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March 08, 2009
Early civilisation?
The report on the excavations in Turkey of a site at Gobleki of standing circles of carved stone megaliths is rocking a few boats in the world of archeology, not least because the site predates any known "civilisation" by around 8,000 years. It dates to a period when mankind was supposedly still knapping flint and driving wooly mammoths over cliffs to kill them. If the dating given of 12,000 BC is correct it is difficult to see how anyone can still argue that human civilisation sprang full blown and technical, into being only 5,000 years ago around 3,000 BC in the Nile Delta.
The megaliths are not as crude as those at Stonhenge (Around 1500BC) and are covered in delicate carvings of hunting scenes, animals and people. It suggests that whoever carved them had both the tools and the knowledge to do it - which again suggests that they were a bit more than simple hunter gatherers.
One way or another it will be interesting to see how this develops.
Posted by The Gray Monk at March 8, 2009 02:14 PM
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