- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- Agha defies England as Pakistan post 515-8 in first Test
- September second-warmest on record: EU climate monitor
- Pastor wanted by US for sex trafficking to run for Philippine senate
- Mozambican writer Mia Couto dreams future leaders set an 'example'
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case cleared in separate sex crimes trial
- Israel expands offensive against Hezbollah in south Lebanon
- China stocks rally fizzles on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Bangladesh's Yunus says no elections before reforms
- England strike twice as Pakistan reach 397-6 at lunch in first Test
- China stocks rally peters out on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Kenya's deputy president faces impeachment vote
- N. Korean soldiers 'highly likely' killed in Ukraine: Seoul
- 'Appeals Centre' to referee EU social media disputes
- US Supreme Court to hear 'ghost guns' regulation case
- 'Small' oil leaks detected in Samoa after NZ navy shipwreck
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- At Istanbul church, blessed spring offers hope to Christians and Muslims
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- Myanmar to send rep to regional summit for first time in three years
- Prabowo set to lead bolder Indonesia on world stage
- Tampa zoo rushes Chompers the porcupine and others to safety as Milton nears
- Shanghai stocks pare early surge on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- New Japan PM to hold talks on ASEAN sidelines
- Record number of climbers chase 14-peak dream in Tibet
- Former South Korea clinic for US 'comfort women' to be demolished
- China holds off on fresh stimulus but 'confident' will hit growth target
- Chiefs battle past Saints to stay unbeaten
- Deal on climate aid hangs in balance at UN COP29 summit
- Royals hit back against Yankees, Tigers maul Guardians
CMSD | -0.36% | 24.7 | $ | |
SCS | -0.47% | 12.89 | $ | |
RELX | 0.93% | 46.47 | $ | |
RBGPF | -0.46% | 60.52 | $ | |
RIO | -4.79% | 66.435 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
NGG | 0.31% | 65.685 | $ | |
GSK | -1.26% | 38.15 | $ | |
BTI | -0.06% | 35.18 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.15% | 6.87 | $ | |
BCC | 0.61% | 142.135 | $ | |
BCE | -0.46% | 33.375 | $ | |
AZN | -0.16% | 76.75 | $ | |
JRI | 0.23% | 13.21 | $ | |
VOD | -0.16% | 9.675 | $ | |
BP | -3.24% | 32.1 | $ |
Turkish hilltop where civilisation began
On a sun-blasted hillside in southeast Turkey, the world's oldest known religious sanctuary is slowly giving up its secrets.
"When we open a new trench, we never know what to expect," said Lee Clare of the German Archaeology Institute, who has been excavating there since 2013.
"It is always a big surprise."
Gobekli Tepe, which means "Potbelly Hill" in Turkish, is arguably the most important archaeological site on Earth.
Thousands of our prehistoric ancestors gathered around its highly-decorated T-shaped megalith pillars to worship more 7,000 years before Stonehenge or the earliest Egyptian pyramids.
"Its significance is hard to overstate," Sean Lawrence, assistant professor of history at West Virginia University, told AFP.
Academics believe the history of human settlement began in these hills close to the Syrian border some 12,000 years ago when groups of Stone Age hunter gatherers came together to construct these sites.
Gobekli Tepe -- which some experts believe was never actually inhabited -- may be part of a vast sacred landscape that encompasses other nearby hilltop sites that archaeologists believe may be even older.
- Endless mystery -
None of which anyone would have guessed before the German archeologist and pre-historian Klaus Schmidt began to bring the first discoveries to the surface in 1995.
German and Turkish archaeologists have been labouring in the sun there since, with lengthening queues of tourists now joining them to ponder its many mysteries.
When exactly it all began is even unclear.
"Exact years are nearly impossible to verify," Lawrence said.
"However, the oldest Egyptian monument, the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, was built around 2700 BCE," more than seven millennia after Gobekli Tepe.
"This was the end of what is often thought of as Stone Age hunter gatherer societies and the beginning of settled societies," Lawrence added.
"There remain endless mysteries surrounding the site, including how labour was organised and how the sites were used," he said.
Gobekli Tepe has even inspired the Netflix sci-fi psychological thriller series "The Gift", which turns on one of the ancient inscriptions on its pillars.
Schmidt -- who often wore a white traditional turban on the dig -- puzzled over the megaliths carved with the images of foxes, boars, ducks, lizards and a leopard for over two decades until his early death at the age of 61 in 2014.
- 'Zero point in time' -
The site was initially believed to be purely ritual in nature. But according to Clare, there is now "good evidence" for the beginning of settled life with some buildings similar to those of the same age found in northern Syria.
Turkey -- which in the past has not been renowned for making the best of its vast archaeological heritage -- has wholeheartedly embraced the discoveries.
The items excavated from Gobekli Tepe are shown in the impressive archaeological museum in the nearest city, Sanliurfa, which is itself so ancient that Abraham is believed to have been born there.
Indeed its new museum built in 2015 boasts "the most extensive collection of the neolithic era in the world," according to its director Celal Uludag. "All of the portable artifacts from Gobekli Tepe are exhibited here."
"This is a journey to civilisation, (to the) zero point in time," said Aydin Aslan, head of Sanliurfa Culture and Tourism Directorate.
"Gobekli Tepe sheds light on pre-history, that's why it's a common heritage of humanity," he said proudly.
- 'Go deeper' -
Last year Turkey's culture ministry boosted funding for furher excavations in the region as a part of its "Stone Hills" project, including cash for the Karahan Tepe hilltop site -- around 35 kilometres from Gobekli Tepe -- which some suspect is even older.
"We will now go deeper because Gobekli Tepe is not the one and only," Culture Minister Nuri Ersoy said last year.
The extra funding "gives us a fantastic opportunity to compare our results from Gobekli Tepe with new sites in the Sanliurfa region of the same age," Clare said.
Gobekli Tepe has also breathed life back into a poor and long neglected region, which has been further hit by the civil war just across the border. Syrian refugees now make up a quarter of Sanliurfa's population.
Over one million tourists visited Sanliurfa in 2019 and the city expects to reach pre-pandemic levels this year.
"Today Gobekli Tepe has started directly touching the economy of the city," Aslan said, who hopes that its glorious past could be a key part of the city's future.
D.Cunningha--AMWN