Monday, June 17, 2013

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!

8 comments:

Chickenmom said...

Never heard of that one before, Mr. Hermit - will have to look that up later! 'Hope the rain cools everything down. I'll bring some key lime pie for all!

Momlady said...

Perhaps too many assumptions have been made about those who came before us. Or.....it's aliens.

linda m said...

I just watched a program on TV about that very place this weekend. Very interesting.

Sixbears said...

Pretty recent discovery too. Makes me wonder what else is out there that they haven't found yet.

Much of our ancient history is unknown.

JO said...

Something is alwasy popping up these days. I love history and I love they way we are finding out more about humans of the past.

Linda I sure wish I would have seen that program.

The mornings here are still chilly. But that's OK I'll take chilly over hot.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Wow Hermit, I never heard of this and it is a great mystery. I love it. Makes my mind wonder off in a bunch of different directions.

HermitJim said...

Hey Gorges...
Does allow the imagination a lot of room to play!

Thanks for dropping by today!



Hey Phyllis...
Bring on the pie! Hope you weren't counting on leftovers!

Interesting place, as you'll see when you look it up!

Thanks for the visit this morning!



Hey Momlady...
Or maybe a touch of both?

Glad you came by this morning!



Hey Linda...
See? I don't make this stuff up!

It really is interesting, isn't it?

Thanks for the visit today!



Hey Sixbears...
I reckon we will never know it all. So many things left to find!

Thanks for coming by this morning!



Hey Jo...
Every day a new discovery! What a strange and wonderful world we have!

Thanks, sweetie, for coming over today!



Hey Dizzy...
It does open up a lot of doors to explore, doesn't it?

Finding something new every day is so much fun!

Thanks for the visit, buddy!



Rob said...

That's even older than beer!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_beer

>>Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran, and was one of the first-known biological engineering tasks where the biological process of fermentation is used in a process.<<