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[Graham] Electricity works wonders for us.
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Humans have become a 24/7 species.
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But our canopy of lights cuts us off
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from one of the most magnificent aspects
of living on this planet…
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the night sky.
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To the ancients,
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stargazing would have been
the greatest show on Earth,
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the most entertaining way
to pass their long, dark nights.
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They'd have known
every turn of the Milky Way,
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every bright star cluster,
every comet blazing across the sky.
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It might explain why
everywhere we look in the ancient world,
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we find massive structures
pointing our attention to the heavens.
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But what if it's more than that?
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Ancient pyramids
and temples all around the world
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connect sky to ground with precise
alignments to the Sun, Moon, and stars.
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Why did the builders take such care,
and on such a massive scale?
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Could they have been
trying to tell us something?
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Warn us, even, that we must, at all costs,
pay close attention to the heavens.
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I'm in Turkey,
heading for an isolated hilltop
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about 26 miles from the border with Syria.
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Today, this is
a troubled part of the world,
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but it's been hugely significant
to the story of humanity.
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In southeastern Turkey,
near modern-day Sanliurfa,
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something remarkable happened
around the end of the last Ice Age.
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Our Stone Age hunter-gatherer ancestors
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suddenly discovered farming
and began creating settlements.
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This happened throughout what would
later be called the Fertile Crescent,
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extending south to the Persian Gulf.
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Around 6,000 years ago,
the area known as Mesopotamia
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would give birth
to what has long been assumed
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to be the world's first civilization,
the Sumerians.
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But that view of history
now cries out to be rewritten.
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In 1994,
while investigating a farmer's field,
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archaeologists spotted strange
carved stones protruding from the ground.
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Some of gigantic size.
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Subsequent excavations have led to
a series of stunning discoveries.
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This recently excavated
archaeological site
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requires us to abandon all our prejudices
about our Stone Age ancestors.
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Far from being technological primitives,
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their accomplishments here prove
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that they possessed
hitherto unsuspected abilities
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rivaling those of much later
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and supposedly
much more advanced civilizations.
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Beneath the modern canopy
built to protect it from the elements,
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this is Göbekli Tepe.
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And based on everything
we've been taught about prehistory,
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it shouldn't exist.
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Archaeologists accept that it dates back
to around 11,600 years ago…
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making this the oldest acknowledged
monumental structure on Earth.
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It's a highly sophisticated,
highly advanced megalithic site
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that's about 7,000 years
older than Stonehenge
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and about 7,000 years
older than the Giza Pyramids.
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And suddenly the notion
that there was no culture in the world
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that was capable
of doing such things 12,000 years ago
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is blown out of the water.
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It's older even
than the invention of the wheel
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or the domestication of horses.
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Built at a time when the Earth
was just emerging from the last Ice Age,
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when the locals were still supposedly
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unsophisticated hunter-gatherers
living in mud huts.
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But if they weren't advanced enough
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to design and build
this megalithic wonder,
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who did and why?
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What is this place?
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At first glance, what confronts us here
can seem bewildering.
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If we look closer, however,
and piece together all the clues,
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we can get a good idea
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of how ambitious and imposing
it must have been in its prime.
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Perched on the side of a hill
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with few traces
of any human settlements nearby
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are four circular enclosures,
all with a similar layout.
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At the center of each,
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stands a pair
of massive T-shaped megaliths
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weighing up to ten tons
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set into a polished stone floor.
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Twin giant figures,
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some with arms and hands
carved into the rock,
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and tilted heads.
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They're encircled
by smaller T-shaped pillars,
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many intricately carved and decorated,
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and all connected by
ringed walls of stone and passageways.
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How these massive blocks
were lifted and set in place…
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nobody knows.
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What really mystifies all who come here,
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including the archaeologists
who excavated the site,
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are the astonishing carvings.
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Symbols of animals are to be found
everywhere at Göbekli Tepe.
