[Sanliurfa near Gobekli was once called Adme (and variants), and name tentatively linked to the Biblical Adam and the Ebla goddess Adamma ("Amorite names and old testament onomastics", Ebbe Egede Knudsen, https://ur.booksc.org/ireader/29429551). Adme was almost certainly (see Edward Lipinski's THE ARAMAEANS, p. 170) within Bit-Adini, the Beth Eden of the Bible. Adme was for a time held by the Hurrians, who worshipped the goddess Hebat (probably the prototype of the Biblical Eve). I have demonstrated in my book THE REAL MOSES AND HIS GOD, through an analysis of the rivers involved, that Beth Eden is definitely the Eden of the famous garden.]
One of the most amazing archaeological discoveries of our time is the Turkish site of Gobekli Tepe:
This site alone has done much to question our earlier assumptions about the onset of human civilization. But beyond this, the strange structures uncovered atop the hill pose another problem: as they have conclusively been identified as temples, WHY were they built? Just what event brought about the foundation of the many stone circles atop this sacred hill (which the Armenians call Portasar, ‘Navel Hill’?)
Various archaeoastronomical studies have been made of the site. The first to gain attention was that of Giuli Magli, “Sirius and the Project of the Megalithic Enclosures at Gobekli Tepe”:
The idea that Sirius was the object of veneration at Gobekli Tepe has been a persistent one - and one that I think may be correct (see below).
Another theory is best discussed up by Alessandro De Lorenzis and Vincenzo Orofino’s “New Possible Astronomic Alignments at the Megalithic Site of Göbekli Tepe, Turkey”:
The authors of this study build upon earlier works by Andrew Collins, “Göbekli Tepe: Who Built It, When, and Why? A Preview to Genesis of the Gods” and “Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: The Temple of the Watchers and the Discovery of Eden”:
To summarize Collins’ theory, and in his own words:
“And their target: the setting down on the local horizon of Deneb, Cygnus's brightest star, which marked the start of the Milky Way's Great Rift, a role played by Deneb as early as 16,500-14,000 BC. At this time Deneb acted as Pole Star, the star closest to the celestial pole during any particular epoch. Even after Deneb ceased to be Pole Star around 14,000 BC, due to the effects of precession (the slow wobble of the earth's axis across a cycle of approximately 26,000 years), its place was taken by another Cygnus star, Delta Cygni, which held the position until around 13,000 BC.
After this time the role of Pole Star went to Vega in the constellation of Lyra, the celestial lyre. When around 11,000 BC Vega moved out of range of the celestial pole, no bright star replaced it for several thousand years. This meant that when Göbekli Tepe was constructed, ca. 9500-9000 BC, there was no Pole Star. It was for this reason that Deneb, and the Milky Way's Great Rift, retained their significance as the main point of entry to the sky world, making it the primary destination of the shaman. Standing stones erected in the north-northwestern sections of the walls in two key enclosures at Göbekli Tepe bore large holes that framed the setting of Deneb each night, highlighting the star's significance to the Göbekli builders…”
Yet another theorist has chimed in with a third idea - that the orientation of the primary buildings at the top of the hill are aligned to Orion's belt (see Schoch, R., 2012, Forgotten Civilization: The Role of Solar Outbursts in Our Past and Future. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, and various articles, such as https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=90367). Schoch believes that the fact that the anthropomorphized central T-pillars of Structure D face south that this is indication the sighting should be the south. The author neglects to mention that possibility that the central pillars are guardians and that our gaze should instead be directed to the north.
And there are yet other ideas out there regarding Gobekli. Some of them are pretty crazy. Here is an example of a respectable study done to suggest a possible geometrical layout for part of the site:
http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/gobekli-tepe-geometry-08424.html
There are even scholars such as E.B. Banning ("So Fair a House: Göbekli Tepe and the Identification of Temples in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East", https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/661207?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents) who believe the structures are not temples, but houses.
There are even scholars such as E.B. Banning ("So Fair a House: Göbekli Tepe and the Identification of Temples in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East", https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/661207?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents) who believe the structures are not temples, but houses.
Unfortunately, none of the attempts at archaeoastronomical analysis of Gobekli have been seriously enterained by the archaeologists actually working on the site. And, in truth, all of the speculation involves accepting the Gobekli structures as open-air observatories - which we now know they were not. The following was sent to me by Professor Mehmet Ozdogan, the man in charge of the Gobekli Tepe project:
“Concerning any supposed astronomical alignments you need first to understand that for the culture that was there we at present have over 30 excavated cult buildings and each has a different orientation. Second, and more importantly, all of these buildings are sub-surface buildings entered through a narrow ramp-like tunnel. They all had some sort of roofing which bound the standing stones. These huge central pillars were necessary to support the roofing system; that is why they are so much higher then the ones along the wall. The entrances are through a narrow ramp and a port hole. Passages arranged in rings around the main chamber were walled in, making the proposed sighting of celestial objects from so-called sight holes impossible. The restitution drawing at NGS was totally misleading, showing all free standing structures like Stonehenge. Even from the first building of that type recovered as early as 1964 at Çayönü, we knew that these were sunken, subterranean structures.
