Before Göbekli Tepe there was ... ?

Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge

In the very first 'Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge' podcast, we aim to provide a context for the phenomenon of the T-Pillar sites of South Eastern Turkïye and to set the scene for the journey we are about to embark upon with the whole Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge film project,

In order to fulfil the promise of the project our prehistory focus has shifted over to the Levant and the Fertile Crescent. And our tiny minds have been a little bit blown just a bit.

We've never accepted the idea of Göbekli Tepe as this 'Ground Zero' of civilization as it presents in the popular press and now largely in the public imagination, or even worse, that it must have been constructed by aliens (how could hunter-gatherers have made THAT?).

But of course, there is a story that leads up to Göbekli Tepe, the other Taş Tepeler (stone hills) and other sites; one that stretches back a further 10,000 years, right to the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

We hope you enjoy this condensed overview of what came before Göbekli Tepe.

00:00:00 - Intro & show outline

00:04:24 - Why the Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge podcast?

00:10:46 - It didn’t all start with Göbekli Tepe

00:15:59 - Ohalo II

00:20:00 - The Epipaleolithic

00:23:18 - Archaeological sites of the area

00:26:05 - Zarzian Culture

00:27:04 - Available information about the Epipaleolithic

00:29:47 - Kharaheneh IV

00:32:58 - Natufian Culture

00:39:51 - Bread & beer?

00:43:27 - More about the Natufians

00:45:23 - Halizon Tachtit

00:47:04 - Tortoises

00:49:54 - The Younger Dryas

00:55:22 - Special buildings, silo storage and the Tas Tepeler sites

00:58:32 - Göbekli Tepe precursor sites

01:03:45 - Desert kItes and the hunting of gazelle

01:06:40 - Rounding up & goodbyes

For those of you who would like to take a closer look at some of the sites we discussed in the podcast, below is a list of some of the key settlements.

Ohalo II, northern Israel.

A 22,000 year-old site that was discovered when sea of Galilee dried to a very low level in 1989

The small settlement of oval houses also contained a single burial of a male between 35-40 years old

Due to the waterlogged conditions there was an unusually high level of preservation. Thousands of seeds and fruits showing that these people exploited over 100 different plant species with evidence that they lived there all year round.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohalo_II

Kharaneh IV, Jordan

The site’s main period of occupation was 21,000 to 18,500 years ago.

Traces of stone foundations for round huts - more widely known as hut circles.

Over time the site developed into a low mound covering over two hectares or five and a half acres.

The surface was littered with literally millions of discarded flints.

Also interesting here is that these people apparently socialised in some way with other more distant groups. archaeologists have also found beads here made from marine shells which came from the mediterranean and the red sea - which are 125 and 250 miles away respectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharaneh_IV

El Wad, Mount Carmel, northern Israel

A cave settlement dating to around 14,500 years ago. As the community grew in size, the area outside the cave was terraced to allow the building of circular stone huts with paved floors.

It was the excavations at El Wad in the 1920s that prompted Dorothy Garrod to name these people the Natufians after recognising similarities between the stone tools found at El Wad and her previous excavations at Shuqba cave near Wadi en-Natuf.

Interesting that excavations have shown that some Natufian graves were reopened specifically to remove the skull of the deceased

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Wad

Tel Abu Hureyra - northern Syria

Established about 13,000 years ago but abandoned before the end of the younger dryas. Then reoccupied around 10,800 years ago.

The site is significant because the inhabitants of Abu Hureyra started out as hunter-gatherers but gradually moved to farming, making them the earliest known farmers in the world. Cultivation started at the beginning of the Younger Dryas period and evidence uncovered at Abu Hureyra suggests that rye was the first cereal crop to be systematically cultivated. In light of this, it is now believed that the first systematic cultivation of cereal crops was around 13,000 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Abu_Hureyra

Hilazon Tachtit, Western Galilee, Israel.

Hilazon Tachtit Cave is a burial ground from the Late Natufian culture (12,000-12,400 cal BP). It is located on the northern bank of the Hilazon stream in the western Galilee in Israel. The Late Natufian layer was revealed in the central area of the cave, in a depression in the bedrock. The site was excavated between 1997-2008 by Professor Leore Grosman.

The cave served as a burial ground for at least 28 individuals, of all ages. The majority of the burials are found within three pits, which served as collective burial places; two burials were interred in structures which were excavated into the bedrock, and one other individual was buried on the high ground between the two structures. These last three burials were fully articulated, while the burials in the pits were buried whole, but at a later time, the pits were opened, and the long bones and skulls were removed.

One particularly noteworthy burial is that of an elderly woman with congenital and age-related deformities. Amongst numerous other burial goods, her grave contained a lot of animal remains including at least 50 complete tortoise shells. Other fragments suggest there could have been as many as 90 tortoises in total. Her grave also contained another human foot.

https://archaeology.huji.ac.il/hilazon-tachtit-cave

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