Gobekli Tepe – Part 6

This extract is from ‘Travel Tales from Exotic Places like Salford’

Standing at the entrance to the walkway over the four excavated enclosures it’s difficult to comprehend that 11,000 years ago hunter-gatherers were creating a religious site at all
let alone one that will be an acre in size by the time the whole site is excavated. Looking at the carved monoliths the visitor has to comprehend that these stones weren’t dragged here from a local quarry and roughly erected. They were shaped expertly and some had their surfaces carved with a lot of skill. There didn’t appear to be any mistakes, there were no half-carved animals or rough attempts that had been discontinued – everything was complete and looked as though it was meant to be.

Where did the carvers and shapers practice their skills – what remains to be discovered? Were there journeymen craftsmen who travelled around the ancient world and created these sites for the people of the time in a similar way to the tradesmen of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries who carved their insignia into the cathedrals of Lincoln and Trondheim?