The BAS Library | Print

02/01/13 13:01

Print Article

In the Beginning: Religion at the Dawn of Civilization

By Ben Witherington III

Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Stock

On a hill known as Gbekli Tepe (Potbelly Hill) in southeastern Turkey (see map), archaeologists have uncovered megalithic enclosures that date between 10000 and 8000 B.C.E., the dawn of civilization. These circular sanctuaries in the northern Fertile Crescentthe earliest ritual sites in the worldare causing experts to rethink the origins of religion and human civilization.

Some call it Turkeys Stonehenge. In fact, the circles of massive stones standing high on a hill are more than 5,000 years older than Britains famous megaliths. From Gbekli Tepe (Potbelly Hill) in southeastern Turkey, you can see 50 or more miles in all directions, including the sites where some of the earliest evidence of agricultural plant domestication has been discovered. Now, these stone circles may be turning the established theory about the origins of religion and civilization on its head. Since 1995, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt and his archaeological team have been excavating at Gbekli Tepe, 7 miles east of Urfa (the Hellenistic city of Edessa). Thus far, at least four monumental stone circles have been uncovered (as well as three smaller, later enclosures). In each circle, ten to twelve pillars are connected by walls of quarry stone surrounding a pair of taller pillars in the middle.1 Radiometric studies indicate more than a dozen such circles are still buried in the hill.

http://members.bib-arch.org/print.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=1&ArticleID=9&UserID=0&

Pgina 1 de 6

The BAS Library | Print

02/01/13 13:01

Anthropomorphic featuresarms, hands and minimalist garmentsand images of animals are carved on the sides of many of the standing stones. The T-shaped monolithic limestone pillarseach weighing several tons and some more than 18 feet tallform large circular enclosures between 33 and 66 feet in diameter.

Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Stock

SHADOWS OF A MAN. Some of the massive T-shaped standing stones at Gbekli Tepe are carved with stylized anthropomorphic details, such as this 17.5-foot-tall pillar. The fingers of his two hands wrap around the corners of the pillar above the buckle of a decorated belt. The hind legs and tail of a fox pelt dangling from the belt serve as a loin cloth. The excavator believes this pillar may represent a priestor possibly a deity.

http://members.bib-arch.org/print.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=1&ArticleID=9&UserID=0&

Pgina 2 de 6

The BAS Library | Print

02/01/13 13:01

Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Stock

Some similarities can be seen in a contemporaneous 6-foot-tall limestone statue of a man found at a nearby site. Now housed in the Urfa museum, the man wears only a V-shaped necklace or collar and grasps the front of his midsection much like the Gbekli Tepe pillar.

Based on the style of the monoliths and their carvings, Schmidt confidently dates them between 10000 and 8000 B.C.E., the dawn of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. This is thousands of years before the first evidence of human writing in Mesopotamia (c. 3200 B.C.E.), before the construction of Stonehenge (c. 30002000 B.C.E.) and at least 6,000 years before the most ancient Egyptian pyramid (the step pyramid at Saqqara, c. 2660 B.C.E.). There is no evidence of a contemporaneous village anywhere near Gbekli Tepe. The excavations have not revealed any residential buildingsonly sanctuariesnor any evidence of the use of fire (for cooking, heat, etc.). On the other hand, the excavation has recovered tens of thousands of animal bones. The workers hunted and foraged for their food. As Schmidt says, Gbekli Tepe appears to be a religion-specific sitea place of animal sacrifice and ritual, not of domestic or agricultural activity. Rising 50 feet above the surrounding plain, it certainly qualifies as a high place, which the Hebrew Bible so often associates with religious rituals and early encounters with God. The limestone pillars may represent priests or deities, according to Schmidt. Many of the news reports discussing Gbekli Tepe call it the worlds first temple, and indeed it is the earliest known sanctuary built for communal ritual activity. Despite the primitive age, the artisanship of the carvings is remarkably high. Hundreds of people must have devoted centuries to carving the decorations and erecting these massive monoliths. Where they came from remains a mystery. And how were they housed? The carefully carved reliefs include lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, asses, snakes and other reptiles, insects, arachnids and birds, particularly vultures and water fowl. At the time the shrine was erected, the surrounding country was apparently lusher and more capable of sustaining this variety of wildlife, before centuries of settlement and cultivation resulted in Gbekli Tepes sparse conditions today.

http://members.bib-arch.org/print.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=1&ArticleID=9&UserID=0&

Pgina 3 de 6

The BAS Library | Print

02/01/13 13:01

Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Stock

MEGALITHIC MENAGERIE. Despite the primitive age of the sanctuary at Gbekli Tepe, the carvings reflect a high level of artisanship depicting a plethora of animal figures in both low and high relief, including vultures and scorpions (shown here), lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, asses, snakes, other birds and reptiles.

