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Göbekli Tepe , in Turkey, is regarded as one of the most important Stone Age archaeological sites in the world. Recently, archaeologists working not far from Göbekli Tepe have made further discoveries related to the Stone Age complex.
They have found a large number of Stone Age rock tombs that could help to solve some of the mysteries of this prehistoric complex and the area that surrounds it. The excavation of the Stone Age rock tombs is near to the place where a Stone Age figure known as the Balıklıgöl statue or Urfa man, dating to 9000 BC, was also found.
Experts from the Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality were collaborating with personnel from the Culture and Tourism Ministry, who were investigating the Kizilkoyun Necropolis area, when they discovered the Stone Age rock tombs. They came across the burial site in the Old Town of Şanliurfa, not far from where some stunning mosaics of hunting Amazons were previously unearthed. The rock tombs are believed to have been part of the same cultural area as Göbekli Tepe.
The Urfa Man Is Much Like The Eye-Idols Found At Göbekli Tepe
The enigmatic Urfa man figure appears to be related to the distinctive T-shaped statues found at Göbekli Tepe , in particular in their ‘”double V-shape neck design”, according to Ancient Origins . The haunting empty staring eyes of the Urfa man have been likened to the so-called eye-idols found at Göbekli Tepe. The Urfa man figure is about 6 feet (1.80 meters) high and was most likely used for ceremonial or religious purposes and was possibly an idol. Hurriyet Daily News states that it has been called by experts the “oldest naturalistic life-sized sculpture of a human.”
The Urfa Man with its empty eyes, which was found not far from the recently discovered Stone Age rock tombs in Turkey. ( Alistair Coombs )
According to Zeynel Abidin Beyazgül, the mayor of the Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality, “a total of 662 shanty houses were demolished in the area and 61 rock tombs unearthed.” The rock tombs come in a variety of sizes and they appear to have been built later than Göbekli Tepe. However, it is believed that these tombs will provide evidence on the prehistoric site and its builders.
One of the so-called eye-idols found at Göbekli Tepe . (Metropolitan Museum of Art / CC0)
The Stone Age Mysteries of the Incredible Göbekli Tepe Site
Göbekli Tepe is a tell or massive earthen mound in the south-east of Turkey, a 30-minute drive from the city of Şanlıurfa. Göbekli Tepe dates to approximately 10,000 BC and was built and used by Stone Age people. It is home to the world’s oldest megalithic structure , which is comprised of 200 monumental T-shaped standing stones arranged in circular formations. The function of the site is not known but it was probably religious, and many view it as the world’s oldest temple. Göbekli Tepe is providing new evidence for the development of civilization and has already proven that Stone Age societies were much more sophisticated than once thought. In 2018, the site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, but much of it is unexcavated and there are still many mysteries surrounding this incredible site.
The massive Göbekli Tepe earthen mound in the south-east of Turkey, a 30-minute drive from the city of Şanlıurfa, where the Stone Age rock tombs were recently discovered. (Teomancimit / CC BY-SA 3.0 )
This is what makes the recent finding of the Stone Age rock tombs so exciting. The Mayor of Şanlıurfa told Yeni Şafak “We believe that the excavations we will carry out in the area where artifacts similar to the discoveries in Göbekli Tepe are going to be very significant.” Any links between the tombs at Kizilkoyun, and the UNESCO Heritage site is important because it could throw new light on Stone Age civilizations. The Mayor is quoted by Turkish Express as saying that “the excavations around the Kızılkoyun Necropolis will contribute to solving the mystery in surrounding Göbekli Tepe .” The Göbekli Tepe burial site is famous for the variety of its burials and funerary art.
- The Secret of Gobekli Tepe: Cosmic Equinox and Sacred Marriage - Part 1
- Archaeologists find 12,000-year-old pictograph at Gobeklitepe
- Göbekli Tepe Shamans and their Cosmic Symbols – Part I
More Discoveries Expected From The Kizilkoyun Necropolis
Investigations at the Kizilkoyun Necropolis area Stone Age rock tombs will continue, and any artifacts found at the site will be interpreted to determine if they are connected to Göbekli Tepe . There is great hope that the digs at the rock tomb site will solve some of the Göbekli Tepe mysteries that are still unsolved.
The mayor is quoted by Hurriyet Daily News as saying that “Şanlıurfa is already preparing for more discoveries, let humanity expect new surprises.” The burial ground is only one of many historic locations in the Turkish city, known as Edessa in ancient times, a strategically important center to several empires in classical antiquity.
Skull fragments with carved long, deliberate lines found at Gobekli Tepe
A pillar from Building D at Göbekli Tepe seen from the southeast. Credit: German Archaeological Institute (DAI)(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with the German Archaeological Institute has found long, deliberate marks carved into ancient skulls found at the Göbekli Tepe dig site. In their paper published on the open access site Science Advances, the group describes the skull fragments they have been studying and offer some possible explanations for the markings they found.
Göbekli Tepe is the name given to an ancient temple in what is now southern Turkey—it was built approximately 11,000 years ago, during the Stone Age. Workers have been at the site for the past 20 years removing the soil covering the tall pieces of T-shaped limestone, some of which rise up to 18 feet from the ground. Thus far, researchers at the site report that it does not appear that the temple was used as living quarters, but was instead a temple where the locals gathered to perform rituals. One such ritual appears to have involved using human skulls—hundreds of them, broken into pieces, litter the areas between the limestone columns. These findings have caused researchers to label the site as evidence of one of the earliest skull cults. In this new effort, the researchers report that some of the skull pieces have been found to have lines cut into them.
The team determined that the skull fragments they found with the unique marks on them belonged to just three individuals—each had deep straight-line grooves carved into the bone and one of them also had a hole drilled through its top. The grooves were found to measure between 0.2 and 4 millimeters deep and were clearly made by a person using stone tools, rather than by another animal or other natural process. Also, it was determined that the grooves were made after the person had died—there was no bone growth suggesting natural repair. Also, it appeared likely that the grooves had been made shortly after the person had died, while the bone was still relatively elastic.
