Archaeology & History

12,000-year-old monument is thought to be world's oldest calendar

By T.K. Randall
August 12, 2024 ·  4 comments

The Gobekli Tepe archaeological site. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Teomancimit Generally considered to be one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, this remarkable 12,000-year-old complex - which is built into a rocky mountaintop - represents some of the earliest known evidence of humans establishing a permanent settlement.

Over the last few decades archaeologists have learned a great deal by studying symbols carved into the site's massive stone pillars which are themselves some of the world's oldest known megaliths.

Now according to a new study, some of the carvings on one of the monuments at Gobekli Tepe are likely to mark solar days and years, meaning that this could in fact be a very ancient form of calendar.

It is thought that the people of the time may have been particularly preoccupied with seasonal changes following a devastating comet strike that brought about a mini ice age in 10,850 B.C.

"It appears the inhabitants of Gobekli Tepe were keen observers of the sky," said lead study author Martin Sweatman from the University of Edinburgh's School of Engineering."Which is to be expected given their world had been devastated by a comet strike."

"The event might have triggered civilization by initiating a new religion and by motivating developments in agriculture to cope with the cold climate."

"Possibly, their attempts to record what they saw are the first steps toward the development of writing millennia later."

Incredibly, these early stargazers may have even tried to track the movements of meteors and were able to predict when further comet strikes were most likely to happen.

For something created 12,000 years ago, their calendar was an impressive feat to say the least.

Source: Popular Mechanics | Comments (4)

Tags: Gobekli Tepe