In the highlands of Anatolia, one of the biggest revolutions in history was getting ready: people were discovering a new way of life.
For millennia, the first of our kind had stalked the countryside in small groups. Then everything changed - not overnight, but in the course of a long period of change, marked by discoveries and technical innovations.
The humans settled down, bred animals and raised grain. From clay they burned vessels in which they could store supplies, the tedious life "from hand to mouth" had an end for many. Until a few decades ago, the common theory of archaeologists was: This radical upheaval - the so-called Neolitic revolution (of neos = new and lithos = stone) was around 8000 BC. Begun in the eastern Mediterranean (Syria, Lebanon, Israel).
But new excavations in Anatolia show something different. As early as 12,000 years ago, the first groups of people gathered on the »Nabelberg« (Göbekli Tepe) in southeastern Turkey today. According to estimates of archaeologists, at least 500 (strong) men were needed to build the temple there, the oldest in the world. When hauling the huge chunks, which they erected to pillars for unknown gods and provided with enigmatic pictograms, they must also have discovered: together we are stronger!
About 2000 years later, it was time for the big development step: Not far from Göbekli Tepe, southeast of today's Turkish city Konya, Catal Hüyük was born - the first big city in the world with an unbelievable number of 5000 inhabitants at the time. Göbekli Tepe and Catal Hüyük, both discovered in the 1960s, but in part only intensively researched since 1995, are among the greatest finds in the history of archeology. Both are considered the places of origin of human culture; From them spread the new life form in all directions.
Not even two percent of the huge temple complex of Göbekli Tepe has been excavated, but four mighty stone circles have already been discovered.
