Göbekli Tepe: The Dawn of Civilization

Thousands of years before anyone thought to construct pointy Egyptian tombs or arrange mysterious stone circles, there was Göbekli Tepe: a 20th century archaeological discovery in Turkey that predates civilization itself.

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[lisarand]

We don't know if it is the first... Just the oldest...so far.

[michaelcoe]

We must finally admit, the whole, 'hunter-gatherer', rise of cities about 5000 years ago... Needs some revision. Not the 'alien visitor' revision, but serious academic, peer-revue stuff.

[MissyLaMotte]

I don't think the t-shaped pillars are meant to resemble people (or gods). Look at those animal carvings. Those people knew how to make realistic images of the world around them. If they had wanted the pillars to resemble people or gods, they would look like people or gods, not like something a three year old put together from very heavy very large lego bricks. Picasso and cubism was still a few thousand years away. Those pillars probably had a very mundane function, which required them to be t-shaped. My guess is that they held up a roof of some kind. Maybe a large tent top, made from animal skins or woven reeds. Something that 12000 years later we would not find any remnants of. The way the pillars are laid out suggests that as well. You have smaller ones around the shape of the building and then two higher ones more to the middle. If I was trying to create a simple yet impressive "room" of some sort, that's probably the design I would come up with after a few tries.

I studied history at a German university in the 1990s. The discovery of Göbleki Tepe was ... well ... at first our professors laughed about it and waved it of. It was too unbelievable to be true. The dating must be wrong. It must be some kind of hoax. But the data kept coming and it was convincing. It was earth shattering. Everything taught about early human history and the rise of civilization had to be re-written.

I've still not been to Turkey to see it myself, but I absolutely plan to.

[imaware]

"Stuff just keeps on getting older..."
-Graham Hancock

If you haven't heard of this man, you are missing out.

[ignitionfrn]

1:20 - Chapter 1 - The ancient hill
5:25 - Chapter 2 - Building a miracle
9:00 - Chapter 3 - Potbelly hill
12:20 - Chapter 4 - The pillars of creation
15:40 - Chapter 5 - The return

[ellen]

How about giving some credit to the farmer who found the artifacts and brought them to Schmidt and others when he found them on and around the hill. The team of archeologists at first didn't believe him, but when Schmidt saw them he saw the similarity to the ones he found at Nevali Cori. That's why he went to the hill. Also, the local people in the area still had a spring festival including feasts on the hill! Ask the locals and you'll probably find out more about any place you go.

[Kodeb]

Visiting Gobekli Tepe is going at the top of my bucket list!

[Gladedancer]

This video is only a year old, but so much has changed. New evidence has come to light that this site did have people dwelling there, possibly year-round. Water was harvested by collecting rain in multiple cisterns, a burial has been found, along with hearths at deeper layers. There is no doubt that the tee-pillars represent humanoids from some ancient narrative as evidenced by arms, belts, necklaces, etc. carved into the stones. There are dozens of other contemporary sites, but one major sister site being excavated is Karahan Tepe 35 KM to the east that is more focused on humans in the artwork in comparison to the emphasis on wild animals at Gobleki Tepe.

[andreaslund]

I can't wait to see an archeologist 10 000 years from now to find my house and theorize if it was an ancient temple to trees because of the two plastic christmas trees is found in the cellar.

[theoldar]

It's all part of a continuum. They will find even older, slightly less complicated stuff eventually, and on and on. People then were just as smart as we are today.

[russcrawford]

'Tis said it is the brewing of beer that first inspired man to form permanent settlements ... not agriculture ... makes perfect sense to me ...

[severalwolves]

2:40 wow, that sure was a busy & productive “four centuries”!
crazy!

[zaranea]

The fact that you put a JJBA reference in the makes this just perfect xD

[sebastianmunoz]

11:35 "pillar men" "Joseph Joestar" 😂

[drewping]

Another mysterious ancient site with an uninspiring name: Poverty Point in Louisiana. One of the oldest sites in North America. It would make for an interesting video! 1000 years or more older than Cahokia.

[McAabee]

thist might be the best episode jet on Geographics. Great editing, music and Simon :)

[kobebarka]

Graham Hancock was the first I ever heard talk about this!

[VeggyZ]

"Humanity's first great construction project" - yeah, somehow I still doubt that. I don't think we have a clue just how old the things under our feet are, and how long we've been around.

[draconianmethods]

Did...did he just make a JoJo joke? Does he even know what it is or was it just off the script...I MUST KNOW 🤣🤣🤣

[HoodieHistory]

It's such a fascinating archeological site. Glad that we were able to discover it and learn a bit about these ancient people!