'permanent cadre' remained there for the rest of the year. I don't want to go down the mystery/priesthood avenue, although I suppose there must have been something of that. Also, there seems to be something of a hang-up about hunter-gatherers. There seems to be nothing else until the so-called 'Neolithic Revolution'. Hunting/horticulture, or herding/horticulture, or the possibilty thereof, seems to have no real mention. If I am incorrect here, would someone reading this site please put me on the right track. What I am left with is that this site is the successor of one, or even many more such sites. Klaus Schmidt's baby is very much a Wunderkind, but I suspect that other Kinder wait to be discovered. If anyone reading this site knows of any kind of corpus which collects the many early sites which seem to be there, apart from the 'spacemen' sites, I'd be very grateful for a pointer. My address is mike.hancox@tiscali.co.uk. I suspect we were all somewhat more than we thought we were.

Posted by Mike from Cartmel on April 21,2009 | 04:28 PM

Thank you Mr. Schmidt for your hard work with this very interesting discovery. I am sure it will change how many view the history of man.

Posted by Mark from Michigan, USA on April 14,2009 | 08:02 PM

How about the animals are all the little cats and little foxes and bulls that would soon be DOMESTICATED. A TESTAMENT TO THE CHANGE THAT WAS HAPPENING ...

Posted by leonard Nash on April 12,2009 | 05:20 PM

Ha ha.. Now, let us share the irony about who this land belongs: Turks, kurds, persian, arabs, greeks, armenians etc. who populate the area.. Come on boys and girls, be a bit mote scientific. These peoples in that area share the same gene pool and there were not nations just 300 yrs ago.. Some of thepoints of view are ironical here.. Now that land belongs to Turkey makes this place actually Turkish and we can only talk about Turkish findings.. Difficult to digest for some, but this is the fact..

Posted by Adrian on April 4,2009 | 02:13 AM

It is a great discovery, which should tell so much about our past as human beings. Archeology is such a field that requires so much sophisticated thinking. But, it is also so obvious from some of the comments (given here especially by the people claiming that the temple should be recognized as the temple of the amcient armenians) that findings in this field can also excite great deal of stupidity in some people.

Posted by gurcan bicken on April 4,2009 | 11:59 PM

It is amazing to see a site being discovered, and sure it will lead to further analysis concerning the rituals of the ancients.. PS: I can not believe how so many people can be so ignorant to regard this place with nationality; the temple being talked of predates any kind of nationality... And the referance to the map is about its current location.

Posted by Gurkan Özturan on April 4,2009 | 10:37 PM

WoW! What an amazing discovery. I look forward to hearing more about it. It may be a much more practical site than a temple of religion. It occurred to me that with the wealth of prey animal bones found there, showing the marks of butchering, perhaps it was a communal site to take your kills, butcher them, and even perhaps store them for use later, such as over the winter time when hunting was more difficult. This would insure a growing community always had available food, but would not necessitate domestication of wild animals. Soil would be added probably every season to freshen the site in preparation for the hunting season. This would of course build up over time. It likely had wooden walls to make it an enclosure. This type of thing would of course attract lots of predator animals such as vultures, lions, foxes, etc. So maybe the drawings were meant to repel those animals. Scorpions of course hold the power of death, and could be seen as a protector. It would be interesting to find out if they had originally been coloured, perhaps looking for traces of pigment would be a good idea. The drawings are also curiously not very lively, especially in comparison to the Lascaux cave paintings. In fact, the animals often look limp, perhaps even dead. Maybe the "message" to predators was "if you come here you will die, so stay away". This theory also supports the lack of finds of domestic human activity, and lack of religious items. They may have used the area to butcher and/or store, then continued on to their home area. I feel the insertion of religion into the actual finds may be a bit premature.

Posted by Lynn on March 31,2009 | 06:43 PM

Can everyone please just relax? Can all the Armenians (and I'm saying this as one of you) realize that this site has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with us, our ancestors or history. Yes, genocide happened. Yes, a lot of ignorant people exist who are not aware of this or just deny it completely. But, Gobekli Tepe is not ours, it is not the Turk's, or anyone else's. It belongs to the world and the shared history of all human beings. Fighting to gain recognition of the genocide is necessary, but this is not the place to do it.

Posted by Marina on March 27,2009 | 01:40 AM

There won't be an Armenia, Turkey, Persia or Kurdistan 12000 years time. Don't you think about that? You are nothing and noone in earths history! Why don't you broad your mind and stop ruled by hatred and viciousness. Gobekli Tepe is a facinating discovery! More they dig, more we learn.

Posted by ARIN on March 20,2009 | 09:01 PM

Wow, what a find! And for Turkey, that's like winning the loto.. Sounds like neighboring countries are steeming with envy..

Posted by Wlad on March 17,2009 | 03:09 PM

Maybe the animals on the stones represent constellations of stars, making the stones a form of zodiac.

Posted by Gern Blanston on March 16,2009 | 08:24 PM

it was with great pleasure that i came across this fantastic article. Having this discovery verified by the prestige of the smithsonian has validated my own studies into the relativity of the beginning of civilization. homo sapiens has been configured with the same brain capacity for well over a million years yet we are instructed to believe man has made use of this capacity for only the last six thousand years or so. that is simply not true. continue to explore with an open mind rather than being steeped in orthodoxy. many more exciting discoveries can and will be published as the 18th 19th and 20th century accepted timelines are pushed further and further back into human history. the remarkable fact of this site is that it seems to have been built and then sealed by the builders leaving an almost perfect time capsule. personally i believe the problems of getting accurate dating of ancient stone construction worldwide is that for millenia people come to these site to worship, leave offerings and to bury the dead.thus skewing the actual date of construction for many sites. see tihihuanicu for instance.

Posted by richard doty on March 16,2009 | 03:28 PM

I am of middle eastern decent. But my excitement and joy over this find is not because of my heritage. It is because we are witnessing something from our 'humanity past'. This can bring a chance for enlightenment to all of us. Lets watch and learn what these excavations can tell us. To argue over whose land it is....is missing the point. Perhaps the saying " when the student is ready the teacher will come" just might apply here. I am ready....you must be too or I don't think this would capture you interest, so lets enjoy and appreciate the uncovering of these stones.

Posted by Maxine Poulton on March 13,2009 | 01:49 AM

Goblekli Tepe presents a important discovery of sophisticated organisation, craftsmanship, stone work and building skills on the northern perimeter of the area centred upon Damascus, where bioarchaeologists have narrowed down the search for the location of the earliest domesticated crops and animals, dated to around 9,500 BC.

The dates at Gobekli Tepe so far do not suggest anything earlier than 9,000 BC and there is no evidence of domesticated crops or animals at this site, which being high up on the plateau in a mountainous region, and would have been unsuitable for agriculture at that time.

It does however have many of the features which would have been left by a party of angels and watchers from the Kharsag (Sumerian head enclosure) settlement 25 miles west of Damascus in the Rachaiya Basin South, Lebanon.

Called much later the Garden of Eden, Kharsag provides today the remains of the Great Watercourse (which went out of Eden to water the gardem via sluices and irrigation channels - not rivers), a dam, a reservoir, a flat basin of rich soil which could be irrigated, together with all the other topographical features, which are described in the Sumeriah Kharsag Epics recovered by the University of Pennsylvania expedition to Nippur (near Bagdad) in 1897.

It is the probable links between Gobekli Tepe and Kharsag, which will assist in the breakthough towards understanding that a small group of survivors from global catastrophe brought the technologies required for civilisation to start again to this area.

see www.goldenageproject.org.uk

Edmund Marriage - Patrick Foundation

Posted by Edmund Marriage on March 10,2009 | 10:37 AM

Enough of this nationalism. There were no turkish people living there 9000BC, there were no armenians living there 9000BC. Now shut up.

Posted by Henning on March 9,2009 | 07:04 PM

I am very pleased to see in this day and age that seems dedicated to modern technological advancements that we are still finding new discoveries about the past. This uncovering of what could be the oldest temple found to date proves that there still remain countless landmarks and facts about our history that we know little about. It is easy to get caught up in the lightning fast innovation of the technological age, but it is still important to learn how we got to this age. This article provides some excellent examples of how new discoveries about the past can completely change widely held beliefs. It mentions that the commonly belief belief preceding this discovery was that tribes learned to farm before they settled down and created communities. Yet, through analyzing the evidence at the site, some are starting to rethink that notion. I think it's absolutely fascinating that in this day and age we can still learn new things about our past. As easy as it is to want to focus strictly on modern innovations to progress effectively as a society, I think it is important to also pay attention to the past. The more we know about the past, the more we know about what societies have been through and how they dealt with challenges. We can consider their successes and failures and learn from them. Additionally, there is the possibility of building modern innovations on models of the past that we don't yet know about. The knowledge we gain can only be beneficial.

Posted by Brett Smith on March 8,2009 | 12:18 AM

Hi, Gobekli Tepe means Belly Hill (or Hill with belly). Thats a great find. By the way, I had chance to read some of the comments above and unfortunately people still thinking this kind of things in their national views. I thihk its fair to say that its belong to all of us just to understand our very exsistence and civilisation. All it say we all belong to a same ancestry!

Posted by abu on March 6,2009 | 08:56 PM

Guys, could you please translate the names, for the rest of us, non Turks or Kurds? I only know that Tepe means hill in Turkish (and there are plenty of them around). But what about 'Gobleki" and "Gire Navoke"? "Gire", if similar to the Greek word, would mean a circle, something which rotates. Thank you

Posted by Rodica on March 4,2009 | 09:59 AM

By Turkish Tepe Team we are known as the "Tepe Girls" and we have been working extensively on this project for quite some time now. It hasn'e always been easy but our "Uncle Gozleme" has been right there from start, pushing us to achieve. We can't wait to return to the "Tep" next dig season with "Schmidty" and the gang Love the Tepe Girls

Posted by The Picture Editors of the Gobekli Project Australia on March 3,2009 | 07:03 PM

The original, authentic and right name of this Kurdish place is Girê Navokê, and not "gobekli tepe".

Posted by Kurt on March 3,2009 | 05:05 AM

This is a wonderful and important discovery. Otherwise, what is implied in some of the comments might be plain scary: archeologists who did not know that Turkey is a very new country and nation and also people insisting that this is an Armenian temple, when in fact we don't know which people lived in the area over 11,000 years ago (we only know there were not Turks). There might have been Iberi, Greek, Etruscs (as we still don't know from where these people come), Proto-Latins or a group of people we don't even know about. Turkey is full of historical vestigies created by other people, mainly Greeks and Armenians. And yes, these old sites can NOT be reffered as Turkish. I continue to be surprised with the mainstream arheology which seems to be very in a box. Let's imagine something happens with one of our modern cities or towns. What will be left after 11,000 years and what the arheology conclusion will be? "Primitive society and hunters" as they will be able maybe to find a few chicken bones in my house but no evidence of agriculture (but landscaping)? Will that mean I was a hunter? (the kind hunting for a nice chicken at the local grocery store would qualify? Apparently so, as no scene of hunting and no hunting tools discovered around will not pose a question mark to the mainstream arheology) Mayans believed that there were a few worlds and we know about Noah. And we all know about Atlantida. Would be possible to start looking to all these old marvels from two perspectives: a primitive civilization built them OR a developed civilization done it? Yours truly,the neolitical hunter

Posted by Rodica on March 1,2009 | 02:28 AM

Though I am living in Turkey, unfortunately I read this study just today and started reading related articles. As old as 11.000 years old massive upright stones on which finely carved figures being found at a time when ancestors of humans were thought to be hunters without much social capability. It is shocking and this world heritage will revise our history understanding and should make people to think on many prejudices we have on prehistoric life. By the way, I need to mention the peculiar feeling I left with while reading some comments. Claiming they were of this or that nation is really banal, though there is no such indication in the article. Science has no place for prejudice, but objective truth.

Posted by Hilmi Yigit on March 1,2009 | 06:59 PM

stop this silly argument over whether gobekli tepe is turkish or armenian.Given the similarity between this site and stonehenge i would say it is obviously a british constrution.And that is probabably a very good reason for conquest of that region as we are rather prone to that sort of thing over here,rothschilds permitting.

Posted by gary richardson on March 1,2009 | 03:58 PM

Great finding, may be it is more true that oldest discovered temple... It is also funny to claim, that this land was Armenian, and those tempers were armenian made. I think there were nothing named as armenian at bc. 9000.

Posted by ivan pedersen on March 1,2009 | 02:12 PM

Would it be nice if we also discover the Fortress of Solitude of Superman underneath all that. I say it's an Hoax ! Wouldn't lime stone be so brittle that it would NOT have survived or got to us in such mint condition. 11k of time will erode anything - why nhy not these pillars ? What catastrophy hid them from us for so long but preserve them also for so long ? Pompei had ashes and it is documneted - why wasn't this one ??? I always say when it's too nice...............

Posted by iratam on March 1,2009 | 07:32 AM

Beyond the amazement and those first obvious questions, I am now wondering at the social structure that could have driven so many, for so long... it seems this was the construct of many peoples. And given the assumptions of tribal nature and size, are we seeing a unification of many tribes? Something powerful kept them of one mind.

Posted by Barry Blust on March 1,2009 | 06:57 AM

Why do we presume and state" Prehistoric people who had not as yet developed metal tools or pottery". Does anyone think that all these carvings were done with a stick no matter how soft one says the limestone is. If the stone is that soft, the weather would erode it. c.Kenneth Carter 2/28/09

Posted by C. Kenneth Carter on February 28,2009 | 08:14 PM

The article displays a truly amazing find - however - how many older or contemporary "digs" will uncover even more amazing finds near the Indus River Valley (India)or along the Yangtse River Basin (China).