Berthold Steinhilber/Laif/Redux

MEGALITHIC MENAGERIE. Despite the primitive age of the sanctuary at Gbekli Tepe, the carvings reflect a high level of artisanship depicting a plethora of animal figures in both low and high relief, including vultures and scorpions, lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, asses, snakes, other birds and reptiles such as the crocodile-like figure
http://members.bib-arch.org/print.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=1&ArticleID=9&UserID=0& Pgina 4 de 6

The BAS Library | Print

02/01/13 13:01

pictured here.

The circular formations and images of vultures may remind BAR readers of a recent article by Rami Arav about the later Chalcolithic site of Rogem Hiri (45003500 B.C.E.), located east of the Sea of Galilee.a Arav suggested that Rogem Hiri was an excarnation site where people laid out their dead, exposing the bodies to be picked clean by vultures before collecting and burying the bones in ossuarieswell known from the Chalcolithic periodthat archaeologists have found. Some human bones discovered in the fill at Gbekli Tepe have led the excavator to conclude that the site also served as a primary burial ground, where other rituals related to the dead were performed. Continuing excavations may further elucidate the exact function of Gbekli Tepe, but its use as a religious site seems clear. For more than a century, anthropological and sociological theory has held that religion had its beginnings after village life had been established. Humans began as hunter-gatherers; then, it was assumed, with the rise of agriculture came the necessity of sedentary life, and so village life. This in turn led to the development of religion, in part as a means to placate the divine so there would be abundant crops, and also to help people get along with each other while living in close contact.2 The sanctuary at Gbekli Tepe, before the development of agriculture, has now called this theory into question. For students of the Bible, Gbekli Tepe shows that religious sites and sacrifices may have already been an important part of human life at the dawn of human civilization, even before the emergence of village life. The story of Cain and Abel presents primitive people who offer sacrifices to their God (Genesis 4:16). Gbekli Tepe reinforces what is clear from Israelite, Babylonian, Hittite and Assyrian cultures: Ancient religion involved sacrifices, and thus priests and sanctuaries. On a pillar at Gbekli Tepe, an anthropomorphic being in ceremonial garb is depicted alongside the sacrificial animals. This is likely a priest, an identification supported by the statue of a man (currently in the Urfa museum) found at a nearby site; he is dressed in ceremonial attire of a religious nature. Both the Bible and the archaeological evidence seem to confirm that human beings were inherently religious from the very dawn of human civilization. The remarkable finds still being unveiled at Gbekli Tepe may cause something of a revolution in our thinking about the origin of human civilization and the role religion played in it. The ancient people who took the enormous time and trouble to carve and move these massive stones must have cared a great deal about religion and the afterlife. It appears this has always been true of human beings, as far back as archaeological evidence can take us. Footnotes: a. Rami Arav, Excarnation: Food for Vultures, BAR 37:06. Endnotes: 1. Klaus Schmidt, Gbekli Tepethe Stone Age Sanctuaries: New Results of Ongoing Excavations with a Special Focus on Sculptures and High Reliefs, Documenta Praehistorica 37 (2010), pp. 239256. 2. This is laid out in full by Klaus Schmidt in his book Sie Bauten die Ersten Tempel (Munich: C.H. Beck Press, 2006).

Reference for this article

http://members.bib-arch.org/print.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=1&ArticleID=9&UserID=0& Pgina 5 de 6

The BAS Library | Print

02/01/13 13:01

Witherington, Ben, III. In the Beginning: Religion at the Dawn of Civilization. Biblical Archaeology Review, Jan/Feb 2013, 5760. http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp? PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=1&ArticleID=9 (accessed 1/2/2013)

http://members.bib-arch.org/print.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=1&ArticleID=9&UserID=0&

Pgina 6 de 6