Jun 11, 2020 09:35 AM
(This post was last modified: Jun 11, 2020 09:41 AM by C C.)
https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/gob...schneiker/
EXCERPTS: Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey is one of the most significant megalithic sites in the world and perhaps the greatest archaeological enigma ever discovered. Archaeologists had once thought construction of megalithic monuments was far beyond the capabilities of hunter-gatherers. They believed that people had to invent farming prior to settling in communities. Only with sufficient food resources could people settle down and develop the social hierarchy required to construct megalithic architecture. Göbekli Tepe helped to turn such thoughts upside down.
That’s what archaeologists think anyway. Alternative archaeologists (sometimes labeled by archaeologists as pseudoarchaeologists), by contrast, see Göbekli Tepe as proof that a mysterious lost civilization or ancient aliens were responsible for its construction. They believe that combined with alleged evidence of an older Sphinx and other monuments around the world, orthodox archaeologists will finally be forced to concede they have been misled about the antiquity of humanity.
Dating to at least 12,000 years ago, Göbekli Tepe is by far the oldest and one of the largest megalithic structures on Earth. [...] The scale of Göbekli Tepe is enormous. It is about 1,000 feet wide, with a maximum height of 50 feet above the plateau ... There are multiple adjacent stone enclosures where each could crudely be described as a Turkish Stonehenge. However, the Stonehenge analogy fails to convey the majesty and significance of the site. Enclosure diameters vary from 30–100 feet and each enclosure contains two monolithic T-shaped pillars of up to 18 feet tall. It is estimated that the largest pillar weighs over 50 tons. Closer inspection reveals some of the center T-pillars are stylized human bodies with arms and hands, but no faces. The limestone pillars were quarried not far from the site. All this from only a small fraction of the site that has been excavated. There is likely much more to come.
[...] Many of the T-pillars are covered with depictions of animals and a few with people. ... Most human depictions are of decapitated heads or headless bodies. Where discernable, animal and human depictions are of males. The one human exception is likely graffiti that was added later. Some of the human bodies have erect penises.
[...] it appears that Göbekli Tepe was used for ritual or communal functions ... The sheer volume of bones indicates feasting on a massive scale ... evidence indicates the tools were contemporaneous with hunter-gatherer technology. There is no evidence of farming or domestication ... Building something as complex as Göbekli Tepe would require a huge investment in time and resources.
[...] The mystery is how could they possibly have built it. The labor force alone probably outnumbered the members of a single band of hunter-gatherers. The basic problem is food. ... Göbekli Tepe does not exist in isolation ... We know very little about these sites as they have not yet been excavated.
[...] As most of Göbekli Tepe remains buried, no one can say yet how old it is. Schmidt believes the earliest as yet unexcavated structures at Göbekli Tepe could be as much as 14,000–15,000 years old. If he is correct, this would make the earliest building at Göbekli Tepe up to 9,000 years older than Stonehenge and 10,000 years older than the Pyramids of Giza. Carbon-14 dating indicates that by 10,000 BP Göbekli Tepe was abandoned.
[...] As temperatures rose at the start of the Holocene wild grains again carpeted the land, including in the Göbekli Tepe area. Massive herds of grazing animals quickly followed. This was a land of plenty and ideal conditions for hunting and gathering. Given the abundance of wild grains and game there would be no reason to start farming.
[...] For at least 200,000 years people lived as hunter-gatherers, foraging for whatever daily food they could find. ... What little technology there was had to be carried from place to place. [...] Archaeologists already knew that hunter-gatherer groups congregated at specific locations and times ... These gatherings played an essential role in the exchange of information, goods, and marriage partners. They also strengthened bonds between huntergatherer communities. Ritual activities included feasting on a massive scale ... At Göbekli Tepe there is some evidence that beer was brewed.
[...] Much of the fascination with Göbekli Tepe by alternative archaeologists is the fact that there is still so much we do not know about it, and where mystery pervades a scientific subject, pseudoscience often jumps in. ... In this alternative history, simultaneous to the second impact some of the lucky survivors [of Atlantis] made it to Göbekli Tepe in 11,600 BP. There they bestowed the dual technological gifts of megalithic architecture and farming. The problem is that if Klaus Schmidt’s dating is correct, they had already been constructing megalithic structures at Göbekli Tepe for a thousand years or more.
[...] Meanwhile in Egypt other survivors, working with aliens, used acoustic levitation and other advanced technologies to create the Sphinx and the Hall of Records beneath. Perhaps at Göbekli Tepe, if they had applied the full array of their technological capabilities or at least brought more practical gifts, things might have turned out better.