Posted by Craig Eugene on February 28,2009 | 07:09 PM

I have only today heard of Gobekli Tepe in a uk newspaper and I am sad. Sad on two levels, one a personal one, in that I am only finding out about it today when I have visited SanliUrfa on two previous occasions and didn't know to go an extra little way to see what is obviously a wonderful site & sight! Sad on the other level that previous correspondants on this site chose to argue as to who it belongs to. It belongs to me - to you - to humankind -it is part of our worlds' history. Why are you squabbling? At the moment this area of the world is called Turkey. At times in the past it has been called other names - so what! I accept how painful the past is for Armenians, but consider those other areas until more recent times which were called Turkey, and other areas of the world which are still trying to establish their current identity. By today's name Troy is in Turkey, Nemrut Dagi is in Turkey, Ephesus is in Turkey, Cyprus is still in a conflict -divided, Babylon is in Iraq, this entire 'world' between the edges of Europe and Asia has always been fluid, possibly even before the Armenians? ...... and so it goes on - who says who's border it is going to 'end' up in, and when might that be?! I am speaking from layperson terms and of my enjoyment of the world that I live in, and I'm sure many scholars/nationals can contradict &/or correct me - but this belongs to me too! Please! I ask you - enjoy it's discovery as I am, and hopefully on my next visit I will see it's delights and not gripes!

Posted by Ann Howes-Can on February 28,2009 | 10:36 AM

I've only just heard of this site and I've been prompted to find out more. Looking at the t-shapes I can't help being reminded of the Minoan double-headed axe, especially here at 15-20 secs in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBfxUq6Z1KM I would also like more evidence of deliberate burial: if the transition to agriculture did indeed turn the lush landscape to dust, surely this would be impossible to prove?

Posted by Kate Martinson on February 27,2009 | 09:29 PM

Did you notice the pictures on the pillars!? Gobekli Tepe seems to be an ancient astronomical observatory. The current scientific party line is that the zodiac was not developed until the late Babylonian period around 600-700BC and precession was not discovered until 127 BC. However, the recent finding at Gobekli Tepe suggests it may have started much earlier. As you know Gobekli Tepe is carbon dated to approx. 10,000 BC - almost 12,000 years ago! The megalithic pillars contain bas-relief of many of the animals (like fox and boar) common to myth and folklore that dates to pre-history. Among the animals found are a lion (Leo), bull, (Taurus) and scorpion (Scorpios). There is also a bird with a sun like object on its wing similar to Egyptian art of 7000 years later - indicating motion of the sun. This is how precession is measured over the long term - by the motion of the sun through the constellations on a fixed solar date such as the equinox or solstice. Much work remains to be done to see if this was a purpose of the site. Love to know the specific orientation of each pillar and how these relate to the constellations on those pillars. My understanding is the carbon dating is solid. Lots to learn from this site. Walter Cruttenden Author “Lost Star of Myth and Time”

Posted by Walter Cruttenden on February 26,2009 | 08:44 PM

Greetings: As important as this find is, I will be writing by snail mail as well, to make sure at least it is read. I have written 80 works, and among them are several which address the language problem of "being before language," and that of pure symbol. I took the simple approach of looking at the various groups of letters, of various cultures, looked at designs, sequence, patterns, and then, so to speak struck out before written texts (a Sumerian bill for wheat was the first writing. Figures.) As it gets further and further back in time, there is a curious and obvious simplicity, and randomly here and there, it is as if the idea that is connected with the symbol, says one word. Combine the symbols, the ideas, and you have a brief complex idea. Try Stonehenge for example. In my book, Art and Mystery in the Ancient World, there are 35 simple expressions because of the various combinations. (60 blue stones arrived, buried, and then dug up, indicate a . . .ancient letter "X," or later "S." Angle of the U shape center piece is not about the Summer Soltice, as they note it was "off." It is more about "looking over things, a letter "E".) I have spoken with some professors on the topic, and it is beyond their learning at the moment, but several text books are among the 80 so they can catch up. Of course, new mysterious writings, religious mostly, are the easiest to decipher, as they come from the same 36 point system. The Gobekli Tepe site from the pictures alone have said three things, but there is obviously more, and it is definitely challenging. The hill, the pillars, the shapes are standard stuff. Burial may relate to an early Hindu custom, but it is on a smaller scale. My funny bone says it was just a restaurant. Ill get back with you by letter. I would like to include a comment observation on the site in the book. I wish me luck.

Posted by michael stone on February 25,2009 | 10:02 AM

Just a couple of quick comments on this article. 1. The T symbol shows up many times or as one of the photos suggests the shape is similar to a hammer. The same shape appears on the stones at stone henge. I have found Native American artifacts that suggest that the T or Hammer was a small asteroid (or large if it hit the earth and causes a plume that goes high into the sky. The fact that the hill could be the navel of the earth would suggest that if it was the site of a meteor impact, the plume could represent an umbilical cord to heaven. The path of the asteroid may well be indicated on some of the megaliths and it appears that there is a scratched line across a lion or "Leo" in astonomy. Point 2. When one builds such a site, no one in their right mind would bury it. It's too much work. Only nature would do such a thing and it fits with the time period of an impact that would have raised enough dust to cover the site naturally. I would suggest as I would also suggest about stone henge that there was a flying star in the shape of a hammer or "T" that was caught by Earth's gravity and it may well have circled many many times before finally coming down. Ego Stone Henge and this Site too were tracking the object to know when it would be seen next and if if was going to fall from the sky.

Posted by keith snyder on February 24,2009 | 03:22 AM

When I first read the article, I too was most excited by the site and implications. With time however, I find myself more and more unconvinced on the basis of a scientific approach. First, the dating at the site needs to be corroborated by reliable and verifiable techniques and by a second research team. Secondly, the construction of the structure required a fairly high degree of social organization, as evidenced by other structures near Stonehenge. Random groups of hunter gatherers could not accomplish the language and engineering skills. Schmidt presents no such evidence. Thirdly, Stonehenge is not an isolated site, but one of many megaliths that are present in England, Ireland and Scotland. Why is this one solitary? Next,why has the layering of the stone circles not been adequately discussed? It is unique and uncharacteristic. Finally (and most bothersome) the artwork on the stones --the carvings and friezes--represents a skillfulness and imagery that is unlike anything in the Neolithic period. A spiral is far more prominent in early carvings. I believe all this leads to two possible conclusions: first, Gobekli Tepe represents an advanced, unknown culture that is distinct from virtually all other sites of the time. Or two, it is a hoax. The verdict is far from in.

Posted by Lawrence Mohr on February 22,2009 | 04:41 PM

This is the subject of world history nothing else. 6000 years ago there is no Armenia nor Armenian. You people do not make this magnificent historical discovery of the mankind a political subject. This is world heritage. Therefore it should contribute to the world peace. Judging an ancient subject with a 90 years old SO CALLED subject is so ridiculous. Maybe Syrian maybe Persian maybe Arabian maybe else. Maybe at that time there was no such discrimination. It is obvious that Turks and Turkish civilization changing the world since their move out of Asia.

Posted by Gokhan GENC on February 14,2009 | 06:13 PM

The thing that astonished me most about Gobekli Tepe was some of the strong similarities of design that it shares with the megalithic complexes of the Boyne valley,Eire. Although the Boyne valley cairns were built circa 5000 B.C, they have carvings that repeat many of the designs used at Gobekli Tepe, I am referring to the markings,lozenges, chevrons etc that appear alongside the animal totems, also the drystone walling technique. The most surprising thing is the sophistication of the construction here. It is also tantalising to imagine how these ideas migrated.

Posted by Gary Hill on February 12,2009 | 02:14 PM

Nabta Playa is as old, if not older.

Posted by mary on January 30,2009 | 09:16 PM

Urfa is the historical territory of Armenia.
It locolized in Armenian Highland.
In Armenian Highland is another temple called Qarahunje.
It locolized in Vayots Dzor region of Republic of Armenia.
It may be called as ancestor of Stone - (in armenian qar-, in old brit language too) Hendge (hunch- in armenian voice). this tample dating to 6000 BC.
So we can say that Portasar (Gobekli tepe in armenian) is the ancestor of Qarahunje. And Qarahunje is ancestor of Stonehendge.
The southern part of Armenian Highland is the northern part of Golden Crescent.
Small information about this land and Armenians.
The geographyc localization of Indo Europian languages is Armenian Highland. In nowdays the oldest Indo European language is armenian.
You can look this linkes and find some intersting information about it.
_____________
http://elementy.ru/news/430614
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/iedocctr/ie-lg/
_____________
P.S. Greek calledAnatolia (in greek it means East, it means territory which locolized eastern from greek cities), only central part of Asia Minor (the Ankira region).
It's great mistake to call all parts of Asia Minor as a Anatolia.

Posted by Tigran on January 30,2009 | 08:53 AM

Looking at the stones and the carvings, it kind of seems that they were not intended to be the most important feature of the site. If it had been a temple, one would expect to find more intense, attention-grabbing visuals to adorn the stones (and, perhaps, some kind of central altar).There're too many stones; there's too much stuff carved on them; there's too little intensity/action to the carved figures of animals. In Short, all of this looks decorative.Something to add atmosphere to the proceedings - not to be at their centre.That's why I agree with the theories of this being a clan gathering place (or even an early palace). Then again, the "horizontal slab placed upon a vertical stone" setup makes one wonder. Could a horizontal stone and a vertical stone play separate informational roles (and yet, complement each other)? Could a veritcal slab contain some kind of,well, mathematical calculation, and the horizontal - it's result? Could a vertical slab contain a story, and the horizontal - it's moral? (Btw,I seem to notice, that one of the T-shaped obelisks in the photos is not made out of two separate parts, but, instead, appears to be a single stone, made into a T-shape. Wonder what that shape's significance might've been?) About the Armenian-vs-Turk debate - it is, of course, saddening. But, from the posts I've red, it does not seem, that most Armenian posters are really concerned with claiming the temple as the work of their ancestors, or going on about their culture's ancientness. Instead, some of the wording in the article has opened wounds, left by Turkish actions in 1915 - events that don't seem to get due international recognition. True, the theme does not relate to the article's subject matter, but - the Armenians do have the right to remind the world of those events, this forum included. Without taking this into account, the "Let's stop arguing and start cherishing our common heritage" argument sounds somewhat watery and phoney..

Posted by Chapaev on January 26,2009 | 06:56 AM

I have to add my comment, in light of all the preceding concerns about which people did this.

To understand human relationships, count your ancestors, 2 parents, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, ...

That simple progression attains to 1,099 trillion in 1,000 years. We all share the same ancestors, given any time-depth over 1,000 years!

MORE:
The 1,099 Trillion Principle.
How many ancestors do we have?
http://jqjacobs.net/anthro/ancestors.html

"We ALL" built Göbekli Tepe.

Posted by James Q. Jacobs on January 11,2009 | 01:08 PM

This is a find of great historic significance. The idea the neolithic man could organize himself into large groups for such a monumental work and at a time which predates even the development of pottery is surprising indeed. Although what, if any, rituals were carried on at this site will probably remain a matter of conjecture, it is still amoving experience too view the place where religion in some sense first began to be practised in the world.

Posted by Himanshu Bhatnagar on January 11,2009 | 10:41 AM

NOT! Temples would have had figures of gods, this doesn't. Hasn't any of these guys figured out the construct is a coral/trap? once the bottom filled with manure they'd just raise it up a level. Some Native American tribes built similar structures.

Posted by Aliza on January 9,2009 | 10:27 PM

wow!

Posted by lennies on January 9,2009 | 08:00 PM

WOW! Any updates?!! Thx, T + L

Posted by tom + lin on December 29,2008 | 10:28 PM

This is a truly fascinating article. We are ALL Africans, bleached to be Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Kurd, Armenian, Turk, Arab, Slav... Oh, I am so very sorry for those I did not list... Uzay Sezen

Posted by Uzay Sezen on December 23,2008 | 01:13 AM

I was so excited I erroneously posted my comment on the accompanying article, the interview with the article's author. I was fortunate to almost accidentally visit this site in May, 2008. There were no officials present, only the watchman, the land owner, I was led to believe. He did a good job--not letting me into the excavation area. Nevertheless, I was utterly captivated by the exposed articles. I can see inches of excavation progress from the last season of work. This is the site to watch as it develops. My thanks to the Smithsonian Magazine for the article.

Posted by James K. Gronsand on December 23,2008 | 02:15 PM

Anatolia, Asia Minor or todays Turkey is a piece of land where many different civilizations lived ...The article does not say that the site is Turkish...It is in todays Turkey....I do not see any reason to politicise this article...Before Armenians there were other civilizations and before them other and before them other and this goes on and on...The only thing Turkey will gain from this is the income that the site will generate from related tourism activities...thats all...Both Turkish and Armenian people lost their lives because of the conflict in 1915... Some Armenian groups rebelled and as a result The Ottoman Empire retaliated and exiled many Armenians...I think both sides should be sorry that such a clash happened..and not repeat such an unfortunate happening...and I wish Armenians were not blaming Turkish people because of a war that took place during the Ottoman Empire times.....The site belongs to humantiy..It is our common heritage..We should focus on what we can learn from this amazing finding...

Posted by Oruro Tiwanaku on December 19,2008 | 07:03 PM

Like one of the earlier posters, I also need clarification about when the site was backfilled: was it closer to 8000 BCE or 7000 BCE? Anyone?

Posted by Robert Dobbin on December 16,2008 | 01:21 AM

Incredibly siignificant find> Congradualtions to Mr. Schmidt for not accepting conventional wisedom. The photos were beautiful BUT there is nothing in them that gives me a sense of the scale of the monoliths. There does not seem to be any sense of scalle in the photo gallery either. Are they Stonehenge size or gravestone size.? A person next to them is all that would be needed of course. Great work! Bill Kelso

Posted by William kelso on November 30,2008 | 10:14 AM

"Prehistoric people would have gazed upon herds of gazelle and other wild animals; gently flowing rivers, which attracted migrating geese and ducks; fruit and nut trees; and rippling fields of wild barley and wild wheat varieties such as emmer and einkorn. "This area was like a paradise," It looks like a desert now. Did it get that way from climate change, constant abuse by people or? What happened? Around a lot of old sites, there aren't any trees i.e. Easter Island, Stonehenge, etc. Maybe they were all cut down making temples and only the stones remain. Seems like where ever man has been for any length of time, the land is really depleted. See the book "Soil and Civilization".

Posted by Kerry Searle on November 29,2008 | 05:26 AM

The people of Gobekli Tepe, for whatever reason, attempted to cover the site and abandoned it. I wonder if perhaps they were in the same frame of mind as I, after reading most of the comments herein. I shudder to think what some future civilization would extract from perusing this section of present-day man's most informative scientific journal! Someone hand me a shovel.

