Göbekli Tepe: the secrets of the first mysterious human sanctuary

You first have to walk to Istanbul, Turkey, and then take another plane several hours to reach the distant city of Sanliurfa, located 60 kilometers from the Syrian border. You still have to take a taxi and a bus to reach the green hills where it is erected Göbekli Tepe, the impressive Neolithic monument declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 2018 and transformed by the Turkish government into the main attraction of tourism in 2019.

This is worth every effort: Göbekli Tepe is the zero time of humanity, the oldest site where our Neolithic ancestors developed a monumental architecture for ritual purposes and where they gathered to celebrate what could today be considered the first symbolic-spiritual system in the world.

Tour operators say that once the ISIS threat is over and the Kurdish-dominated border has been pacified, the Göbekli tepe will become an attraction for travelers tired of history clbadical and Renaissance. After all, the city of Sanliurfa, which serves as a base to access the archaeological site, has a past going back to the ancient Edessa, Greek city founded by the Seleucid heirs of Alexander The Great, and even more.

Sanliurfa is also an Islamic pilgrimage center for those who come to see the birthplace of the prophet Abraham, and is considered by some as the famous Ur of the Chaldeans. With all these elements, the "glorious Urfa" – as the Turks call it – has reached the antecedents until now to occupy a prominent place in the history of Anatolia and the domestic tourism. But the development of Göbekli Tepe promises to multiply all exponentially.

Proud to claim that it is the cradle of human civilization, the Turkish government is putting on the attraction of millions of international tourists in the coming years and has already invested in the opening of the magnificent museum of Archeology of Sanliurfa, perhaps the best in the world for its Mesopotamian collection. . "This is the year of Göbekli Tepe and the place is already ready to receive thousands of visitors," guide Icmi Culum is enthusiastic in perfect Spanish, as he walks the slopes of the archaeological site under a light drizzle. "This tourist destination will explode because it is the crossroads of all civilizations and the Spanish contingents will begin to arrive," says Culum Infobae culture.

For the moment, Mehmet Tarik Yildiz, member of the excavation team and parent of the local farmer who would have discovered the first signs of the stone monument, hastened to reproduce the colossal pillars of Göbekli Tepe to resell them to tourists who come down like swallows at the time. arrival of spring. "They are handmade in ceramic, does that interest you?" He smiles.

The gigantic circular stone monument, discovered two decades ago in an artificial mound ("tepe"), revolutionizes prehistoric archeology by its characteristics and antiquity: it was lifted about 7,000 years before the great pyramids of Egypt and 6,000 years before the most famous stone circle, Stonehenge, in England. How did hunter-gatherers in search of animals and fruits come together to build stone structures of such complexity in a place without water?

Although those who slap extraterrestrial civilizations to explain this prehistoric monument are not lacking, Jens Notroff, one of the German archaeologists who dug in the place, spreads it squarely. "We know that Göbekli Tepe was built by human beings who used the site as a ceremonial center for several generations before partially burying it under a huge mound," says a researcher from the Göbekli Tepe project. German Institute of Archeology.

The only thing certain is that the stone circles with decorated colossal pillars defy everything that was thought of at the beginning of human civilization. Historians have always argued that agriculture is the necessary condition for humans to allocate resources to develop a symbolic culture. However, Göbekli Tepe shows the opposite. Archaeologists have dated the first stone circles of 10,000 BC. BC, when hunter-gatherers had moved in groups of nomads behind the traces of mammals and birds serving as a support. There was no agriculture or pottery at that time. Even less, established societies with surpluses to devote to spirituality.

What is Göbekli Tepe, then? Advanced instruments that penetrate the soil without destroying them have recently revealed that there are 20 stone circles under the 9 hectares that it occupies. Eight of these circles have already been unearthed and four are currently exposed to the public, under a modern white roof that protects them while facilitating their visit.

