A few years ago, an awesome archeological discovery was made in southern Turkey, just north of the border with Syria. Three megalithic stone circles that were deliberately buried thousands of years ago on a hilltop were located at Göbekli Tepe. What is astounding is the date and context. These megalithic stone circles are several thousand years older than the first stone circle built at Stonehenge, and they were built by a hunter-gatherer society.
It was always assumed that the workforce required to construct a megalithic stone circle could not be organized until human society had reached the village stage of development in the early Neolithic, when local chieftains need not have looked very far for enough serious muscle power to build a large stone structure. Most stone pillars at Göbekli Tepe weigh 10 to 20 tons, the largest are 50 tons and the most distant quarry was 500m distant. The stone T-shaped monoliths are 3m high, although the one in the center of each circle is taller. The largest pillar is 9m high and was found unfinished in the nearby quarry.
Göbekli Tepe is now under study by Turkish and German archeologists, having been first excavated in 1994. The hill had long been used for agriculture by local farmers and the site is on private land. Monolithic T-shaped pillars are connected by crudely built walls to form oval structures. A low bench runs around the exterior walls. Four such units with diameters between 10m and 20m are the oldest structures built at the site and are dated to ~9,000 B.C.
The second period of construction dates to 7500-6000 B.C. which places it within the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B era. Several rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime have been found dating to this period. Similar stone circles and T-shaped monoliths are found at Karahan Tepe located near Sogmatar on the Harran Plain c.9,000 B.C. and at Nevalý Çori which is 500 years younger than Göbekli Tepe. The T-shaped pillars supported a roof but there is much more to their story. Small domestic structures aside, the Göbekli Tepe hilltop appears to be a cult center that could accommodate a great many people.
The society that built these stone circles utilized a hunter/gatherer economy and must have lived in villages for at least part of the year. It is relevant to note that a few villages have been found in Upper Paleolithic Europe built by cultures of ice age hunters that lived long before the advent of agriculture. What likely did allow for a population concentration – and the necessary manpower – to build Göbekli Tepe were the enormous herds of game documented to exist in the Göbekli Tepe region at the time of megalithic stone circles. Large numbers of butchered deer, gazelle, pigs and geese at Göbekli Tepe suggest ritual feasting and testify to the huge herds of game. Although only a few domestic structures have been found at Göbekli Tepe, villages were built at this time in eastern/southern Turkey to preserve and store large amounts of game.
It is also not necessary to postulate a stratified class society, with elite royalty and priestly castes. One strong leader could mobilize the necessary workforce, and with a few respected friends organize the stone circle construction, particularly as we can assume community agreement as to the ritual and its meaning. A workforce of 500 strong men would have been needed to extract and move the stone pillars, then construct the ritual stone circles. Think of large, ritual stone circles as the ultimate Lego build out.
No traces of domesticated plants or animals have been found at Göbekli Tepe or in the adjacent region. Earliest proto-agricultural experiments are known from Upper Mesopotamia c.9500-10,000 B.C. and even earlier at 13,000 B.C. on the banks of the Upper Nile. A wild ancestor of domestic wheat has been found on a mountain only 20 miles away from Göbekli Tepe. Was wheat first domesticated in this region – an activity that promoted village life and population concentration from which a workforce for the hilltop sanctuary could be recruited? Earliest human activity at Göbekli Tepe may go back to 11,000 B.C., and the period of time when the megalithic stone circles were used is much earlier than evidence for the first agriculture in the region.
Ideas that Göbekli Tepe and the surrounding region is the historical reality behind the biblical Garden of Eden may not be as far fetched as they first seem. Archeology in Syria and Turkey has established that the region later known as the ‘fertile crescent’ was very lush immediately after the last Ice Age ended. The environment was exceptionally rich, herds of wild animals were huge, and plants and food were easily obtained. Gazelle herds might number 100,000, and permanent settlements were erected by 12,000 B.C. by nomadic hunters to store dried meat.