Anthropomorphic depictions from Göbekli Tepe. (A) Intentionally decapitated human statue (height, 60 cm). Credit: Nico Becker, Göbekli Tepe Archive, DAI. (B) The gift bearer holds in his hands a human head (height, 26 cm). (C) Pillar 43 (building D) with low relief of an ithyphallic headless individual, one arm raised (bottom right). Credit: Dieter Johannes and Klaus Schmidt, Göbekli Tepe Archive, DAIBecause it is not clear why the grooves appeared only on three skulls, the researchers were left to generate theories—they believe one of the likeliest possibilities is that the grooves were made to hold cords in place while the skull was hoisted onto a pole using the drilled hole—possibly as a way to scare off enemies.
- Aerial view of Göbekli Tepe. Credit: German Archaeological Institute (DAI)
- Details of artificial skull modifications. A, C, D: carvings, B: drilled perforation. Credit:Julia Gresky, DAI
- Frontal bone fragment of skull 3 with carvings (1) and cut marks (2,3). Credit: Julia Gresky, Juliane Haelm, DAI.
- Skull fragments with cut marks. Credit: German Archaeological Institute
- Schematic drawings of Göbekli Tepe skulls. Gray, preserved elements red, modifications. Credit: Julia Gresky, Juliane Haelm, DAI.
Abstract
Archaeological excavations at Göbekli Tepe, a transitional Neolithic site in southeast Turkey, have revealed the earliest megalithic ritual architecture with characteristic T-shaped pillars. Although human burials are still absent from the site, a number of fragmented human bones have been recovered from fill deposits of buildings and from adjacent areas. We focus on three partially preserved human skulls, all of which carry artificial modifications of a type so far unknown from contemporaneous sites and the ethnographic record. As such, modified skull fragments from Göbekli Tepe could indicate a new, previously undocumented variation of skull cult in the Early Neolithic of Anatolia and the Levant.
MEGALITHIC ORIGINS: Ancient connections between Göbekli Tepe and Peru
At 6,500 years older than Stonehenge and 7,000 years before the pyramids were constructed, a cult megalithic complex sat atop the hills near current day Sanliurfa, in southeast Turkey. Göbekli Tepe was flourishing an astonishing 12,000 – 14,000 years ago, and today, the preserved remains still exhibits high degrees of sophistication and megalithic engineering skill. Back in the 1990’s when Robert Schoch exclaimed that the Sphinx could be many thousands of years older than previously thought, he was ridiculed. Graham Hancock’s popular theories of an 12,000 year old Ice-age civilization were slammed. Now today, there stands a unique, and remarkably ancient complex that is shaking the foundations of science and history, awakening an interest in our human origins, and has been carbon-dated by German archaeologists to the end of the last ice-age. Game on.
In September 2013, I had the opportunity to go and see Göbekli Tepe for myself. I joined forces with authors Andrew Collins and Graham Hancock on a Megalithomania expedition around Turkey to investigate this enigmatic discovery. It was Graham’s first time there too, and will be documented in his forthcoming Book – ‘Magicians of the Gods’. Graham was as astonished as I was. For such an old structure, the quality of stonework and abstract artistic skill, just seems like it should not exist. American archaeologist Peter Benedict first discovered something was going on there in 1963, noticing prehistoric flints all over the area. He also discovered some broken fragments of beautifully crafted T-shaped blocks with relief carvings on. However, due to the superior quality of the stonework, they were classified as Byzantium artifacts (1) . Interestingly one of the stones that is now on display in Urfa museum, looks conspicuously like one I had previously seen in Peru. In 1994 a german archaeologist, Klaus Schmidt, recognised the site as part of the ‘pre-pottery neolithic’ culture because this style of carving was similar to a site he had worked at earlier – Nevalı Çori. A year later, excavations began, although the general public did not hear about it until the year 2000, when it was documented in a German magazine.
What strikes people when they visit this site is the intricacy of the stonework, the size of the megalithic pillars, and the sheer magnitude of the man-made hill it was carefully covered with. The original construction was built on solid bedrock, then mounds were constructed on top of these, and further structures built on top over a period of around two thousand years, with the final enclosures containing smaller stones and less sophistication than the earlier levels. The larger, older pillars at the lower levels, show bas-relief carvings of various animals, reptiles, birds and serpents. Some pillars seem to represent strange, abstract statues of humans, wearing space-age belts, with long, bent arms and ‘H’ type letters (on every pillar in enclosure D). Most impressive is a strange creature in three dimensional high-relief showing beautiful craftsmanship and originality (for that period). So there are three types of relief carvings at Göbekli Tepe. The 3D high-relief, the shallow reliefs of animals, ‘H’s, and the humanoid arms and belts, plus a rougher style that occurs on the later levels, although incredibly, this still dates to around 8,000 years old.
I found the shaping of the pillars interesting too. Why choose such a specific design? An abstract construction that sits gently on the bedrock, in very shallow pits. Some of the pillars are 18ft high, with the top part of the ‘T’ carved to look like it is a separate block to the main pillar, although it it actually one piece. There are finely carved rims and shaping that reminded me of Tiwanaku in Bolivia. The largest limestone pillar is still in the nearby quarry, that is a staggering 24ft long. Another interesting aspect of the site are the unusual cup-marks that are found, mainly on the bedrock, but also on top of some of the oldest pillars, that may at some point, shed some light on the cup-mark phenomenon in Britain, many thousands of years later.