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It's like a Noah's Ark in stone.
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The creatures depicted at Göbekli Tepe
are curiously arranged and stylized
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as though their purpose
is more symbolic than realistic.
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And there's something else unusual
about these megalithic structures.
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When archaeologists carbon dated them,
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it became clear that these four enclosures
weren't built at the same time.
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Enclosure D dates back
to around 11,600 years ago
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but the youngest, Enclosure A,
was built around 10,500 years ago.
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Instead of updating
the building they already had,
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the people here
kept building new enclosures
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over the course of some 1,100 years,
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slightly rotating the alignment each time.
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What's even more intriguing
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is that the oldest original enclosure,
Enclosure D,
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also happens to be the largest
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and the most intricately decorated
of the group.
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It's not something
that you're a hunter-gatherer
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and you wake up one morning and think,
"I'm going to build
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the largest megalithic site
that will ever be seen in the world."
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Usually, the more we practice something,
the better we get at it.
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Like these modern-day quarrymen
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still cutting stone at the site
in the hills around Göbekli Tepe today,
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we assume that ancient cultures
must have worked the same way,
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improving their skills over time.
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But Göbekli Tepe,
and in particular Enclosure D,
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seem to turn this assumption upside down.
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How did a community
of Stone Age hunter-gatherers
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succeed so brilliantly
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in building with megaliths
at their very first attempt?
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Isn't it time to consider the possibility
that the great megalithic enclosures
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weren't some miraculous
overnight invention of hunter-gatherers,
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but were a legacy
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from a precociously advanced
lost civilization of prehistory?
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This is a notion
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which mainstream archaeologists
find almost offensive.
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Academic scholars have got locked in
to a particular framework,
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that during the Ice Age,
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the entire human population of the Earth
was at the hunter-gatherer stage.
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And yet, it turns out
the builders of Göbekli Tepe
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were far more ambitious
than your average hunter-gatherers.
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In 2003, a geophysical survey
using ground-penetrating radar
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detected up to 20 other
stone enclosures inside the hill
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and more than 200 pillars.
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Most remain un-excavated.
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A huge megalithic complex
spread out across nine hectares,
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more than 12 soccer pitches.
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It's an enormous site.
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You can't just wake up one morning
with no prior skills,
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no prior knowledge,
no background in working with stone,
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and create something like Göbekli Tepe.
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There has to be a long history behind it
and that history is completely missing.
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And to me, it very strongly
speaks of a lost civilization.
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Transferring their technology,
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their skills, their knowledge
to hunter-gatherers.
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Göbekli Tepe isn't the only complex
dating back to the end of the last Ice Age
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that's recently been discovered here.
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In 2019, Turkish archaeologists
began excavations at another site,
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about an hour's drive east,
called Karahan Tepe…
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and uncovered something unexpected.
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The Turkish authorities have never allowed
outside camera crews to film here
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until now.
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Lead archaeologist, Professor Necmi Karul,
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believes that this site is
around the same age as Göbekli Tepe
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and could be even older.
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But it's quite different.
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The main chamber does feature
T-shaped pillars and megaliths,
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but one edge is carved out of the bedrock
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and it's large enough
to hold dozens of people.
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What do you think
happened in this building?
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Do you have any ideas at all?
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We can interpret it
as a podium for a sitting area…
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-Yeah.
-…and people coming together,
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-because it's a big building.
-Yeah.
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Karahan Tepe seems to be
some sort of ritual gathering space.
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The carvings on the walls
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aren't as well-executed
as those at Göbekli Tepe.
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But we do see robed figures.
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Could they represent
the site's true architects?
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-Lead the way, Professor.
-Yeah, okay.
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Professor Karul leads me
into a curious side chamber,
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eight meters by six meters
and two meters deep.
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Ten pillars resembling phalluses
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have been purposefully and skillfully
carved directly out of the bedrock.