The earliest date for Gobekli is 9.800 cal.BC [see https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/2016/06/22/how-old-ist-it-dating-gobekli-tepe/ for dating details), but most other sites begin more or less together, at about 10.300 cal.BC. [The cal prefix indicates that the dates are the result of radiocarbon calibration using tree ring data. These values should correspond exactly to normal historical years BC and AD.]
Each special building has its own story of burial, so it is a continuous process. But the Göbeklitepe site itself ends before Prepottery Neolithic B, roughly around 8.000 BC. Some of the other sites continue on after that. When the Gobekli cult buildings had fulfilled their function, they were buried together with some materials considered sacred (“Humanization of Buildings. The Neolithic Ritual of Burying the Sacred,” M. Ozdogan, ORIGINI, XVI, 2018-1:7-24).
Göbeklitepe culture did not suddenly spring out of nothing. We can more or less follow its evolutionary stages. It lasted for several thousands of years. No miracles needed to account for the culture’s appearance or development; instead, it is a socio-cultural process that took place where environmental conditions were optimal at the time.”
[NOTE -
"Monumental buildings at Göbekli Tepe were “buried” with enormous amounts of detritus material in ancient times. This deposit, commonly referred to as backfill, is composed of extensive amounts of fist-sized limestone rubble interspersed with archaeological artifacts, primarily lithics and animal bone. An intentional (ritually charged) burial of buildings was previously posited (36–38); more recently, however, other explanations appear increasingly likely, including inundation from building collapse and eroded deposits from higher-lying and adjacent parts of the mound. These latter processes (collapse and erosion) would also account for the highly fragmented nature of human (and animal) bone contained in the backfill (11), thus providing first indications of a potential (formerly unknown) provenance for this material."]
Now, my readers should understand that is is currently the prevailing atttitude of the director of the dig at Gobekli. It is not representative of belief regarding the site among other researchers. There are still those like Andrew Collins who can provide many reasonable arguments for why the pillars were not roof supports, for example. Given that controversary continues to swirl around the place, I feel justified in offering what I think may be a causal event that could have, conceivably, spurred on the Gobekli building project: Magli's first rise of Sirius (which, as it turns out, was a marker of a quite climatic remarkable event).
THE VELA SUPERNOVA, THE YOUNGER DRYAS EXTINCTION AND THE APPEARANCE OF SIRIUS
In the following articles, Professor G. Robert Brackenridge proposes that the Vela supernova may actually have brought about the so-called Younger Dryas extinction. According to https://beta.capeia.com/planetary-science/2019/06/03/disappearance-of-ice-age-megafauna-and-the-younger-dryas-impact,
"At the onset of the Younger Dryas there was a massive, worldwide extinction of mammals weighing over 40 kg. It is estimated that 82% of these animals disappeared in North America, 74% in South America, 71% in Australasia, 59% in Europe, 52% in Asia, and 16% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fossil evidence suggest the disappearances were very sudden."
Some of Brakenridge's publications on Vela and the Young Dryas may be found at these links:
G. R. Brakenridge: Supernovae and the Younger Dryas: the Case for Terrestrial Environmental Effects at 11,000 yr B.P. from Vela X. Lecture at the IGCP 384 Annual Meeting, Budapest, Sept. 1998 lecture
In the first source, "Core-collapse supernovae and the Younger Dryas/terminal Rancholabrean extinctions (2011)", Brakenridge says
"Early predictions that some supernovae release large quantities of prompt high energy photons are now corroborated by optical identification of core-collapse supernovae associated with extragalactic GRBS (beamed c-ray bursts) and XRFS (beamed or un-beamed X-ray flashes). Given the in-galaxy supernova frequency and GRB and XRF recurrence statistics, significant Earth-incident events during the past several million years very likely occurred and nearby events should have affected the Earth and other planetary atmospheres, including terrestrial surface solar UV, the Earth’s climate, and its ecology. The Younger Dryas Stadial (12,900 to 11,550 calendar yr BP) began with sharply cooler temperatures in the Earth’s northern hemisphere, regional drought, paleoecological evidence compatible with increased UV, and abrupt increases in cosmogenic 14C and 10Be in ice and marine cores and tree rings. In North America, stratigraphic and faunal sequences indicate that a major pulse of mammalian extinctions (at least 23– 31 genera) began very close to 12,830 calendar yr BP and was sudden: deposits one century younger are devoid of diverse extinct fauna remains. A 10 s beamed GRB within 2 kpc of the Earth delivers 100 kJ m2 fluence to the Earth’s atmosphere, where it causes spallation and catalytic reactions depleting 35–50% O3, and producing excess NOx species (which favor cooling, drought, and surface fertility), 14C, and 10Be. An un-beamed, 1050 erg hard photon impulse at 250 pc produces similar terrestrial atmospheric effects. A well-characterized massive star supernova, the unusually close Vela event= (d = 250 ± 30 pc; total energy of 1–2 1051 erg; age constrained from remnant nebula shock velocities considerations at 13,000–16,000 yr and from the pulsar characteristic age at 11,400 yr) may have initiated the Younger Dryas climate change, and caused the extinction of the terminal Rancholabrean fauna."
