GOBEKLI TEPE ("BELLY HILL" in Turkish), is located at the top of a mountain ridge in the SOUTH-EASTERN ANATOLIA REGION of TURKEY. It was a central location for a CULT OF THE DEAD.
The veneration of the dead is based on the belief that the deceased, often family members, have a CONTINUED EXISTENCE and / or possess the ability to INFLUENCE the fortune of the LIVING. The agriculture, animal husbandry, and weaving, according to them, were brought to humankind from a SACRED MOUNTAIN which was inhabited by deities. They were the ones to whom they maintain a harmonic relationship for the benefit of their land. The point of entrance and exiting of this world were located at such specific openings marked by the movements of the stars.
Now those places are shown as an early evidence of worship to the deities who dealt with them. Elaborated CARVED BESTIARY are manifested as a form of covering TO PROTECT the DEAD. Animals were believed to have more sensitivity to the world of the spirits. Men believed that they possessed a "bush soul" as well as his own, and that this "bush soul" was incarnated in a wild animal or a tree, with which the individual has some kind of psychic identity. If the "bush soul"was that of an animal, the animal itself was considered as some sort of brother to the man. If the "bush soul" was a tree, the tree was presumed to have something like parental authority over the individual concerned. In both cases an injury to the "bush soul" is interpreted as an injury to the man.
Temples were constructed of massive stones adorned with carved animals and other strange figures. Even stones were considered a form of life.
The existence of this structures is being placed at 11,000 BC. The everyday life manifested through the enormous temple sites give us an idea of a fusion between real and invisible worlds.
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