Cool archaeological find

[Rain Man]

Check this out. It's amazing what's buried out there.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,452365,00.html

Stone Age Temple May Be Birthplace of Civilization
Friday, November 14, 2008

It's more than twice as old as the Pyramids, or even the written word. When it was built, saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths still roamed, and the Ice Age had just ended.

The elaborate temple at Gobelki Tepe in southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, is staggeringly ancient: 11,500 years old, from a time just before humans learned to farm grains and domesticate animals.

According to the German archaeologist in charge of excavations at the site, it might be the birthplace of agriculture, of organized religion — of civilization itself.

"This is the first human-built holy place," Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute says in the November issue of Smithsonian magazine.

Schmidt and his colleagues say no evidence of permanent settlement has been found at the site, although there are remains of butchered animals and edible plants.

However, all of the bones are from wild animals, and all the vegetation from wild plants. That means the massive structure was built by a hunter-gatherer society, not a settled agricultural one.

RelatedStories
Google Earth Lets You Tour Ancient Rome 4,300-Year-Old Pyramid Found in Egypt Golden Earring Found in Jerusalem Dates to Time of Christ Female Shaman's Grave Found in Israel 'Iceman' Alpine Mummy May Have Been Last of His Kind Yet the three dozen T-shaped standing limestone monoliths arranged around the site are 10 feet high, weigh several tons each and bear detailed, stylized carvings of foxes, scorpions, lions, boars and birds. The builders may not have been farmers, but they weren't primitive.

Massive amounts of manpower would have been needed to build the site, a logistical problem that may have spurred the builders to begin planting grain and herding wild sheep, Schmidt thinks.

Wild grain ancestral to modern wheat grows nearby, and the site itself is just outside the city of Sanliurfa, known as Edessa to the Crusaders — and which locals say is the Biblical city of Ur, birthplace of Abraham. The Euphrates flows eighty miles to the west, putting Gobelki Tepe smack in the middle of the Fertile Crescent.

"This shows sociocultural changes come first, agriculture comes later," Stanford archaeologist Ian Hodder tells Smithsonian magazine. "You can make a good case this area is the real origin of complex Neolithic societies."

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Stewie

This is bogus. What they found in Arizona was a hoax.

Was it PR for the John Carter movie?

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Rausch

It seems that every other week we're pulling artifacts out older than -5,000 years old.

I'm not ready to push ET into the equation but I think we were greatly evolved at some point and then disintegrated back down for whatever reason...

That would not surprise me in the least. Our world is littered with remnants of the rises and falls of various civilizations.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by listopencil

That would not surprise me in the least. Our world is littered with remnants of the rises and falls of various civilizations.

And the remains they leave are much more sensible, eco-friendly, and longer lasting than anything we've built today.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by Stewie

This is bogus. What they found in Arizona was a hoax.

I guess that wouldnt be so surprising, but it did have some top archaeologists fooled.

Is this information something you might have a link to?

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Stewie

This is bogus. What they found in Arizona was a hoax.

Here's the episode, I haven't watched it yet:

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Rausch

And the remains they leave are much more sensible, eco-friendly, and longer lasting than anything we've built today.

It takes a lot of work to **** up a planet.