Strange Ancient Discoveries For Which There Is No Explanation
Humans first settled into permanent towns, farmed, and then built temples, in that order, starting in 8,000 B.C. Or did they? An amazing archaeological discovery made in 1994 at Gobekli Tepe, a rural area of Turkey, has blown that hypothesis apart, prompting new questions about the evolution of civilization. Containing multiple rings of huge stone pillars carved with scenes of animals dating to the 10th millennium B.C., Gobekli Tepe is considered the world's oldest place of worship. Yet evidence also suggests the people who built it were semi-nomadic hunters, likely unaware of agriculture, which followed in the area only five centuries later. Because of Gobekli Tepe, archaeologists now have to ask which came first. Did building projects like this lead to settlement, and not vice-versa, as always thought?