The Cathedral on the Hill: How Göbekli Tepe Rewrote History
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. ...