Posted by Roger True on November 28,2008 | 11:00 PM

I dont see why would this find be a temple at all from that early times.Would somebody finally take time and use the resources to dig into the history of Hun's please?One will be surprised how far their history goes back and what a wast area they were living on from Asia to England.Did anybody heard of the biggest Empire which wasnt the Roman but the Hun's?Even China just discovering that their remains of the oldest settlements arent Chinese in origin.Check out the Hungarian language people.2Mil word.The oldest written language which was craved into stone and just been found in Hungary predates any other finds by a couple of thousands years.The way this language is being spoken these days are much different from how it was spoken thousands of years ago.The old language sounded way too close to the Turkish.Todays names of the towns in the middle-east are very familiar to Hungarian language and most of them could be located in Hungary even today. I just hope the people with the knowledge and resources will not follow the dogmatic teaching they have received in the school but use common sense and do a real research when they run into a find like this one.

Posted by Sandor Rab on November 23,2008 | 01:46 PM

To those who put comments that have nothing to do with the article: This temple is in Turkey. It has nothing to do with whether Armenians lived there or not. So Deal with it. Write your ideas and comments on an article about the Armenians who were killed/deported/massacred/died, not an article on archeology.

Posted by Murat Onur on November 22,2008 | 01:07 PM

Looking at the wonderful excavation and work of Claus Scmidt and his team, I am reminded of a possible, and doubtless partial explanation of such 'temples' or stones and their purpose. Many of the earliest neolithic structures, or dolmens,display arrangement of vertical base pillars topped by a further, usually horizontal slab. Archaeology assumes these are the remains of a supporting structure, wooden , rubble or earthen, usually buried underground. This was doubtless true of most of these sites. But in the case of the the 'stand-alone' pllars, reminiscent, at least in the photograph ,of those at Gobekli Tepe, this explanation appears weak. Assuming the earliest forms of religious activity were inspired by humankind's response to the cycle of life and death,these structures do seem remarkably apt for the display and offering of the deceased,to whatever gods peopled the neolithic heavens , arranged singly or within a cyclical,'astronomical' pattern . The carvings of Gobekli Tepe ,vultures especially, could perhaps be seen in this light. The practice of 'sky burial' is found in societies ancient and modern throughout the world, the 'Towers of Silence', and the tree burials of some native American cultures being perhaps the best known. It is possible to conjecture further , when looking at a 'table structure ' such as that of Poulnabrone in Ireland or Marayoon in Kerala,that the initial exposure of a body to the elements placed it beyond the reach of ground scavengers, to permit dessication or disintegration, while invisible to ordinary mortal eyes. A sacred process ,this could have been succeeded by some kind of ceremony, and the interment of what remained with a ceremonial completion of the burial mound. Many such monuments were subsequently in use for centuries, if not millennia, their original purpose altered and changed along with the cultures that they served, and the form of burial or disposal practiced.

Posted by Christopher Dawes on November 20,2008 | 06:46 AM

Gobekli Tepe changes everything archaeologists discovered so far and it is considered the most important archaeological find in recent history. Klaus Schmidt, the man who first discovered Gobekli Tepe says the carvings might be the first human representation of gods.
-------------------
Sally

Posted by reenasally on November 19,2008 | 11:15 PM

So there were no Cave Men! Forget about hunter gatherers. Genesis account of long life spans of 960 years of the Antediluvians are true, and their drowned kingdoms and monuments are what you are digging up. Human beings are a Fallen Race. Genesis 4 : 22 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.

Posted by Lalitha Jacob on November 19,2008 | 12:47 PM

Unfortunately I must agree with a previous comment: that this may not be the most ancient temple?, maybe, found to date. How on earth; with such mega discoveries going on in our universe and on our own planet can a true man of science proclaim: " THIS IS THE OLDEST TEMPLE EVER BUILT BY MAN". Oh; the discoveries that will be made in the future will most likely astound us and just as physics is being turned on its head; our understanding of our distant past is in for a real transformation. Stan Cape

Posted by sTAN cAPE on November 19,2008 | 10:50 AM

It is not a Turkish temple, it is not an Armenian temple--it is a HUMAN temple!

Posted by Michael on November 18,2008 | 11:23 PM

Excellent article, Mr. Curry. The ignorance shown in most of the comments saddens me, but I hope you will continue reporting on Dr. Schmidt's work, I would be interested to learn what else the excavation uncovers. Perhaps this was some sort of funeral ground, where bodies were left for wild beasts to devour? The megaliths may have been covered with warding symbols of death, or perhaps they represented spirit guides, as the very animals that may eat the flesh of the dead and return them to the heavens and the earth. If it were periodically cleaned, and the bones removed and burned or scattered, that would explain why only fragments remain, then as people scattered earth over the site after sweeping up the bones, it would gradually rise higher and higher, swamping the megaliths, and requiring the construction of new ones? Just an idle thought that occurred to me, it will be good to see what other secrets this site reveals.

Posted by Christopher L. Wood on November 18,2008 | 10:26 PM

~ That is no "Temple". That place was described in some detail in the Sumerian texts. It is the place where the Earth's indigenous wild animals were domesticated. To confirm or disprove my assertion, I would suggest that extensive DNA testing be done on the numerous animal remains there. I predict that there will be found large gaps/jumps in the DNA sequences of each species in step with the time the animals were cast aside. The animals were not "sacrifices", they were just carrying defective and or undesirable genes. ~

Posted by Jim Bell on November 18,2008 | 04:51 PM

Two points 1) 11,000 years ago, there was no Turky or Armina. Get over it. The point of the article is that this is likely the place that ALL civilization started. 2) The author argues that it is THE oldest (discovered or not), as there was really no organized civilization before this capable of working togeather to build anything of significant size.

Posted by Jeff on November 18,2008 | 03:09 PM

Gobekli Tepe suggests to me, in at least one of the photos, an astrological calendrical alignment of monumental carved stones, based on a Lunar mathematical system, where thirteen stones are arranged in a circle. The two inner pillars might symbolize the male/female duality, the creation principle. The specific renderings of the scorpion and the lion, as well as other animals specific to their zodiac, suggest a dedication to the relationship of the stars to the sequential seasonal rhythms. This man made hillock land form, like England's Avebeury Hill, was begun and generationally increased in size, as the descendants of the originators recreated and re-established their sacred connection to the cosmos. I suggest that if visitors to the site were permitted to dowse the standing stones, they might discover, as I have in a large Medicine Wheel that I created, a ring shaped field of energy passing through the ring of stones. If this is found to be so, I further suggest that this site was a place of healing, and that healings and attunements to celestial forces were experienced within the space between the two "parent" stones in the center. The ancestral Armenians would then have been the preceptors of all energy healing modalities, such as those that now are enjoying a renaissance; i.e., Reiki, Tong Ren, neo-Druidism, ChiGong, Wicca, laying on of hands, etc. Respectfully, Marshall Rosenthal, MA Cultural Anthropology, Syracuse University, NY, Usui-Tibetan and Karuna Reiki Master/Teacher.

Posted by Marshall Rosenthal on November 17,2008 | 08:01 PM

When I was young I wanted to be an archeologist. Never got there but I do enjoy reading about the discoveries of others. Thanks for your tenacity regarding the past. It can help us in the future.

Posted by JEANNE ASKHAM on November 17,2008 | 06:07 PM

This temple was from the Neolithic period and the culture of that priod was Kebarans or Natufian, not Armenians, which was much later; nor is it of "Turkish culture."

Posted by DMK on November 17,2008 | 05:55 PM

Great article, horrible comments. It's disheartening to find so much ignorance, anger and rabid ideology amongst people reading the Smithsonian. Some need only to read the article to find the answer to some of their complaints. Others take advantage of ambiguity in the English language to lambast the article (such as complaints about the usage of ‘first temple’, there’s a difference between a temple and an altar or shrine). Then some others use their religion, atheism, or political ideology to pervert the findings. My condolences Mr. Curry but don’t take it to heart you did a great job, as have the archeologist.

Posted by JS Bryan on November 17,2008 | 11:44 AM

How are they so quick to label this the site of a pre-historic temple? It seems more like a library or classroom layout. Does modern man look down so much so on pre-historic or ancient man that they assume mankind has always had the urge to learn? If you had no viable language to teach your children how to hunt or how to gather food, why not draw pictures...and why not place rocks from which you have learned to carve/draw upon to use for teaching? Is teaching someone how to hunt considered worship? Maybe the residents of this "temple" were artists. Don't get rituals confused with worship.

Posted by Dreifort on November 17,2008 | 10:50 AM

The rash assumptions made by Herr Schmidt and others are odd. Something done on this scale, especially when the more elaborate portions are also the oldest as has elsewhere been reported, can hardly have been the "first" ancient "temple". Likewise, why do archaeologists insist that writing did not come into use until thousands of years later? They do not know that that is true. Why not be satisfied to say that that is the oldest evidence found "to date"? This does not necessarily reverse the accuracy of the theory that domestication occurred first. How were so many fed if not by farming products? How could a "hunter-gatherer" culture have spared so many young and strong hunters to take the time to travel to and build such a large installation? Perhaps mankind became sophisticated long before some of us want to believe.

Posted by D. Hyman on November 16,2008 | 10:12 PM

Wonderful story, but it is as seen though the eyes of a reporter and a researcher that is speculating. I blame the reporter the most for the over reaching in the conclusions, science reporters should have some training in science. It certainly appears to be a pre-agrarian structure, but with a little more effort on carbon dating and other linkages are really necessary before making those suggestions in any scientific forum. I believe the researcher is heading that way, but the reporter didn't understand the difference between speculation and a well supported theory. It is a very interesting and even ground breaking story. I want to believe, help my unbelief with a few more facts.

Posted by David Sparkman on November 16,2008 | 02:49 PM

This could be a continuing trend in the thought that Modern man has been around longer than first believed. I think we will see much older civilizations with more elevated technologies. This is just the start. Keep digging!

Posted by Tom Hoffman on November 16,2008 | 01:46 PM

Congratulations on the find! very interesting. History holds so much, mixed together like some vegtable soup. maybe in the far past people did not have hard political boundries and wars over race and resources. I often wonder if things are so much different today than they were then? I suspect I will never fully know or understand the scope of the answer. I am delighted that we as humans continue to search for answers to better understand ourselves and move forward in our own time.

Posted by Keith Hass on November 15,2008 | 12:38 AM

Has anybody thought about this? Look at the intricate carvings and large scale! This was a clearly sophisticated site that obviously took advanced architecture and engineering skills to build, yet it was before before farming?? What's wrong with this picture?? I think archaeologists need to rethink their theories a bit! This site was not built by stone age hunter gatherers! This is clear evidence that there were advanced civilizations in so called "prehistoric times"! Anyone ever heard of Atlantis or Lemuria?

Posted by P Grandahl on November 15,2008 | 09:01 PM

wonderfull find, congradulations. Some wonder why the ancients did not leave more detail history, I beleive they did and this and other finks like it is their way of telling the story. we simple have to learn how to relate it to our time and undeerstanding. and without a dought someday we will.

Posted by Eugene Burrow on November 15,2008 | 06:22 PM

As advanced a group as humans like to think they are it never ceases to amaze me at how quickly they regress into laying claim to things or dividing into sub-groups. No wonder so many so called civilizations died off. We will probably continue to find objects, sites, whatever that predate others. Given what we know about plate tectonics most of what predates all of these are probably long churned under and lost forever. Will mankind ever learn to relish what we are diversity and all or find our more recent history being dug up by some beings attempting to determine what happened to us? Sites like these serve to give us a frame of reference concerning advancement but little else in terms of our origin.

Posted by Patrick on November 15,2008 | 04:49 PM

Humanity amazes, despite this great even we have Armenian vs. Turk. When will we stop beating stone, copper, bronze,iro,and steel into weapons and simply see the greatness of man without the need to murder each other over who or whom and beliefs. This is an extradinory find, oh that we could learn from history and not be condemed to repeat it.

Posted by John of Lincoln on November 15,2008 | 03:08 PM

What I find odd is how the structures resembles crosses (crucifix's) minus the head. Also, 11,000 years ago is too far back to assume Christianity in any form, but it would fit with the whole SONS OF GOD and 72 RULERS for 72 nations timeline...and then the flood. So, hey...ya never know.

Posted by Asia Minota on November 15,2008 | 02:34 PM

I am amazed, but not surprised at the antiquity of this site. Over and over, sages and spiritual luminaries, like Sri Aurobindo for example, has told us that human culture and civilization is way older than we suppose and accept nowadays. This is also corroborated by the Piri Reis map with the contour of an Antarctic continent that has been covered by ice for the last 9,000 years; meaning somehow a civilization perfectly mapped the coast of Antarctica before that. This can be explained by the theory of earth crust displacement that was accepted by non-other than Einstein when he went out of his way to write an introduction to Hapgood's book on this principle in 1952. In this theory it was possible that Antarctica was at that time at the height of today's Argentina, thus devoid of ice.

Posted by Alfredo Delregato on November 15,2008 | 12:17 PM

I'm skeptical. Without organic materials, how are they carbon-dating this site?

Posted by Richard on November 15,2008 | 11:40 AM

Makes you wonder how many other buried civilizations are out there, and have been buried away not by the elements but by scientist. Well here is proof this site is not the only one that supports the theory human civilization is far older than we have been led to believe.

Posted by angel on November 15,2008 | 11:20 AM

Could this be the REAL tower of Babel? Although not made of bricks and tar it is still man-made, obviously reaches the heavens, and, if the history is accurate, this could be the first civilization speaking one language, of one mind.

Posted by Ed Riesner on November 15,2008 | 11:14 AM

This temple is obviously of Armenian origin, as we were the original inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent, and the fathers of all civilization. Moreover, we predated all other peoples of the world, to include the Persians, Turks, Nubians, Israelites, Sioux, Hittites, Hattians, moslems, Kurds, Zoroastrians, Egyptians, Ethiopians and everyone else. This area should simply be known as "Occupied Armenia" rather than Turkey. There are Armenian ruins from every age that are scattered throughout all of Asia Minor (called "Ionia" by the invading Greeks, and "Anatolia" by the invading Romans). The assertions of the Turks, Kurds, Iranians and Syrians are merely calculated to reinforce their criminal occupation of Armenian lands. Our empire extended from Asia Minor throughout the Caucuses, up into what is now known as Georgia, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, eastward as far as India, and south as far as Ethiopia. This is our temple and the rest of you are merely squatters.

