What/Where is it?

On the other side of our planet is the oldest temple in the world. It is located in a country called Turkey where the weather is hot and sunny. The temple is made up of huge pillars that are called megaliths which are placed in a large circular structure. What makes this even more fascinating are the details on the pillars. Strange carvings of animals and human features are found all across the temple. This new discovery has created arguments amongst many people. Many argue that humans could not have built such a huge structure because the temple was built before civilizations had begun to form. Without civilizations, how did they get so many people to build the temple? 

Debunking Pseudo Archaeological Claims 

On the History Channel, the show Ancient Aliens talks about Gobekli Tepe. They have a few different theories about the site. One of them is about the site being the product of an advanced ancient civilization. While this concept seems exciting, it is important to recognize that it does not take advanced technology to create structures like the ones found at Gobekli Tepe. Nor does it have to involve extraterrestrials coming to earth and telling humans how to create things. All it really takes is getting a group of people together who have the same ideas in mind and working together to create something. Many scientists today have done research on possibilities, including the site being used for religious purposes. If there was a religious purpose for the site, that might be a reason why many people would work together to create it.

Another theory, favored by the ancient astronaut theorists on the show, argues that the humans depicted in the pillar carvings look strange like they are not regular humans. But have you ever tried to carve something into rock and make it look accurate? It’s not as easy as it may seem. They use the example of a statue of a man that was found a few miles away from Gobekli Tepe from the same time period. This statue is referred to as the Urfa Man. They claim that the man looks strange, pointing out his baldness as an odd feature. But that’s a strange claim to make. Just because the statue is dressed differently and is bald, doesn’t mean it represents an alien. That’s like saying that ancient people weren’t bald and didn’t have different ways they dressed. Scientists have done research on the possibility of artistic interpretations of people and animals as the reason for the “strange” look of the carvings and statues.

What evidence do we have?

The architecture includes larger curvilinear and smaller rectangular structures with megaliths in a T-shaped stone pillar form. The monoliths from the curvilinear structures stand 3 to 5 m high, weigh up to 10 tons, and have been positioned in a symmetrical arrangement. The T-shape pillars seem to represent stylized anthropomorphic beings, and horizontal and vertical parts are the head and the body. On the same monoliths, parallel grooves have sometimes been noted, and this decoration most likely refers to human clothing. The Gobekli Tepe is characterized by an early layer dating back to the PPNA (Pre Pottery Neolithic Age) which produced monumental architecture with huge, T-shape pillars arranged in circle-like enclosures around two even taller central pillars. The pillars are interconnected by walls and stone benches are decorated with varied animal motifs, including foxes, snakes, scorpions, gazelles, and wild birds. The Gobekli Tepe dates back to at least the 10th century BC. Studies have shown that people brought huge pieces of stone from quite a distance away and carved them into pillar structures. Lastly, the work of the Gobekli Tepe was designed by hunter-gatherers.