English archeoastronomy researcher Andrew Collins identifies Eden as a large region encompassing Upper Mesopotamia (Southeast Turkey, Northern Syria and Northern Iraq). He believes that the Biblical Garden of Eden in the Old Testament is a transformed memory that persisted throughout the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia. This memory of the extremely lush environment of this region of the fertile crescent immediately after the Upper Paleolithic ended and the glaciers retreated north may have been deliberately and carefully preserved by the priesthoods of Sumer, Egypt, Bablyon and Assyria. This ‘legend’ became the Garden of Eden in the Christian Old Testament.
Full article and pictures posted here: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-news/mystery-deliberate-burial-ancient-megalithic-stone-circles/9949
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Art for art's sake alive and well in the Neolithic
"Art history" typically begins to follow a prescribed course: Iron and bronze are discovered; then, ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt arise, make art, and are followed by art in the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome.
After this, we civilized people of the world hang out in Europe for the next thousand years, eventually moving on to the New World, which subsequently shares artistic honours with Europe. This route is commonly known as "Western Art", and is often the focus of any art history and/or art appreciation syllabus.
However, the sort of art that has been described in this article as "Neolithic" (i.e.: Stone age; that of pre-literate peoples who hadn't yet discovered how to smelt metals) continued to flourish in the Americas, Africa, Australia and, in particular, Oceania. In some instances, it was still thriving in the previous (20th) century.
During the Neolithic period, the "new" arts to emerge were weaving, architecture, the construction of megaliths and increasingly stylized pictographs and so people were well on their way to writing.
The earlier arts of statuary, painting and pottery stuck with (and still remain with) us. The New Stone Age saw many refinements to each. Statuary (primarily statuettes) made a big comeback after having been largely absent during the Mesolithic age.
Its Neolithic theme dwelt primarily on the female/fertility, or "Mother Goddess" imagery, (quite in keeping with agriculture, and paganism). There are animal statuettes, however these weren't lavished with the detail the goddesses enjoyed. They are often found broken into bits.
Additionally, sculpture was no longer created strictly by carving something. In the Near East, in particular, figurines were now fashioned out of clay and baked. Archaeological digs at Jericho turned up a marvelous human skull (c. 7,000 BC) overlaid with delicate, sculpted plaster features.
Painting, in Western Europe and the Near East, left the caves and cliffs for good, and became a purely decorative element. The finds of Çatal Hüyük, an ancient village in modern Turkey, show lovely wall paintings (including the world's earliest known landscape), dating from c. 6150 BC.
As for pottery, it began replacing stone and wood utensils at a rapid pace, and also became more highly decorated.
After this, we civilized people of the world hang out in Europe for the next thousand years, eventually moving on to the New World, which subsequently shares artistic honours with Europe. This route is commonly known as "Western Art", and is often the focus of any art history and/or art appreciation syllabus.
However, the sort of art that has been described in this article as "Neolithic" (i.e.: Stone age; that of pre-literate peoples who hadn't yet discovered how to smelt metals) continued to flourish in the Americas, Africa, Australia and, in particular, Oceania. In some instances, it was still thriving in the previous (20th) century.
During the Neolithic period, the "new" arts to emerge were weaving, architecture, the construction of megaliths and increasingly stylized pictographs and so people were well on their way to writing.
The earlier arts of statuary, painting and pottery stuck with (and still remain with) us. The New Stone Age saw many refinements to each. Statuary (primarily statuettes) made a big comeback after having been largely absent during the Mesolithic age.
Its Neolithic theme dwelt primarily on the female/fertility, or "Mother Goddess" imagery, (quite in keeping with agriculture, and paganism). There are animal statuettes, however these weren't lavished with the detail the goddesses enjoyed. They are often found broken into bits.
Additionally, sculpture was no longer created strictly by carving something. In the Near East, in particular, figurines were now fashioned out of clay and baked. Archaeological digs at Jericho turned up a marvelous human skull (c. 7,000 BC) overlaid with delicate, sculpted plaster features.
Painting, in Western Europe and the Near East, left the caves and cliffs for good, and became a purely decorative element. The finds of Çatal Hüyük, an ancient village in modern Turkey, show lovely wall paintings (including the world's earliest known landscape), dating from c. 6150 BC.
As for pottery, it began replacing stone and wood utensils at a rapid pace, and also became more highly decorated.
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