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With an 11th free-standing pillar
in pride of place.
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A snaking channel
has also been cut out of the rock
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to allow some form of liquid
to pour into this chamber,
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water or possibly blood.
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And it's dominated by an imposing
and mysterious sculpted head.
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There's something serpent-like
about that neck of that figure,
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as it pushes out of the rock
and overlooks these pillars
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standing there in the enclosure.
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It's something sinuous, and I would add,
something slightly sinister about it too.
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It's a very powerful face.
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[Karul] It's a human head
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-carved from the bedrock…
-Carved out of bedrock.
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…and it looks to the entrance.
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Yes, the eyes are turned that way.
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Quite imposing.
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-[Karul] It looks like a snake's head.
-Yeah.
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-It behaves like a snake, I would say.
-[Graham] Yes.
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A human-headed snake.
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Yeah, maybe.
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[Graham] It's a kind of unique discovery.
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-Yeah, it's fantastic.
-Yeah.
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There's a feeling of fear or of terror
that comes with that enclosure.
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I know this is not science.
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[chuckles] It's just my emotional reaction
to what I was seeing.
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But I can't help wondering
if fear and terror
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were involved
in the creation of it as well.
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If it's expressing something
that we need to know about our past.
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That it's fearful for a reason.
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The professor confirms
that as with Göbekli Tepe,
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they found no evidence of farming.
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The people who built this complex
were definitely still hunter-gatherers.
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The notion used to be
that agriculture came first,
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and then it allowed people
to settle and create places like this.
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But if I understand you correctly,
you're saying that settlement came first.
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Settlements came first.
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-They are hunter-gatherers.
-Yeah.
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And then they started
to produce a different life.
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They changed the buildings,
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-they changed the technology, et cetera.
-Yeah.
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A kind of revolution in ideas.
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We can call it a revolution.
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So this is something which
is casting new light on human history.
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So far, only two chambers
have been excavated at Karahan Tepe.
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But ground-penetrating radar
has revealed at least 20 more chambers
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that have yet to be explored.
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Just as at Göbekli Tepe,
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both sites
built at the end of the last Ice Age,
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just before humans living here
started farming and raising cattle.
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There was no agriculture
at Göbekli Tepe when it was built,
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but strangely, at exactly the time that
it was being created 11,600 years ago,
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agriculture appears all around it.
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For me, what the evidence
speaks to is pretty clear.
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It's a transfer of technology.
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People who already knew
how to create megaliths
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and build a big megalithic site
came to Göbekli Tepe.
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They already had knowledge of agriculture,
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and they used that site
to mobilize a local community,
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to organize them
and to introduce them to agriculture.
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According to the lore
of ancient Mesopotamia,
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that's exactly what happened.
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Amongst the many
flood and cataclysm myths of antiquity,
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the Mesopotamian deluge tradition
is of particular interest here.
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It speaks of a small band
of wise ancients,
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the Apkallu, who taught the people here
the skills of civilization.
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In the beginning, before recorded history,
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00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:24,000
humanity was created by the gods
to be stewards of the land and animals.
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But the first humans were too lazy
and too unruly to do the job,
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and their numbers grew unchecked.
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So the gods sent a great deluge…
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[thunder rumbling]
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…to wipe the slate clean
and start humanity over again.
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00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:45,280
And they also sent
seven sages, the Apkallu,
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00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:49,080
traditionally depicted
as bearded figures in flowing robes,
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to instruct the survivors.
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00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:55,720
Their leader was Oannes,
said to have come from the sea,
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00:17:55,800 --> 00:17:58,800
usually depicted as a half-man, half-fish.
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00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:01,800
He walked among the people
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00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:08,240
teaching agriculture, architecture,
and knowledge of the stars.
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00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:16,000
That's a list I can't help thinking
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00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:22,000
that includes many of the advances
supposedly invented at Göbekli Tepe.
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00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:26,760
Oannes is yet another example
of a civilizing hero.
