Göbekli Tepe — An Ancient Anomaly in Turkey
An anomaly is an irregular occurrence, a deviation from the rule, or something unexplainable or abnormal. And our world, our history books, and our scientific discoveries are full of anomalies — many related to prehistory civilizations.
No satisfying answers to these enigmas have been provided by mainstream science. But such anomalies strongly indicate ancient technological achievement by an advanced intelligence. It is something that we cannot dismiss and must pursue.
Given the age of Earth and the billions of years of geologic and climatic recycling, the likelihood of prehistory civilizations is considered quite feasible. But getting mainstream science and religious dogma to accept such a reality is difficult because it would turn all traditional belief structures upside down.
This article is part of my series of articles regarding ancient anomalies. Click here to access all my articles on this fascinating subject.
If you’re all caught up, let’s explore…
Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe is an archaeological site located six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey. Said to predate Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Göbekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization.
Site Description
The site consists of an artificial earthen mound. The gently rounded top of the artificial mound rises 50 feet above the surrounding landscape. The mound is about 1,000 feet in diameter and approximately 2,500 ft above sea level. The site discoverer and excavator, Klaus Schmidt, says that Göbekli Tepe was constructed in two phases of a social and ritual nature.
During the first phase belonging to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), circles of massive ‘T’-shaped stone pillars were erected. According to mainstream science, these structures have been dated to about 10,000 BC — making them the world’s oldest known megaliths.
That means these structures not only predate pottery, metallurgy, and the invention of writing and the wheel but were built before the Neolithic Revolution — a point that marks the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry around 9,000 BC.
In the second phase belonging to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), the pillars erected at this site were smaller and stood in rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime.
Once the rings of stone pillars were finished, the ancient builders covered them with dirt. Eventually, they placed another ring nearby or on top of the old one. Over centuries, these layers created the artificial mound that looks like a hilltop today.
Mainstream science says that Göbekli Tepe was abandoned after the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB). And younger structures were then constructed in the area that date to classical times.
How were the megalith pillars constructed and placed?
Through geophysical surveys as of May 2020, more than 200 pillars in about 20 circles are known to be located within this mound. The pillars were cut and crafted at a nearby quarry, then moved and fitted into sockets hewn out of the local bedrock.
Each monolithic T-shaped stone pillar in the first phase had a height of up to 20 feet and weighed up to 20 metric tons. One pillar found, still in its quarry, weighed 50 tons.
Here is how Klaus Schmidt imagined that the pillars were constructed and placed by primitive people. He saw Göbekli Tepe’s sloping, rocky ground as a stonecutter’s dream. Even without metal chisels or hammers, Schmidt believed that prehistoric masons wielding only flint tools chipped away at softer limestone outcrops.
According to Schmidt, the workers cut, ground, and polished the stones into enormous T-shaped pillars before moving the mega-ton stones from the quarry (without wheeled transport) uphill several hundred feet to the site and then somehow erecting them upright into position.
Mainstream archaeologists estimate that up to 500 people were required to extract the heavy pillars from the local quarries, haul them uphill a distance of about 1,640 feet, and then erect them at the site.
Purpose of the Site
The construction of Göbekli Tepe implies the organization of an advanced order not previously associated with Paleolithic, PPNA, or PPNB societies. However, the purpose and/or function of Göbekli Tepe remains a mystery.
The excavations at the site have been ongoing since 1996 by the German Archaeological Institute. But less than 5% of the site has been excavated. And Schmidt plans to leave much of it untouched to be explored by future generations when archaeological techniques will presumably have improved.
Still, with a surprising lack of evidence, some of today’s archaeologists have their theories. For example, the lack of evidence that people lived in the immediate area argues against it being used as a settlement.
To date, no traces of domesticated plants or animals have been found. The inhabitants are presumed to have been hunters and gatherers who lived in villages elsewhere for at least part of the year.
Some archaeologists hypothesize that the elevated location may have functioned as a spiritual center around 10,000 BC or earlier, essentially, at the end of the Pleistocene.
