Can
you describe the main architectural characteristics of Göbekli Tepe?
It is made up of a series of three
main sub-surface rectilinear structures defined by dry-stone walls, and
containing many decorated T-shaped pillars. These stones served primarily
as roof supports, although a symbolic purpose can not be ruled out. In
one 'cult building', as these structures are known, is a ring of free standing
pillars, their edges radiating out from a central point, like the spokes
of a wheel.
Could you explain to our readers
why Göbekli Tepe was a "sacerdotal" site?
Göbekli Tepe can be described
as sacerdotal, in that it was clearly utilized as a place of veneration
and perhaps communication with supernatural entities and domains. This
is accepted by the main excavator Dr Klaus Schmidt of the German
Aarchaeological Institute of Istanbul. Curiously, in the Turkish language
Göbekli
Tepe means 'hill of the naval', suggestive of the site's former role
as an important religious centre serving a large catchment region.
Göbekli Tepe looking south
How
is it possible that a hunter/gatherer society suddenly transforms itself
to be able to build such a magnificent megalithic site with no equals in
the world?
I strongly suspect that the transition
was engineered by an extremely powerful and very cunning shamanic or priestly-based
ruling elite, who knew how to easily manipulate and motivate the local
population. It would have required a considerable work force of hundreds
of people to have constructed sites such as Göbekli Tepe, and this
has to have been controlled by a ruling body of immense persuasiveness.
The
question remains as to where this elite might have come from, and whether
independent evidence of their existence can be found anywhere. The main
indication would be sites of proto-agriculture experimentation that predate
the PPN sites of Upper Mesopotamia (northern Syria, northern Iraq and southeast
Turkey), c.11,500-11, 000 BP (before present).
I suspect the original homeland
of the incoming shamanic elite was on the Upper Nile in Egypt and the Sudan,
where some indication of proto-agriculture was found during the excavation
of sites belonging to the Isnan and Qadan peoples of 15,000 to 11,500 years
ago. However, today this evidence has been seriously called into question,
making a migration route for these people more difficult to establish.
I
still suspect that the individuals responsible for Göbekli Tepe
came out of Africa, and migrated into Upper Mersopotamia via what is today
the foothills and mountains of northern Israel, southern Lebanon. However,
there might also be a link with the Cro-Magnon cave artists of Western
Europe, or even incoming peoples from China and South-east Asia (after
the work of Stephen Oppenheimer in his book EDEN IN THE EAST - 1998).
We should keep an open mind at this time, for evidence of proto-agriculture
is emerging earlier and earlier all over the world.
The antiquity of the site
is amazing considering the complexity of the advanced culture shown by
the site. How do you explain such an advanced culture 11,000 years ago?
There is no obvious explanation
for a high culture existing in Upper Mesopotamia at the end of the last
Ice Age, when the rest of the world was still populated by hunter-gathering
communities concerned with day-to-day survival, and little more. However,
these faceless individuals, known to archaeologists as the Pre-Pottery
Neolithic (PPN) peoples, created some of the most mesmeric art in the ancient
world, which would not be bettered for thousands of years.
I suspect that the proposed priestly
or shamanic-based ruling elite entered the region and came across a basic
hunter-gathering society ripe for change at the end of the last Ice Age,
and so they simply engineered their transition into settled farming communities.
Elevated sites such as Göbekli Tepe and Nevali Çori became
their civil and ceremonial nerve centers, all as part of the so-called
Neolithic revolution or explosion which eventually began here, before spreading
out across the Eurasian continent.
It
is my belief that the trafficking between the suspected ruling elite and
the peoples of Upper Mesopotamia is the story found in the
Book of Enoch, where beings called Watchers
are said to have gone amongst mortal kind giving them the forbidden arts
and sciences of heaven. These were said to have included the use of herbs
and plants, metallurgy, the fashioning of weapons, female beautification,
and astronomy, many of the firsts accredited to the Early Neolithic world
in Upper Mesopotamia.
The excarnation frescoe as
seen on a wall at Çatal Hüyük.
On the left, the vultures
protect the head, representing the seat of the soul.
Similar stories exist in the
myths and legends of Sumeria,
which speak of gods called Anunnaki
coming among mortal kind and providing them with the rudiments of civilization.
I believe there is strong evidence to suggest that the Watchers, and
their offspring the Nephilim, were indeed the shamanic elite that founded
the early Neolithic cult centers of Upper Mesopotamia.
They
are repeatedly referred to in pseudepigraphical literature as birdmen,
and we know that the Neolithic period's highly prominent cult of the dead
was focused around excarnation, and the
use of the vulture as a symbol of both astral flight and the transmigration
of the soul in death. Clear carvings and depictions of vultures, as well
as representations of birdmen, have been found at Göbekli Tepe
and other PPN sites in SE Turkey and North Syria.