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00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:31,400
A teacher who suddenly arrives,
usually by sea,
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00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:33,600
after a time of great cataclysm,
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00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:36,760
like Quetzalcoatl in Mexico,
255
00:18:37,360 --> 00:18:41,280
or like Osiris,
who legend says traveled by boat
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00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:43,880
to teach humanity
the ways of civilization.
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00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:49,040
And it's not just their stories
that are similar across ancient cultures.
258
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,880
Their depictions in ancient art
are remarkably similar too,
259
00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:57,480
down to their robes
and distinctive handbags.
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00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,320
I think that these are
real accounts of real events.
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00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,440
In some cases, they may be overlaid
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00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:07,360
with symbolisms
and storylines that distract us,
263
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,760
but fundamentally,
I think we need to trust the myths.
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00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:18,840
Göbekli Tepe's circular
stone wall enclosures open to the sky
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00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:23,240
also remind me a bit of Ġgantija
and Malta's other temples.
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00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,560
Is it possible they share
a common inspiration?
267
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,360
On Malta, Lenie Reedijk showed me
268
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:36,800
how the changing alignments
of the ancient megalithic temples
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00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:42,080
track the changing rising points
of a single star, Sirius,
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00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:45,280
across thousands of years.
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00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:54,800
Remarkably, we find
the same phenomenon at Göbekli Tepe.
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00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:01,040
The central pillars
of the three oldest enclosures
273
00:20:01,120 --> 00:20:03,440
also seem to have targeted Sirius.
274
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,760
At around the end of the Ice Age,
their differing orientations
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00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,920
tracking the star's
differing rising points across time.
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00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,600
This shared focus on Sirius is, for me,
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00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:23,840
another hint that the ancient builders
in both Malta and Turkey
278
00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:26,920
had access to a pool of shared knowledge
279
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:30,800
concerning astronomy
and megalithic construction.
280
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:36,120
Is it possible that
the great building projects in both places
281
00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:40,200
were directed by the survivors
of a more advanced culture
282
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:44,400
who traveled the world
at the end of the last Ice Age,
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00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:49,280
perhaps represented
by those stone pillar giants
284
00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:51,560
or Karahan Tepe's hooded figures?
285
00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:54,080
People who arrived here
286
00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:56,560
in the Fertile Crescent
after a great flood.
287
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:01,720
If so, what were they trying to say?
288
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:09,440
Could all those animal carvings
actually be telling us something?
289
00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:15,920
On these recent investigations,
290
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,880
I've learned new information
about Göbekli Tepe,
291
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:22,800
which further adds
to the intriguing picture.
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00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:30,760
I've come to meet Dr. Martin Sweatman,
at the nearby Sanliurfa Museum,
293
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,960
home to a stunning recreation
of Göbekli Tepe's largest enclosure.
294
00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:41,160
A trained scientist
with an interest in archaeoastronomy,
295
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,040
much of his research
has focused on Pillar 43,
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00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:47,680
also known as the Vulture Stone.
297
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,560
What's the significance
of this for you, Martin?
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00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:57,120
[Dr. Martin] It's probably
one of the most important artifacts
299
00:21:57,200 --> 00:21:58,760
in the whole world, you know?
300
00:21:58,840 --> 00:21:59,960
It's just incredible.
301
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:03,400
Essentially, this pillar
is like our Rosetta Stone.
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00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:04,680
Right.
303
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:08,040
Dr. Sweatman believes
that the symbols on the stone
304
00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:10,280
might represent asterisms,
305
00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:15,000
figures meant to depict
bright star clusters in the night sky.
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00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,160
-We see directly that there is a scorpion.
-Mmm-hmm.
307
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,360
So we can take that
perhaps to be Scorpius.
308
00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:22,800
[Graham] It's very tempting
to conclude it's Scorpius, yeah.
309
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:24,160
Absolutely.