As part of the expedition, we also visited a Hittite site called Alaca Höyük, near Ankara, the modern capital city of Turkey. It earliest inhabitants were the Hattians, who were earth-based goddess worshipers, with roots in the stone-age, who flourished from around 2350 BC to 1700 BC. Although much younger than Göbekli Tepe, the megalithic walls are indistinguishable from polygonal walls found all over Peru. The jigsaw, irregularly shaped blocks, with some weighing in at more than twenty tons apiece are a unique style that were once thought to only exist in that part of South America, but on my travels I have seen them all up the west coast of Italy, on Easter Island, and in Egypt, plus they have been photographed in Delphi, Greece, Albania, Saudi Arabia, and Japan. Although separated by many millennia and vast distances, this style is possibly the most difficult style to accomplish, as each block needs to be carved extremely accurately so they fit together and stay together over the years, even through earthquakes. But at Alaca Höyük, and nearby Hattusu, they are not flat-faced walls, they look ‘puffy’, basically protruding from the joins, that some researchers say look like ‘pillows’. It’s a very childlike style, that does not seem to follow any particular plan, but it was a popular technique favoured by the ancient megalith builders. This begs the question, was there a global megalithic stonemason elite in prehistory? Did they diffuse this influence around the world and construct specific sites? And with so many similarities to sites in Peru and Bolivia, there was only one thing to do.
Top left: Cuzco, Peru. Top right: Western Italy. Bottom left: Alaca Hoyuk, Turkey. Bottom right: Casing stones on pyramid on Giza plateau.
Fortunately, I was co-organising a Megalithomania trip to Peru and Bolivia in November 2013 with David Hatcher Childress and Brien Foerster. David had just published a book called &lsquoAncient Technology in Peru and Bolivia&rsquo (Adventures Unlimited Press), and Brien has been studying the sites for 6 years. It was the perfect team to try and get some answers to this prehistoric mystery, and look out for any clues that these ancient cultures might be connected.
On the flight to Lima, I looked carefully through my film footage and photographs from Costa Rica, where I had visited the previous December (2012). I went there mainly to investigate the enigmatic stone spheres, but while I was in the San Jose Museum, I was struck by some other intricate stone items on display. There are some beautifully engineered animal reliefs on some 8ft – 9ft rectangular stone slabs. that were only a few inches thick. Around the edges of some of them, there were remarkable carvings, that jump out at you in 3D. My attention was also drawn to a strange ghostly statue at one end of the museum. It had gormless eyes, broad shoulders and hands reaching towards the navel. The significance of these items did not jump forth until I had visited Sanliurfa museum (near Göbekli Tepe) nine months later. There, a famous discovery stands on display. ‘Urfa Man’ is just over 6ft tall with similar features to his doppelganger in Costa Rica. The ‘Balikligöl Statue’ (as it is officially called) was found near the ancient city of Urfa (now Sanliurfa), and is the oldest human statue on earth, having been dated to around 12,000 years old. Urfa man has no mouth and has a unique double v-neck style, looking a bit ‘Star Trek’, plus has a stump at his base as though he was planted in the ground. A similar base exists on the Costa Rica statue, and although there is a mouth, the arms and hands point towards his navel – a feature that also exists in Sulawesi in Indonesia, and on the Moai on Easter Island. This is a tradition that also exists in many prehistoric cultures worldwide, focussing on the ‘navel’.
After hanging out in the capital of Peru for a few days we headed to Cuzco, also called ‘The Navel of the World’. Interestingly, Göbekli Tepe’s name has a similar meaning and is one of many ‘world navels’ or ‘sacred centres’. Cuzco is a megalithic city. It’s foundations are made up of polygonal and precision carved stone, that is quite a sight when you first visit there. Even on the streets of busy Cuzco, you can spot relief carvings, mostly of serpents. However further southwest on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the strange ‘Chulpu’s’, that are officially circular funerary towers, are built of huge megalithic blocks and hold several ancient secrets. On high bluffs, always with a steep climb up to them, these towers are a mystery, made with startling engineering precision, obviously meant to last for several generations. The most famous example is Sillustani, a site I have visited many times. Not only does it have circular towers, it has a unique square ‘chulpa’ that is made of huge finely cut polygonal blocks. The mystery here is that it is an almost perfect match of one of the platforms on Easter Island, some 2,600 miles away across the Pacific ocean. Sillustani has several relief carvings, that closely resemble those at Göbekli Tepe, including serpents, lizards, foxes, puma’s and other unusual creatures. One tower that is partly intact shows a beautiful, but very weathered lizard that can only be seen at certain times of day when the sun reaches round to its location on the tower. There are several other examples dumped outside the site museum, next to an old Volkswagen Beetle and a camper van! Someone, some time ago, obviously spotted their archaeological significance and placed them outside to one day be exhibited in the museum, but they never made it inside, and are now suffering with severe weathering. However, they are still there and give a glimpse into the mindset of the megalith builders of this area.
Top left: Sillustani, Peru. Top middle: Cutimbo, Peru. Bottom left: Sillustani.
Top right: Pillar at Gobekli Tepe. Bottom right: The first artifact found at Gobekli Tepe, originally thought to be Byzantium.
Perhaps as the sun revolved around the circular towers, the reliefs get exposed only at certain times of day. Could this have been a useful clock, or had some other shamanic meaning? I wonder if Göbekli Tepe was used in a similar way, as whoever repaired the site and covered it with thousands of tons of dirt, may have wanted to keep the pillars, and therefore the reliefs, in their correct position, suggesting they may hold astronomical secrets that have yet to be deciphered. It is now known that the site was significant astronomically, due to calculations made by Andrew Collins, with his colleague Rodney Hale, that will be published in Andrew&rsquos forthcoming book &lsquoGobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods&rsquo.
Cutimbo is another chulpa site further around the lake, about 25 km from Puno, the nearest major town. The stonework here reaches another level of complexity, with the beautiful ‘puffy’ polygonal stonework, along with some exquisite reliefs, including serpents, pumas, and even faces of creatures emerging from the rock, as though pumas (perhaps) were running towards you from the inside of the tower. Graham Hancock compared these faces to the stone ‘totem’ statue found at Göbekli Tepe, now in Urfa museum, during his lecture at the ‘Origins Conference’ in November 2013. This inspired me to look through my Costa Rica photos, because I remembered I took a photo of a statue with a similar face emerging from it&rsquos navel at San Jose Museum.
