MOSTLY IDLE CURIOSITY

I've been interested in our (human) pre-history since I stumbled across a book combining neolithic history with biblical history. Along the way, I came across what my be the oldest temple site in the world, Goebekli Tepe in Turkey,



The site...



may have been started as early as 10,000 BC and poses a problem for the traditional explanation of the rise of religion:

Before the discovery of Göbekli Tepe, archaeologists believed that societies in the early Neolithic were organized into small bands of hunter-gatherers and that the first complex religious practices were developed by groups that had already mastered agriculture. Scholars thought that the earliest monumental architecture was possible only after agriculture provided Neolithic people with food surpluses, freeing them from a constant focus on day-to-day survival. A site of unbelievable artistry and intricate detail, Göbekli Tepe has turned this theory on its head.

Here are pictures of two of the megaliths: