Many of us are familiar with the use of ancient civilisations making monuments that in some way link up to either our calendar, the sun, moon or stars. From the stone circles in the British Isles the Mayan temples in Central America, ancient civilisations often focussed much of their wealth, manpower and engineering to either worship or make calculations that were vital in providing a real or imagined sense of control over their existence.
New research recently published in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry by experts at Edinburgh University have made something of a breakthrough of two stone pillars at Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey. Rather than trying to help predict the seasons or the motions of heavenly bodies however, it has been discovered that instead the stone carvings remember a cosmic disaster which occurred in our planet 13,000 years ago.
The markings suggest that a swarm of comet fragments hit Earth at the exact same time that the last great ice age struck which went on to change the entire course of human history. Great creatures such as Woolly Mammoths became extinct and changes in the climate and environment led to the rise of the first human civilisations.
It has been speculated for many years that the last Ice-Age which is also known as the Younger Dryas was caused by a cometary impact. The Vulture stone for the first time gives something of a contemporary record of this event.
The Vulture stone is covered in carvings of animals and the popularist pseudo-archeologist Graham Hancock was the first to theorise that the carvings actually depict constellations in the sky as well as a comet.
However, when engineers studied animal carvings made on a pillar – known as the vulture stone – at Gobekli Tepe they discovered that the creatures were actually astronomical symbols which represented constellations and the comet.
Using a computer programme to show where the constellations would have appeared above Turkey thousands of years ago, they were able to pinpoint the comet strike to 10,950BC, the exact time the Younger Dryas begins according to ice core data from Greenland.
Why is the Younger Dryas seen as such a crucial period in the growth of civilisations? Before the comet struck Earths, large areas of the Middle East was covered by wild wheat and barley and this allowed nomadic hunters in the region to establish permanent base camps. When the comet struck however, things became much harder for these communities who were only ever a bad harvest or natural disaster away from being wiped out.
The difficult climate conditions following the impact forced communities to come together and work out new ways of maintaining the crops, through watering and selective breeding. Thus farming began, allowing the rise of the first towns.
The new research suggests that the people of Gobekli Tepe recognised this terrible planetary disaster was in some way the beginnings of a new and more advanced way of living as we today might remember anniversaries of independence or wars against tyranny. Alternatively, it might be a monument to one of the hardest periods that humanity ever had to face and that for millennia the peoples in Turkey remembered it like we might remember The Black Death or the terrible fatalities of the World Wars.
Dr Martin Sweatman, who was one of the leading figures in the investigation states:
“Our work serves to reinforce that physical evidence. What is happening here is the process of paradigm change. It appears Göbekli Tepe was, among other things, an observatory for monitoring the night sky. One of its pillars seems to have served as a memorial to this devastating event – probably the worst day in history since the end of the ice age.
Gobekli Tepe, is thought to be the world’s oldest temple site, which dates from around 9,000BC, predating Stonehenge by millennia.
Researchers believe the images were intended as a record of the cataclysmic event, and that a further carving showing a headless man may indicate human disaster and extensive loss of life.
Scientists believe that carvings on the pillars also indicates that the long-term changes in Earth’s rotational axis was recorded at this time using an early form of writing, and that Gobekli Tepe was an observatory for meteors and comets.
Incredibly, aside from being an incredible monument, the Vulture Stone still provides us with an important message for current astronomy and science which the finding also supports a theory that Earth is likely to experience periods when comet strikes are more likely, owing to the planet’s orbit intersecting orbiting rings of comet fragments in space.
But despite the ancient age of the pillars, Dr Sweatman does not believe it is the earliest example of astronomy in the archaeological record.
“Many palaeolithic cave paintings and artefacts with similar animal symbols and other repeated symbols suggest astronomy could be very ancient indeed,” he said.
“If you consider that, according to astronomers, this giant comet probably arrived in the inner solar system some 20 to 30 thousand years ago, and it would have been a very visible and dominant feature of the night sky, it is hard to see how ancient people could have ignored this given the likely consequences.”
Stephen Liddell 
Its incredible that 11,000 years ago, people were already making records of cosmic events!
This begs the question. As we try to decipher what our forebears from that time was trying to convey, how will we do the same so that folks 11,000 years later will be able to do the same?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yes, it would be interesting what medium we should use as surely any electrical computer systems will be totally irrelevant, probably electricity as we know it will be gone all ready in a few decades.