At Göbekli Tepe was found
the first temples with totemic symbols. Could you explain us which kind
of cult was celebrated there and which is the meaning of those animals?
Among the carved forms in high
relieves to be seen on stone pillars at Göbekli Tepe are anthropomorphs,
felines, raptor birds, sperm-like snakes, arachnids, insects, foxes, boars
and ostriches. There are so many different types of zoomorphic images that
it has so far proved impossible for anyone to interpret or bracket all
their intended symbolism, if indeed this is was it is meant to be.
However, there seems to be a
clear preference of interest in snakes and birds, like the vulture. Whereas
the vulture is associated with death and rebirth, as it is at Çatal
Hüyük - the oldest Neolithic city anywhere in the world, situated
in southern-central Turkey and dating to 8500 BP - I suspect the snake
played a slightly different role among the PPN communities.
The
snake
is universally a symbol of birth, new life, transformation, cosmic creation
and divine knowledge and wisdom. I also suspect that Upper Mesopotamia's
cult of the dead featured the use of hallucinogenic substances, most obviously
mycetes,
since serpents are a universal symbol seen during mind-altered states,
and examples to be seen as Göbekli Tepe and Nevali Çori
sport heads that closely resemble
highly-psychotropic mushrooms
of the psilocybin family.
Leonine pillar discovered
at Göbekli Tepe
Do
you really believe that through the correct study of Göbekli Tepe we will
be able to understand the origins of the biblical narration?
Göbekli Tepe is the oldest
stone temple anywhere in the world, and has to be a key to understanding
the
symbolism of the story of the Garden of Eden.
Most southerly cult building
at Göbekli Tepe
It is strange that the snake
appears as an important symbol in the Book of Genesis's story of Adam
and Eve. Here in the Old Testament it symbolizes the knowledge of
awareness that Adam and Eve are naked, and that they should cover themselves.
I feel it is a metaphor for the manner in which the incoming ruling elite
of Upper Mesopotamia, the suspected Watchers
of the Book of Enoch, gave mortal kind forbidden knowledge, which forever
changed the way they thought about life.
However,
it was a case of too much knowledge too soon, and so Adam and Eve were
cast out of Eden, which we know to have been a real kingdom focused on
Lake
Van, a huge inland sea in Eastern Turkey. From here the Euphrates and
Tigris, two of the rivers of paradise, take their course before flowing
down into Iraq's Fertile Crescent.
Indeed, author and archaeologist
David Rohl - a colleague of yours - is convinced that Göbekli Tepe is
the biblical Eden. Do you agree with him? If so, how could you explain
this relationship?
David is very familiar with the
themes outlined in my previous books FROM
THE ASHES OF ANGELS (1996) and GODS
OF EDEN (1998), which cite the original Garden of Eden as an area encompassing
mainly Upper Mesopotamia (Southeast Turkey, Northern Syria and Northern
Iraq).
In
his own book LEGEND (1998) David saw the land of Eden as a much
bigger region covering not only the whole of Upper Mesopotamia, but also
large parts of Western and Northern Iran and Armenia as well. He was adamant
that I was wrong about my choice of area, since it contradicted his own
theories on the four rivers of paradise, said to flow out of the land of
Eden.
If
David now believes that Göbekli Tepe is the Garden of Eden, then
he has changed his position somewhat. Yet I suspect he is correct, for
I say more-or-less the same thing in THE CYGNUS MYSTERY, which opens
with my own visit to Göbekli Tepe in 2004.
What was the relationship
between the centers of Göbekli Tepe, Nevali Çori and Çatal Huyuk?
The main relationship between
key PPN sites such as Göbekli Tepe and Nevali Çori is the fact that their
layout, design and art are the same. They were constructed by the same
unique race of people. They connect with Çatal Hüyük because
this was a latter development of the same high culture, and so this city
- excavated first in the early 1960s by British archaeologist James Mellaart
- can tell us much about the earlier cults at places such as Göbekli
Tepe and Nevali Çori.
Like,
for example, the Neolithic cult of the dead. At Çatal Hüyük we find
frescoes
of vultures accompanying the soul of the deceased into the next world,
and also of shamans taking the form of vultures for presumed shamanic practices,
such as contacting or journeying into the other world. Since statues of
birdmen,
as well as those of vultures, have been found at both Göbekli Tepe and
Nevali Çori, we can be pretty sure that the same cult existed here as
far back as 11,500-10,000 BP.
