by A Turkish site believed to predate the Great Pyramid of Giza by seven millennia is home to mysterious carvings that archaeologists believe could represent a devastating strike from an ancient comet.
Newly deciphered carvings at the Göbekli Tepe archaeological site in Turkey suggest the monument may also represent the world’s oldest solar calendar, according to new research. The nearly 12,000-year-old architectural wonder is believed to be the oldest place of worship ever discovered, even older than the 4,500-year-old pyramids.
The site’s temple-like enclosures, believed to be the oldest in the world, are adorned with intricately carved symbols. Researchers who recently visited the site to take a closer look at the symbols determined that they may actually be a record of an astronomical event that triggered a momentous shift in human civilization.
If true, the team’s findings could mean that ancient peoples recorded their celestial observations to create a solar calendar to track the seasons using a method that the Greeks used a few thousand years later.
“It appears that the people of Göbekli Tepe were keen observers of the sky, which is to be expected given that their world had been devastated by a comet strike,” Martin Sweatman, lead author of the study and a chemical engineer at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.
Researchers interpret V-shaped symbols as ancient calendar
Strange V-shaped symbols carved into pillars at Göbekli Tepe could be interpreted as representing a single day, researchers said.
By adding up the V-shapes, the researchers counted a 365-day solar calendar on one of the pillars, consisting of 12 lunar months plus 11 extra days.
Another V symbol worn around the neck of a bird-like beast represents the summer solstice, the study said. The researchers also speculated that other statues at the site with similar neck inscriptions likely represent deities.
Since the prehistoric monument depicts both the phases of the moon and the cycles of the sun, archaeologists have concluded that the carvings may represent the world’s first “lunisolar calendar,” predating other known calendars of this type by several millennia.
Did a comet impact mark the beginning of civilization?
Ancient people likely created the calendar to commemorate the date when a swarm of comet fragments struck Earth nearly 13,000 years ago, researchers said.
Another pillar at the site appears to show the Taurid meteor stream, thought to be the source of the comet fragments that rained down on the planet for 27 days.
A comet impact around 10,850 B.C. could have triggered a mini-ice age lasting more than 1,200 years, wiping out many species of large animals. Incredibly, a comet impact would have caused enough damage to mark the dawn of civilization in the fertile crescent region of western Asia, where people accustomed to hunting and gathering increasingly turned to agriculture for food.
Researchers suspect the monument remained important to ancient peoples for millennia, suggesting the comet impact may have sparked a new religion.
“This event may have sparked civilization by initiating a new religion and motivating the development of agriculture to cope with the cold climate,” Sweatman said in a statement.
Sweatman also said the findings support the theory that Earth faces increased collisions with comets when its orbit crosses paths with orbiting comet fragments, which are normally seen as meteor streams.
Predating the Greeks
This discovery also appears to confirm that ancient peoples were able to record dates by studying the Earth’s precession, in which the rotation of the Earth’s axis can alter the movement of constellations in the sky.
The researchers wrote that this suggests ancient peoples had accurate ways of measuring time 10,000 years before the phenomenon was documented in ancient Greece in 150 B.C.
“It is possible that their attempts to record what they saw were the first steps toward the development of writing millennia later,” Sweatman said.
The research was published Tuesday in the journal Time and Mind.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking news and trends for USA TODAY. Contact him at [email protected]