Posted by Mikel Derbabian on November 15,2008 | 07:32 AM

What is the alignment of the stones? Could they be indicating migration seasons by alignment with the sunrise or planet Venus?

Posted by Loey on November 15,2008 | 07:25 AM

while someone might have mentioned this (I didn't read every comment), the biblical account of Abraham takes on interesting overtones. Aside from the paganism his culture was immersed in at the time (although the Bible doesn't mention that specifically, it's a good guess), the location (traditionally and generally) of biblical Ur, and the geography have interesting implications. I think it also shows how Abraham was willing -- if saddened -- in the biblical account of God's ordering him to sacrifice Isaac: the fertility traditions and human sacrifice were not unusual.any thoughts? (no I am not a loony, just a biblical scholar and archeological amateur; I don't discount the Bible just because some scientists diss it today).

Posted by Jack on November 15,2008 | 07:16 AM

To give all of you how believe in the Bible a frame of time. The age of the site is 5000 years before God made the Adam and Eve or the Earth.

Posted by Dale on November 15,2008 | 06:51 AM

This hill with the singularly rounded top ...was it covered up with dirt for a special purpose? A "high place" which needed to be put out of commission? It has the look and feel of evil practices done here. Historic it may be but not wholesome. I am grateful to have seen it.

Posted by Terri D. on November 15,2008 | 04:45 AM

It's fun to speculate what the site was dedicated to. Perhaps they thought animals had their own gods too and by building a temple honoring the creatures that had impact on their lives they hoped to appease the animal gods, and that by doing so this might bring them less of the harmful ones and more of the helpful. Like the article says, speculating is a true exercise in futility. Who knows what went on in the minds of these people, but it sure must be fun to speculate.

Posted by Engstfeld on November 15,2008 | 03:43 AM

While this is an exciting piece of news, I find Schmidt's claims that this is the "first temple" rather arrogant. It may well be the oldest site of its kind found to date but the hardly makes it the "first" of its kind. He will only be able to maintain that claim until someone finds an older site. Likewise, I have to question his method for dating. While the stones tested may very well be somewhere between 9,000 and 11,000 years old, that doesn't necessarily mean that the images were carved into them 9,000 to 11,000 years ago. From all appearances it could well be a site where sacrifices were taken to be splayed on the circular alter and carried off to some pagan god by the wild beasts depicted on the stones. That would account for it being on the hillside as well. It reminds me of the Lapp or Sámi sacrificial sites or the sites where people were taken to suffer judgment for their transgressions.

Posted by Kix on November 15,2008 | 03:09 AM

My goodness, please stop with the silly Armenian claims. There was no such thing as an Armenian 11,000 years ago. Yes, maybe the Armenians can trace their lineage back to this area but guess what, so could many other groups of people. The human population was not very large back then.

Posted by Jerad on November 14,2008 | 02:31 AM

This is a very exciting find but how can anyone really know whether or not it was the first temple ever built? They can't, so they shouldn't make such grandiose claims.

Posted by Jerad on November 14,2008 | 02:24 AM

Making stones flat is not difficult at all, even with large ones. It certainly helps that the stone in used here was fairly soft. Simply chip the monument slabs with harder stones until they are in the general shape desired. Then leave one flat on the ground, throw a little sand or hard grit on it.. then put the other stone on top of it. Slide the top stone around for enough hours, and abrasion between the two stones will eventually flatten both of them. This is apparent in millstones, which have existed for thousands of years. For hunter/gatherers with many thousands of years experience in stone-tool making, this was quite possibly a known method of smoothing stone surfaces. Just scale it up for monuments, as many other later cultures did. BTW.. Do this with glass, moving the top plate in a circular motion, and eventually you will have two matching concave/convex pieces of glass. That is how early magnifying and telescope lenses were ground.

Posted by R. Reader on November 14,2008 | 12:34 AM

This fits perfectly with God's word the bible, about where "civilization" was born. Exactly where he said, by the Euphrates, and Abraham was from UR. About 11,500 years ago - near the beginning of time. Science will never disprove that. And nearly every major archeological find proves more correct historicity of the bible. Jesus said, "They have eys, but not see, ears but not hear. Some people's "science" takes more faith to believe than God'd word and proof right in front of their eyes. Bible also says, "The Heavens declare the majesty of God, so that no man has any excuse, not to believe."

Posted by David Forman on November 14,2008 | 11:43 PM

There is no such thing as a biblical flood. We know now that climate change has existed for millions of years. During that time we now know that the Canadian Shield melted and flooded the oceans which in turn flooded continents - it wasn't an act of a made up person, it was nature. Consider that people still worship a rock that fell from the heavens - a meteorite..lol! Seriously, they thought volcanoes had humans trapped in them and that it was God. That stuff is all made up by humans who were scared, they didn't know anything about the world or why they were there so they worshipped the sun and moon and animals for crying out loud. Get over it, no one is coming to save you. We had paradise and we destroyed it, this was it so enjoy what's left of it because once we are gone, another civilization will rise from the ashes and hopefully they'll be far more intelligent than we have been.

Posted by kate on November 14,2008 | 11:21 PM

Abrahams'city of Ur- "And your descendant's shall be as the stars in the sky, and the grains of sand on the beach." The fertile "belly valley" from where civilization flowed. I love it! And then as we swarmed into the cities, future archaeologists will see the Starbucks, McDonalds and Popeyes and Taco Bells that became our cultural icons.

Posted by Kimberly C. Wade on November 14,2008 | 10:16 PM

For those who write about how wonderful it would be to help with this incredible archaeological dig, please know that you are ALREADY involved and helping. If you so choose, you may become researchers and students of archaeology, in your own way. Through the Internet, we become thoughtful armchair scientists. We may take on the mission of collectively decoding and understanding the nature and true purpose of this extraordinary site -- and we have a lot to add. So dream. Think. Postulate. Question. Consider. Get involved. And help solve the riddle of Gobekli Tepe. Together, with the combined literally tens of thousands of years of experience we all share, we can add a lot to the understanding of this site and of the people who built it.

Posted by Thomas on November 14,2008 | 09:31 PM

Schmidt must be the pride of archeologists the world over after claiming, "This is the first human-built holy place..." I have read articles referencing this quote on numerous main stream media sites where his statement failed to elicit so much as a smirk. Another proud day for journalism too! Herr Schmidt was either misquoted... or missed class the day they taught archeology, epistemology and logic during his university years. Maybe he cut himself shaving with Occam's razor that morning... Jeff Bryce Seattle, WA USA

Posted by Jeffery Bryce on November 14,2008 | 09:28 PM

Several more thoughts to share: 1. Round structures are stronger and less likely to be blown over or shaken down. 2. If a group of people stand around a fire - they stand in a circle. Heat radiates in a circle. 3. In a lush land with plenty of natural food, hunting and gathering is easier than agriculture... but only until the population increases faster than it can spread out. The only real advantage of raising food is that more people can live in a given area. Farming is more work than hunting but less than fighting for more land once a given space is hunted out.

Posted by Pamela on November 14,2008 | 09:06 PM

My first gut reaction was that this was a gathering place for wandering tribes of people, like nomads do even now in places. The "signs" almost seem to be saying, "This is where the scorpion tribal leaders will stay for the event." That is, of course, a lot of effort for such, but it is just a hunch anyway.

Posted by Kris Harrison on November 14,2008 | 08:59 PM

Amazing discovery. The carvings are unbelievable. One more piece in the big puzzle. Cavemen were a lot brighter than we used to think. The archeologists are reading way too much into it (as always). Don't they ever wonder what a coincidence it is that the "oldest" signs of civilization happen to be in the arid areas without access to timber as an abundant building material? (For the Armenians and Turks fighting to be the founders of civilization.... Trois Freres Cave is much older than this site. It's dated 13-15k years ago, this is hardly the birthplace of civilization)

Posted by Patrick Powell on November 14,2008 | 08:41 PM

To introduce a modest note of twilightzone-paranormal speculation: Has Edgar Cayce or other psychics predicted such a discovery or the existence of such a "culture"? :) Were these probably the remnant stragglers from Atlantis?

Posted by Raj on November 14,2008 | 08:04 PM

The round shape of Stonehenge has always reminded me of pictures of the round huts and tents built by those few remaining cultures who truly lived by hunting and gathering. Actually, a round shape is the most efficient for a single dwelling, giving the most enclosed space for a given amount of wall and roof materials. Modern, square rooms only become efficient when several of them are built together so that walls are shared. Stone circles always scream to me of a time when we could all share the same space; before we started packing together. Like most animals, however, humans must have had to fight each other over hunting grounds. Imagine the first groups of people to struggle with agriculture. Did they hope it would finally bring peace?

Posted by Pamela on November 14,2008 | 07:46 PM

First - Congratulations on such a TERRIFIC find! Second - Folks, there were ZERO countries, cities, etc. during that time period. Third - Please dig under the Sphinx's right foot down far enough to the records chamber entrance. Let's prove or disprove its existence once and for all. Ground penetrating radar definitely reveals a chamber. Lastly - I admire everyone in the archaeological community for their patience and persistence in the face of such ENORMOUS odds. God Speed!

Posted by Dr. Grant on November 14,2008 | 07:13 PM

Only man could have created something like this? Hmm, I'm thinking how could man possibly create something like this at that time, especially with no evidence of human remains in the area.

Posted by Steve on November 14,2008 | 07:10 PM

Drill, drill, drill. Well, dig, dig, dig. Awesome. I wish I could visit the site if even from a mile away.

Posted by Mito on November 14,2008 | 07:06 PM

Before you pro-Armenian types get too excited, remember that the Armenians came from Phrygia, some ways to the west, and they originally came from the Balkans. Which is not to say there might not have been Armenian ancestors (by way of intermarriage with the Phrygian colonists), but they wouldn't have been Armenian as we know it. No, more likely the builders were Proto-Hittites or even Proto-Sumerians. (They obviously couldn't have been Turkish, but that's really more a question of geography than credit anyway.)

Posted by Brian X on November 14,2008 | 02:09 PM

An article I noted from a year ago:

Gene study supports single main migration across Bering Strait

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/uomh-gss112607.php

This migration is purported to have taken place 12,000 years ago, in roughly the same time frame. I think there was a lot going on at that point in human history, but as the article states, this was 6,000 years before the invention of a written language we recognize, so there are more blanks than clues.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/khipu.html

Claims of "oldest" or "first" are not to be taken seriously.

Posted by Allan on November 13,2008 | 12:55 AM

Well my friends, if you go and check for the RA material (LAW OF ONE) you can learn a lot from ancient civilizations, this material was channeled in 1984 and there's a line where it declares: ".......... Three of the positively-oriented of the Atlantean groups left this geographical locus before that devastation, placing themselves in the mountain areas of what you call Tibet, what you call Peru, and what you call Turkey." TIBET (Shaolin secrets) PERU (Maccu Piccu/Incas/Nazca/etc) TURKEY (well.. now we know)

Posted by Alvaro Talavera on November 13,2008 | 06:45 PM

A temple separated from residential areas is surprising in the old world. Should we be looking to the Mayans as an analogue? If I understand correctly their cities were intermittently occupied ritual sites?

Posted by David Bofinger on November 13,2008 | 06:39 PM

Dear Armenians: Please get a GRIP! There was no Armenia 11,000 years ago. Nor was there a Turkey, or any other country, political unit, or people that currently exist today! Geez.

Posted by Forbes on November 13,2008 | 03:49 PM

It gives me laughs to see how such an important discovery only fuels up some people's inferiority complex. This belongs to the humanity guys, not to a particular ethnic group, please grow up.

Posted by Ali on November 13,2008 | 01:58 PM

Amazing discovery that, along with the comment "world's oldest", demonstrates perfectly just how much we think we understand as a species - and how little we actually do.

Posted by Politank on November 13,2008 | 12:17 PM

Anyone knows the coordinates to find it with Google Earth?

Posted by Jan on November 13,2008 | 11:08 AM

It's amazing how much happened before we came along. There were entire civilizations, stories, romances, wars and drama that we know nothing about, but if we did, they would probably be amazing. I wonder, our own global village is but a few hundred years old. 11,000 years from now, if the future finds us like we found the Gobekli Tepe, what would they know about us? Would they know our culture, what we thought? Our Internet Forums? They would know as much about us as we know about the people at the time of Gobekli Tepe. They may find out the physical things, but they can never understand our spirit and soul. It's just awesome to think of our Brothers and Sisters living and feeling the same things that we do 11,000 years ago!

Posted by Bhagwad Jal Park on November 13,2008 | 10:54 AM

Fantastic discovery ; but for all we know, this might well be the deluxe john of those days. Maybe if it were reported this way, it would prevent the onslaught of lunatics on this page. Who would fight for some toilets ?

Posted by mauve on November 13,2008 | 09:26 AM

Interesting, But this temple is not Turkish, not even Armenian, since those peoples are just newcomers, occupiers, and oppressors! This temple is definitely ancient Finno-Ugrian!!! (har har)

Posted by arl on November 13,2008 | 07:46 AM

Although it is impossible to know why the temple is the way it is it occurs to me that being hunter gatherers they are not used to buildings so the columns may represent something else. Perhaps a holy forest, the columns representing trees and the animals ... maybe forest spirits associated with death. So you can imagine a ritual procession through this forest of death to some sanctuary in the centre. Perhaps. Also fascinating that these people learned to work monuments so quickly, though they were of course familiar with stone on the smaller scale ... I suppose we forget how proficient with stone they must have been, a legacy stretching back hundreds of thousands of years. What I get from this is the understanding that even 11,000 years ago the world was nowhere as simple as we would like to pretend it was. Almost a different world.

Posted by Peter Y. on November 13,2008 | 07:19 AM

Urfa is a KURDISH city. This site is certainly an armenian HOLY temple based on the fact that they were a bunch of lunatic pagans!

Posted by Wong chu sen on November 13,2008 | 05:35 AM

The Bosnian pyramids at Visočica Hill have been ridiculed as merely pyramid shaped hills; yet, they were visited by Condoleeza Rice soon after discovery. Maybe it is time to do a serious excavation effort at site after all, as the artifacts also found seem to be contemporary with this finding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_pyramids.

