The discovery of Gobekli Tepe fundamentally altered human comprehension of a pivotal era in the development of ancient human societies. It demonstrates that even during hunter-gatherer times, complex temple complexes could be constructed, not just within more developed communities. Gobekli Tepe represents the initial steps towards later city constructions. Building Gobekli Tepe required substantial labor, with a significant amount of animal bones found at the excavation site believed to have provided sustenance for the temple builders.

Joris Peters, an archaeologist from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, after analyzing thousands of animal bones discovered at Gobekli Tepe, theorized about the lifestyle of the ancient builders.

Based on cut marks and butchering on bones… he concluded that animals were brought here for slaughter and consumption. The ancient people faced a significant shift in lifestyle. They domesticated sheep, pigs… and even various grains during the settlement to construct Gobekli Tepe. What triggered these changes? Evidence of prehistoric cultivation found in a nearby village about 30 km away only five centuries after Gobekli Tepe’s establishment suggests significant agricultural development in the area.

As excavations continue, the question remains: why was Gobekli Tepe intentionally buried at its site of construction, concealed for thousands of years? Various hypotheses have been proposed, including hiding from extraterrestrial beings or simply safeguarding the structure from outsiders, yet none offer a satisfactory explanation. What’s known is that after millennia, the preserved stone pillars and carvings remain remarkably intact.

Craftsmen cut, sculpted, and transported tons of stone blocks without the use of wheels or draft animals. The estimated weight of the stone columns, ranging from 4 to 6 tons, begs the question: how could ancient builders erect them using only simple handheld tools?

A hypothesis put forth by Klaus Schmidt, the renowned archaeologist credited with discovering Gobekli Tepe, proposes the method of crafting the enormous stone pillars. Schmidt suggested, “The limestone was quite soft, and craftsmen might have chiseled the columns on-site using obsidian tools.”

In an article published in The Telegraph, carvings on the stone columns at Gobekli Tepe describe a comet impact with Earth. Researchers analyzed the symbols on the stone columns, decoding them into celestial characters and connecting them to a star map. This allowed them to pinpoint a comet impact thousands of years ago.

This event led to the extinction of several Earth species but also sparked the beginning of a new Stone Age civilization. The research group proposed that Gobekli Tepe was an observatory, and the stone columns were meant to commemorate the comet impact. Excavations also found human bones within layers of earth, likely indicating the purpose beneath Gobekli Tepe: a realm of the deceased.

“Gobekli Tepe may have been a center of a cult, where the dead were buried alongside stylized deities and souls in the afterlife,” Schmidt commented.

Across the globe, there are many major religious centers revered by worshippers, such as the Vatican, Mecca, Jerusalem, Bodh Gaya, or Cahokia… and the ancient temple site of Gobekli Tepe might be the world’s earliest religious construction.