Top left: Totem statue from Gobekli Tepe. Top right: Statue at San Jose Museum, Costa Rica. Bottom: Culpa tower at Cutimbo, Peru.
Near the entrance to Cutimbo amongst piles of broken stone, a unique relief of a cheeky critter sits upon a lump of rock, that was once part of one of the towers. It looks like some kind of feline, but it’s unusual elongated fingers are an anomaly. This one resembles the creatures on the flat megalithic slabs in Costa Rica, and the solitary high-relief at Göbekli Tepe.
Top left: Close up of relief on Lapped funerary board, Costa Rica. Top right: Gobekli Tepe. Bottom left: Sulawesi, Indonesia. Bottom right: Cutimbo, Peru.
When we got back to the hotel, David Hatcher Childress showed me a copy of his popular ‘World Explorers Magazine’ with some photos of his recent trip to Sulawesi in Indonesia. I flicked through looking for further clues and the megalith statues look remarkably like ones I have seen In Guatemala and in Colombia. The quest was on. However, the last picture blew my mind, as the feline or critter of Cutimbo, had a close relation in Indonesia, this time it was on a gargantuan stone pot, with a beautifully carved lid, where the relief carvings can be seen. But it had an unusual face. The face that also features on the great megalithic statues of this part of the Bada Valley, as though it was designed to show the shamanic connection between the humans and animals. The earliest dating of the area points to a time around 6,000 years ago. The statues all have their hands on their waist pointing towards their navels and their faces and style are a close match those of San Augustin in Colombia, with some similarities to Easter Island. There are ‘elongated head’ statues discovered in all three of these places, suggesting cranial deformation could also connect these cultures. At San Augustin there is a statue that simply looks like a mini Moai, with the topknot or hat, the white eyes and a unique stance, but this one has fangs. These sites are separated by some 5000 miles across the Pacific.
At one of the platforms on Easter Island, there is a low-relief of a monkey, plus what looks like two humans (or possibly monkeys) with their hands held in the air, neatly capturing the style of Cutimbo and Göbekli Tepe. Several years ago a site in Turkey called Nevalı Çori, Turkey, dated to around 9,000 BC, has a relief carving that looks like it was created by the same artist. although this one has a tortoise or another creature lodged between the figures.
At around 10,000 years ago in this area of Göbekli Tepe and &lsquothe fertile crescent&rsquo, domestication of animals and agriculture was developed. Analysis of the seeds discovered from the area shows that the farming of wheat was practiced at Nevalı Çori as early as 7,200 BC (2). However, farming methods were in full swing at around 9,400 BC, with the domestication of figs near Jericho (3). In the highlands of Peru, the same skills were being practiced, at the same time. Anthropological archaeologist Tom Dillehay from the Vanderbilt University revealed that the squash seeds he found in ancient storage bins on the lower western slopes of the Andes are almost 10,000 years old. (4). He also discovered evidence of cotton and peanut farming and what seem to be garden hoes, with irrigation canals nearby (ibid). Meanwhile, at Stonehenge in England, giant wooden posts were being placed in the ground 10,000 years ago. Evidently, something was going on around the world at the end of the last ice-age, that gives clout to Graham Hancock&rsquos theories of an advanced civilization, as proposed in Fingerprints of the Gods. However, attempting to prove what was going on at this period is beyond the scope of this article. The relief carvings found in Peru, Turkey, Indonesia, Costa Rica and Easter Island, all raise some interesting points, and certainly indicate that some re-dating may need to be carried out at these sites to get some clarity on the origins of this ancient elite.
Who these people were is difficult to ascertain, but some controversial clues have been emerging from the ground for several centuries. For example, at a site about six miles from Tiwanaku in Bolivia, a 3-foot wide ceramic bowl was discovered that shows proto-Sumerian writing, next to indigenous Aymara script. It has been labelled &ldquoThe Rosetta Stone of South America". Not only does it suggest Sumerian visitors once arrived on the shores of Lake Titicaca, it has now been translated, and the dating of the use of this type of script has been dated to 3,500 BC. What does this mean? It certainly looks like there was an ancient visit by Sumerians around 5,500 years ago, and when we look at the location of where this language was being used, suddenly we see a direct connection between Tiwanaku and the builders of Göbekli Tepe and surrounding sites. (Just as a side note, the famous &lsquoH&rsquo blocks at Puma Punku look a bit like the &lsquoH&rsquos&rsquo on the pillars at Göbekli Tepe. However this is a tenuous link, but worth a mention!)
The Fluent Magna bowl showing proto-Sumerian script
Arthur Posnansky the eminent archaeologist of Bolivia, dated Tiwanaku to around 17,000 years old based upon archaeoastronomy. However, since his initial deductions, this date has been revised several times, with the Fuenta Magna bowl possibly nailing down ‘a’ date at least. When you visit Tiwanaku and Puma Punku, they look like a cataclysm has given its best shot to destroy them a very long time ago, and with the evidence of advanced agriculture beginning in both South America and the fertile crescent at about the same time, we must reconsider the idea that perhaps the Fuenta Magna bowl, is in fact, just part of a long cross-cultural bond that had existed for thousands of years. An interesting pillar was also found at Tiwanaku that shows a relief of a frog, surrounded by two double-spirals, and what looks like lightning. Double and triple spirals are a symbol that has been found all over the world, most notably Malta, that has megalithic structures dating back to 5,000 BC.
