The impressive construction project, which predates Stonehenge by 6,000 years, is “a deviation from the hunting and gathering way of life,”
Avi Gopher, a professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations at Tel Aviv University
950 BCE
Hunter-gatherers might have built the world’s oldest known temple on a precise geometric plan, according to new findings.
The Neolithic site, known as Göbekli Tepe, is perched atop a limestone mountain ridge in southeastern Turkey. The site’s T-shaped pillars, which are carved with mystic drawings of animals, abstract symbols and human hands, are arranged in giant circles and ovals — each structure is made up of two large central pillars surrounded by smaller inward-facing pillars.
Göbekli Tepe (which translates to “potbelly hill” in Turkish) was built some 11,000 to 12,000 years ago — hundreds of years before any evidence of farming or animal domestication emerged on the planet. So it’s thought that this massive undertaking was the work of hunter gatherers.
By Yasemin Saplakoglu published May 24, 2020
anatolia region
How far back?
2020 | Present
