The story has correlations with the Bibles 'Garden of Eden' tale which is fair enough, as the site archaeologist Klaus Schmidt has made the connection. "In the Book of Genesis, it is indicated that Eden is west of Assyria. Sure enough, this is where Gobekli is sited. Likewise, biblical Eden is by four rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates. And Gobekli lies between both of these. In ancient Assyrian texts, there is mention of a 'Beth Eden' - a house of Eden. This minor kingdom was 50 miles from Gobekli Tepe".
Another book in the Old Testament talks of 'the children of Eden which were in Thelasar', a town in northern Syria, near Gobekli. The very word 'Eden' comes from the Sumerian for 'plain'; Gobekli lies on the plains of Harran. It was built around 10,000 BC. By comparison, Stonehenge was built in 3,000 BC and the pyramids of Giza in 2,500 BC.
The story highlights the fact that carbon-dating indicates that the temple complex is at least 12,000 years old, and maybe even as old as 13,000 years old. This takes it into the Neolithic period and well before the date the intelligent designer (aka God) is supposed to have created the Earth on (6,000 BC).
The carvings (seen here with Klaus Schmidt) are highly sophisticated, and the scale is somewhat reminiscent of the Malta temples (below) although much earlier.
On a side note ... I have noticed before that a lot of US blogger's quote from UK newspapers, and if any American can tell me if there is a particular reason for this - maybe US newspapers don't cover these kinds of stories? I would appreciate it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are welcomed, or even just thanks if you enjoyed the post. But please make any comment relevant to the post it appears under. Off topic comments will be blocked or removed.
Moderation is on for older posts to stop spamming and comments that are off topic or inappropriate from being posted .... comments are reviewed within 48 hours. I don't block normal comments that are on topic and not inappropriate. Vexatious comments that may cause upset to other commentators, or that are attempting to espouse a particular wider political view, are reviewed before acceptance. But a certain amount of debate around a post topic is accepted, as long as it remains generally on topic and is not an attempt to become sounding board for some other cause.
Final decision on all comments is held by the blog author and is final.
Comments are always monitored for bad or abusive language, and or illegal statements i.e. overtly racist or sexist content. Spam is not tolerated and is removed.
Commentaires ne sont surveillés que pour le mauvais ou abusif langue ou déclarations illégales ie contenu ouvertement raciste ou sexiste. Spam ne est pas toléré et est éliminé.