In Coga Safid in the Zagros region of Iraq, and dating back to around 7000 BC an unusual elongated skull was discovered. It was one of 27 cranially deformed skulls found in the area. (5). It is one of the earliest cranial deformation examples, or an altogether unknown race, that some authors suggest were the Anunnaki from the Sumerian area. It’s dating is pretty spectacular for this type of skull. At around nine thousand years old, it is contemporary with Göbekli Tepe. It closely resembles many that have been discovered in Peru and Bolivia, including ones from Tiwanaku and Puma Punku. In fact, these long-skulls (often with trepanning) have been unearthed at almost all megalithic sites in that area. Numerous small statues found in Iraq depict thin-faced humans with very long skulls, that date to around 6500 BC. At Kilisik, a site near Göbekli Tepe , a T-shaped artifact with what looks like an elongated skull was discovered, reminiscent of the anthropomorphic Göbekli Tepe pillars, with a date of 8,000 BC. Throughout Peru and Bolivia these skulls have been found in multiple cultures at different times. The Paracas culture along the west coast seem to be the most prominent, but skulls have been found at Machu Picchu, Sillustani, Cuzco, in the northern highlands area around Huaraz, and in Ecuador, Honduras, Chile and Mexico. In Colombia multiple statues of ‘long-heads’ have been discovered throughout the country, and at the San Augustin site, some of the ferocious statues depict rather tall heads. A surprising number of skulls have been found worldwide in the proximity of megalithic sites including Egypt, Mexico, Micronesia, North America, Ukraine, France, Austria, Malta and several more. (6). The long skulls may have been a sign or royalty, or some kind of elite, and some more esoteric researchers believe it would affect the pineal gland and enhance telekinetic abilities, pushing a strange theory in to the mix of how they ‘moved’ these huge stones. In Easter Island, there is a unique solo statue in the museum depicting a very odd-looking female ‘long-head’ and the legends there state that the Moai ‘moved themselves’, or were ‘hovered’ in to place by &lsquoManna&rsquo.
Top left: 9000 year old elongated skull from Zagros Mountains, Iraq. Bottom left: T-shaped head amulet from Kilisik, Turkey showing an elongated head. Bottom left middle: Statuette found in Sumer. Top middle: Elongated skull from Puma Punku, Bolivia. Bottom middle: Two Paracas Culture skulls, Peru (Ica Museum, and Paracas History Museum). Right: Female Moai from Easter Island, with long head.
One final megalithic connection that has mostly remained unnoticed is the tradition of leaving the &lsquolargest monolith in the quarry&rsquo. In Easter Island the largest Moai never emerged fully from the bedrock and can still be visited today. In Göbekli Tepe the 24ft T-shaped pillar still sits in the bedrock half-a-mile away from the site. In Egypt the biggest Obelisk in the world never made it out of Aswan granite quarry. In Baalbek, Lebanon, a 1100 ton block sits wonkily in a nearby quarry and last but by no means least, at Ollantaytambo, not only does a nearby mountaintop quarry still have many worked blocks, but the ‘lazy stones’ that never made it up to the main hilltop site, still straddle the road between the quarry and the ruins.
It can easily be argued that these distant cultures are divided by not only space, but time, and that they would have come up with these ideas independently. I&rsquom not so sure because carving high-relief, constructing polygonal walls, quarrying and transporting super-sized megaliths, altering skulls shapes over a lifetime (and many other points outlined above), are not things that that can be put away as simple &lsquocoincidences&rsquo that any culture would just come up with, as they are all particularly difficult to achieve. Since the discovery of Göbekli Tepe, the re-dating of sites worldwide needs some more investigation, as this kind of sophistication, at this incredibly early date, could be the shake-up academia needs and may give us a new view in to our ancestral megalithic origins.
Addendum: April 14th 2014
I (Hugh Newman) also made this discovery last night (13th April 2014): The surface distance from Gobekli Tepe (name means ‘Belly/Navel hill’) to the sacred centre of the Coricancha in Cuzco, Peru (also means ‘Navel/Centre’) is the exact same distance as the equatorial diameter of the earth – 7928 miles. It is probably the diameter from the latitudes these sites sit at too. The canonical number is 7920 which can be expressed as 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 miles = 7920 miles. I find this mind-blowing as they must have known this information 12,000 years ago.
References
- A. Collins – &lsquoFrom Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge&rsquo DVD – www.megalithomania.co.uk
- Childress. D.H & Foerster. B: &lsquoThe Enigma of Cranial Deformation&rsquo Adventures Unlimited Press
Biography
Hugh Newman is an author, conference organiser, world explorer, tour host, and Megalithomaniac. As an author he has researched the Indigo child phenomenon and published a book on the subject. His most recent book, Earth Grids has been published by Wooden Books. He has released numerous DVDs of his multi-media presentations. He has articles published in The Leyhunter, Mindscape Magazine, World Explorer Magazine, The Circular, The Spiral, The Heretic, New Dawn (Australia) and numerous other publications. As well as organising the Megalithomania conferences, he has spoken at events in the UK, Malta, France, Peru, Egypt, Bosnia and North America. He has appeared on BBC TV, Sky Channel 200, Bosnian TV and the History Channel in the last three seasons of Ancient Aliens. He is currently writing a book about the Wandlebury complex near Cambridge. Read his personal blog here and his travel blog about ‘Mounds, Megaliths & Giants of North America’.
http://www.megalithomania.co.uk/hughnewman.html. Megalithomania website: www.megalithomania.co.uk. Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/MegalithomaniaUK
Weird dreams?
Hey everyone. We were just wondering if anyone has had an odd influx of weird/vivid dreams lately. I for one never remember dreams, but have had some doozy’s within the last couple months. We recently dug into that Happy Valley/ Willamette Valley dream survey mystery and it got us wondering if there was anything to it. Upon inquiring we’ve began to notice that quite a few people stating that they had actually began having odd and vivid dreams as of late. Just wondering if anyone else noticed this.
I have had a lot lately. Did you stop smoking pot recently?
Negative. Does that usually happen when one stops smoking pot?