310
00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:27,880
[Graham] Different cultures have given
different names and different figures
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00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,120
to the constellations of the zodiac.
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00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:35,080
So it's a bonus to see one asterism
we recognize on Pillar 43.
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00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:38,360
[Dr. Martin] Then above,
we would expect to find Sagittarius,
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00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:42,160
and we know Sagittarius
as the archer with a bow and arrow.
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00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:47,640
And so we see the vulture with the wings
and they're spread in just the right angle
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00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:49,320
to represent the bow and arrow.
317
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:51,720
And then we can see
that there are other animal symbols
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00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:54,000
which correspond to more constellations,
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00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:57,760
representing almost like
a map in the night sky.
320
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,800
[Graham] This is a map
of the most visible stars
321
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:07,280
in the area around
what's today known as Scorpius.
322
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:13,120
Once we line up Scorpius
with the Scorpion on Pillar 43,
323
00:23:14,360 --> 00:23:17,000
the other nearby asterisms seem to match
324
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,480
some of the other figures
depicted on the pillar.
325
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,400
-So it kind of all fits together.
-Absolutely.
326
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:29,920
[Graham] But Dr. Sweatman's
real breakthrough
327
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,160
came when he considered the suggestion
328
00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:35,560
that the central circle
could represent the Sun.
329
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:41,760
So what would you be trying to say
if you have an image of the Sun
330
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:45,160
in a particular position
relative to the constellations?
331
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,800
One thing that you might
be trying to indicate is a date.
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00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:55,920
And a clue to that is the fact
that there are three other animal symbols
333
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:57,080
at the top of the pillar
334
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:00,800
that re-cemented this idea
that this was a date,
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00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:02,400
a date stamp essentially.
336
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:05,480
[Graham] Dr. Sweatman believes
337
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:08,880
that the three small animals
carved atop Pillar 43
338
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:13,520
appear next to symbolic representations
of three sunsets.
339
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:18,200
Taken with the Sun disc
in the middle of the stone,
340
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:21,960
they could depict
four key moments in the solar year,
341
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:27,480
the summer solstice, the winter solstice,
and the spring and fall equinoxes.
342
00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:33,960
The carvings would represent asterisms
that appeared in the night sky
343
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,480
behind or around the setting Sun
344
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:39,000
on each of those key dates
in the calendar year.
345
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:45,880
So, suddenly we have a lock
of all four key moments of the year,
346
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:48,800
with the moment
they really want us to focus on
347
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,040
-dominating the pillar.
-Exactly.
348
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:55,960
[Graham] It's a brilliant
and compelling idea.
349
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:02,080
A date inscribed in stone
in the universal language of astronomy.
350
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:06,760
So what date is the pillar referring to?
351
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:10,800
By using computer software
352
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,520
designed to track changes
in the night sky over thousands of years,
353
00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:21,040
we can find a precise 100-year window
that perfectly fits Martin's theory.
354
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,000
Eventually, I found
that actually we could work out
355
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:29,360
it's around about 10,900 to 10,800 BC.
356
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:35,960
[Graham] But that's more
than a thousand years
357
00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:38,760
before construction began at Göbekli Tepe.
358
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:42,520
Why should that date have been important?
359
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:47,440
Well, we know quite a lot
about that specific time in history.
360
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:52,800
Almost exactly within that time period,
that short span of around 100 years,
361
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:58,560
there was a dramatic climate event,
which is known as the Younger Dryas.
362
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,680
It completely changes their world.
363
00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:02,720
[thunder rumbling]
364
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,360
[Graham] We've been referring to this
as the Ancient Apocalypse,
365
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:13,200
but scientists call it the Younger Dryas.
366
00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:19,320
It began 12,800 years ago
with a cataclysm,
367
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:23,120
and it ended 11,600 years ago,
368
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,520
the exact date
of the construction of Göbekli Tepe.