Could you tell me about the
stone Karibu that guards the tree of life? This reminds me a lot of the
cherub that guards the Ark of the Covenant and a similar image found also
among the Babylonians. Is Göbekli Tepe really the origin of those biblical
symbols?
Karibu and Cherubim
are the same - angelic beings, and ultimately their roots can be
traced back to memories of the priestly or ruling elite at places such
as Göbekli Tepe. Clearly, there is more to the story of the cherub that
guards the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, for it might also relate
to either archaeoastronomy or a global catastrophe around the end of the
last Ice Age.
Much
more knowledge about this epoch is contained in the Book
of Enoch and Book
of Giants, both found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and probably
first recorded down in the region of Southeast Turkey, where Abraham, the
ancestor of the Hebrew race is said to have come from. A cave shrine marking
his alleged place of birth can be visited in Sanliurfa (Urfa,
the ancient city of ancient Edessa), where various PPN sites have been
discovered.
There
is powerful evidence, supported by David Rohl, to demonstrate that
Sanliurfa,
ancient
Urfa, was the original Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham is
said to have been born. It is very possible that the
story of the Watchers, as found in the Book of Enoch, was carried out
of Upper Mesopotamia, the true site of Chaldea, when Abraham and his family,
the ancestors of the Israelites and Jews, set out from the city of Harran
on their epic journey to Canaan, the future land of Israel.
I read also that at Göbekli
Tepe has been found one of the first representations of an angel. Could
you tell me about it? Do you think that this site could be connected with
the WATCHERS?
I can only repeat what I have
said above. We are talking about a cult of birdmen, vulture shamans,
who would eventually be remembered as the Watchers of the Book of Enoch
and the angels of biblical tradition. No 'angel' has been found
at Göbekli Tepe, simply carved statues of men with wings on their backs.
These hybrids are likely to be shamans
wearing wings, not supernatural beings.
It
is worth noting that originally angels never had wings - these were added
to existing stories by the early Christians during the fourth century AD.
In fact, there are some accounts of Watchers wearing cloaks of feathers,
which in one case was altered in Christian times to read 'wings' instead
of feathers. The adaptation is clumsy, and obvious in its intent.
Carved stone vulture head
found at Göbekli Tepe
I
also read about the discovery of similar temples of the same age at Karahantepe,
Sefertepe and Hamzantepe. It was a truly widespread society for the time,
and it could antedate the birth of the Neolithic Age in the area, according
also to the discovery of the Balikligöl statue. What do you think about
it?
There are several new PPN sites
being investigated at the moment in Eastern and Southeast Turkey, and hopefully
much new evidence will emerge in due course. Two PPN sites were recently
unearthed actually inside the city limits of Sanliurfa. Sadly, these examples
were destroyed, with only a few items being preserved for posterity. One
site was Balikligöl, where the idol was discovered. It is a giant
ithyphallic male (image left). What it represents is anyone's guess, although
it has to be connected with fertility and fecundity of the land.
Much more important is Karahan
Tepe, a site only discovered in the late 1990s and still awaiting full
excavation. This is located near Sogmatar on the Harran Plain, and dates
back 11,000 years at least. Already a large number of t-shaped pillars
and stone rows have been uncovered here, and it was their orientation north
and east-north-west that made me realize the significance of the Pre-Pottery
Neolithic mindset in Upper Mesopotamia.
I
began to find that the earliest Neolithic cult centers, the prototypes
of stone circles and chambered barrows everywhere, were directed roughly
north-south. Since the north was a direction of death and rebirth at Çatal
Hüyük, I quickly realized that the focus of attention at places such
as Karahan Tepe and Göbekli Tepe was the movement of circumpolar stars
around the northern celestial pole, for there was no Pole Star in c.
9500-9000 BC.
I
looked closely at the Skyglobe astronomical program for these dates,
and realized that only one constellation could have been the object of
their gaze, and this was Cygnus,
which in European starlore is the celestial swan. However, there
is clear evidence that in Ancient Mesopotamia Cygnus was seen as a raptor
bird, while in classical myth it was occasionally seen as a vulture,
the symbol of the transmigration of the soul in the Neolithic cult of the
dead.
When I also discovered that the
Sabians
of Harran - a race of people known also as the Chaldeans who
inhabited Upper Mesopotamia many thousands of years after the Pre-Pottery
Neolithic peoples vanished from the radar - venerated the north as the
Primal Cause and also the direction of heaven, I knew I was on to something.
The
results of that investigation are to be found in THE
CYGNUS MYSTERY, which forces us to re-evaluate everything we thought
we know about our early ancestors' understanding of the cosmos, and our
place in it.