This doesn't happen when I stop smoking pot, however, the dreams I got from nicotine withdrawal were always crazy as hell
I looked up to a dark blue sky and looked like the asteroid belt just outside the atmosphere
I have had some more intense dreams lately. But I always have adventure filled, involved dreams. Never had a nightmare either. All my dreams are superhero type stuff, that I can even control to varying degrees sometimes.
That’s pretty rad. Interesting that they have been more intense than usual as well.
Pandemic dreams. Everyone's emotions and stress levels are heightened and spirirituality is awakening or reawakening in most too. I don't know what it is your referring to but I do dabble in dream interpretation if you remember details.
I have a lot of dreams where I'm in lonely ruined desolate cities. Sometimes there's a few other people, sometimes not. Sometimes I'm a powerful person within this apocalyptic scape, like either superpowers or like high ranking government person, that the few people there seem to expect something from me. Sometimes there's adversaries, but if so it's vague on the edges, more a threat than a presence.
I also dream a lot from multiple perspectives, almost like I'm "riding" different people within the dream.
Also, I'm often not "me" exactly, but either another person or like a "version" of me.
Another theme that reoccurs often is that of fleeing a persuer. But like in a very large place, like travelling across the country, except they're strange places I've never been, like a bunch of jagged coasts and islands connected by bridges. I'll stop at hotels and stuff, like a road trip fleeing some threat.
Curious what you have to say about this.
I've also had precog dreams (infrequently) and dejavu where I know exactly what'll play out.
Karahan Tepe May Well Be Göbekli Tepe’s Older Sister!
While Göbekli Tepe holds the world record in media headlines and elsewhere as the earliest temple of its type ever discovered, there are several other contenders for this crown in Turkey. According to Jens Notroff , an archaeologist at the German Archaeological Institute who is working on Göbekli Tepe site, “smaller versions of the pillars, symbols and architecture carved into stone at Göbekli Tepe have been found in settlements up to 125 miles away,” including Karahan Tepe.
Professor Notroff told National Geographic that Göbekli Tepe probably served the region “as a cathedral,” and therefore the surrounding sacred sites were like parish churches. The scientist also thinks hunter-gatherers traveled long distances to meet, worship, and help build new monumental structures through vast community projects that included grand feasts to display wealth.
Returning to Karahan Tepe, according to a report in Daily Sabah , many more years of excavations and research must be conducted to determine what exactly it was used for. However, while it does happen, scientists seldom make big claims without equally big proof, and in this instance the researchers think that when they ultimately get to Karahan Tepe’s excavation center “it will be “much older than 12 thousand years.”
The archaeologists at Karahan Tepe are so convinced that they have “a new zero point in world history,” the mayor says the site will “become a priority in place of Göbekli Tepe” and it will become a new focus of national archaeological and tourist attention.
Top image: Massive carved head recently unearthed at the Karahan Tepe site. Source: Arkeofili
Stone Age Rock Tombs Found Near Göbekli Tepe Provide More Ancient Clues - History
An article by Bob Yirka on phys.org - Skull fragments with carved long, deliberate lines found at Göbekli Tepe - reports on the discovery at the Göbekli Tepe dig site by researchers with the German Archaeological Institute of long, deliberate marks carved into ancient skulls.
Aerial view of Göbekli Tepe. Image: German Archaeological Institute, DAI.
The research has been published on the open access site Science Advances:
Ancient stone pillars offer clues of comet strike that changed human history
Modified human crania from Göbekli Tepe provide evidence for a new form of Neolithic skull cult
Science Advances 28 Jun 2017: Vol. 3, no. 6, e1700564
Abstract:
Archaeological excavations at Göbekli Tepe, a transitional Neolithic site in southeast Turkey, have revealed the earliest megalithic ritual architecture with characteristic T-shaped pillars. Although human burials are still absent from the site, a number of fragmented human bones have been recovered from fill deposits of buildings and from adjacent areas. We focus on three partially preserved human skulls, all of which carry artificial modifications of a type so far unknown from contemporaneous sites and the ethnographic record. As such, modified skull fragments from Göbekli Tepe could indicate a new, previously undocumented variation of skull cult in the Early Neolithic of Anatolia and the Levant.
A pillar (left) from Building D at Göbekli Tepe seen from the southeast. Image: German Archaeological Institute, DAI. Frontal bone fragment (right) of skull 3 with carvings (1) and cut marks (2,3). Image: Julia Gresky, Juliane Haelm, DAI.
The prehistoric site of Göbekli Tepe in what is now southern Turkey is roughly 11,000 years old, and believed to have been constructed as a temple or ritual site. Göbekli Tepe is an example of some of the earliest cultivation, but the cultivation itself was seen as a byproduct of religion. Klaus Schmidt, a German archaeologist and pre-historian, led the excavations at Göbekli Tepe from 1996 to 2014.
Of the rituals, one may have involved using human skulls, based on the numerous fragments found. Researchers believe this may be evidence of one of the earliest skull cults. To support this, researchers report that some of the skull pieces have been found to have lines cut into them.
Details of artificial skull modifications. A, C, D: carvings, B: drilled perforation. Image:Julia Gresky, DAI.
The team determined that the skull fragments they found with the unique marks on them belonged to just three individuals. Each had deep straight-line grooves carved into the bone and one of them also had a hole drilled through its top. The grooves were found to measure between 0.2 and 4 mm deep and were clearly made by a person using stone tools, rather than by another animal or other natural process. Also, it was determined that the grooves were made after the person had died - there was no bone growth suggesting natural repair. Also, it appeared likely that the grooves had been made shortly after the person had died, while the bone was still relatively elastic.
Druids’ Role In Society
Poets and prophets, astrologers and astronomers, seers, magicians, and diviners were usually comprised of druids. It was the druid who remembered the tribal histories and genealogies. Druids were also the ones who memorized the laws. They served as diplomats, lawyers, judges, herbalists, healers, and battle magicians. Among them were also satirists, sacred singers, storytellers, nobility children’s teachers, ritualists, astronomers, philosophers, natural scientists, and mathematicians. Being a druid meant serving a whole tribe. No king or queen could function without the assistance of a druid, because the druid knew the laws and precedents upon which the ruler could not pass judgement.
