Over 12,000 years ago, the only humans that roamed the Earth were hunters and gatherers. They would spend every waking moment of their lives looking for food and keeping their families safe. To put this in a historical context, it wasn't until people started learning how to farm that they evolved from the Stone Age. By not having to be concerned with hunting and gathering food for each meal, people had time to invent new things and think. It is commonly accepted that the end of the Stone Age was when religion was created.
In 1995, a German professor of archeology named Klaus Schmidt made an astonishing discovery on the top of a hill in southeastern Turkey called G?bekli Tepe. He used ground-penetrating radar to piece together a new way of thinking about cultural evolution. Schmidt believes that coordinated efforts were used to build G?bekli Tepe, which is thought to be a place of worship, and these laid the groundwork for complex societies. His theory simply states that religion helped push evolution forward instead of the other way around. If Schmidt is correct in his thinking, he could change history as we now know it.
This month, National Geographic Channel (NGC) investigates whether Schmidt's theory is correct in Cradle of the Gods. They interview renowned experts about prehistoric people and their settlements and constructions. Dr. Jeff Ross also looks at computer- generated imagery about Göbekli Tepe. Is Schmidt right in thinking the opposite of what most historians have agreed upon for decades? Or is he just another archeologist that has been out in the sun too long? Watch NGC's Cradle of the Gods to find out the answers. |
