Exploring the Bible

  For decades, the historical timeline of human communication has been set in stone, literally and figuratively. If you open almost any standard history textbook, you will find a clear, widely accepted narrative: the invention of writing occurred in Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, around 3400 BC. This early script, known as cuneiform, began as simple pictograms used by merchants and temple officials to keep track of grain, livestock, and trade. For a long time, the academic consensus has been that before this period, human societies were simply too primitive, too scattered, and too disorganized to require a complex system of written records. However, the sands of archaeological discovery are constantly shifting, and what we consider "settled history" is frequently upended by a single turn of the spade. A small stone plaque discovered at the megalithic site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey is currently doing just that. Dating back roughly 11,000 years, this artifact is...

  For decades, the timeline of human history taught in schools was straightforward and logical. It went like this: Agriculture: Humans learned to farm. Settlement: Because they farmed, they stopped wandering and built villages. Society: These villages grew into cities with complex social structures. Religion: Finally, with full bellies and spare time, they built temples and organized religion. This view, known as the "Neolithic Revolution," argued that civilization was the engine, and religion was the exhaust—a byproduct of settled life. Then came Göbekli Tepe . Discovered in southeastern Turkey in the 1990s, this archaeological site dropped a bomb on that timeline. It dates back to roughly 9500 BC . To put that in perspective, it is 7,000 years older than the Pyramids of Giza and 6,000 years older than Stonehenge. It was built by people who had no metal tools, no pottery, and—most critically— no agriculture . They were hunter-gatherers. ...