Göbekli Tepe; or, A Rant by Spel

Started by Spookie Monster, December 11, 2008, 05:21:06 PM

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Spookie Monster

Some time ago I spotted an article on Yahoo! News about Göbekli Tepe.  "Finally!" I said to myself.  "Finally people are going to start paying attention to this amazing find.  Finally people are going to start paying attention to similar finds.  Finally people are going to redefine their notions of 'Paleolithic,' 'Mesolithic,' and 'Neolithic.'  Finally people will begin to acknowledge that reasonably advanced cultures have been around for quite a bit longer than we've been led to believe.  Finally, finally, FINALLY!"

And then... zip.

Ladies and gentlemen of the world: GÖBEKLI TEPE.  It's DURNED INTERESTING.  It was built around TWELVE THOUSAND YEARS ago.  Some of the pillars weigh FIFTY TONS.  Learn more about it.  Talk more about it.  Archaeologists discovered it fourteen, fifteen years ago now; it's about time that it entered the mainstream.  This place was ancient when Stonehenge was built; indeed, significantly more time passed between when Göbekli Tepe was built and when Stonehenge was built than has passed between when Stonehenge was built and now.

Please find some more information here and here.

Now, my feelings about the validity of certain theories within "alternative archaeology" are pretty well established, but I know that there are a lot of people out there who still regard the Sumerians as the first "real" civilization.  And though it's true that we shouldn't revise our understanding of history without evidence... well, goodness, there's plenty of evidence out there.  Göbekli Tepe is just one site of several.  And surely we haven't found everything quite yet; in fact, it seems overwhelmingly likely that even older, more magnificent finds are waiting out there somewhere.  It's one thing to be empirical about this stuff; we should be empirical about this stuff.  We shouldn't say, "Oh, well, because the people who built Göbekli Tepe could have had lightsabers, then they had lightsabers."*  At the same time, however, we shouldn't say, "The oldest site that we have observed is the oldest site that can be observed."  We should walk the wise path.  A similar caveat applies to all sciences and scholarly pursuits, actually.

I don't know.  Although I am mildly frustrated that Göbekli Tepe hasn't gotten more attention, I feel that ultimately I'm optimistic.  Heck, we might soon reach the end of "filling-in-the-gaps" archaeology; that would be neat.  (You know the mentality that I'm talking about here: "We know about all of the important events; we've found all of the important sites; now we're just trying to fill in the minor details.")  Recently, for example, people have begun to tolerate the fact that Djadefre probably didn't build the Sphinx.  Now, Robert Schoch might not be exactly right with concern to his conclusions, but he's got to be feeling at least a tiny bit vindicated.

Anyhow: Göbekli Tepe.  Check it out! :)

Spel


* Please note that I'm not actually ruling out the possibility that they did have lightsabers.  I must admit, too, that I think that it would be freakin' WOW! if they did have them.  I mean, if they DID have lightsabers and if I was there and if I had a lightsaber I'd totally be like, "VROOM!  VROOM!  WHOOM!  KSRACK!  VROOM!"



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Will

That really was very interesting.  Thanks for sharing, Spel! :)

I thought it was interesting that the ruins become less elaborate as time goes on.  It suggests to me that civilization did indeed pop up all over the place prior to Sumeria, etc., but collapsed for one reason or another.  Maybe it took several tries for it to get off the ground, so to speak?
If you can heal the symptoms, but not affect the cause
It's like trying to heal a gunshot wound with gauze

One day, I will find the right words, and they will be simple.
- Jack Kerouac

Kelvered

Quote from: Recent DNA analysis of modern domesticated wheat compared with wild wheat has shown that its DNA is closest in structure to wild wheat found in a mountain (Karacadağ) 20 miles away from the site, leading one to believe that this is where modern wheat was first domesticated.

I had heard about the construction, but not this. Thank you, sir Ziggy. It is quite tantalizing as the possible true ancestor of Western civilization.
Nothing that is without compare has meaning. Comparison is how we define things, analyze things, and understand things.

Likewise, nothing that is without cause has purpose. It may very well be that all that is, simply, is.

About my fantasies.

Spookie Monster

Thanks for the comments, Will1984 and Kelvered!  I'm really glad that you found it worthwhile. :)

Spel



Strange games they would play then...
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