WEBVTT - Göbekli Tepe: How Does Humanity's Most Ancient Monument Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brainsty a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>Laurena bolobaum here. It's perhaps obvious to say that eleven

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<v Speaker 1>thousand years ago the world looked very different. Lush forests

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<v Speaker 1>existed where there are now deserts, coral reefs where there

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<v Speaker 1>are now grasslands, and humans hadn't yet the gun building

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<v Speaker 1>very many things. Of course, we can't ever really know

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<v Speaker 1>exactly what our ancestors were up to so long ago,

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<v Speaker 1>because no one had invented writing yet, but places like

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<v Speaker 1>the archaeological site Go Beckley Tepe can give us a

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<v Speaker 1>few clues. Go Beckley Tepe is a monumental site situated

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<v Speaker 1>in the mountains of southeastern Turkey. It's along the lines

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<v Speaker 1>of Stonehenge, but about six thousand years older. The name

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<v Speaker 1>roughly means pop belly hill in Turkish, which is a

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<v Speaker 1>pretty good descriptor for the site. It was discovered by

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<v Speaker 1>a team of American and Turkish archaeologists in the nineteen sixties,

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<v Speaker 1>but their discovery of limestone slabs and flint artifacts wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>recognized from what it was until nineteen ninety four, when

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<v Speaker 1>a German archaeologist by the name of Klaus Schmidt realized

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<v Speaker 1>its significance. It's a mysterious site to this day, partly

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<v Speaker 1>because we can make so few assumptions about the people

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<v Speaker 1>who built it. For the article this episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on How Stuff Works. Spoke via email with Jens Natrov

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<v Speaker 1>back in twenty twenty. He's an archaeologist who at the

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<v Speaker 1>time had been working on the go Beckley Tepe project

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<v Speaker 1>for some fourteen years. He said, monuments, generally speaking, are

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<v Speaker 1>a particular example of architecture standing out due to their

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<v Speaker 1>size and or the effort necessary to create them. Go

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<v Speaker 1>Beckley Tepe is a noteworthy example in this context, since

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<v Speaker 1>the monuments there marked the first yet known example of

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<v Speaker 1>monumental architecture, and that they were constructed in a cultural

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<v Speaker 1>context of still highly mobile hunter gatherers. The site comprises

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<v Speaker 1>over twenty limestone structures or buildings, many of which are

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<v Speaker 1>round in shape and built with sturdy walls. Inside those

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<v Speaker 1>walls stand t shaped limestone pillars, usually laid out in

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<v Speaker 1>a pattern, with two large pillars at the center of

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<v Speaker 1>the structure, surrounded by smaller ones around the edges. Often

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<v Speaker 1>built into the walls and incorporated into stone benches. There

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<v Speaker 1>are some two hundred pillars in total. The tallest are

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen feet high or about five meters, and they weigh

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<v Speaker 1>between seven and ten tons each. The pillars are covered

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<v Speaker 1>with all manner of engravings, most of which depict animals,

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<v Speaker 1>though not always the animals that you'd necessarily expect. In

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<v Speaker 1>addition to game animals like gazelles and boores, the pillars

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<v Speaker 1>depict foxes, snakes, lions, cranes, vultures, spiders, and square orpians.

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<v Speaker 1>The pictographs seemed to be dominated by animals that wouldn't

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<v Speaker 1>have been particularly good to eat. Some of the pillars

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<v Speaker 1>themselves seem to represent larger than life anthropomorphic sculptures, with

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<v Speaker 1>carvings that give them arms, belt with a loincloth, and

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<v Speaker 1>a head with no face. There are other free standing statues,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, a life sized one of a wild boar.

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<v Speaker 1>Some carvings and statues were decorated with pigments. The round

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<v Speaker 1>buildings that they're in range from about twenty feet across

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<v Speaker 1>to over sixty five feet that's six to twenty meters.