Posted by no on November 13,2008 | 03:54 AM

Clearly this is a fake. Or to be more exact, these carvings are not that old. Stilistically there is no way these animals could have been carved in limestone in that fashion and have been preserved the way they are shown. They can indeed be medieval, however. But perhaps someone from Armenia can shed some light on the connotation of these animals in the Armenian cultural background?

Posted by Thomas van Putten on November 13,2008 | 03:39 AM

Jane Jacobs was a famous writer about cities and their development. Around 1970 she wrote that agriculture was certainly an outgrowth of cities, not the other way around. As I recall, her book "The Economy of Cities" explains why this would be the case, but I may have the wrong book. It would be nice to see her get credit for being right about the development of agriculture. I hope her final book, Dark Age Ahead, does not also turn out to be so accurate.

Posted by Dan B on November 12,2008 | 02:03 AM

Gee, put the word "Temple" in a headline and all the crazies come out to play. Or is it the location that brought all the loons in from the cold? Armchair experts, gotta love 'em. Is there anyone here with an actual interest in the science of archeology and the history of the ancient world or are you all just a buch of nutjobs? Someone even mentioned Atlantis! That was priceless.

Posted by Twinkie on November 12,2008 | 01:46 AM

Quote "I believe there are many more of these sites all over the middle east which is why I cannot wait - until peace and order are restored to the region so exploration of the area can begin again." Are you a cat? I'm hopeful for peace too - but given the recent 4000 years of fighting it seems even eight more lifetimes won't be enough. (sigh...)

Posted by Fulper Cave Man on November 11,2008 | 01:24 AM

I think the most unscientific statements from the "scientists" involved, are all the speculation without foundation about what the site meant to its builders. The most scientifically honest thing for them to say about why the site was built would have been: "we have no idea".

Posted by Tom P. on November 11,2008 | 12:30 AM

Two comments: First, this is a truly incredible find! The oldest place of worship - and if it's not the oldest, just share with us all where the oldest one is, please! And use the modern name for the place, so we can find it on a map... Second: there are a real bunch of BB-stackers posting comments here...

Posted by Robert on November 11,2008 | 11:46 PM

What tools did they use to dress those stones so smoothly? It seems that mere flint would not do the job - and how many man hours would it take to complete just one of them? There are mire questions to be answered than 'Turkish' or 'Armenian' - these monoliths were built by HUMAN BEINGS.

Posted by David Adams on November 11,2008 | 08:25 PM

These sorts of artifacts are of course not nearly as old as claimed. The bible clearly refutes these wild and illogical claims. It is a manifestation of the greatness of God's wisdom that so many 'scientists' in the employ of the enemy should believe such silliness.

Posted by Elder John Williams on November 11,2008 | 08:09 PM

Interesting article. I wonder it is very plausible that right under our noses are even older structures. Just north of Baghdad there is an ancient structure that the locals call the Ziggurat. According to many archeologists from the nearby universities it was built approximately 8000 years ago (not sure if that is by the Muslim calendar or the Julian Calendar). Saddam Hussein's cabinet actually made a very half baked attempt at rebuilding the site (unfortunately the project was built over the original.) Thankfully for the most part that site has been left alone for the most part as have many of the other truly historical sites around Iraq. I believe there are many more of these sites all over the middle east which is why I cannot wait until peace and order are restored to the region so exploration of the area can begin again.

Posted by Craig S. on November 11,2008 | 02:12 PM

One thing REALLY bothers me about this report. All the pictures lack anything to give an idea of the scale of these stones. Some of the pictures, the stones could be somewhere between 2 feet and 200 feet tall for all I can tell.

Posted by Brian on November 11,2008 | 12:57 PM

Just a few comments regarding some other people's comments. 1) The site IS in Turkey. Yes, present day Turkey, which did not exist 11 millenia ago, but still, if you were to report the precise location, you would say Turkey anyway. 2) The site can hardly be associated with any of the many historically attested groups inhabiting that place before the Turks came. Neither Armenians nor Greeks (who are both of Indo-European descent) nor any Turks were there 11,000 years ago (well, most probably). 3) The site most certainly isn't the oldest temple ever built by anatomically modern people. It's just the oldest unearthed so far...

Posted by Petusek on November 11,2008 | 11:07 AM

I think the discovery of Gobekli tepe is an extaordanary find and that you did a great job in your Nov. 2008 issue reporting this. Whether it is actually a tempel or what is yet to be seen. It is quite possable that it is in fact that basis for the stories of the Garden of Eden as it would have fit the stories discriptions almost to the letter. Several peoples' comments are directed negatively towards whether or not it is the oldest place of worship/rituals, or just the oldest known. In truth, no one alive today knows for sure what it was built or used for. It is all speculation. The fact of the matter is it's the oldest man built structure found to date, it's hugh, and it diserves a lot more study. I look forward to reviewing any further reports on Gobekli Tepe you may publish. Keep up the good work.

Posted by Robert L. Harvey on November 11,2008 | 03:27 AM

We may want to entertain the possibility that we are all wrong. What we may be looking at here are the remnants of a civilization that pre-dated the deluge - possibly a high civilization, or one influenced or sponsored by a high civilization. This place was most probably covered by the debris of the deluge rather than emerging from it. Science was involved here. We need to get out of our own way and think beyond our pre-conceptions of history, science, ethnicity, and religion to understand how and why this place came to exist.

Posted by John Flomer on November 10,2008 | 02:52 AM

Some have commented how the folks that built these stones got them so flat. Ya got to remember, they had a LOT of time on their hands. It's easy for me to think that they simply kept grinding, sanding,whatever they used which must have been similar to what the Egyptians used to square their blocks. They had eyes. It probably didn't take them too long to figure out a rock sits on another rock longer when there are flat mating surfaces present. And why does this have to be a "temple" or related to a "god." What were THEY thinking, feeling. experienceing? We'll probably never know. I like to think outside the religious box when there's no blatent religous evidence. The 12 pieces. Was this leftover significance from Atlantis?

Posted by Fulper Cave man on November 10,2008 | 01:39 AM

Wonderful that the sense of adventure and the eagerness to further mankind thirst for knowledge and finding things that enlighten countless minds across the world over, it is a wonderful article but, I do have my doubts that it is the oldest temple to be found yet. North to the mountains and South of the first frost lies a land below itself covered in green and rocks look there and one will find wonders never seen, as to open new life's and hearts of all is the grandest that will ever be. ---PUIII--- there is a saying " for those who sit and do nothing are quite satisfied, but for those who do not sit and do nothing are the sole benefactors of the world" --WS--

Posted by Pablo Uribe III on November 10,2008 | 10:00 PM

THE ARTICLE TELLS US ABOUT A GREAT DISCOVERY BUT SOME IDIOTS KEEP ON CLAIMING THAT THE SITE ONCE BELONGED TO ARMENIANS...SO WHAT?? DOES IT MAKE IT MORE VALUABLE..I THINK YOU THE ARMEIANS ARE IN SOME KIND AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX..

Posted by Korhan on November 10,2008 | 04:13 PM

ETHNIC FOOD FIGHT??? Ha-ha-ha! ...that is exactly what has been going on here. Silly at times, but entertaining. Still, some people have offered insightful and heartfelt wonder in response to these curious stone circles. Truly, the ancient standing "T" blocks of Gobekli Tepe are something to marvel at. Did you guys check out starhenge.net on google.com? It is pretty impressive too. The tradition of constructing standing stones lives on. The process is not merely a dead thing of the past. We humans still have the urge to stand up stones in our effort to touch the stars. -Two Hawks

Posted by Two Hawks on November 10,2008 | 11:57 AM

"This is the first human-built holy place." While I understand his enthusiasm for his find, this is almost certainly not true. Perhaps what he means is "this is the oldes human-built holy place yet discovered" - a horse of an altogether different color.

Posted by Robert Lewis on November 10,2008 | 11:29 AM

I agree with J. Kenneth Herd: There is nothing in any of the magnificent photos to give us a sense of the scale of the stones. It would have been so easy and so helpful to include a human being, such as archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, in one of the photos, standing next to one of the megaliths!

Posted by Bruce N. Deppa on November 10,2008 | 10:48 AM

In the paragraph beginning, "Schmidt returned a year later..." is that a typo within it where it says, "And because those artifacts closely resemble others from nearby sites previously carbon-dated to about 9000 B.C., Schmidt and co-workers estimate that Gobekli Tepe's stone structures are the same age. Limited carbon dating undertaken by Schmidt at the site confirms this assessment."? Should it instead have said, "Gobekli Tepe's stone structures are **at least** the same age?" Because, from the statement in the article, it's not clear whether the structure is actually 11,000 years old, or 9,000 years old, or even younger. Also, the earlier part of the paragraph seems to distinguish Gobekli Tepe from "nearby sites of about the same age," whereas the statement as written does not.

Posted by mdtoorder on November 9,2008 | 02:16 AM

You have to consider this site within it's location and time continuum. Since it is being dated to 11,000 years ago, it predates the Black Sea Deluge that Robert Ballard of Wood's Hole confirmed as 7,000 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_Flood Due to it's location in southeastern Anatolia, it would be on a direct geographic line between the now-flooded Southern Black Sea plain and the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. Since agriculture was developed between 10-15,000 years ago, Both areas would have been prime candidates for Neolithic agriculture. It would also provide the avenue for the stories of the Black Sea Deluge to filter over to the Tigris-Euphrates spawning the Gilgamesh and Noah stories.

Posted by Ishmael on November 9,2008 | 11:02 PM

This is so awe inspiring, it's really from a dream sequence, and I can't reach into vocabulary to express the primal emotion that this place evokes. I have to speak to the exhausting Ethnic food fight that has dominated the comment here. We are looking at something that has risen from the dawn of time, this is not Armenian or Turkish or anything we have a name for. You have not let yourself see what you are looking at. I like the comment concerning the attached roof. It does look like these T forms once held something up. Maybe thatch, and there may have been wooden floors, walls, etc. We could be looking at the skeletal remains of a building. It does all look ceremonial, and there is a real sense of design in the stonework. Really throws new light on the old childhood notions of primitive cavemen. These people were expressive and sophisticated. I am another reader who would love to be working on this site.

Posted by Jeanne in Rhode Island on November 9,2008 | 10:22 PM

The Standing Stones recently found in Turkey are AMAZING! There is a new 21st Century artwork called STARHENGE that is being proposed in ARIZONA!!! Check out the plan and astonishing photos by Googling: www.starhenge.net

Posted by Two Hawks on November 9,2008 | 08:55 PM

Lots of silly comments here. One thing is for sure, China and India had advanced civilizations much further back than 11 thousand years ago so the "world's first temple" headline was used to grab attention and it did. From all I have studied that claim is false, humans have had culture much longer than this.

Posted by Jeff Gomez on November 9,2008 | 08:45 PM

the hand of Dordogne, France on the rock ceiling grotto – a hand traces of black and red pigment endlessly drip down to a large salmon caught with a hook – carefully carved into clenched mouth tomorrows frozen forever by works of man

Posted by Zyskandar A. Jaimot on November 9,2008 | 02:50 PM

Stunning! A find of enormous consequence. Just the photos presented offer a great wealth of fascinating data. The architectural scale and layout are just astonishing. And the iconography! One sees analogs to Egyptian and Mesopotamian symbology and style—a glance confirms a connection—though so much earlier these must undoubtedly have been a source. The style of working and the shapes seem unique in archaeology. The way some of the pillars narrow at the base recalls ancient carvings from the Mediterranean isles, and the pillars worked at the edges and some of the animal figures echo prehistoric Olmec tombs, nearly as old. The mind reels and the spirit soars. Klaus Schmidt deserves world reknown and respect I thank him. truly a treasure for all humankind In delighted awe, Lance Lough

Posted by Lance Lough on November 9,2008 | 01:27 PM

@BlackMoorWithBigSword and others. You are right. This has nothing to do with Armenia which is another Johnny-Come-Lately in this time scale. All the Armenians blame Turkey which did not exist in 1915. It was the dying act of the defunct Ottoman Empire. Time marches on and leaves things behind including this fascinating site. How long ago were the constellations named? Here, we have a lion, a scorpion and other things.

Posted by Daniel Tillmanns on November 9,2008 | 11:57 AM

The idea that the Sioux are of Armenian descent is strangely wrong. The Sioux are a ceremonial migration of the Cherokee just some 700-800 years ago. I am Ahnishinabeg, Ojibway and a keeper of sacred objects and ceremonies. We know our own history very well, thank you. It runs back, unbroken in terms of the ceremonial structure, some 12,000 years. Archaeologists dig around in the trash and ruins. What they find is often interesting. each new find shows how wrong many earlier theories were, which will be shown in this case as well. It is just a detail, not a whole story. Modern people are mostly clueless, since they interpret such ancient finds in terms of present-day psychology, politics and religious bias (such as all the claims by the "Armenians") and are unable to look at the data as the people who were there at that time looked at it. The many misinterpretations of Chaco Canyon culture for 80 years or more is a perfect example of this.

Posted by Turtle Heart on November 9,2008 | 11:35 AM

Certainly, it is not the oldest anything. It is what it is. It is clearly not Armenian. Clearly not Turkish. Making ethnic claims for this site is childish, as we know so little of this time. Armenia is as temporal as Turkish. Tribal cultures understand that clan and society behavior (rituals and objects) were the "first" religions. R Gordon Wasson in "Divine Mushroom of Immortality" makes the carefully argued case that the first religion was a consequence of the ingestion of a mushroom called "soma" about 12,000 years ago in the Siberian region. 12,000 years ago tribal Native Americans had highly organized clans and societies and many powerful rituals and ritual objects. Their worship space has always been the raw in nature and many of the ancient tribal cultures were not given to constructing "temples" but had highly organized religious and spiritual practices. Interesting discovery, another broken piece of time in our huge collection of broken pieces. Making all these assumptions is just entertainment, not fact.

Posted by Turtle Heart on November 9,2008 | 11:27 AM

The purpose of the site seems to be pretty obvious. The dead were exposed to nature in a cermonial manner, and the local scavengers disposed of the bodies. There is no mention of astronomical orientation of the stone pillars, although it would be predictable. An orientation to Orion would be particularly intersting to search for, as well as the North Star and lunar paths. The T stones sound like Taulas. Evidence for correlation of lunar and solar years should be sought at the site.