Female druids, or druidesses, are referred to by a variety of terms. Bandrui (woman-druid) is mentioned in Medieval Irish folklore. Conchobor Mac Nessa, the king of Ulster in Irish mythology’s Ulster Cycle , was most likely named after his mother, Nessa, rather than his father. Nessa was a druidess. Scathach, a legendary Scottish warrior woman and martial arts instructor who trained the legendary Ulster hero Cú Chulainn in the arts of combat, is explicitly referred to as a flaith (prophetess) as well as a druid. There are also the banflaith (sometimes banfili), or women poets, most notably Fedelm, a female prophet and banflaith in the Ulster Cycle. She appears in the great epic Táin Bó Cuailnge (colloquially known as The Cattle Raid of Cooley or the Táin).
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Top Image : The Passing of St. Brigid of Kildare. Smithsonian American Art Museum ( CC0)
Geometry guided construction of earliest known temple, built 6,000 years before Stonehenge
The sprawling 11,500-year-old stone Göbekli Tepe complex in southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, is the earliest known temple in human history and one of the most important discoveries of Neolithic research.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority have now used architectural analysis to discover that geometry informed the layout of Göbekli Tepe's impressive round stone structures and enormous assembly of limestone pillars, which they say were initially planned as a single structure.
Three of the Göbekli Tepe's monumental round structures, the largest of which are 20 meters in diameter, were initially planned as a single project, according to researchers Gil Haklay of the Israel Antiquities Authority, a PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University, and Prof. Avi Gopher of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations. They used a computer algorithm to trace aspects of the architectural design processes involved in the construction of these enclosures in this early Neolithic site.
Their findings were published in Cambridge Archaeological Journal in May.
"Göbekli Tepe is an archaeological wonder," Prof. Gopher explains. "Built by Neolithic communities 11,500 to 11,000 years ago, it features enormous, round stone structures and monumental stone pillars up to 5.5 meters high. Since there is no evidence of farming or animal domestication at the time, the site is believed to have been built by hunter-gatherers. However, its architectural complexity is highly unusual for them."
Discovered by German archaeologist Dr. Klaus Schmidt in 1994, Göbekli Tepe has since been the subject of hot archaeological debate. But while these, and other early Neolithic remains, have been intensively studied, the issue of architectural planning during these periods and its cultural ramifications have not.
Most researchers have made the case that the Göbekli Tepe enclosures at the main excavation area were constructed over time. However, Haklay and Prof. Gopher say that three of the structures were designed as a single project and according to a coherent geometric pattern.
"The layout of the complex is characterized by spatial and symbolic hierarchies that reflect changes in the spiritual world and in the social structure," Haklay explains. "In our research, we used an analytic tool -- an algorithm based on standard deviation mapping -- to identify an underlying geometric pattern that regulated the design."
"This research introduces important information regarding the early development of architectural planning in the Levant and in the world," Prof. Gopher adds. "It opens the door to new interpretations of this site in general, and of the nature of its megalithic anthropomorphic pillars specifically."
Certain planning capabilities and practices, such as the use of geometry and the formulation of floor plans, were traditionally assumed to have emerged much later than the period during which the Göbekli Tepe was constructed -- after hunter-gatherers transformed into food-producing farmers some 10,500 years ago. Notably, one of the characteristics of early farmers is their use of rectangular architecture.
"This case of early architectural planning may serve as an example of the dynamics of cultural changes during the early parts of the Neolithic period," Haklay says. "Our findings suggest that major architectural transformations during this period, such as the transition to rectangular architecture, were knowledge-based, top-down processes carried out by specialists.
"The most important and basic methods of architectural planning were devised in the Levant in the Late Epipaleolithic period as part of the Natufian culture and through the early Neolithic period. Our new research indicates that the methods of architectural planning, abstract design rules and organizational patterns were already being used during this formative period in human history."
Next, the researchers intend to investigate the architectural remains of other Neolithic sites throughout the Levant.
Göbekli Tepe Multi-ton stones and hunter-gatherers
Located not far from the present-day city of Şanlıurfa, the site is buried beneath the surface.
Geological surveys have left experts awestruck, not only by its complexity but by its immense size.
Nothing like it has ever been found anywhere in the world. As of June 2020, there are more than 200 stone pillars at Göbekli Tepe, buried beneath the surface (most of them) in 20 clearly denoted circles.
These pillars are massive they rise to an average height of 6 meters and have a weight of 10 tons. Fitted into sockets previously hewn out of the local bedrock, the t-shaped stone pillars are Göbekli Tepe’s most unique features.
Although the site is far from being completely excavated, archaeologists have found to this date points to an unpredicted archeological discovery, ready to change the history of early societies on Earth.
That’s mostly because from the layers excavated by experts we were able to find that Göbekli Tepe’s most massive stone pillars date back to a period called Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) (in early Levantine and Anatolian Neolithic culture), which dates back from circa 12,000 to around 10,800 years ago, that is from around 10,000 to 8,800 years ago.
Although experts say that tiny circular mud-brick dwellings characterize the PPNA, Göbekli Tepe changes it all.
During a time when other societies were in the process of building mud-brick dwellings, people at Göbekli Tepe were working massive blocks of stone ranging from 10 to 20 tons in weight, building on a never-before-seen scale.
Klaus Schmidt, one of the most famous excavators of the site, discovered two phases of occupation at Göbekli Tepe, the oldest of which can be traced back to around 10,000 BC. This means that already 12,000 years ago, the society that was in charge of building Göbekli Tepe was ahead of their time, at least in the construction and organizational sense.
Its true purpose remains a profound mystery, although various theories propose that Göbekli Tepe was either a massive ceremonial site—which would make it the oldest known megalithic temple on Earth or an early astronomical observatory.
