Gobekli Tepe: Hunter-Gatherers Built These Giant Pillars

Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is about 11,000 years old, and its carved stone pillars were raised by hunter-gatherers before farming took hold.

Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt argued that the monument brought people together first and that farming followed. That is a hypothesis, not settled science. Archaeologists still debate how the rings filled with earth: by people, by landslides, or both.

Watch the short story: Gobekli Tepe: Hunter-Gatherers Built These Giant Pillars on Aha Lantern.

Sources: DAI excavation project FAQ; Smithsonian Magazine (2008).

More stories: Antikythera Mechanism: Ancient Gears That Tracked the Sky · Abu Simbel: The Temples That Were Cut Apart and Moved · How Roman-Inspired Concrete Can Heal Small Cracks

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