Exciting times for archaeology.

I remember learning about the Sumerians for the first time, how they seemingly of nowhere sprung up with agriculture, writing, architecture, engineering, astrology, metallurgy. I was fascinated, especially with how prolific they were with their writing, how it detailed their everyday life (all my homies hate Ea-Nassir).

Now we’re uncovering more of our past in the Fertile Crescent, and it’s more interesting than I could ever hope for.

I’m reading a book at the moment that gets into this site a bit:

Archaeology also shows that patterns of seasonal variation lie behind the monuments of Göbekli Tepe. Activities around the stone temples correspond with periods of annual superabundance, between midsummer and autumn, when large herds of gazelle descended on to the Harran Plain. At such times, people also gathered at the site to process massive quantities of nuts and wild cereal grasses, making these into festive foods, which presumably fuelled the work of construction. There is some evidence to suggest that each of these great structures had a relatively short lifespan, culminating in an enormous feast, after which its walls were rapidly filled in with leftovers and other refuse: hierarchies raised to the sky, only to be swiftly torn down again. Ongoing research is likely to complicate this picture, but the overall pattern of seasonal congregation for festive labour seems well established.

The Dawn of Everything- a New History of Humanity

If you want to know more or see the place via a camera, Miniminuteman has a great video showing and explaining the place, too.

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