The Mighty Monday Mystery...!

Many ancient buildings and temples were built in the old days that we are still trying to figure out what they were used for. We may never know for sure!

It seems that many were religious in nature, though. Regardless of the original use of these ruins, they remain a mystery for us to ponder even today! This is just one such story!

Gobekli Tepe

Turkey

Gobekli Tepe is generally considered to be the oldest religious structure ever found. Radiocarbon dating puts the site at between 10,000 and 9000 B.C. To put this age in perspective, more time passed between the building of Gobekli Tepe and the building of Stonehenge than between the building of Stonehenge and present day.

The site contains stone structures and stone pillars which feature carvings of various predatory animals. The stone pillars—some of them reaching nearly twenty tons in weight—date to a time when humans were thought to be simple hunter-gatherers. Gobekli Tepe seems to have been built before the advent of agriculture, religion, written language, the wheel, pottery, the domestication of animals, and the use of anything other than simple stone tools.

How were these structures built at a time when humans are basically thought have been cavemen? How did they quarry huge pieces of stone, and cut them to size with no metal tools? What was the purpose of such a site, before religion was thought to have been established? The discovery and ongoing excavation of Gobekli Tepe could eventually change our conception of prehistory forever.

Sort of an ongoing thing, isn't it? Seems like the more we learn, the less we know! Does that make sense?

Coffee inside this morning. It may rain, and it's way too hot to be fun!