Also which of our important crises would we pick?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Reblogged this on The Secular Jurist and commented:
“Gobekli Tepe, is thought to be the world’s oldest temple site, which dates from around 9,000BC, predating Stonehenge by millennia.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
How intriguing!
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Voices and Visions.
LikeLike
The vulture is eating or holding something in its mouth. I thought it may be a snake because of the rings around the vultures neck. I can’t make it out on computer screen (I wish I could see it in person). Also, very small figures seem to appear (once again, computer screen), under the beak, or rather in the shadowy crook of the neck. Thanks for all your hard work.
LikeLike
I think I have a good theory now. On the Vulture Stone the top three baskets each hold the baby animals (head down into the baskets, and both sexes), a baby bird representing the sky, a baby ‘fox or wolf’ representing land animals, and the frog is for the amphibians. I don’t think they were worried about fish when travelling around the world to repopulate the ‘Americas’ from the cosmic collision. This was to repopulate the ‘Americas’.
At first, I thought the so called “Cygnus” bird was holding a snakes head in his beak, because of the snake coiled around his neck three times (see Shiva from later mythology), or the head of the man below, but faintly you can see he may be holding one of the baskets. The V neck reminds me of the “high priest/medicine man” (see Urfa man V neck, and the lack of a mouth could relate to difficulties in communicating with others during this horrendous time).
The bird is holding the earth. The ‘birds’ location is marked near the top and where they are going is marked near the bottom, and the bottom of this ‘earth’ is carved out slightly representing the cataclysm they are journeying to. The ‘medicine man’ birds’ feet (via boat feet, ha) could be the ‘ark’.
Top right these two birds male and female, represented by the genitalia ‘legs’ are pointing with their beaks to their respective sexes represented by the H symbols. The male is pointing to the upright H, and the female is pointing her H on the side. These symbols could be used later to represent sexes, and number of those sexes in the cataclysm area for the ratio of male to female. The baby bird below them is the product of these two, and its feet look female, yet strange.
The bottom of the Vulture Stone is the return journey from the first ‘scouting’ trip (bird facing opposite direction). The headless man with the erection had a partner to the right, now broken off, which I believed was a female, headless and pregnant.
They found many snakes, scorpions, insects, arachnids, as depicted (the survivors) and mass starvation (see the excellent carving of predatory animal with its ribs exposed.
This is the story of animals going on a boat to repopulate the impact area.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The designs above and below the baskets represent water, and the baskets may represent the ‘boat’ itself. For the snake coiled around the birds neck three times, see Shiva from later tales. The head bird is definitely holding a basket, and there’s something in it, but I need better pics. I wish I could see the top and sides. There’s only so many pictures of the vulture stone.
It’s definitely about a journey/mission, but it could very well be a story of them leaving the impact area and settling in that area too, but I like to think the former.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve just noticed that the ‘water’, from the top, comes nearly to a point directly over the ‘earth’. This could represent the global flood.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi John, I just wanted to write and say thank-you for your wonderful comments. I have read them and re-read them and I think you are definitely onto something. I think I need to print off the photo and really study it in detail but I can see exactly what you are getting at.
LikeLike
Hi Steve. This story is far from over, or being complete from my little theory. I was kind of excited when I kept seeing new things. Those two pictures on your blog were the best I had seen so I started typing.
This is one part of the story. The goal is to see the whole story, if they ever finish digging.
Please hammer this theory all you want. That’s what it’s for, and I’m open to new pictures and all suggestions!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Steve. Do you remember the childhood question “where do babies come from?” The answer was “a stork brought it in a basket”. You know, I love the name ‘Vulture’ stone. It’s so appropriate, but I think that bird could be a stork. “Come and see the stork stone!” They won’t dare change the name.
That little ‘hook’ thing at the end of his beak always bothered me. I agree it made it look like a vulture, and cool. I have to admit how the Cygnus constellation lines up nicely, and very well could have two meanings, such as– birds seeming to represent people, but I’ve never seen a constellation carrying a basket,.and the scorpion is big for a reason, so you can’t rule out scorpio.
All of these animals especially below, are predators or scavengers. See how they’re coming in at you at all once from the left (scary) while the bird is facing opposite as it normally appears. Since birds represents people in all of this, that backward facing bird below could represent survivors in the disaster area, and further explains them by the headless, smaller figure next to it, and maybe, if my theory could ever be proven, the pregnant, headless girl that stood next to him at one time.