Experts like Schmidt suggest the site was used in a religious or ceremonial sense, where people from vast distances traveled to the site to pay their respects. Whatever the case, the imposing stratigraphy at the site attests to several centuries of activity, the earliest of which originated during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A.
The site’s history has been divided into three distinct stages denominated by experts as layer III, II, and I.
Layer III represented the oldest stage. At this stage, experts say that Göbekli Tepe’s characteristic circular compounds appear, ranging from 10 to 30 meters in diameter.
It was during this stage that the site’s most notable features appear the t-shaped limestone blocks.
To date, only four circular structures have been excavated at the site, although there is evidence of at least 16 more similar structures. Each of these circles is believed to house eight stone pillars, which means Göbekli Tepe is home to around 200 t-shaped stone pillars.
Most of Göbekli Tepe’s unique pillars are decorated with a number of abstract, enigmatic pictographs, many of which depict animals. Certain elements on the pillars have been interpreted as symbols that appear in Neolithic cave paintings in different sites.
Among the animals illustrated on the pillars, experts have found bulls, lions, snakes, reptiles, birds, and vultures.
It is believed that 12,000 years ago when the oldest parts of the site were constructed, the area surrounding Göbekli Tepe was home to a great variety of wildlife.
The stones used in the construction of the site were transported from nearby quarries, the most distant of which was located no more than 1,000 meters away.
Despite the short distance, it still remains a profound mystery as to how ancient people 12,000 years ago managed to quarry, transport, and raise into positions tones of blocks weighing 10 or 20 tons.
We must take into consideration that the people who built Göbekli Tepe did so without the aid of pack animals or technologies such as the pulley or the wheel.
Göbekli Tepe is so old that it predates pottery, metallurgy, the invention of writing or the wheel, and essentially the Neolithic Revolution.
One of the quarries not far from the site is home to a massive block of stone whose weight has been estimated at around 50 tons. Although the ancients did not use it in the construction for a reason we still don’t know, they most likely did have the means to transport and raise it. If they carved it, the surely must have figured out how to move it.
Everything we know about Göbekli Tepe tells us that already 12,000 years ago, there were developed societies on Earth and not mere hunter-gatherers.
Everything we know about the site is preliminary since no more than 5 % of Göbekli Tepe has been excavated.
Future generations of archaeologists will help unravel the site’s secrets, but from everything we’ve found to this date, Göbekli Tepe is a site like no other.
Whoever built Göbekli Tepe was organized and was able to prepare its workforce. It is estimated that around 1,000 people were needed to quarry and transport the stones that were used in the site’s construction. This means that the society that built Göbekli Tepe was able to provide not only food for such a big community but also clothing, houses, and medicine.
Remember, Göbekli Tepe was not built in a day, and it most likely took several generations to complete a site that would deliberately be backfilled around 8,000 BC.
Yes, Göbekli Tepe changes it all, and I see the site as a monument as impacting as the Great Pyramid of Giza, in a historical and architectural sense.
Ancient stone pillars offer clues of comet strike that changed human history
Pillar 43, Enclosure D, also known as the Vulture Stone of Göbekli Tepe. Credit: Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Tsikritsis(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with the University of Edinburgh has found what they describe as evidence of a comet striking the Earth at approximately the same time as the onset of the Younger Dryas in carvings on an ancient stone pillar in southern Turkey. The group has published their findings in the journal Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry.
Prior evidence based on ice cores taken from Greenland has suggested that a strike by a comet may have led to the onset of the Younger Dryas—a period of Earth cooling that lasted for approximately 1000 years. Other evidence also suggests that the cooling period caused groups of people to band together to cultivate crops, leading to the development of agriculture, which in turn led to huge leaps in technological innovations and societal developments, i.e. Neolithic civilization. In this new effort, the researchers describe evidence they found on a stone pillar at Gobekli Tepe (the oldest known temple site) that aligns with the ice core findings—that a comet struck the Earth in approximately 10,950BC.
The pillar was created by the people of Gobekli Tepe and now appears to have served as a means of commemorating a devastating event—perhaps a comet breaking up and its remnants crashing into the Earth, causing an immediate environmental impact around the globe and possible loss of life (one of the characters on the pillar was of a headless human.) The team fed likenesses of the images carved onto the pillar (known as the vulture stone) into a computer to determine if they might be linked with constellations. Doing so revealed associations between characters on the pillar and astronomical symbols in the sky for the year 10,950 BC. The fact that the people took the time and considerable effort to create the characters on the pillar suggests something very important must have happened during the same time period that the Greenland ice core suggests a comet struck, approximately 10,890BC.
Wall pillars with three animal symbols in series. Part a) is pillar 2 from Enclosure A, while part b) is pillar 38, Enclosure D (images courtesy of Travel The Unknown).The researchers have concluded that the carvings on the pillar were likely meant to document the cataclysmic event and suggest that the temple may have been an observatory. They also report that they found evidence of changes to the Earth's rotational axis as a result of the comet strike.
Constellations around Scorpius (Western Lore). Credit: B. Sweatman, D. TsikritsisABSTRACT
We have interpreted much of the symbolism of Göbekli Tepe in terms of astronomical events. By matching low-relief carvings on some of the pillars at Göbekli Tepe to star asterisms we find compelling evidence that the famous 'Vulture Stone' is a date stamp for 10950 BC ± 250 yrs, which corresponds closely to the proposed Younger Dryas event, estimated at 10890 BC. We also find evidence that a key function of Göbekli Tepe was to observe meteor showers and record cometary encounters. Indeed, the people of Göbekli Tepe appear to have had a special interest in the Taurid meteor stream, the same meteor stream that is proposed as responsible for the Younger-Dryas event. Is Göbekli Tepe the 'smoking gun' for the Younger-Dryas cometary encounter, and hence for coherent catastrophism?