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<v Speaker 1>It's unknown whether they would have had roofs attached. These

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<v Speaker 1>structures seem to be what's called special purpose communal buildings,

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<v Speaker 1>structures that were not regularly inhabited, or weren't used for

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<v Speaker 1>what's considered daily household kind of tasks. Instead, they were

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps temples, sanctuaries, or other places for dispersed groups to

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<v Speaker 1>gather at appointed time times. It seems go Beckley Tepe

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<v Speaker 1>was a work in process for a couple thousand years,

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<v Speaker 1>from around nine thousand, five hundred to eight thousand, two

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<v Speaker 1>hundred BCE. During that time, and especially towards the end

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<v Speaker 1>of it, people were building settlements, raising animals like goats

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<v Speaker 1>and sheep, and cultivating crops. But from what archaeologists have

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<v Speaker 1>been able to surmise from the side itself, the people

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<v Speaker 1>who built it were still primarily hunter gatherers. There's no

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<v Speaker 1>direct evidence that they kept livestock or planted their own food,

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<v Speaker 1>and their tools and vessels were made of stone but

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<v Speaker 1>not pottery or metal. When excavations were in their early stages,

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<v Speaker 1>researchers like Schmidt theorized that it was a monument of

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<v Speaker 1>religious or other cultural significance used by peoples who never

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<v Speaker 1>settled it. It was an astounding discovery because the assumption

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<v Speaker 1>had always been that people who were scrapping for resources

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<v Speaker 1>pre agriculture wouldn't have wasted time building monuments. There was

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<v Speaker 1>even a theory that perhaps religion drove settlement, not the

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<v Speaker 1>other way around. But in the thirty years since, and

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<v Speaker 1>even in the past five years since, how stuff works

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<v Speaker 1>spoke with Noutrough. Given more discoveries and research at the site,

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<v Speaker 1>the picture is a little more complicated. Archaeologists at goe

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<v Speaker 1>Beecley Tepe have found grindstones, mortars, and carved stone vessels

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<v Speaker 1>that were used to process foods like grains and lagomes,

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<v Speaker 1>which we know because of residues left on them. One

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<v Speaker 1>stone vessel that held grain is big enough to have

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<v Speaker 1>made some forty three gallons of porridge or perhaps beer

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<v Speaker 1>at a go that's about one hundred and sixty three liters.

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<v Speaker 1>Perhaps it was only ever used at infrequent parties, but

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<v Speaker 1>even if that's the case, it indicates that the cook

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<v Speaker 1>or brewer had access to a lot of grain. Maybe

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<v Speaker 1>they were really adept at gathering wild grain, or maybe

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<v Speaker 1>they were working on cultivating crops that weren't quite genetically

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<v Speaker 1>domesticated yet. And other structures have been uncovered there too,

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<v Speaker 1>including lots of smaller rectangular buildings with fireplaces and tools

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<v Speaker 1>that indicate that they were probably homes. The teams have

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<v Speaker 1>recently found other indications of domestic life at the site,

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<v Speaker 1>including middens and large pieces of carved bedrock that were

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<v Speaker 1>likely used to collect and store rainwater. If they were

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<v Speaker 1>collecting rainwater. That clears up one of the original doubts

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<v Speaker 1>about the site ever being used as a settlement because

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<v Speaker 1>it is about three miles or five kilometers away from

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<v Speaker 1>the nearest stream. A Natroft said, while the early monumentality

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<v Speaker 1>of the site is definitely impressive to me, it's the

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<v Speaker 1>social implications at the doorstep of one of the crucial

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<v Speaker 1>points in the history of our species is what makes

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<v Speaker 1>this research so fascinating. When go Beckley Tepe was being

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<v Speaker 1>built and rebuilt over those couple thousand years, humans were

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<v Speaker 1>in the process of transitioning from hunting and gathering to

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<v Speaker 1>agriculture and keeping livestock. The site shows what might be

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<v Speaker 1>a bridge between the two ways of life. Some researchers

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<v Speaker 1>even think the site, with all its engravings of wild

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<v Speaker 1>and dangerous animals, might represent a sort of cultural pushback

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<v Speaker 1>against encroaching civilization, that it was a monument to the

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<v Speaker 1>old ways. We may never know what really went on

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<v Speaker 1>at Goebecley Tepe. One theory goes that it was a

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<v Speaker 1>human skull cult that's based on fragments of skulls found

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<v Speaker 1>there that were carved, painted, and otherwise modified after death.

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<v Speaker 1>But whatever the case, it seems that this was a

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<v Speaker 1>place built and maintained by a perhaps transitioning hunter. Gathers

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<v Speaker 1>society to meet up, trade information and goods, and find

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<v Speaker 1>romantic partners, share life hacks, and make friends who could

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<v Speaker 1>help out in a pinch. And if they were performing

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<v Speaker 1>skull cults ceremonies, what better way to build community. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode is based on the article go Beckley Tepe the

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<v Speaker 1>Temple that hints at what humans were up to eleven

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<v Speaker 1>thousand years ago on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Jesslin Shields.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how

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<v Speaker 1>stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four

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