First Civilization Part 3 Chapter 19

 

The change from Mesolithic 1 to Natufian culture can be dated more closely. The earliest date from a Mesolithic 1 site in the Levant is 13,150 BC. The  latest date from a Natufian site is 11,140 BC.  This period is characterized by the early rise of agriculture. The domestication of animals and agriculture occurred together.  Larger social groups were also forming under a chief of shaman. The Natufian culture was a Mesolithic culture that existed from 13,500 to 9,500 BC in the Levant, a region of the Eastern Mediterranean coastland. It was unusual in that it was sedentary, or semi-sedentary, before the introduction of agriculture. The Natufian communities were possibly the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements of the region (which would include Jericho), which may have been the earliest in the world. There is some evidence for the deliberate cultivation of cereals, specifically rye, by the Natufian culture, at the Tell Abu Hureyra site, the site for earliest evidence of agriculture in the world.  Generally, though, Natufians made use of wild cereals. Animals hunted include gazelles. Because of its strategic location at the intersection of Asia and Europe, Anatolia has been the center of several civilizations since prehistoric times. 

Remains of a Natufian wall

Settlements occurred in the woodland belt where oak and Pistacia species dominated. The underbrush of this open woodland was grass with high frequencies of grain.  The habitations of the Natufian are semi-subterranean, often with a dry-stone foundation. The superstructure was probably made of brushwood. No traces of mud brick have been found.

Route taken to Gobekli Tepe by Ancient Astronaut Clones

The Anakim and the humans finally found a high ridge to build their stone temples.  The distance from their spaceship was a little over 300 miles to the northeast.  The site was  located on an elongated hilltop in the southern part of Anatolia.   The Anakin had to employ a large number of people to do the work. First they had to have a quarry to get the stone the from.

The Gobekli Tepe Stone Quarry

Also the people had to be taught how to do that and make mud brick as well.   A shaman Seer was the leader of them all and he taught the people that this place would have great religious significance in their lives.  In every part of the operation there was an Anikim overseeing that part of the job.  They decided to use families and make work teams from these groups.

This was how they could have made and  cut the stones

There must have been a pecking order for the work to be done.  So the Anakin had to find out which ones were the most intelligent and talented. From this group came the gang foreman who was under an Anakim overseer.   Since the men of this period had only stone axes to cut rock with.  They were taught what stones could be cut with what axe. Limestone can be carved with flint and so on. Use a harder rock to carve a softer rock.  Since the quarry was not too far away it would have been easy to find a way to bring the stones to the site where the temple would be built.  Having a superior knowledge of physics and engineering the Anakim instructed the workers in each phase what to do.
The first structure built was round with walls made of rock and mud brick. In the center were erected megalithic stone pillars facing a radial direction like the spokes of a wheel. The rock they used came from the limestone quarry located not 100 meters away on the same hill.  There was only one entrance into this temple.
In the structures, two pillars were placed in the center of each circle, possibly to help support the roof, and up to eight pillars were evenly positioned around the walls of the room. The spaces between the pillars were lined with unworked stone, and stone benches were placed between each set of pillars in the inner  circle. 

The Gobekli Tepe Temples being built

Until excavations began, a complex on this scale was not thought possible for a community so ancient, and with such primitive quarrying tools. The massive sequence of stratification layers suggests several millennia of activity, perhaps reaching back to the Mesolithic. The oldest occupation layer (Layer III) contains monolithic pillars linked by coarsely built walls to form circular or oval structures. Four such buildings have been uncovered, with diameters between 10–30 meters (33–98 ft). Geophysical surveys indicate the existence of 16 additional structures.  So a large community of humans for at least a few generations must have occupied Gobeckli Tepe.
In these sites no remains of domesticated animals were discovered.  But this does not say that some families had some animals of their own they used.  Remember this took place during the time right before the Neolithic Revolution in which the first domesticated animals and agriculture appeared.  They go hand in hand when you think about it.  It would have been something to see these people use aurochs ( the wild ox ancestor of domesticated cattle) to do some of the work. The reason I say this is that on megalith pillars they erected are carvings of local animal life.

Animals on a Gobekli Tepe Temple Pillar

So animals played an important role in these people's lives. The inhabitants are assumed to be hunters and gatherers who nevertheless lived in the village for all of the year.  A scholar speculates that the site played a key function in the transition to agriculture; he assumes that the necessary social organization needed for the creation of these structures went hand-in-hand with the organized exploitation of wild crops. For sustenance, wild cereals may have been used more intensively than before; perhaps they were even deliberately cultivated.