Göbekli Tepe: The "First Temple" Story Changed

It was called the world's first temple: great stone pillars raised by hunter-gatherers in the tenth millennium BC. Then archaeologists kept digging, and found houses, hearths, water systems and a burial beneath a floor. What changed? This episode follows the excavation from the 1963 survey that read the pillar tops as grave markers, through Klaus Schmidt's "first temple", to what the Turkish–German team found at bedrock: small round houses, rectangular buildings on the slopes, rock-cut water works, and a fill that seems to have slid in from the slopes above. It says what is known, what is disputed and what is not. Chapters 0:00 The hill everyone misread 3:20 The first temple 6:47 What they ate, what they carved 8:52 Then they dug deeper 12:58 The story begins to break 16:34 Temple or house? 19:35 What Göbekli Tepe actually tells us Sources (a selection; the episode's fact-check has 48 entries) Clare, L. (2020), "Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. A brief summary of research at a new World Heritage Site (2015–2019)", e-Forschungsberichte des DAI 2020/2. Dietrich, O. et al. (2013), "Establishing a radiocarbon sequence for Göbekli Tepe", Neo-Lithics 13(1); Tepe Telegrams (2016), "How old is it? Dating Göbekli Tepe". Peters, J. & Schmidt, K. (2004), "Animals in the symbolic world of Pre-Pottery Neolithic Göbekli Tepe", Anthropozoologica 39(1). Heun, M. et al. (1997), "Site of einkorn wheat domestication identified by DNA fingerprinting", Science 278. Gresky, J., Haelm, J. & Clare, L. (2017), "Modified human crania from Göbekli Tepe provide evidence for a new form of Neolithic skull cult", Science Advances 3(6). Kinzel, M. & Clare, L. (2020), "Monumental – compared to what? A perspective from Göbekli Tepe". Banning, E. B. (2011), "So Fair a House", Current Anthropology 52(5); Banning, E. B. (2023), "Paradise Found or Common Sense Lost?", Open Archaeology 9. Notroff, J. et al. (2017), "More than a vulture: a response to Sweatman and Tsikritsis", Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 17(2) — the reply to the comet reading (Sweatman & Tsikritsis 2017; Sweatman 2024). Photographs (in order of appearance; all via Wikimedia Commons) Enclosure D and its two central pillars: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Soundings on the north-western hill, 2012: Klaus-Peter Simon, CC BY-SA 3.0 Hollows cut into the limestone bedrock at the edge of the mound: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Graves on the summit of the mound, 2012: Klaus-Peter Simon, CC BY-SA 3.0 The mound from a distance, 2014: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Klaus Schmidt, January 2014: Ordercrazy, CC0 Pillar 12, Enclosure C: carved birds: Klaus-Peter Simon, CC BY-SA 3.0 Excavations at Göbekli Tepe, May 2010: Volker Höhfeld, CC BY-SA 4.0 The main excavation area under its shelter: Spica-Vega Photo Arts (Banu Nazikcan), CC BY-SA 4.0 The main excavation area from above: German Archaeological Institute, photo E. Kücük, CC BY 4.0 A re-erected pillar, side view: a carved arm and a fox: Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0 A central pillar of Enclosure D, front view: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Pillar 2, Enclosure A: an aurochs, a fox and a crane: Klaus-Peter Simon, CC BY-SA 3.0 A fox in relief on a pillar in Enclosure D: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 One of the special buildings, with its central pillars: Kerimbesler, CC BY-SA 4.0 Stone walls of Enclosure B: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Limestone boar from Göbekli Tepe (replica): Bautsch, CC0 The roof over the main excavation, 2023: Bjelica, CC BY 4.0 Roofs over the excavation, 2014: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 The temporary roof over the enclosures, 2014: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 A stone shaft straightener from Göbekli Tepe: Bautsch, CC0 A round pit cut into the limestone, possibly for storing water: Volker Höhfeld, CC BY-SA 4.0 A pit cut into the bedrock of the plateau: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Enclosure D: the central pillars and the unexcavated fill between them: Beytullah eles, CC BY-SA 4.0 Enclosure C: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Pillar 43, the “Vulture Stone”, Enclosure D: Sue Fleckney, CC BY-SA 2.0 Relief scenes from Sayburç, one of the Taş Tepeler sites (replica): Bautsch, CC0 Visitors on the walkway above the enclosures: Philrock, CC BY-SA 4.0 Licences: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... All other images are ink-and-watercolour reconstructions; the carvings appear only in the photographs. Plans and sections are schematic, after Clare 2020. Maps: Natural Earth (public domain). Music: Night Vigil by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: Mystery Bazaar by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: Thunderbird by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Corrections are welcome in the comments. #GobekliTepe #Neolithic #Archaeology #AncientHistory #HistoryDocumentary