Posted by benb on November 9,2008 | 07:37 AM

Isn't Tapeh/Tepe a Persian/Aryan/Iranic-origin word absorbed by the Turkomongols who invaded the region (ancient Media) just a few centuries ago?

Posted by Rick on November 9,2008 | 05:14 AM

Wow, this discovery really brought all the nutbags out of hiding. It's strange that such an ancient site should trigger such a wide variety of delusions.

Posted by Querent on November 9,2008 | 04:42 AM

I don't know. Very exciting and eye-opening if it is genuine. Something about it doesn't seem quite right to me. More investigation into the finds, as well as parallels in "alternative" histories is called for.

Posted by Owl Socks on November 9,2008 | 03:38 AM

I agree with Janie Love -- this temple is consistent with (and perhaps identified in) Zecharia Sitchin's "The Earth Chronicles." Perhaps this is more evidence of the Nefilim/Annunaki?

Posted by Regina on November 3,2008 | 01:52 PM

Turkey is the richest arceological land of the world. Here we have 18 different cilizations from cave age to modern Turkish Republic. Next to Gobekli Tepe open air pligrimage temple, there are numbers of eraliest known villages, and cities excaveted in different parts of the contry. This year 144 teams (over hundred are international) are working on different sites.. Visiting this land, the creadle of western cilizations at the sites and museums with great comfort see and study earliest of all artifacts men ever made...

Posted by ugur ayyildiz on November 2,2008 | 08:21 AM

Stonehenge was not the earliest known before this discovery.
The oldest is in Malta Ggantija

"Their makers erected the two Ġgantija temples during the Neolithic Age (c. 3600-2500 BC), which makes these megalithic temples more than 5500 years old and some of the world's oldest man-made religious structures. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A0gantija

Posted by Infonote on November 1,2008 | 02:09 PM

Thank you very much for providing information on this beautiful and fantastic discovery that may chanhge the flow of the history.

Posted by John Gokcen on October 31,2008 | 12:16 PM

they will have to call in the archaeoastronomers; it seems that no ancient sites were built without celestial phenomena in mind

Posted by Irina on October 30,2008 | 10:40 AM

pretty pathetic that people are trying to assert their ethnicity over ruins that are more than 10,000 years old

Posted by Irina on October 30,2008 | 10:37 AM

We know that Armenia used to be a great nation, and it was, alongside Ethiopia, the first nation to accept Christianity as a state religion. with all the sadness and anger that this great nation had to suffer throughout generations, we should always ask ourselves why nations like Armenia ceased to exist all together? How did they fall into the hands of barbarians? What did they do wrong to anger God, so that they were given to those non-believers like the Turks? I think we all need to search for the reason why it happened to the Armenians, if we all peace loving Christians would like to see back the Armenia we knew 2000 to 3000 years ago. We need Armenia! FYI: the Biblical Garden Of Eden lies in Ethiopia, around Lake Tana -- the source of the river Nile.

Posted by Abram on October 29,2008 | 10:37 PM

Dr Sparkles: Someday there may be actual evidence for the "lost continent of Atlantis" and other of Edgar Cayce's speculations. Until then, archaeologists and other scientists should not be expected to "admit" to anything so lacking in evidence.

Posted by Mr. Mainer on October 29,2008 | 06:25 PM

Mr Manoogian- Thank you for your comment!!! Armenians, Turks, Kurds we are all part of the same civilization, civilization of human kind. Just read this wonderful artical about a great discovery without getting political.

Posted by sevda baran on October 28,2008 | 04:13 PM

What an extraordinary find! However (though the contemporary archaological establishment is loathe to admit), major structures from the Giza Plateau predate even this find. Edgar Cayce described them to be constructed by Atlantean Refugees circa 10,500 in the Age of Leo. But let the scientists have their fun, for what it's worth...

Posted by Doctor Sparkles on October 27,2008 | 01:07 AM

Mr. Ozan Isinak. You are proud to be a turk. I am proud to be an Armenian. NO ONE can claim that the temple is belong to any nationality. It is wrong that any armenians attempt to take credit to this find. It is abvious. But please just go and read the history. During WWI and WWII many armenians were killed and many forced to leave their homeland. Today you are proud to live on that land where once my people and my ancestors were living. Your ancestores make a home for you and for your people by taking others life and destroying their history. At least as a human feel armenians pain and accept the truth. I would like to know your opinion too.

Posted by Verjineh on October 27,2008 | 05:37 PM

It is intriguing to imagine the directions and distances of migrations of the hunter-gatherers in this region. Did those of Urfa travel northward from Mesopotamia along the Tigris, as the ice sheets melted? Od did they, instead, travel northward from Africa along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean? Is there any archeological evidence linking the Gobleki Tepe monument builders to other ancient groups in the larger region? Very likely, there were seasonal migrations, perhaps lengthy ones, as the hunter-gatherers followed their prey into warmer and/or wetter climes. Also intriguing is speculation on whether the site was or was not religious in nature, if indeed religious beliefs existed at the time of the site's construction.

Posted by Don Dubay on October 27,2008 | 02:45 PM

I am so very happy and grateful to be living in a land where we have inherited a history that predates any culture (Turk, Armenian, Arabian, etc...). This is a gift that as a Turk, I must learn from and share with the rest of the world. I know that I (as a Turk) cannot take credit for this temple. No one can take credit for this temple. It is a find that I think defines us as who we are in the 21st century. It is a rare window that shows us where we came from. Shame on ANY culture that attempts to take credit for this find.

Posted by Ozan Isinak on October 27,2008 | 10:55 AM

How does he know this is the first temple ever? How?

Posted by Werner on October 27,2008 | 07:23 AM

The SIOUX are also ARMENIAN descendent. The map has the tigris river, Armenia Asyria and Mesopethania. This also clarifies that Armenians were amoung the first people on earth even before the Africans.

Posted by Michael Vincent on October 27,2008 | 07:15 AM

I found this article and all the comments very interesting and stimulating. I plan on doing some research on my own...please keep me posted on relating stories...this is a fascinating site and I would like to learn more about it.

Posted by Ms. Silva B. on October 26,2008 | 02:13 AM

To all jealous Armenians, This place belongs to Turkiye now and will always does so forever!!! Anyone who wants to visit this place has to come to Turkiye and show his / her passport at Turkish borders. Thanks for the archaeologists who contributed to this great job.

Posted by Tamer on October 26,2008 | 10:13 AM

The article was fascinating. I read it in the hard copy magazine but wanted to send it to a friend with whom I traveled in Syria. I'm glad I came on line as most of the comments were interesting as well. Do you ever have the author come back on line and reply to the most important questions? I think that would be a great feature for this site. You could even do an interview with him and post the video. But those who argued re which country.....how provincial, how 20th and 21st century. How can we learn so much about the world but not just be part of the world?

Posted by Joan on October 25,2008 | 12:22 AM

Isn't it interesting the precision of the rock cuts and carvings? Incredible for a stone age people to be able to make something that precise without metal tools. Someone compared this to stonehenge well, I have to differ. The craftsmanship here is a whole other order when compared to SH.

Posted by Thomas Petty on October 25,2008 | 10:51 PM

That one picture shows twelve stones in a ring. Is it possible the roots of astrology goes back that far?

Posted by Jimmy on October 25,2008 | 10:07 PM

Fascinating article. I am astounded on a regular basis when I hear people who are convinced they understand ancient history with certainty. Discoveries like this should serve to humble us and help us realize how very little we know about our origins.

Posted by Ray on October 25,2008 | 09:51 PM

I want to make clear. In my comment I didn't claim that the temple belongs to Armenian. I just said that Turkey's eastern part was Armenian's. Don't be confused. There is no proof that who made the temple. It was 11,000 years ago. I am sad that why my people should be killed and their lands be occupied by Turks. Armenians were living on that lands since thousands years ago until 1915. I wish that there wasn't genocide and Armenians continued to live on their historical lands. I have great respect toward the people who discovered such a great masterpiece.

Posted by Verjineh on October 25,2008 | 05:25 PM

One poster above made a point that needs to be repeated: 11,000 years ago there was NO ARMENIA as well as no Turkey. There were no nationalities at all. The article accurately describes the LOCATION of the momument. "Yet, it is quite sad to see that an important discovery like this is being politicized above by some of the commentators. 11.000 years ago, there were no nationalities, the site belonged to a hunter-gatherer society and it happens to be in Turkey today. The article describes just the location of it and does not refer to it as Turkish. It belongs to a time when human beings were not even settled down :)I am amazed at the comments declaring the site to belong to some nation. I feel more like this is a great legacy for the entire humanity that we should treasure. Yours Truly, Ms. ITIR TOKSOZ, Ph.D (International Relations)"

Posted by paula on October 25,2008 | 03:00 PM

Reference to this site as "in Turkey" is no more than an aid to finding the area on a standard map. The culture that created this wonder predates the Turks, the Armenians, and every other ethnic group we have a name for.

Posted by Louise Tremblay Cole on October 25,2008 | 02:03 PM

"Some cultures have long believed the high-flying carrion birds transported the flesh of the dead up to the heavens." This is the origin of the widespread idea that angels have wings.

Posted by Louise Tremblay Cole on October 25,2008 | 01:56 PM

If it were not for foolish turf wars/greed, the world would be in much better shape and so would those of us who live here. Most of us are carrying within us at least a few genes inherited from those who built that marvelous space 10,000 years ago. There were only a few people on the planet then. Did they too worry about whose turf was whose? I understand there have been a few cultures in history who have shared, have lived cooperatively, have ensured that everyone had what they needed, would even take in and care for people from the other side of the valley. I delight with the Turks for this wonderful discovery on what is their turf in 2008. They are the one who are dealing with the strangers in their midst during this long excavation process. They, and the Syrians, will profit from the possible increase in tourism. However, we will all profit from the increased knowledge of our roots as human beings on planet earth. We only have one world. It did not end with "the flood". We shared in the beginning. Let us try the gift of sharing lest we create an unpleasant end.

Posted by Dorothy Parshall on October 25,2008 | 12:06 PM

Bravo Klaus Schmidt! This site pre-dates Stonehenge by an entire 6000 years. That in my eyes makes it the oldest discovered site in the world. Some of the carvings remind me of the Mayan carvings in Mexico. Not just a Medieval Site afterall! Keep up the good work!

Posted by Katherine Hall on October 25,2008 | 07:11 AM

A truly fantastic discovery written in an exhilarating article. Thank you! However, is it not distasteful to read the armenian onslaught of land claims by your armenian readers. I first thought of calling this a chip on the shoulder, but that does not do justice to the situation: they are carrying the whole log of hatred. This is pitiful because what a burden this is to carry through one's only life. More importantly, such responses do not belong in such an esteemed scientific platform. We will be willing to encounter such claims in an appropriate platform and set the record straight; but not here!...Surely, words we utter or write tells all about who we really are! You judge!

Posted by Ibrahim H Caglayan, PhD Mech Eng on October 25,2008 | 05:41 AM

Assuming that the age of the site is correct, this must be one of the first such sites around the world as the last ice has retreated from these altitudes around the world about 13000 years ago, the same time that the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska had collapsed. The site is old, and incredible as it seems. There might be others, perhaps in India or China.. and maybe as old although very unlikely because these dates are too old for these two so called "ancient countries" of the world, which themselves had incredible more recent cultures. But finding a site like this as old here makes a lot of sense as this area is at the cross-roads of human migrations (starting from Africa to Asia or Europe) and really the cradle of civilizations. Urfa really is the city of prophets, as we knew it. The people constructed this site were the ancestors of all of us, not one or another. Any people living at one site loose 95% of their genes in 1,000 years due to migrations. People living 13,000 years ago surely did not know and did not care about Armenia (which is a Roman name, by the way, and Romans lived around here about 2,000 yrs ago although others also resided around the same general area) or Turkey, or Arabia. The site belongs to the whole humanity, all of "Our" ancestors, not exclusively some others who happened to have lived there 5,000 yrs or 10,000 yrs afterwards. Finding Neanderthals, for example, in Germany does not make these people Germans, they were people living there at the time. That is what makes it so exciting. Let's enjoy it together for our next generations' sake. Finally, I would congratulate the excavating team and its leader Dr. Klaus Schmidt for his keen eyes and care, for revealing for us such a fantastic "gift". M.S. Prof of Science and Technology with interest in human technological evolution.

Posted by Mehmet Sarikaya on October 25,2008 | 04:06 AM

I agree. The discovery is amazing and interesting. Let put in this way. Some people politicize their comments. Let me be honest and clear. There were no nationality back 11,000 years ago. The problem is that when historians find any historian place in Turkey, they never mention the ancient people who lived on that lands. As an armenian I also can't be silent when I see this ignorance. There is no proof whether this temple was built by Armenians or not. Armenians were lived on that lands for thousands years. They even were living until 1915. We just want to be heard and at least historians should accept this truth.

Posted by Raffi on October 24,2008 | 01:28 AM

So... what is the relation of this article with turks or armenians?and what ancient armenia are you talking about?some armenians lived in urfa but the land was always part of the ottoman empire.and now,urfa is part of Turkey...Go google it..My opinion about the title is that it is written so to make the article more attractive as almost all others do... in fact as other authors wrote...it cannot be the first,but the one remaining intact today...by the way,that region has hundreds of ruins to be digged out waiting for archaeologists

Posted by sakalson on October 24,2008 | 01:02 AM

It is the garden of eden, even the writer said it without realizing what he said. It is in the right place and it is something of huge religious importance, therefore, the reason for what it is and where. The Bible says Eden was destroyed in the great flood, the same flood of Gilgamesh and the location is perfect. This could be the greatest religous discovery since ever!

Posted by Thomas Petty on October 24,2008 | 11:41 PM

Fascinating article, but, like other correspondents, I too would like to know more about how the presumptive archeological age was dated. What sort of tools does Klaus Schmidt believe were used by the builders to carve these stones to reproduce other life forms? Also, it would be very nioce if other familiar modern day forms coulc be included in the photos to help us gain a sense of size, like a human being or a metric ruler of some sort. Finally, what is that large lighted city in the immediate background lighting the night sky in the first photo on page 54 - 55?