[...] The people of Göbekli Tepe, with sufficient natural resources, found the time to write a new chapter in the history of life. Archaeologists ... know that they were wrong about farming being a prerequisite for megalithic architecture, and they admit it. ... The evidence against the farming-first paradigm had been building for a while; it was Göbekli Tepe that put the final nail in that coffin. The ability to construct something like Göbekli Tepe is fundamentally controlled by the availability of food. It makes no difference if the food is planted or simply gathered. ... We now know gathering provided more than sufficient food resources... (MORE - details)
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/gMuc0d_f9ug
EXCERPTS: Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey is one of the most significant megalithic sites in the world and perhaps the greatest archaeological enigma ever discovered. Archaeologists had once thought construction of megalithic monuments was far beyond the capabilities of hunter-gatherers. They believed that people had to invent farming prior to settling in communities. Only with sufficient food resources could people settle down and develop the social hierarchy required to construct megalithic architecture. Göbekli Tepe helped to turn such thoughts upside down.
That’s what archaeologists think anyway. Alternative archaeologists (sometimes labeled by archaeologists as pseudoarchaeologists), by contrast, see Göbekli Tepe as proof that a mysterious lost civilization or ancient aliens were responsible for its construction. They believe that combined with alleged evidence of an older Sphinx and other monuments around the world, orthodox archaeologists will finally be forced to concede they have been misled about the antiquity of humanity.
Dating to at least 12,000 years ago, Göbekli Tepe is by far the oldest and one of the largest megalithic structures on Earth. [...] The scale of Göbekli Tepe is enormous. It is about 1,000 feet wide, with a maximum height of 50 feet above the plateau ... There are multiple adjacent stone enclosures where each could crudely be described as a Turkish Stonehenge. However, the Stonehenge analogy fails to convey the majesty and significance of the site. Enclosure diameters vary from 30–100 feet and each enclosure contains two monolithic T-shaped pillars of up to 18 feet tall. It is estimated that the largest pillar weighs over 50 tons. Closer inspection reveals some of the center T-pillars are stylized human bodies with arms and hands, but no faces. The limestone pillars were quarried not far from the site. All this from only a small fraction of the site that has been excavated. There is likely much more to come.
[...] Many of the T-pillars are covered with depictions of animals and a few with people. ... Most human depictions are of decapitated heads or headless bodies. Where discernable, animal and human depictions are of males. The one human exception is likely graffiti that was added later. Some of the human bodies have erect penises.
[...] it appears that Göbekli Tepe was used for ritual or communal functions ... The sheer volume of bones indicates feasting on a massive scale ... evidence indicates the tools were contemporaneous with hunter-gatherer technology. There is no evidence of farming or domestication ... Building something as complex as Göbekli Tepe would require a huge investment in time and resources.
[...] The mystery is how could they possibly have built it. The labor force alone probably outnumbered the members of a single band of hunter-gatherers. The basic problem is food. ... Göbekli Tepe does not exist in isolation ... We know very little about these sites as they have not yet been excavated.
[...] As most of Göbekli Tepe remains buried, no one can say yet how old it is. Schmidt believes the earliest as yet unexcavated structures at Göbekli Tepe could be as much as 14,000–15,000 years old. If he is correct, this would make the earliest building at Göbekli Tepe up to 9,000 years older than Stonehenge and 10,000 years older than the Pyramids of Giza. Carbon-14 dating indicates that by 10,000 BP Göbekli Tepe was abandoned.
[...] As temperatures rose at the start of the Holocene wild grains again carpeted the land, including in the Göbekli Tepe area. Massive herds of grazing animals quickly followed. This was a land of plenty and ideal conditions for hunting and gathering. Given the abundance of wild grains and game there would be no reason to start farming.
[...] For at least 200,000 years people lived as hunter-gatherers, foraging for whatever daily food they could find. ... What little technology there was had to be carried from place to place. [...] Archaeologists already knew that hunter-gatherer groups congregated at specific locations and times ... These gatherings played an essential role in the exchange of information, goods, and marriage partners. They also strengthened bonds between huntergatherer communities. Ritual activities included feasting on a massive scale ... At Göbekli Tepe there is some evidence that beer was brewed.
[...] Much of the fascination with Göbekli Tepe by alternative archaeologists is the fact that there is still so much we do not know about it, and where mystery pervades a scientific subject, pseudoscience often jumps in. ... In this alternative history, simultaneous to the second impact some of the lucky survivors [of Atlantis] made it to Göbekli Tepe in 11,600 BP. There they bestowed the dual technological gifts of megalithic architecture and farming. The problem is that if Klaus Schmidt’s dating is correct, they had already been constructing megalithic structures at Göbekli Tepe for a thousand years or more.
[...] Meanwhile in Egypt other survivors, working with aliens, used acoustic levitation and other advanced technologies to create the Sphinx and the Hall of Records beneath. Perhaps at Göbekli Tepe, if they had applied the full array of their technological capabilities or at least brought more practical gifts, things might have turned out better.
[...] The people of Göbekli Tepe, with sufficient natural resources, found the time to write a new chapter in the history of life. Archaeologists ... know that they were wrong about farming being a prerequisite for megalithic architecture, and they admit it. ... The evidence against the farming-first paradigm had been building for a while; it was Göbekli Tepe that put the final nail in that coffin. The ability to construct something like Göbekli Tepe is fundamentally controlled by the availability of food. It makes no difference if the food is planted or simply gathered. ... We now know gathering provided more than sufficient food resources... (MORE - details)