The scientific community believes that the organization necessary for the construction of this 12,000-year-old building, found in 1995 in Turkey and classified in July as UNESCO World Heritage, is one of the first manifestations of a civilization based on social distinctions. |
| The complexity of the central ring of the archaeological site proves that only an organized society could build such a building |
Thousands of years before the construction of the Great Pyramids of Egypt and well before the construction of Stonehenge was erected the temple of Göbekli Tepe. Located in the mountain range of Germus, southeast of Anatolia, a border region between present-day Turkey and Syria, the building is the result of a much older past than the invention of the wheel and that of writing. Considered as the oldest temple in the world, the archaeological site, classified at the beginning of July as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been under the comb of the scientific community. Fascinated by this unique site, archaeologists wonder if the place may be perceived as the very first monument of architecture.
Göbekli Tepe, the "navel hill" in Turkish, is built on an artificial eight-hectare mound at the northern end of the Fertile Crescent, not far from the current town of Sanliurfa. The first excavations conducted in 1995 revealed a series of circular structures, inhabited a thousand years, before being engulfed and concealed from the rest of humanity for ten thousand years.
The building found contains a ring of monolithic columns in the shape of a "T". In the center two other identical columns reach five meters high. These supported a roof. A feat that testifies to a very elaborate construction technique. The two central pillars also include abstract figures of men and animals, stigmata of a belief system that archaeologists are still trying to decipher.
The analysis of the stones suggests that the oldest ones were taken and carved around the hill. Others, much rarer in the region, had to be transported over long distances. An exhausting routing that required the involvement of hundreds of people, say the researchers, struck by the number of hands at the origin of the building. Especially at a time when social groups hardly exceeded twenty-five members.
The work of hunter-gatherers
Dating the site suggests that Göbekli Tepe is the work of hunter-gatherers, at a time presumably preceding the invention of agriculture. Period, when the man was just starting to settle down. Until then, the scientific community considered that architecture was the product of perfectly organized societies. Göbekli Tepe invites to change paradigm. For the first time, archaeologists believe that only the organization necessary for the construction of such a building could lead to the development of agriculture and the sedentarization of man. A revolution. |
| Some stones found on the site, rare in the region, have been transported over long distances. |
But can we really talk about architecture when we evoke the oldest temple in the world? Moritz Kinzel, is convinced. "A building becomes architecture not only because it is monumental, but also according to the techniques used and a certain perception of space", explains the archaeologist and architect based at the University of Copenhagen who works on the site, in the columns of The Art Newspaper.
Much more than an invitation to determine which architecture or agriculture was born first, the Göbekli Tepe site illustrates a peak period. Architecture emerges alongside a disciplined society that produces surpluses and gradually shifts from gathering to agriculture. Some of the first domesticated wheat has been found in the region. The stones of Göbekli Tepe present representations of dogs, the first animal to be domesticated by man. "It is not a coincidence. I would say it was a period of trial and error. A time of architectural and societal experience at the beginning of the agricultural revolution, "concludes the archaeologist.
"Permanent homes do not necessarily mean that the man has lived there permanently," he adds, suggesting seasonal use of the Göbekli Tepe site. "The complex construction process may have encouraged people to stay longer. This would have pushed them to invent new ways of subsistence.
Maternity of the class society
The oldest temple in the world was probably not just a place of worship. The site had other social and economic functions. Women and men feasted there, exchanged goods. All these activities favored a common social identity. According to archaeologists, the architecture of the place can mark the beginnings of class society.
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| Aerial view of the Göbekli Tepe site |
If the archaeological site brings many lessons on the way in which man lived in the early Neolithic 12,000 years ago, it is also of great beauty. A building with an evolved artistic sense. Noting the aesthetic value of Göbekli Tepe, Dietmar Kurapkat, a German architecture researcher, writes about the site: "It's not an exaggeration to stick the label of architecture on the site." Reflecting a society living in a crucial transition period in the history of humanity, the "first monument of architecture" has not yet revealed all its secrets.
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| The archaeological site is located on the top of a hill in southern Turkey, north of the Fertile Crescent |
