As climatic conditions improved after the Younger Dryas climate catastrophe, southeastern Anatolia developed into an area rich in living resources.
The wild seeds of both agriculture and human civilisation were blooming as new pre-pottery Neolithic centres began laying their foundations.
Göbekli Tepe is one such settlement that has captured the imagination of the world, with it enormous size and scale, with its incredible monumental architecture and the fact its radiocarbon dates go back as far as 11 and a half thousand years ago. This has led to Göbekli Tepe being called the Zero Point of History.
But even though this settlement rose to prominence at a turning point in the world’s climatic history, like every great ancient settlement and civilisation, it was eventually abandoned, some time between 8,241 and 7,795 BC.
You wouldn’t call it a city, or even a town, but a large village, a large-scale settlement for it age, and it thrived for at least around 1,500 years. But why was the site closed?
In this video we take a look at the latest archaeological data and interpretations and re-assess the old claims made by archaeologists Klaus Schmidt and propagated to a wide audience by the media and authors like Graham Hancock.
Was Göbekli Tepe ritually and purposefully covered over and abandoned? If not, why did the people leave?
Watch this video to find out!