This party of travelers must have been hounded by these animals on their ‘mission’, as starvation was rampant I’m certain, and they worked hard carving that awesome animal, starving with teeth showing, so that’s important as well. So on it goes!
LikeLike
Hi Steve. At first I wanted to think that the ‘earth’ held by the bird was the comet and the ‘water’ was the comet tail, and that it came from Cygnus blah blah. Things can have two meanings (the disaster area in Scorpio, other side of world). The tops and bottoms of these megaliths are meant to be ‘separated’, by geography. For example, there’s one megalith that has about seven ducks (birds represent people) with etchings, below the ‘ducks’ are the beasts, a boar and a smaller wolf or something. Those ducks are on top of a mountain (Mt. Ararat?), and the story could read “the people climbed the mountain, they stayed for a while (look at the top duck hovering), and they came down when things got better, when the beasts weren’t so bad and the water subsided etc… On that particular carving, the ducks themselves separate land (mountain) and a sky (rainy sky?).
The feline predator has his own megalith. He’s probably the top predator.
I’m still trying to figure out what kind of bird he is. I don’t think a swan at all. Crane? Goose? Stork? Whatever the case, the ‘basket’ is undeniable, and now it looks like the carver messed up the beak carving a little as well.
LikeLike
…concerning the megalith with the ‘ducks’ on the mountain….make that to read “a few people went up the mountain, stayed a while, and more people came down than went up.” There’s two ‘ducks’ on one side, the one on top, and two big and two ‘ducklings’ in between the big ducks.
LikeLike
Hi Steve. Have you seen all of these Gobekli Tepe pictures? They say this area is the birthplace of farming, wheat etc….on one of those megaliths is a plow that has been mistaken for human arms or something. Next to the plow, I believe, is a domestic dog (facing right), albeit an ancient breed or foxlike, but the point being ‘domestic’. On another one is another plow or could be a sickle. It’s a story to follow, that’s for sure.
On the Vulture Stone, I think that the bird is holding an egg, and projected up from this egg (in a ray of light, I like to think) is “all life”, birds, land animals, amphibians and the tale goes on. Hasn’t anyone seen these plows? There’s the evidence of farming a really long time ago.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Steve. I’ve found the ‘comet’ on the vulture stone. Maybe it will tie into the astronomy now. The pattern of the ‘water’ or ‘rays of light’ (work in progress) only deviate once. They deviate at the top, above the ‘land animal’ on the center basket. The comet is directly over the ‘land animal’, running contour with its back. The comet ‘head’ is coming downwards and you can see the ‘tail’ fork back from there. It’s actually inside of the circle “Gemini” on the top picture.
The pictures of the vulture stone vary all over, but once you see this ‘comet’, you can never not see it. I noticed it some days ago, but I was just getting into the solar outburst theory (long story), and I wanted this carving to be anything but a comet.
Good job on the eclipse story. After it goes by, the James Webb Space Telescope is next on the waiting list. You should do a story on that one of these days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the update on the Vulture Stone. We shall have to make a plan to visit it one day! I will have a look at the James Webb Space Telescope right this minute.
LikeLike
Great article. Gobekli Tepe is such a fascinating site. Calling Graham Hancock a pseudo archaeologist is a disservice to his contributions to our understanding of ancient cultures and lost civilizations.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Ray A. Davis and commented:
Nice article on Gobekli Tepe except the part referring to Graham Hancock as a pseudo archaeologist.
LikeLiked by 1 person
com/2017/04/24/the-vulture-stone-at-gobekli-tepe-a-monument-to-a-cosmic-disaster/” rel=”nofollow”>The Secular Jurist and commented:
“Gobekli Tepe, is thought to be the world’s oldest temple site, which dates from around 9,000BC, predating Stonehenge by millennia. Davis and commented:
Nice article on Gobekli Tepe except the part referring to Graham Hancock as a pseudo archaeologist.
LikeLike
I forgot to get to the point that I originally was going to, which was that the idea that the vulture stone is more likely to represent the fact that the star Sirius (which is one of the brightest in our sky) had appeared and gotten brighter and brighter over the preceding millennia to when Gobekli Tepe was first constructed. This idea is speculative, but much less so than it representing the younger dryas impact.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think trying to guess what kind of bird the vulture is, may be fruitless considering birds 9000 years ago may either not still be around or have changed over time.
LikeLiked by 1 person