Posted by J. Kenneth Herd on October 24,2008 | 10:44 PM

I read the article and I am amazed about the discovery. I am excited as to how it could be possible for men to build such a temple 11,000 years ago without advanced tools. But the thing which is concerns me is the location of the temple. The news says the temple is located in Turkey near Urfa. I am so sad that how it is possible to ignore one nation,s history. There was no "Turkey" even 600 years ago. The majority of Eastern Turkey was Armenian's land. Urfa was one of Armenian's city where lived Armenians before 1915. I wish one day the world will realize the truth. I have a great respect toward people who discover and reveal the history mysteries.

Posted by verjineh on October 24,2008 | 10:06 PM

Thia site, which consists of several layers of Stonehenge-type monuments, one on top of the other, reminds me a little of the "Troy" that Schliemann excavated. In that case, several cities had been built, one on top of the other. The whole many-layered "Troy" complex was under a mound named "Hissarlik." Curiously, Schliemann found gold objects in the excavation. I don't know how he knew where to look, but it's odd that no one had found them earlier, in the ruins of a deserted city. An American Indian tribe built an earthen pyramid near Cahokia, Illinois, across the Mississippi from St. Louis. Other pyramids were built by the Indians in Mexico. http://www.crystalinks.com/united_states.html http://www.sacred-destinations.com/usa/cahokia.htm The Babylonians built high earthen towers, that they named "ziggurats." Those "Hanging Gardens of Babylon" were one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World." Jerry Baker http://reykr.livejournal.com

Posted by Jerry Baker on October 24,2008 | 09:30 PM

Excellent. Nothing more fascinating than to know who our forefathers might have been. But why did such old civilizations build temples to God, or gods? Did they have religion in those old days? Has the concept of religion, and of God, or gods always been there in the human mind? If man evolved from apes, when did the idea of religion, and God and a house of or for God, or gods, originate? Why did they build such majestic structures for GOD, but none for themselves?

Posted by Jalees Faruqui - From Pakistan on October 24,2008 | 09:17 PM

The carvings have strikingly similar appearance to those depicted in the cave paintings in Europe. Take note of the position of the feet and tail of the lion, and the wings of the vulture. They look awkward. This could be dismissed as poor artistry, but a more likely explanation is that these represent animals as they lie dead. This fits Schmidt's theory of hunter/gatherer society. It also suggests a belief system similar to Native American spirituality. The preponderance of animal bones at the site may well have been the offerings to the spirit of the animals, to give thanks or to hasten the animals journey into the afterlife. The complexity of the site indicates a well-established and widespread religion. It's likely that it had a large number of devotees that spent years (if not their lives) maintaining and expanding this holy ground. Somehow they were supported by the far-flung tribes of hunter/gatherer followers. It is truly fascinating.

Posted by Joseph Grundy on October 24,2008 | 09:06 PM

Well what does the light race (white People) call or consider a temple- a place of worship right - as is said here for this article. Anyway if this is true then consider the native american first people of this take over and what is now called North America - in this I say a place of worship was at times a place found on high buttes usually to recieve a vision that came from that of the spirits comming from that of the spirit world, or heaven to the light races understanding. Anyway - here and about and throughout this stolen and and long purposley forget treaties land - A person will find what are looked as something like a crop circle - these are called medicine wheel circles on the ground - they are a form of rocks on the ground in a circle and at times a cross in the middle looking like a sliced pie cut in four quarters evenly. In the center is a small opened spot, in which a person would sit to seek a vision or get healed at times - some of these "temples" are still created today for ceremony and use. Well if the native american peoples still do this - I am sure other people of a nation still carry out some what part of thier tradition - after all - (the teachings of yesterday are here today for tommorows next generation 08191969(c))- As a Dakota (Sioux) I am proud to know we still carry out our traditions.

Posted by stoneskyman on October 24,2008 | 09:05 PM

Hey Vanik, I am Armenian too, but this is even before the Armenians were there if it is from 9,000 B.C. I don't think there is any history of Armenians or any ancestral predecessor prior to 3000 to 2000 B.C. I don't think there is actually any current ethnicity that you can attribute to that area at that time. Sorry, not 11,000 B.C.

Posted by Mr. Manoogian on October 24,2008 | 09:04 PM

In India there are temples nearly 20,000 years old that are recorded with carbon dating.....Hindu has been recorded as early as 33,000 BC

Posted by Marekh Patel on October 24,2008 | 08:37 PM

Actually Urfa is a city with a Kurdish majority. It's located in Turkey's Kurdistan though the Turks don't recognize the Kurds.

Posted by Alan on October 24,2008 | 08:33 PM

As usual, there are so many variables here to be considered that one cannot make a truly indefensible choice. Carbon dating, for example, has been proven to be quite fallible (sometimes missing the mark by thousands of years), and it is also curious that no one has discovered any surviving habitats in the surrounding area. I do not wish to dismiss this absolutely stunning find, and I hope it is as advertised; however, it has often been the fault of many archaeologists that they do not gather conclusive evidence before making their claims (usually under duress, like having to produce something -- anything -- to please their respective universities and secure their tenures). I can only hope that time WILL tell!

Posted by Greg on October 24,2008 | 08:32 PM

This is so beautiful. It needs to be saved and shown to people who visit there. No one except God knows how old it is. The works standing alone almost look like a cross. How about that! Why do men continue to say they know how old something is? One day you will be surprised to find out, you are all very incorrect. Thanks for sharing.

Posted by Merrie on October 24,2008 | 08:27 PM

As an Armenian History Professor I am ashamed of the comments made by other Armenians. Let's go back and read the history, again. We were not a civilization before...Read and learn. Shame on us.Let's not be jealous like little kids.

Posted by Jonathan Avram Carpathian on October 24,2008 | 08:26 PM

This is a great news for me for two reasons. I am a Persian and maternally, my family comes from the Caucasus regions near/between Black & Caspian seas. I wonder whether these people who made such temples and I share some close genome! I am also a Geneticist/Scientist and any such findings just make my day! Keep on the good work! Btw, regarding the ' credit' of the site, of course there was no Turkey back then, but certainly there was no Armenia either. Persians can claim this to be their thing if we are going to go by such historical claims, this region was perhaps under the Persian rule the longest out of all the major civilizations mentioned. But when these people lived in this place, they were neither of these ethnicities. Persians, Turks, Armineans & etc all had similar gene pooles to these people MOST likely. That is all we can assume at this point.

Posted by Sara S on October 24,2008 | 08:24 PM

This is a great find and not far away from CARAHUNGE in southern Armenia which is an observatory 7-8000 years old, I wouldn't be surprised if they are all connected all the way to CARNAC and STONEHENGE.Garbis ( Check Carahunge.com )

Posted by garbis on October 24,2008 | 08:21 PM

Not surprising at all. Sites older than this will be found. All of us here in the modern age seem to think we are at some kind of pinnacle, but let us be humbled by those who came before. They could build temples but could not yet farm or write. That is simply amazing. Civilization is moving backward and forward in time. Perhaps we need to reconsider our notion of "civilized." Then maybe we will see the value of traditional and indigenous cultures, ancient spirituality, and, dare I say it, our existence as animals on this planet.

Posted by Mike Leaser on October 24,2008 | 08:21 PM

This is truly fascinating. Even if you dont beleive. The Biblical Garden of Eden was located in this area. So, people were definately in this area for quite some time. This may be where the people civilized after being expelled. It could very well be the outer limits of the Garden itself.

Posted by John M. Chandler on October 24,2008 | 08:20 PM

I know of a groupe in Nova Scotia that had a religion over 10000 years old based on mathematics that was practiced for 3000 years. the math is accurate to 30 decimal places plus and minus and 150% more accurate than the best we have. I have been able to define trig to seven decimal places to a point that tangent 90 is finite. also the Medicine Wheel of Wyoming is high tech mathematics and is the same math by the same people that did the math on the great Pyramid of Egypt 2000 years before it was built. by the way this is under copyright since 1991 and my mentor for three years was a PHD of research mathematics.just thought you would like to know the western world had some advanced people. Question: Why are the Persian Rugs a 1000 miles so to speak from the great Pyramid of Egypt and the Navajo Rugs a 1000 miles from the great Pyramid of Mexico when both Rugs depict high tech math when only a few could read the math in function of numbers and SqRt. by the way the Navajo Sine wave points to the second Eye in mathematics and is noticed on the back of a Dollar Bill.

Posted by James Bays on October 24,2008 | 08:18 PM

These stone circles, as the ones at Stonehinge, bear an eriee resemblence to the stucture built in Germany during WWII for the anti-gravity experiments. This is very far fetched, but food for thought when a society goes from hunter-gather to agragian in only 500 years. The are is prone to earthquakes and could explain the difference in the heights of the top of the stones. But it sheds new light on our thinking complete with evidence and great photos.

Posted by eric m. lough on October 24,2008 | 08:16 PM

This is an interesting article which goes back to 11,000 years. I congratulate the archeologist who found this site.

Posted by Ziya Akkor on October 24,2008 | 08:14 PM

Interesting discovery but why so confident its the first? @Gevork: There was no Armenia 6000 years ago either.

Posted by BlackMoorWithBigSword on October 24,2008 | 08:04 PM

This is a great find for archeology. It is a shame that some people are not reasonable when hatred shadows the facts. It is also disappointing that some people are referring to the site as Armenian site. Great Find For Turkey and humanity.

Posted by Ebru on October 24,2008 | 08:03 PM

I believe these temples would be Armenian, not Turkish, since Armenians settled those lands long before the Turks even existed! But apparantly history is being re-written, seeing as to how all of a sudden Armenian-built temples are being called Turkish. I see everyone has conveniently forgotten how the Turks came to possess those lands to begin with.

Posted by Ani on October 24,2008 | 08:01 PM

interesting but these pictures look more to me like the result of a tramatic event like a big explosion and the only thing left stuck in gorund are the support beams that more likly held up a bridge of some sort :))

Posted by thumper on October 24,2008 | 07:59 PM

It is really dumb to call it "Turkish" since Turks cae into the region in the 12th century from Central Asia... It is either Armenian or some other peoples....

Posted by Hozan on October 24,2008 | 07:55 PM

The Turks did not invade Armenia until a thousand years ago. The Armenians may not be able to lay claim to this site since their history in the region cannot be confirmed beyond three millenia. But the Turks and Turkey certainly cannot claim this site as having anything to do with them other than the fact that they have stolen it from the Armenians who, in turn may have stolen it from others who came before them. In any case, to be historically and politically correct, the site should be referred to as something other than a Turkish site. It is certainly not Turkish, as neither are any other artifacts found in the region that are more than a thousand years old.

Posted by Henrik Manoochehri on October 24,2008 | 07:51 PM

Looking at the art work on the pillars, I wonder if the artwork corresponds with constellations. This would take observation over time. Also, it would be interesting to study the carvings collectively, to see if they are all part of some larger story. I find the bird with outstretched wings very interesting in the fact that there is a disk above the wings; the sun or moon perhaps? What was/were the artist(s) trying to say? What do we know of other cultures around the area? Wow, to be involved in a study like this would be absolutely fascinating!!

Posted by Ben on October 24,2008 | 07:48 PM

I don't understand why researchers seem to leap to the conclusion that every megalithic site is a religious site. Governmental building share the same characteristics as religious structures. It makes more sense for the rings to be clan gathering structures with the largest for combined meetings than to assign some form of mysticism to the structures. Indeed,they may have been a combination structure. However there is no reason to think that religion played a major part in the neolithic hunter-gather society. It seems to me that they would be far more pragmatic than that.

Posted by amblinal on October 24,2008 | 07:37 PM

I wonder if the stones are laid out to coincide with the sun,moon or other heavenly bodies. This could be were the research began for Stonehenge. Over the course of 6,000 years the process and knowledge could have been refined and migrated to what we see at Stonehenge. Vary interesting anyway.

Posted by Pat Ebnit on October 24,2008 | 07:33 PM

I was looking at a picture of a monastery with Mt. Ararat in the background. By the looks of where "Belly Hill" is located, I can't help but wonder about a possible connection between the two.

Posted by Hank Devigne on October 24,2008 | 07:30 PM

Thank you for this wonderful article and dazzling pictures of this amazing archeological site! Great work!!

Posted by CB on October 24,2008 | 07:29 PM

its so amazing that you discover this thing i love oldest site because i want to be a historian someday im a filipino live at Philippines manila, someday i want to be a archeologist and discover the uncover secret of the earth

Posted by mark on October 24,2008 | 07:29 PM

Very cool! Although, I do think that there may be another temple that's older...

Posted by Dano on October 24,2008 | 07:28 PM

Urfa Was and is a part of Armenian Heritage, 6,000 plus years ago, the area in question was called Armenia <<<<<<<<< thank you.... The same culture and nation that Noah Chose....

Posted by Nick on October 24,2008 | 07:21 PM

SOUTHEAST PART OF TURKEY WHERE THE DISCOVERY TOOK PLACE WAS THE LAND OF ARMENIA, LETS NOT FORGET THAT PEOPLE.

Posted by ERIK K. on October 24,2008 | 07:12 PM

Interesting how the "T" shaped monuments are arranged and carved on. Many seem carved on the stem, but not the top. Like the tops are holding captive the creatures carved below. I wonder if the stems are hollowed out to hold something then capped off with the top rock of the tee.

Posted by Scott on October 24,2008 | 07:11 PM

I have read through all of these comments and would like to say to everyone out there who keeps bullishly insisting this is an Armenian site: Who cares! Can't we all just agree that this is a wonderful find that could lead us to more knowledge about our ancestry as humans and not our ancestry viewed through the narrow scope of imagined boundaries? In the grand scheme of things, these invisible borders and who ruled the land inside them is moot. What they accomplished as a people, now that's something to talk about!

Posted by Isaiah Hickman on October 24,2008 | 07:07 PM

I am surprised that nobody has thought that this might be where Eden, the birthplace of humanity, was. It certainly sounds similar. It WAS considered a paradise and near the Tigris and Eurphrates. Also, the age is not far off. Just interesting.

Posted by ERIC on October 24,2008 | 07:04 PM

its a beutiful country with beutiful history i think theres alot more to discover in turkey beutiful people beutiful history but america is the best!

