As the world's oldest temple, Gobeklitepe This deepens the mystery of human history.
Radiocarbon dating has revealed that this archaeological site is approximately 12,000 years old.
What is the "mystery" about this ruin? "There are no traces of agriculture or settled life in the surrounding area, yet religious facilities exist. "That's the point.
In the first place, in order to construct a religious facility, there needs to be a "reason" for people to visit the temple with a certain frequency, and if people are not settled in the surrounding area, there is no need for a permanent temple in one place.
Furthermore, constructing large temples requires a large workforce, which presupposes the existence of organized people and religious leaders. It is said that this kind of "social status" only emerged after the beginning of agriculture.
Despite this, the reason why Göbekli Tepe remains undiscovered, with no evidence of agricultural settlement in the surrounding area, remains unknown.
If such a temple truly existed during the hunter-gatherer era, it would drastically overturn established archaeological theories.
Furthermore, the fact that Göbekli Tepe is located near Mount Karaja also increases the possibility of overturning previous theories. Modern cultivated wheat and the wild wheat of Mount Karaja are the closest genetically, and it is believed that agriculture began in this area. Considering this together with the aforementioned temple... "There was already a social structure, and when agriculture was added to it, a large-scale society rapidly developed. "This overturns the established theory that "small-scale vegetable gardens gradually formed larger communities."
Although excavation work is still ongoing, it has been registered as a World Heritage Site.