Göbekli Tepe: Stone Age Sanctuaries in Upper Mesopotamia
About 15 kilometers north-east of the Turkish city of Şanliurfa lies the mound of Göbekli Tepe with its Stone Age Sanctuaries. Its enormous deposit layers, up to 15 meters high, have accumulated over several millennia on an area of about 9 hectares. Excavations done by the German Archaeological Inst...
| Autor Principal: | Schmidt, Klaus |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Idioma: | spa |
| Publicado: |
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
2012
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: |
http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletindearqueologia/article/view/1833/1771 |
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| Sumario: |
About 15 kilometers north-east of the Turkish city of Şanliurfa lies the mound of Göbekli Tepe with its Stone Age Sanctuaries. Its enormous deposit layers, up to 15 meters high, have accumulated over several millennia on an area of about 9 hectares. Excavations done by the German Archaeological Institute with the Archaeological Museum of Şanliurfa, which have been carried out since 1995, found a very important site, which contributes to a completely new understanding of the process of sedentism and the beginning of agriculture. Amazingly, no residential buildings have been discovered up to now. However, at least two phases of monumental religious architecture have been uncovered. Of these, the oldest layer, with its richly adorned monolithic T-shaped pillars, is the most impressive. The buildings on this layer are circular, with a diameter of over 20 meters, and constructed from quarry stone. There are the enclosures A-D on the southern slope and enclosure E at the western plateau. Their age is impressive, having been dated to the 10th millennium BC, a time when men still lived as hunter-gatherers. This opened up a layer of the Stone Age, in which the so-called Neolithic Revolution took place. Overlying layer III is layer II, which has been dated to the 9th millennium BC. During this latter period there is a certain reduction both in the size of the structures and in the numbers of pillars. The uppermost layer I is represented by the surface debris including enormous deposits of Hangfußsedimente, accumulations of eroded sediments from layers II and III. There is no occupation from periods younger than the Pre-Pottery Neolithic at the site. The sanctuaries of Göbekli Tepe were completely filled in during the Stone Age. The old surfaces that can be observed in the excavations and the processes that occurred in the sediment have been subjected to pedological analyses and allow the act of filling to be dated into the late 9th millennium BC. |
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