Gobekli Tepe (literally Potbelly Hills), situated in South-Eastern
Turkey, near the Syrian border, is now acknowledged as one of the
archaeological wonders of the recent times. As it sat for centuries overlooking
a prosperous countryside, culminating in the city of Urfa (ancient Edessa), it
concealed in its ‘belly’ perhaps the oldest known temple of the human history.
Before we delve further into the history of Gobekli Tepe, it would not be out
of place to recall that Urfa was the hometown of Abraham, who is regarded as
the progenitor of three important religions–Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Gobekli Tepe
was excavated for the first time in the 1960s, when the archaeologists,
assuming it to be a vast medieval burial complex, abandoned the site. Around
two decades ago, a German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt for the first time
connected the limestone fragments scattered there with nearby Neolithic sites.
But he and his team did not have the slightest idea that they have stumbled
upon the earliest and one of the largest temple complexes ever built. Once they
started clearing the site, they came across the first T-shaped stone pillar,
reminiscent of Britain’s Stonehenge. These pillars with an average height of
sixteen feet and weight of more than sixty tonnes were arranged in a circular
fashion, again like Stonehenge. The largest pillar found so far towered at
sixty-five feet and some of these pillars have carved images of dangerous
beasts, vultures, and scorpions. These pillars were chiselled with the stone
hammer and other stone tools, long before metal tools were invented.
Scientific
investigations have come to the conclusion that this gigantic stone cathedral
is 6,000 years older than the Stonehenge–which means it was erected nearly
11,000 years back. A ground-penetrating radar survey revealed that the site,
spread over twenty-two acres, has sixteen huge Stonehenges buried beneath it.
It must have taken generations of workmen to complete this gigantic monument.
If the archaeologists continue their dig at the present speed for the next
fifty years without a break, then they would be able to unearth just a fragment
of this humongous temple.
Lack of
tell-tale signs of human habitation (domestic fire, garbage dump, building
foundations, etc) confirms that it was just a temporary meeting place for the
nearby communities, most probably a temple or a place to leave dead bodies
(motifs of carrion birds and venomous animals are possibly indicative of that)
and subsequent ancestral worship. Archaeologists, however, found a large number
of animal bones with signs of slaughter–perhaps sacrificed at the altar. This
hints that the temple site most probably belonged to hunter-gatherers.
The wonder of
Gobekli does not stop at its antiquity or its mammoth size. Within a few
kilometres of Gobekli Tepe, archaeologists have found the earliest signs of
domesticated wheat cultivation, which started at least 500 years after the
temple construction begun (about 10,500 years ago). Within the next 500 years,
they were able to domesticate pigs, sheep, and cattle. For a long time, it was
believed that large man-made structures emerged only after primitive farming
communities could gather enough organisational ability and produce economic
surpluses to build and sustain such structures. Gobekli Tepe, located within
the fertile crescent of human civilisation, stands testimony that massive food
requirements for the labourers assembled there for many decades, if not
centuries, directly led to the transition from foraging to settled agriculture.
In other words, to paraphrase an archaeologist associated with the excavation
at Gobekli, ‘socio-culture led to agriculture’.
A
third-generation priest of a large South Indian temple complex or a fourth
generation Imam of an East Bengal Sufi dargah would have laughed at our
ignorance–without even knowing the history of Gobekli. They would have asked,
who brought the farmers here? When my predecessor was granted this brahmadeya
or inami iqta, this was a barren land…..they came and settled and prospered
here because this temple/dargah showered its benevolence on them.
If we could go
back to a Christian monastery in Greece or Egypt of say, 400 CE, through a time
machine, we would have been welcomed with freshly-baked bread, wines from its
own vineyard and preserved food items, all grown and processed by monks of the
monastery. Some of the oldest food preservation techniques are traceable to
such monasteries.
 |
| Stonehenge |
In the latest
twist to the incredible history of Gobekli Tepe, Scientists have very recently
found that through genetic studies that the ancestors of the people, who built
Stonehenge in Britain actually came from Turkey! They reached Britain around
4000 BCE (Stonehenge was built around 3000 BCE). They were part of outward
migration from Anatolia, Turkey, which started around 6000 BCE and these
Turkish immigrants were responsible for introducing agriculture to Europe (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47938188)
No comments:
Post a Comment