Schmidt’s view is that Göbekli Tepe was a stone-age mountain sanctuary. And if so, it is the oldest known temple yet discovered anywhere. Schmidt believed this “cathedral on a hill” was a pilgrimage destination attracting worshippers from up to 90 miles away.
This changes everything
Some regard Göbekli Tepe as an archaeological discovery of great importance since it could profoundly change mainstream science’s supposed understanding of a crucial stage in the development of human society.
Mainstream science has long believed that only after people learned to farm — which allowed for a sedentary lifestyle in settled communities — did people have the time, organization, resources, and inclination to construct temples and support complicated social structures.
But Schmidt argued it was the other way around. Göbekli Tepe suggests a new theory of civilization. The extensive, coordinated effort to erect the monoliths laid the groundwork for the development of complex societies.
If hunter-gatherers built the site, then, in the narrow view of Schmidt and mainstream science, it could only mean that the ability to erect megalithic complexes was within the capabilities of these sorts of early human groups.
Schmidt believed that wandering hunter-gatherers could not have built the megaliths. To carve, erect and bury rings of seven-ton stone pillars would have required hundreds of workers, all needing to be fed and housed.
Hence the eventual emergence of settled communities around 10,000 years ago. Schmidt says this showed sociocultural changes come first — then agriculture.
But just as with another ancient anomaly known as Nan Madol in the South Pacific (click here for story), part of solving the mystery of Göbekli Tepe would require that Schmidt and mainstream science explain why and how a labor force large enough to construct, augment, and maintain such a substantial project was organized, mobilized, compensated, and fed in the first place — especially considering the living conditions and survival needs of primitive hunter-gathers in prehistory.
As with other ancient megalithic structures worldwide, alternative and plausible theories suggest the stones could have been cut, shaped, and moved with advanced technology — including energy-levitating sources — provided by intelligent extraterrestrials or some prehistory advanced human civilization situated elsewhere in the world.
Mainstream archaeologists debunk such alternative theories. They prefer to stick with their story of how the stones were cut, transported, and positioned entirely by primitive people who were somehow convinced to take time off from surviving in order to participate in an organized effort to complete a formidable undertaking for an unknown cause while probably sacrificing much in their personal lives.
Carvings on the Pillars
Some of the pillars at Göbekli Tepe are blank. But other pillars have elaborate carvings of animals.
And these pillar carvings ignore the hunted game on which the primitive people depended — such as deer. Instead, the carvings depict formidable and unusual creatures such as lions, vultures, snakes, spiders, and scorpions.
Mainstream scholars have been unable to interpret the pictograms found at Göbekli Tepe and do not know what meaning the carved reliefs of animals had — especially since the pillars were completely buried sometime after they were constructed.
The variety of fauna depicted — from lions and boars to birds and insects — makes any single explanation for these carvings difficult. And interestingly, the pictograms do not indicate any organized hunting strategies — no depictions of hunting raids or wounded prey.
Schmidt considered that Göbekli Tepe may have been a central location for a cult of the dead. And that the carved animals are there to protect the dead.
Though no tombs or graves have yet been found, Schmidt believes that graves remain to be discovered in niches located behind the walls of the sacred circles.
But ultimately, Schmidt has acknowledged there are no sources to explain what the symbolic pictograms might mean. “We’re 6,000 years before the invention of writing here,” he has said.
What became of the Site?
As mentioned, Göbekli Tepe was not simply abandoned and forgotten to be gradually consumed by the natural elements or destroyed by looting.
Instead, the existing pillars were buried every few decades to be replaced by new stones as part of a smaller, concentric ring inside the older one. These concentric rings of pillars were deliberately buried under as much as 390 to 650 cubic yards of backfill material.
Why the complex was carefully backfilled remains unexplained. Based on current evidence, it is difficult for mainstream science to deduce anything certain about the originating culture or the site’s significance.
What was so important to these early people that they gathered to build (and bury) the stone rings? As it turns out, backfilling the site preserved it for posterity.
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This article is compiled from chapters 5 and 6 of my third book in the series titled: “So, here’s some of what I know so far regarding the Sci-Tech, Anomalies, Human 2.0 and ETs.”
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