Brakenridge refines his argument in "Solar system exposure to supernova γ radiation (2020)":
"Planetary habitability may be affected by exposure to γ radiation from supernovae (SNe). Records of Earth history during the late Quaternary Period (40 000 years to present) allow testing for specific SN γ radiation effects. SNe include Type Ia white dwarf explosions, Type Ib, c and II core collapses, and many γ burst objects. Surveys of galactic SNe remnants offer a nearly complete accounting for this time and including SN distances and ages. Terrestrial changes in records of the cosmogenic isotope 14C are here compared to SN-predicted changes. SN γ emission occurs mainly within 3 years; average per-event total emissions of 4 × 1049 erg are used for comparison of close events There are 18 SNe ≤ 1.5 kpc, and brief 14C anomalies are reported for eight of the closest. Four are notable (BP is year before 1950 CE): the older Vela SNR and an abrupt 30‰ del 14C rise at 12 740 BP; S165 and a 20‰ rise at 7431 BP; Vela Jr. and a 14‰ rise at 2765 BP; and HB9 and a 9‰ rise at 5372 BP. Rapid-increase anomalies in 14C production have been attributed to cosmic rays from exceptionally large solar flares. However, the proximity and ages of these SNe, the probable size and duration of their γ emissions, the predicted effects on 14C, and the agreement with 14C records together support SNe causation. Also, the supposed solar-caused 14C anomalies at CE 774 and 993 may instead have been caused by the SNe associated with the G190.9-2.2 and G347.3-00.5 remnants. Both are of appropriate age and distance."
Now, Brakenridge has 9,529 B.C. as the time of end of the Younger Dryas. As we can see above, the Vela supernova is thought to have exploded in 12,740 BP. Most authorities now agree with the dating for the end of the YD:
Younger Dryas ended 11,500 years ago, quite abruptly... So in about 9479 at Gobekli.
For its end 11,600 years ago, so in 9579 B.C. at Gobekli.
Etc.
While Collins does not believe that Sirius was important enough to account for the building at Gobekli, he did produce a large amount of valuable information on the star's first appearance at the site - and did graciously help me tremendously while doing my own research on the Gobekli problem.
While Collins does not believe that Sirius was important enough to account for the building at Gobekli, he did produce a large amount of valuable information on the star's first appearance at the site - and did graciously help me tremendously while doing my own research on the Gobekli problem.
But I think he is in error in dismissing Magli's theory, for the appearance of Sirius the Dog Star, the star of summer and of the 'Dog Days' or especially hot days of summer corresponded with the radical onset of warming after the Younger Dryas mini-Ice Age. Thus the star, itself coming from the south, where lay lands far warmer than those in the north, may have been seen as being responsible for that warming trend, which ushered in a new era of temperate climate.
It goes without saying that the Vela Supernova would also been visible in the extreme south along the horizon:
Had the Vela SN been remembered in tradition, and it had marked the beginning of the Younger Dryas Ice Age and extinction, then Sirius coming from the same region of the sky at the end of the YD may well have indicated a profound correspondence between the new star and the warming period. Interestingly, the structures near Gobekli began to be built around the time of the onset of the Younger Dryas.
While many will consider this mere coincidence, there is nothing that I could find going on in the northern sky around the time of the foundation of Gobekli that might account for the sudden innovation in design and the massive construction effort exhibited at Enclosure D and associated structures.
Citing once more the URL at https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/2016/06/22/how-old-ist-it-dating-gobekli-tepe/, the date for Enclosure D fits nicely with the appearance of Sirius.
FROM FORAGING TO AGRICULTURE?
Recent studies such as
https://www.academia.edu/6100898/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe_Agriculture_and_Domestication suggest that Gobleki Tepe's demise coincided with the transition from a foraging culture to one of domestication:
"Around c. 8200 cal BCE, GT was abandoned.
It is perhaps telling that this coincided with
a major economic change in Upper Mesopotamia,
namely, the replacement of gazelle hunting
by small livestock husbandry as the main subsistence
activity to procure meat (Peters et al. in
press). Because cult centers with large catchment
areas like GT may have served over the centuries
as places of exchange between communities of
foragers inhabiting the northern Fertile Crescent,
it is not unlikely that these gatherings played
a catalytic role in the propagation of innovative
techniques relative to food acquisition and ungulate
domestication as well, causing the long-term
demise of the foraging lifestyle lying at the very
origin of these unique megalithic ritual places."
It is not impossible that Adam and Eve's Expulsion from the Garden commemorates this cultural revolution.
Could it be that the Angel with the Flaming Sword left to guard the Garden is a personification of the star Sirius?
