Pot Belly Hill

The oldest manmade place of worship discovered so far is called Göbekli Tepe or Pot Belly Hill. It is so ancient that it is older than the Pyramids. Located in southeastern Turkey, Göbekli gets its name for its hillside having a soft outline.

In fact, to its north lie forested mountains, to the east the large Harran plain and in the south lies the Syrian border, which is in the direction of the ancient Mesopotamia and the cradle of human civilization, the Fertile Crescent. Dr. Klaus Schmidt of the Deutsches Archäologische Institut excavated Göbekli between 1995 and 2005.

Origin of Göbekli Tepe: Pot Belly Hill was built over 11,500 years ago, almost 7,000 years before the construction of the Great Pyramid, and over 6,000 years before Stonehenge first came into being. From the ruins it is clear that Göbekli came into being before villages, agriculture, pottery or even domesticated animals were first seen. Archaeologists believe that hunters built Pot Belly Hill to serve as a religious community after the last Ice Age ended. These hunters sparked off mankind’s first foray into agriculture, farming and city life.

How it developed: They also put forward the theory that it was the hunters’ need to worship that brought people together at Pot Belly Hill. Because they wanted to build and look after this temple, they needed to look for constant food like grains and animals that they could tame and settle down to maintain their new lifestyle. Therefore, the temple became the first sign of life before the city could develop.

Its unique location also reveals its age. Situated at the tip of the cradle of civilization, Fertile Crescent, it was the breeding ground for wild gazelles and beautiful birds. Wheat and pigs were first domesticated around here after Göbekli Tepe was established in about 8000 B.C. while cattle were domesticated in Turkey in 6500 B.C. The oldest discovered Neolithic village, Çatalhöyük, 300 miles in the west, soon imbibed all these practices.

The structure: In size, Göbekli is 27.4 meters across while its tallest pillars are 5.2 meters high. From its vast layers of stratification, there seem to be many millennia of civilization here, which date back to the Mesolithic Age. Here, the oldest occupied layer, Stratum III, bears monolithic pillars and roughly constructed walls which go to form circular or oval buildings. So far, about 16 such structures have been discovered.

Stratum II dates back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Age (7500–6000 BC). At Pot Belly Hill, several rectangular rooms have been discovered with polished lime flooring. Animal patterns decorate the monoliths here along with abstract patterns. These represent the sacred symbols of this civilization and depict gazelles, lions, snakes, boars, bulls and insects, and birds such as water fowls and vultures. The temple complex was situated in the midst of luxuriant vegetation which could sustain a large variety of animal life.

Its pillars: The stones of Göbekli Tepe, when discovered, were found to be intact and erect and with simple work on them. But on the 25 pillars excavated by Dr. Schmidt and his team, abstract symbols were found, though all over the temple complex at Pot Belly Hill, natural and graceful sculptures and bas reliefs of animals are depicted. These animals were close to the hunters’ experience and comprised foxes, leopards, lions, etc.

Some of the largest pillars at Göbekli have human carvings of arms, elbows, shoulders and fingers but no faces. The work done on these pillars is simple and delicate and expressed with a blend of harmony and geometry. In other parts of the temple complex, carvings include men with arms outstretched over their heads as if waiting for something precious from heaven.

The end of the glorious civilization: Archaeologists say that the temple complex of Göbekli Tepe was born in the Pleistocene era which dates back to over 2.6 million years ago and ended in 10,000 Bp in the Tarantian Stage. The Tarantian Stage was the Ice Age. As the ice sheets receded, human beings began fanning out from Africa in about 70,000Bp, and reached Eurasia in 40,000Bp and later the Americas in 14,500Bp. The Göbekli Tepe civilization ended in the eighth millennium BC when agriculture and animal husbandry changed the way of human life.