Gobekli Tepe, an archeological dig in turkey, not far from the syrian border. It has been unearthed seriously, since 1994 by german archeologists. It is a site that predates stonehenge by 6000 yrs, and the pyramids by 7000yrs, they say. The temple was built 11,500 yrs ago. Thats before pottery, agriculture, villages or domestication of animals. Indications are that Gobekli Tepeans were also hunter gatherers.
The temple has huge t shaped columes, arranged in a circle. Many of those columnes have carvings of humans and animals. Some are very nice. Archeologist, klaus schmidt, who has been running the excavation since 1994, says those carvings 'might' represent gods. Will that prove true?
A look at another huntergatherer society, such as the north american aboriginal, suggests another possibility. Native north americans had a paucity of gods. Today, they still mainly have one god, the creator god. They saw the animals as their teachers. This animal teacher view isn't totally without merit, for huntergatherer societies. They could learn many things from carefully observing the animals around them. They had both the time and incentive to animal watch.
Seasons. Animals do certain things regularly, every year, such as hibernate, migrate, reproduce, store food. Observing what the animals were doing would help the natives to discern when the fish were about to run, when bad weather might be approaching, when it was their own time to migrate, etc.
Foods. Often, animals could show humans what foods were safe to eat. Also, many animals eat certain things at certain times. For instance, some animals seek out salt or minerals to eat. Also, some animals know to eat certain plants when they are sick. And, of course, they ate animals, too. Learning these things from the animals would give humans a leg up, so to speak, in survival.
And so, i would suggest that there was also a lack of gods at Gobekli Tepe, the oldest ever, temple to be found, up to this time. This suggests also, that gods were a later development, perhaps at the city/town stage of human development, or the agricultural.
Thanks for reading,
S
Oldest Temple in Turkey
by Satanus 48 Replies latest jw friends
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Satanus
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Xanthippe
Thanks Satanus that's really interesting. Learning by observation and experimentation. Sound familiar? We've been doing it a long time.
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Satanus
Gods and religion don't need to be similtaneous developments.
S
