The First FarmersIdeas & Belief
Göbekli Tepe
c. 9,500 BCETurning pointContested
Massive carved stone pillars in Turkey, raised by hunter-gatherers about 6,500 years before Stonehenge.
Contested history
Consensus: Built by hunter-gatherers around 9500 BCE, likely as a ritual or feasting center.
Hunter-gatherers organized large projects before farmingEstablished
Excavations show wild-animal bones and wild cereals, not farming.
Mainly a temple rather than a settlementDebated by scholars
Early excavators called it a temple; newer work found houses and water cisterns, suggesting people lived there.
Built by a lost advanced civilizationUnsupported
There are no tools, writing or technology beyond what the local Stone Age people had.
Community notes
Loading notes…