Since 1994, when excavations began on Gobekli, there has been talk of it having some links with the Garden of Eden Biblical story. This story was first mooted by the archaeologist Klaus Schmidt. So, what is the truth: Is the Garden of Eden story an allegory of man’s transition from hunter-gathering status to farming?
First, let’s study the thesis that lends credence to this story. If we do consider Gobekli Tepe as allegorical to the move from hunting to farming, then the Eden story describes how this move from a carefree life of picking fruit at leisure to a tougher one of ploughing seed and reaping crop.
This change took place geographically too—in Kurdish Turkey where the move to agriculture began. Here, einkorn wheat, a predecessor strain of cereal, was genetically linked to Gobekli. And to continue in the same strain of domestication, pigs were tamed for the first time, about 100 km in Cayonu.
Turkey also has Biblical links, which ties in very neatly with the Garden of Eden story. According to Kurdish Muslims, the town of Urfa or Sanliurfa, is the Old Testament’s city of Ur or Ur Kasdim, as mentioned in the Book of Genesis as Abraham’s birthplace.
Another small town, Harran, is also mentioned in the Genesis—once for being the town that Adam and Eve came to after being expelled from the Garden of Eden. And, it was a halt for Terah, Abraham, Lot, and Abraham’s wife Sarai on their way from Ur to Canaan.
Topographically too, Gobekli Tepe matches perfectly with the Garden of Eden. In the Bible, there are passages that describe rivers coursing their way from Paradise. In reality, Gobekli Tepe is part of a fertile arc that shares space between two rivers—the Tigris and the Euphrates. Another favorable comparison is that the Bible mentions that Eden is surrounded by beautiful mountains, much like Gobekli being surrounded by the Taurus Mountains.
The Garden of Eden and Gobekli Architecture: The sheer presence of this site proves that hunter-gatherers of this area were capable of handling and dealing with complex art and a structured religion, something never done before.
After leading such good lives, why did they bury their temple in Eden? Perhaps, says Schmidt, coming together to pray meant feeding many more people, something they couldn’t do, so took to growing wild grass. However, this practice put undue pressure on the soil, causing trees to be axed and a lot of game displaced. Perfect Paradise, therefore, became a barren land. This occurred at 8,000 BC when the temple was already buried.
At the time that they took to agriculture from hunting, their skeletons reduced in size as their eating habits deteriorated. They were less healthy as now they had to eat a poor diet and physical exhaustion. This happened in the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of all agriculture.
Just as their lifestyles changed, so also did their ecology. This soon became barren and arid, something revealed on Gobekli’s stone carvings. In the Garden of Eden, as in Gobekli, there was lots of game, river fish and wildfowl, lush greenery and orchards, like the Kurdish desert about 10,000 years ago.
But man in his eagerness to ‘progress,’ changed not just the landscape but the climate too until the land was unproductive. So, paradise was non-existent, with Adam being forced out of his natural home “to till the earth from whence he was taken.”
Comparison between Eden and Gebekli: There are a number of parallels between Gebekli and the Garden of Eden. These are:
• The Book of Genesis states that Eden is located in western Assyria. This is where Gobekli is located.
• Eden is said to be by the banks of four rivers, two of which are he Tigris and Euphrates. In reality, Gobekli is situated between both these rivers.
• Eden comes from the word in Sumerian language meaning ‘plain.’ Gobekli is situated in the Harran plains.
In the light of the above, the magnificent Gobekli Tepe is really a temple in Eden which was built by our ancestors who had enough time to cultivate the arts, complex rituals and architecture before agricultural problems played havoc with their comfortable and beautiful lives in perfect Paradise.