Each of the rooms exposed to tourists, 10 to 30 meters in diameter, has different decorative elements, but all have in common a pair of anthropomorphic pillars in the center, to which they "look" those who are deployed around.

Mythology of stone age

What do these central pillars represent? The badumptions are of a woman and a man (although there is no apparent badual difference in the sculptures), a couple of gods or even a pair of twins. "Today, we are almost certain that they represent two male individuals," notes Notroff. Whatever the case may be, the fact that the circular walls have a sort of sidewalk on which the central pillars rest confirms that community ceremonies have been held there, in the same way as the meetings held today. They are held in churches and stadiums. If you add the depictions of wild boars, foxes, gazelles, reptiles, cranes, vultures, ducks, spiders and other members of the surrounding wildlife, you can imagine the l & # 39; existence of a mythology badociated with the Neolithic monument that stands out clearly in a sacred geography.

What symbolize the pillars and animals carved there? "As we speak of a prehistoric period, without written sources, it is not easy to explain mythology and symbolism," says Berlin's Notroff, a few days before returning to Göbekli Tepe for continue to dig. "Because of the representation of arms, hands, belts and loincloths, some of the pillars of T can be understood as anthropomorphic sculptures, but their general form is abstract. They measure up to 5.5 meters -D 'a size larger than the human figure-, these anthropomorphic pillars are very different from the naturalistic statues known in the region. In this sense, they must represent something different, "reflects the German archaeologist. I hesitate to describe them as gods, but they certainly represent something bigger than human sculptures. Maybe they were important ancestors, "he doubts.

The many animals engraved on the pillars are representations of wildlife that any hunter could encounter in this prehistoric place. "But there are also dangerous animals, such as snakes, scorpions and insects, and mammals with big fangs, which evokes a threatening atmosphere," adds Notroff.

German scientific explorers, led by the late deceased Klaus Schmidt, they arrived in the area 20 years ago, attracted by the artificial form of a hill and by a study of the 60s mentioning strange rocks. Schmidt, who had searched in a nearby prehistoric site, quickly understood the importance of the site. But even he could not have dreamed of what he would discover with his team: a community worship center built by hunter-gatherers who were celebrating holidays there.

The scene of periodic prehistoric feasts can be experienced today personally in the spectacular Reception Center built next to the archaeological site, where tourists are immersed almost mind-blowing in animations, infographics, videos and artifacts that allow us to understand the monumental sanctuary of the Stone Age.
Despite the many animal tracks slaughtered during the banquet and, perhaps, consumption of alcoholic beverages, scientists point out that there is no evidence that prehistoric humans have built permanent homes in Göbekli Tepe.. Until now, everything indicates that the circle enclosures have functioned as a meeting point where, at certain times of the year, people from different places came to celebrate a festive ritual, after which are removed at home or have moved to other sites.

If we take into account the fact that the first crops – wheat, rye – were domesticated in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia, archaeologists believe that Göbekli Tepe can mark the transition from the stage of a hunters' society gatherers at a society of food producers. ; and the transition from nomadism to the installation of human beings in cities. In fact, many excavations show villages and crops immediately after Göbekli in the surrounding plain of Harran.

"The fact that several groups of hunters met and built these monuments in cooperation before the creation of vast agglomerations, before they can accumulate important reserves through agriculture and livestock, is really impressive, "says Notroff. "It is true that Paleolithic hunters have developed an impressive rock art in the caves of Spain and France 10,000 years before Göbekli Tepe. What is remarkable about Göbekli Tepe is the monumentality that results from his beliefs."

Perhaps the construction of Göbekli Tepe has facilitated group cohesion, obsidian exchange and the realization of community megaprojects. Göbekli shows perhaps the new power that man acquires over the natural environment after the end of the ice age. Be that as it may, the prehistoric monument reveals that religion or, more precisely, rituals of worship may have taken place before agriculture, and not the other way around, as we say so far in the textbooks history.