TURKEY-Journalist FPAD, Tülay Saraçoğlu Çetinkaya-Göbeklitepe: Zero point of history

Dating back to 12,000 years ago and thought to be the oldest center of worship in history, Göbeklitepe was built approximately 7,500 years before the Sumerians, Stonehenge in England, and even the Egyptian pyramids. It contains great findings about the first traces of the transition to settled life, and it is stated that the first traces of wheat indicating agriculture were found in Göbeklitepe.

The source from which the information was taken is: https://haber.dk/gobeklitepe-tarihin-sifir-noktasi/30511

---

Before starting the article, let us tell those who are wondering where Göbeklitepe is. Göbeklitepe, which changed the course of human history and many people do not even know about its existence, is 20 km from Şanlıurfa. It is located at the foot of the Tek Tek mountains near Örencik village in the northeast. It is located in a position overlooking a wide field of view, with a diameter of approximately 300 meters and a height of 15 meters. The common feature of these structures, which are the oldest known group of cult buildings in the world, is that 10-12 T-shaped obelisks are arranged in a circular plan, with a stone wall between them.

Göbeklitepe, which dates back to 12,000 years ago and is thought to be the oldest center of worship in history; Although it is a mysterious structure of mathematics, geometry, physics, architecture, art and astrology and history, it contains great findings about the first traces of the transition to settled life.

The discovery of Göbeklitepe, known as the oldest cult center in the world, turned upside down what we knew so far about the hunters and gatherers of that age. We knew them as groups of people who constantly migrated from one place to another, stayed in one place as long as they found animals and plants to hunt, and lived in very primitive and small communities.

Before traces of Göbeklitepe were found in 1995, it was estimated that people were hunting, gathering and nomadic in that age. However, Göbeklitepe, dating back to 9,600 BC, shows that those people were not as primitive as they thought.

Göbeklitepe was built approximately 7,500 years before the Sumerians, Stonehenge in England, and even the Egyptian pyramids. Large findings symbolizing the transition to settled life and the first traces of wheat indicating agriculture appeared in Göbeklitepe.

These people, who organized a social organization in that era, came together for a belief/purpose. About these mysterious people, who erected columns with animal reliefs on them with magnificent workmanship and weighing up to 8 tons, Mesut Alp, the valuable archaeologist of that region, and Prof. who is currently heading the excavations. I watched with interest the historical and archaeological documentaries he made in Turkish and other languages with our teacher Necmi Karul. If you want, you can watch videos about Göbeklitepe on YouTube and get more information.

You can enrich your knowledge with a different perspective about the unknown lost history and Göbeklitepe by watching videos on this subject made by valuable researchers such as Farah Yurtözü and Hakan Yedican on YouTube. I will leave the links to these videos at the end of my article.

In this article, I will try to tell you more about the rituals that include how the Mehmet Tarık Yılmaz family and their villagers brought the belief of the ancient lands to today with collective consciousness. Even though Mehmet Tarık Yıldız tells me that you are literally from URF, as an honorary Şanlıurfa resident, I will try to share with you what I have heard, experienced and learned as an amateur traveler who is in love with the mysteries hidden in those ancient lands.

I met my brother Mehmet Tarık Yıldız from Urfa, a land owner, tourism professional and stone artist, in Göbeklitepe, which I visited in July 2022, and I prepared this article based on the interview I had with him.

I would also like to thank him very much for inviting me to his village, to his house and to his table with his family, for hosting me in his home and offering me his friendship.

Tarık’s name, which is as special as his name, also means „Nibiru/Sirus/Marduk and Sira” star.

This special friend of mine, whose surname is Yıldız, suits the place, is also a good stonemason and is the only person in his field who has copyrighted the symbols of Göbeklitepe and makes miniature sculptures of them. Just like those who left us these works of art in those lands 12 thousand years ago, Mehmet Tarık Yıldız crafts the stone so delicately that it is as if he breathes his soul into it.

These miniature statues are

It is not reproduced from a mold like the sculptures sold. He makes these products, each of which require hand labor, art and workmanship, in his small workshop at home. As respect for his efforts, I strongly recommend you to visit his workshop and buy the original sculptures. You can also follow Mehmet Tarık Yıldız on Gobeklitepe.sanliurfa Instagram account and learn the latest developments.

The story of the Yıldız family begins in 1984, when his grandfather, Şavak Yıldız, the owner of these lands, delivered a statue he found while plowing his field one day to the museum. While there was no work or excavation in Göbeklitepe yet, it was considered sacred by the Yıldız family, its villagers and the surrounding villagers, but it was not known why it was considered sacred. This is what he saw from his elders and family members and it continues like this.

While even oaths were being sworn in the name of Göbeklitepe, on certain dates, especially in the spring months, the village people would go up to Göbeklitepe, pray in a festive atmosphere, sacrifice animals, cook them and eat them together.
Anyone who has a need or problem is met there that day and is helped. Those who are sick make vows to ensure good health for their sick, those who have animals make vows to ensure that their animals are not harmed by anyone, while women who do not have children make a wish and vow to have a child.
It is also very important to keep the place clean after eating, otherwise the belief that metaphysical beings will be haunted and disturbed is still taken into consideration by the local people. The fact that great oaths were made in the name of Göbeklitepe, a tradition that still preserves its warmth, must be a part of these lands.
This is done by rotating around the wishing tree located at the very top of Göbeklitepe several times. During the excavations, a 20 square meter structure was unearthed where the wishing tree was located, and inside this structure there are reliefs of two lions facing each other.

Right below these two lion structures, diagrams of a woman giving birth upside down appear on a stone.

I wonder if, after 12 thousand years, childless women still make wishes there, the ritual of vowing is continued, and thinking that a collective memory still exists are traces of the mysterious past that gives goosebumps?

The fact that the people consider that place sacred, that they listen to the narratives passed down from generation to generation as a teaching from the past that exists in the codes of the people, and that they continue these teachings adds a privilege to the people of that region.

Another mystery is that the same symbols found in Göbeklitepe are used in the Shamanism belief of the Aboriginal people living in Australia. The fact that this common symbol used means „two people coming together to share their knowledge” makes me wonder if they used it in the same sense in Göbeklitepe.

A great discovery in the history of archeology

Göbeklitepe continues to change human history and break new ground. For the first time, a painted sculpture consisting of natural plant dyes, which we call pigments, has been found in Göbeklitepe. The oldest pigment sculpture ever found in the world is located in Göbeklitepe. There are red pigments in the mouth and black pigments in the neck.

Whatever information they shared and whatever beliefs they had, Göbeklitepe, which is still underground and waiting to be discovered, constitutes the zero point of history beyond what is known so far. The fact that man built temples that required advanced architecture in a period when he lived as a hunter-gatherer shows that prehistoric man was not as primitive as thought. Göbeklitepe, one of the most important discoveries in the history of archeology with all its splendor in Anatolian lands, Şanlıurfa, is waiting for you to go and see it.

The source from which the information was taken is: https://haber.dk/gobeklitepe-tarihin-sifir-noktasi/30511