Gobekli Tepe: The World's First Civilization?

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

Located 35 miles north of Turkey’s border with Syria, Gobekli Tepe consists of 20 T-shaped stone towers, carved with drawings of snakes, scorpions, lions, boars, foxes and other animals.

The amazing thing about them is they date back to 9,500 BC, 5,500 years before the first cities of Mesopotamia and 7,000 years before the circle of Stonehenge.

Scientists say that back then humans hadn’t even discovered pottery or domesticated wheat. They lived in villages, had no agriculture and only relied on hunting to survive.

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PoS said:

Gobekli Tepe - 6000 years older than Stonehenge - World Mysteries Blog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe





Fascinating. And only 5% of the site has been excavated too. But sadly, unless the archaeologists discover some form of writing (it would be doubtful that any neolithic civilization would have any form of writing- Stonehenge and Carnac certainly didnt), we will probably never know much about this ancient mystery. Nevertheless I hope they keep at it.

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PoS said:

Gobekli Tepe - 6000 years older than Stonehenge - World Mysteries Blog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe





Fascinating. And only 5% of the site has been excavated too. But sadly, unless the archaeologists discover some form of writing (it would be doubtful that any neolithic civilization would have any form of writing- Stonehenge and Carnac certainly didnt), we will probably never know much about this ancient mystery. Nevertheless I hope they keep at it.

Click to expand...

PoS said:

Gobekli Tepe - 6000 years older than Stonehenge - World Mysteries Blog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe





Fascinating. And only 5% of the site has been excavated too. But sadly, unless the archaeologists discover some form of writing (it would be doubtful that any neolithic civilization would have any form of writing- Stonehenge and Carnac certainly didnt), we will probably never know much about this ancient mystery. Nevertheless I hope they keep at it.

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longview said:

They have ways to learn about old civilizations without a written record.
What they ate, how they lived, ect. but that is an old site.
If they find any tombs, it could shed a lot more info.

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Sherman123 said:

Great topic, I've spent a lot of time wiki-diving on this subject. The idea that we had a large settled community so far before any others are recorded is extraordinary to me. It makes me wonder if this is unique or if we simply lack the archeological record for an accurate picture of when human settlement and civilized communities really developed.

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Gathomas88 said:

Personally, I kind of have to wonder if there might not be even older sites out there either still waiting to be found, or possibly lost forever due to other circumstances. A lot of costal land was flooded at the end of the last ice age, for example, which would have made for "prime real estate" for any up and coming primitive civilization around at the time.

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