13,000 Years Ago, These Ancient Builders Carved a Calendar in Stone to Mark a Destructive Occasion

Everything we learned in school about early human civilizations, the discovery of Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey rendered it null and void.

This sprawling, monolithic complex, more than 90 percent of which remains unexplored, dates back more than 10,000 years—a date that is attested to by evidence that the entire complex was deliberately buried by its builders.

It is quite simply archaeology’s greatest mystery since the pyramids, and new examinations of the markings on pillars inside the stone enclosures suggest the builders could have recorded an astronomical event that triggered a fundamental change in human civilization, researchers say.

The research claims that ancient people were able to record their observations of the Sun, Moon and constellations in the form of a solar calendar, created to keep track of time and mark the changing seasons.

A new analysis of V-shaped symbols carved into pillars at the site found that each V could represent a single day. This interpretation allowed researchers to count a 365-day solar calendar on one of the pillars, consisting of 12 lunar months plus 11 extra days.

The summer solstice appears as a special, separate day, represented by a V worn around the neck of a bird-like beast believed to represent the summer solstice constellation at the time (it was made so long ago that star maps would be different from ours). Other nearby statues, possibly representing deities, have been found with similar V markings on their necks.

Since both the cycles of the Moon and the Sun are depicted, the sculptures may represent the world’s first lunisolar calendar, based on the phases of the Moon and the position of the Sun, predating other known calendars of its kind by many millennia.

Once considered a fringe theory, completely dismissed in archaeology, Göbekli Tepe presents robust evidence that ancient people used a large stone monument to record the date a swarm of comet fragments hit Earth nearly 13,000 years ago (11,600 BC), the authors write.

The theory goes that the comet’s impact caused a massive melting of glaciers that ended the last Ice Age and caused sea levels to rise by about 400 feet. It may also have triggered changes in lifestyle and agriculture that are believed to be linked to the birth of civilization soon after in the Fertile Crescent of Western Asia.

Another pillar at the site appears to depict the Taurid meteor shower, believed to be the source of the comet fragments, lasting 27 days and coming from the directions of Aquarius and Pisces.

The discovery also appears to confirm that ancient people were able to record dates using precession — the wobble in the Earth’s axis that affects the movement of constellations in the sky — at least 10,000 years before the phenomenon was documented by Hipparchus of Ancient Greece around 150 B.C.

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The discovery also supports the theory that Earth faces a higher risk of cometary collisions when it crosses the path of orbiting comet fragments, which we typically experience as meteor showers.

“It appears that the inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe were keen observers of the sky, which is to be expected given that their world had been devastated by a comet,” said Dr Martin Sweatman, from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, who led the research.

In contrast to existing theories about the impact of this comet, known as the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, Dr. Sweatman’s paper details that the comet’s impact ushered in a mini ice age, and that societies that practiced agriculture could no longer do so because of the increasing cold, making it seem to us, until the discovery of Göbekli Tepe, that civilization began in the Near East, where temperatures were milder.

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One of the biggest and most vocal proponents of the merits of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis is none other than the world’s most famous podcaster: Joe Rogan. He has hosted numerous scientists, writers, and archaeologists on his show over the past 8 years who have made contributions to the theory’s recognition by mainstream archaeological historians.

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