369
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:33,440
The world suffered through some kind
of tremendous geological upheaval,
370
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:35,880
including immense floods,
371
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:40,720
followed by more than 1,000 years
of freezing temperatures.
372
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,800
Life on Earth fundamentally changed.
373
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:49,240
The saber-toothed tigers
and mammoths went extinct.
374
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:53,480
But humanity survived.
375
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:59,200
And around 11,600 years ago,
376
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:02,880
the freeze ended
with another final immense flood
377
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:05,040
that raised sea levels around the world.
378
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,920
It was then,
only after the Earth was calm again,
379
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:14,520
that the work on Göbekli Tepe began.
380
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:19,000
And I believe
the timing was no coincidence.
381
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,640
That's ultimately
what I came to see Göbekli Tepe as,
382
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,120
as a reboot of civilization
383
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:29,560
from a time when there had been
an earlier civilization
384
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:31,720
that was destroyed in a great cataclysm.
385
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:40,280
It's nice to see Pillar 43 from here,
386
00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:43,720
and it's amazingly well-preserved,
387
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,200
considering it's 11,600 years old.
388
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,160
It's quite amazing.
389
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:56,880
What if this mysterious complex
wasn't just a place of rituals,
390
00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:01,200
but also a memorial
to commemorate a world-changing event?
391
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:05,280
It would make sense.
392
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,920
Some of our grandest buildings today
are memorials too.
393
00:28:10,360 --> 00:28:12,920
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC
394
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:16,400
or the Taj Mahal in India.
395
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,520
But could Göbekli Tepe
be even more than that?
396
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:24,960
What if its architects
sought to leave behind
397
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:27,840
a message of the greatest importance,
398
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:31,000
a message for later generations to decode?
399
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:34,160
Because when archaeologists
400
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,480
determined the age
of the rubble covering up the site,
401
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,360
they got another surprise.
402
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:44,480
Sometime around 10,000 years ago,
403
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:47,680
all the structures were buried
404
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:53,480
rapidly and quite deliberately
at the same time.
405
00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:00,320
An enormous effort
was put into burying Göbekli Tepe.
406
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:02,360
I mean, not just burying it,
407
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:06,560
but actually putting
a man-made hill over the top of it.
408
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:10,000
We must envisage
teams of hundreds of people
409
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:14,200
carrying baskets of rubble
and pouring it into the enclosures.
410
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,520
But then the question arises,
why did they do that?
411
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:28,080
It wasn't abandoned.
It wasn't destroyed or looted.
412
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,360
It was carefully buried,
hidden away and preserved.
413
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,720
And there it remained,
safe for thousands of years
414
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:40,280
until its recent rediscovery.
415
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:46,840
To my mind, what we're looking at here
only makes sense as a time capsule.
416
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:49,160
And like all time capsules,
417
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,600
its purpose was to
transmit a message to the future.
418
00:29:56,120 --> 00:30:01,240
At Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe too,
serpents dominate the imagery.
419
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:03,360
There's something about the way
420
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,400
their winding, descending shapes
are depicted,
421
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,240
as if the builders
were obsessed with them,
422
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:12,280
as if these serpents were the one message
423
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,400
they wanted us
to take away from both sites.
424
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:22,040
But are they serpents
or could they represent something else?
425
00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:31,680
It seems that everywhere we find traces
of a forgotten episode in human history,
426
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:33,280
we also find snakes.
427
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:37,880
In Mexico, Quetzalcoatl
himself is a serpent.
428
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,440
In Malta, one crosses
into Ġgantija's inner sanctum
429
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:44,360
by stepping over a snake.
430
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:52,880
I think I know what those serpents mean,
and the best example isn't here in Turkey.
431
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:59,320
It's halfway around the world
in the middle of America, in Ohio,
432
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:06,120
where ancient sages crafted
an earthen serpent on a gigantic scale
433
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,840
to serve both as a memorial
and perhaps as a warning.