Posted by salih on October 24,2008 | 06:59 PM

To my fellow Armenian advocates, I am also Armenian, 1st generation. Although I appreciate your enthusiasm regarding this and many other findings regarding our people, please review your posting for grammatical and spelling errors before actually posting. The worst thing to do is to be perceived as being illiterate. Second, please do not express anger toward the scientists for this discovery or at the author of the article. After all, they can only write what they know of. They do not know that most of Turkey's land did actually belong to the Empire of Armenia, then later the Republic of Armenia, because they have been blinded with politics. They do not know that the Ancient Turkish people did not have a land they could call their own, and that the Armenian people gave them a place to call home. They do not know that Ottoman Empire killed millions of Armenians and took their ancient land, well they might know but don't want to admit it or do anything about it. They do not know that history books link the ancient civilization of Ur to present day Armenia. If they knew all of this, they would state in the article that the excavation was done in present day Turkey, but during ancient times, this location belonged to an ancient civilization linked to the Armenian people. So please, give credit to the Scientists for this discovery. And also, give credit to governments such as France, who openly recognize the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish government. Make your voice heard so that more countries like France around the world recognize the Armenian Genocide as an actual Genocide, then one day this new found discovery, including the biblically important Mt. Ararat and all the land associated with them, will be returned back to Armenia. Do not fire back with harsh words and actions, as this will only bring you to the same level as the Turkish Government that almost exterminated our Armenian people.

Posted by Gevork Mkrtchyan on October 24,2008 | 06:59 PM

It proves that once again Armenians are the oldest civilization on earth. Cause we all know their was no turkey 6,000 years ago it was Armenia. Eastern Turkey is ancesteral Armenian land, Armenian people are the rightful owners of that land.

Posted by Sam on October 24,2008 | 06:54 PM

Just goes to show how very little we know about the past. And how soo much of what we think we know is conjecture. Dating objects seems to be an unsure science to say the least. I am glad for the find,but skeptical of the date.

Posted by Cj Metzger on October 24,2008 | 06:53 PM

dis is ancient armenias old temple. not turkish old temple.

Posted by yeg on October 24,2008 | 06:51 PM

Why do they consider this the oldest site. It is not clear - is it through carbon dating or what?

Posted by Ellen on October 24,2008 | 06:49 PM

How wonderful to find yet another piece of the puzzle, will we ever know the whole truth? The grandness and the greatness of our earth in the past is still atotal and absolute mystery, wonderful.

Posted by tracy Maclean on October 24,2008 | 06:45 PM

The "prehistoric people" wer the ARMENIANS....obviously

Posted by Gore on October 24,2008 | 06:45 PM

This is, indeed, an exciting discovery. I just wonder which religion will claim it first and desecrate it by turning it into a religious war-zone by bloody fighting with all the other religions who will take interest in equally drastic claims that this is the valediction of all their fanatic dreams that their religion is more viable than the other?

Posted by S. P. on October 24,2008 | 06:43 PM

The Armenians inhabited this area for thousands of years. Why does the author of the article not assume or speculate this ancient temple is Armenian?

Posted by unisky on October 24,2008 | 06:43 PM

This is an amazing discovery and it is so nicely described by the author. It is absolutely a must-see place and will be added to my list of places to see in TR. Yet, it is quite sad to see that an important discovery like this is being politicized above by some of the commentators. 11.000 years ago, there were no nationalities, the site belonged to a hunter-gatherer society and it happens to be in Turkey today. The article describes just the location of it and does not refer to it as Turkish. It belongs to a time when human beings were not even settled down :)I am amazed at the comments declaring the site to belong to some nation. I feel more like this is a great legacy for the entire humanity that we should treasure. Yours Truly, Ms. ITIR TOKSOZ, Ph.D (International Relations)

Posted by ITIR TOKSOZ on October 24,2008 | 06:40 PM

THis is on the armenian soil that the turkish destroyed in 1915. so it should be the oldest ARMENIAN TEMPLE.

Posted by Raffi on October 24,2008 | 06:39 PM

Dear Gentle People: The information you have shared about this exciting discovery may well signal the dawn of an entirely new approach to archaeology, anthropology, and the study of human social and intellectual beginnings with respect to man as "thinker/wonderer." Thank you! My sincere respects and warm congratulations to all who are engaged in this work. Yours truly, Philip Grinslade

Posted by Philip Grinslade on October 24,2008 | 06:39 PM

Turkish site? How can it be a turkish site, 11000 years ago no turk existed, turks originated from mongol- tatars and came to invade the mesopotamia in late 600 AD. It's a temple created by armenians who owned the land. Amazing!

Posted by Kristina on October 24,2008 | 06:37 PM

Seems to me like the Bible is correct after all. If Noah's ark landed in the Mountains of Turkey and Russia, then Noah would have built a temple for him and his family to offer sacrifices to God.

Posted by Joseph on October 24,2008 | 06:36 PM

This is on the armenian soil the turks destroyed in 1915. So it belongs to the armeinains.

Posted by gevorg on October 24,2008 | 06:33 PM

Amazing article! I have learnt so much and now Göbekli Tepe is on my list of places to see in TR. Yet it is so sad to see that the origins of such an important discovery is being abused for politics by some commentators. There were no nationalities 11.000 years ago, the article talks about a hunter-gatherer society's place of worship. It just happens to be in Turkey today, that is what the article says. Irredentism makes people so blind that they are unable to appreciate that this is such a precious legacy, treasure for the entire humanity. Ms. Itir Toksöz (Ph.D- International Relations),

Posted by ITIR TOKSOZ on October 24,2008 | 06:29 PM

I believe this find is antedeluvian in nature. More and more, archaeologists are uncovering sites that were destroyed in the biblical flood. Without getting overly religious on you, can you not consider the possibility to humor me?

Posted by gonzoe on October 24,2008 | 06:29 PM

This is indeed an interesting find. Let us not politicise this by saying whether this is Armenian or Turkish or something else, just let it be what it is...a common past of all mankind. Let's study this and see what we come up with about our ancestors. Gary

Posted by Gary Mansfield on October 24,2008 | 06:25 PM

Amazing article! I cannot believe the historical treasures we sit on in Turkey. So few people even know the existence of such a site here. The oldest I have seen in Turkey was the Karain Cave aroung Antalya, but along with Çatalhöyük, Göbekli Tepe is now on the list of places to see in Anatolia.

Posted by ITIR TOKSOZ on October 24,2008 | 06:22 PM

Wow, this temple was built before the Turks even settled the area called "Turkey" today. This temple could very likely have been built by historical Armenians since they settled in the area at the time. Very nice find.

Posted by Harry on October 24,2008 | 06:20 PM

I am so excited to know about this temple. It is amazing that people thousands years ago without any advanced tools had such a great power and intelligence to create such a thing. But my heart is tumbled, when I read that the site is on Turkey. That area once, actually before 1915, was part of ancient Armenia and I am so sad that how can be possible that a nation and its history be vanished at once and ignored. I am not telling that this temple or its builders are related to my people, I am just wishing that I could read this news and see the "Armenia" word instead of Turkey in the news line. Once in Urfa were living Armenians and they were killed and deported during 1915 genocide. I hope that one day the world will recognize that the majority part of Eastern Turkey was part of ancient Armenia. With huge respect to all people who reveals the histories mysteries.

Posted by Verjineh on October 24,2008 | 06:18 PM

Turkey? do you really think that mongols who destroyed some of the worlds oldest heritages have a history as old as this? It's very sad, this site is Armenian and you must address it properley to people and nation who contributed many many things to humankind's civilization. if you search in what today call's it self Turkey, you may find that it has nothing on its own, all of the wonderfull sites belong to Armenians, Greeks, Asurians, Urartu's and etc. i hope they will correct the title no one can stole other nations heritage and culture this easily as Turks are trying to do . . .

Posted by George on October 24,2008 | 06:18 PM

Its a good article, but you still need independent verification of the age of the burial site. It mentions that stone implements (whether they are flint, or knives, or whatever) resemble those found in another site, where the artifacts in the other site radiocarbon date to 11000 B.C. Okay, so how does prove that Gobekli Tepe dates around 11000 B.C.? If there are wood fragments, pottery shards, or some other type of carbon-based item at Gobekli, then test these to establish the date. Although undiscovered sites with monumental architecture probably pre-date our discovered (and well-known) archaeological sites, you still need to independently verify the dates. - Omar W. Rosales J.D. http://www.elementalshaman.com

Posted by Omar W. Rosales on October 24,2008 | 06:15 PM

The current turkish land used to belong to the Armenians so this means it's NOT a turkish temple because they havent really owned that land back than.. So ITS THE ARMENIANS TEMPLE !!!!

Posted by vanik on October 24,2008 | 06:14 PM

Wonderful article on a fascinating and important site. I hope that the archaeologists receive proper funding and that a visitor's center can be built in order to protect the site and educate. Beautiful photographs of the carvings.

Posted by Luny on October 24,2008 | 06:09 PM

It is sad that the article talks about the "site in Turkey". 6000 years ago there was no Turkey. 600 years ago there was no Turkey. This site is ARMENIAN. Just another example of how history is being rewritten! It's a shame. At least the Western scientific world should be more specific to acknowledge the fact that Urfa was the creddle of the Armenian civilization. Too sad, that's all.

Posted by Gevorg on October 24,2008 | 06:09 PM

The similarity between the monuments of Gobekli Tepe and Stonehenge appear too great to ignore. An upright rock(s) balancing an overhead rock(s) looms like some sort of primordial memory. Why this particular shape is repeated between cultures separated by thousands of years seems as interesting as the monuments themselves.

Posted by paul wilson on October 24,2008 | 06:08 PM

Fascinating find; but the claim of this being the 'first' temple is a bit of a stretch. There are ancient records of even older temples in India and China.

Posted by Prabhu on October 24,2008 | 06:07 PM

Nice.. But I doubt if it is THE Oldest.. It could be oldest discovered yet. I think it is just another way of grabbing attention of the media.

Posted by Mandar Joshi on October 24,2008 | 06:04 PM

This is very interesting to me the birds sort of look like ostridges. Do the stones have holes in the top? The picture looks like some do, I wonder if a roof may had been attached or sonething! I would love to have a job doing this! It's too cool!

Posted by Debbie Oneal on October 24,2008 | 06:03 PM

Absolutely wonderful! I have been reading Zecharia Sitchin's "The Earth Chronicles" for many months now and given the fact that much conjecture is included, as must be in this type of interpretation, your article on Gobekli Tepe fits perfectly into the search for our earth's history and our possible beginnings. Thank you for fostering more interest in our ancient past. I wish we could see more of your articles on the national news channels. By learning where we came from and how we have presently arrived could possibly show us the way of our future destination. Maybe future generations can learn from historical research and take different paths to futher advance mankind and its continuing evolution, not degrade it! Keep up the great work!

Posted by Janie Love on October 24,2008 | 06:03 PM

Greetings, This was a great find. It is in ordinance of the worlds very first map which is located in England. The map has the tigris river, Armenia Asyria and Mesopethania. This also clarifies that Armenians were amoung the first people on earth even before the Africans.

Posted by Chevy on October 24,2008 | 05:59 PM

Still, I muse on how even 11,000 years ago (roughly 9,000 B.C.) could be called 'Oldest'. How anyone, especially of scientific (not subject to overly emotional, but verifiable) bent could make such a claim. The claim has got to be 'Oldest found to date'. I suppose emotion, which is understandable in humans, and chasing a name that lives after, which too, many men, including he writing this is prey to, is culprit. Still, still, I wish we late, extant (Twenty-first Century) iterations would grab from whatever sense of the last: not 100,000 or so years of Homo-sapiens, but just the last 50,000 of what science has suggested 'our late ancestors came from'; that 'they had all the equipment: spiritual, mental, physical, etc. we who live now have', and not go off, as I see it, half-dug.

Posted by Joseph Duvernay on October 24,2008 | 05:59 PM

I wonder if this site's purpose may have been to draw the attention of death, or at least the essence or spirit of these deadly creatures depicted, and keep them "trapped" at this site. A burial place can hold death well for a long time; no one would want to live there, of course.

Posted by Michael Teegarden on October 24,2008 | 05:57 PM

This article is absolutely marvelous. I've been studying ancient sites of Persepolis and Pasargadae in Persia (where I was born). Is there a way that I can get more articles on this archeologist's works? Many thanks, Raha Lane

Posted by Raha Lane on October 24,2008 | 05:52 PM

This ancient site may have something to do with the ancient extinct race of the Iberi people of the Caucasus.

Posted by George on October 24,2008 | 05:45 PM

That was a nice discovery. I'm really amazed how these things happen, but it only shows that men was given by God that knowledge to make such great things. Praise God!

Posted by MariaPriscilla Sanchez on October 24,2008 | 05:44 PM

This is so exciting! I'd like to know the theories about this find from other anthropologists such as Dr.Marija Gimbutas and Dr.Riane Eisler. The male anthropologists seem to look at finds like these through the lens of our current society. These early cultures were earth centered and honored the Source of life as female. How will this affect their interpretation? All the symbols seem connected with death; it does point to a burial place.

Posted by Marti Matthews on October 24,2008 | 05:42 PM

I noticed that some of the hieroglyphs appear to have some similarities to Egyptian symbols, while others do not>???

Posted by troy canfield on October 24,2008 | 05:37 PM

Incredible, but I strongly doubt that it was the world's "first" temple. Maybe the oldest to have survived. I'm sure there were many wooden temples that did not survive the ages.

Posted by Carl on October 24,2008 | 05:36 PM

What a fascinating find. I would think that the circle of ring was to establish a calender to mark positions of Sun and starts and hence predict seasons. Find of wheat nearby shows an agriculture based society and they may have built and observatory on a high point to avoid getting shadows from any other tall structure or trees or walls/rocks etc. The vicinity to Syria definitely points to a very early stage of astrology as we know it today. Many symbols carved such as Lion, Scorpio etc are astrological symbols. I would like to know more details about this project. Whom can I contact? Sincerely, Anjali Fields Ph. D. (Mechanical Engg.), M.S. (Physics)

Posted by Dr. Anjali Fields on October 24,2008 | 05:29 PM

This is a triumph for the archaeologists. Finding a temple older than the Stone Henge is something for the books. But, there must be a temple somewhere else that might even give us a greater thrill than this find in Turkey. Opening the eyes of our universe is the work of archaeologists and there are still unexplored sites around the world waiting to be discovered. So keep digging till every last one is found.

Posted by Kenneth T. Tellis on October 24,2008 | 05:29 PM



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