The long existing accepted theory goes something like this:
1. Nomadic tribes people dropped seeds on the ground.
2. They see that the seeds they dropped grew.
3. One day the nomads decided to begin farming and domesticating the seeds. This begins the Neolithic revolution, and ends the Paleolithic era.
4. Permanent settlements were established in the areas on farming sites
5. Farming communities developed more complex social organizations which would lead to things such as religion. This happened in the Iraq, Egypt, the Indus valley, and China.
6. These more complex societies would form cities, where people had established roles in helping out the greater society.
7. Cities grew into civilizations.
In 1994 some buried ruins were found in Turkey on a hill called Gobekli Tepe. These ruins turned out to be a city buried beneath the ground, with strange carvings and figurines of animals like the gazelle among others that are not native to that land. Today 4 buildings have been uncovered, and this represents 5% or less of what still lies beneath the surface. These buildings range from between 11,000 years old and 14,000 years old, the end of the last ice age. It means the people of these ruins saw the last millennia of the Paleolithic era, and the dawn of the Neolithic era, and were constructing structures far more advanced than what we thought people were capable of until thousands of years later. Sumer and Egypt came along literally 5,000 years after the fall of the people who built this site, the people who built Gobekli Tepe are more ancient to the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamia than the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians are to us.
Seriously, the one below looks like a Chozo offering a freeze Beam for Samus:
And what the hell is this?! What could these symbols mean? This is far earlier than Hieroglyphs, runes, Linear A, or Cuneiform.
What archaeologists have hypothesized is that this is a city of Temples, they determined this with evidence of rituals involving human bodies; including the removal of the head from the body, which appears on both skeletons and stylized carvings on the wall. What this means was that religion developed during the Paleolithic era, and it was in complex enough form that temples were required. There were no bones/fossils and no sculptures or carvings found of anything domesticated. This was a society where they brought wild grains and hunted animals back to the site of the temples, and did not farm anything. Judging by the carvings, the archaeologists have theorized that this early religion is based around the dominance of humankind over all other animals. the death rituals indicate that there is some concept of an afterlife or rebirth.
What this means is that not only do we have a new model, but we see why the Neolithic revolution occurred:
1. Religion developed first, and temples were constructed on sites that may have been sacred (hypothetical, we can only really make an educated assumption here).
2. To feed the workers and shaman class, the hunters and gatherers would harvest wild grains, fruits, vegetables, and hunt wild animals, and bring them back to this site. While this area is very dead today, the carvings and evidence indicates that it was once lush and fertile.
3. Settlements form complex social organizations, and soon they learn that nomadic lifestyles are not entirely necessary anymore as the temple sites prove to be sustainable.
4. This leads to people farming wild oates and herding animals - herding can theoretically arrive as the result of the human faith of dominance over other animals. This leads to farming the Neolithic Revolution.
5. Cities
6. Civilization
In short:
Farming > Settlement > Religion > City > Civilization
to
Religion > Settlement > Farming > City > Civilization
1. Nomadic tribes people dropped seeds on the ground.
2. They see that the seeds they dropped grew.
3. One day the nomads decided to begin farming and domesticating the seeds. This begins the Neolithic revolution, and ends the Paleolithic era.
4. Permanent settlements were established in the areas on farming sites
5. Farming communities developed more complex social organizations which would lead to things such as religion. This happened in the Iraq, Egypt, the Indus valley, and China.
6. These more complex societies would form cities, where people had established roles in helping out the greater society.
7. Cities grew into civilizations.
In 1994 some buried ruins were found in Turkey on a hill called Gobekli Tepe. These ruins turned out to be a city buried beneath the ground, with strange carvings and figurines of animals like the gazelle among others that are not native to that land. Today 4 buildings have been uncovered, and this represents 5% or less of what still lies beneath the surface. These buildings range from between 11,000 years old and 14,000 years old, the end of the last ice age. It means the people of these ruins saw the last millennia of the Paleolithic era, and the dawn of the Neolithic era, and were constructing structures far more advanced than what we thought people were capable of until thousands of years later. Sumer and Egypt came along literally 5,000 years after the fall of the people who built this site, the people who built Gobekli Tepe are more ancient to the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamia than the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians are to us.
Seriously, the one below looks like a Chozo offering a freeze Beam for Samus:
And what the hell is this?! What could these symbols mean? This is far earlier than Hieroglyphs, runes, Linear A, or Cuneiform.
What archaeologists have hypothesized is that this is a city of Temples, they determined this with evidence of rituals involving human bodies; including the removal of the head from the body, which appears on both skeletons and stylized carvings on the wall. What this means was that religion developed during the Paleolithic era, and it was in complex enough form that temples were required. There were no bones/fossils and no sculptures or carvings found of anything domesticated. This was a society where they brought wild grains and hunted animals back to the site of the temples, and did not farm anything. Judging by the carvings, the archaeologists have theorized that this early religion is based around the dominance of humankind over all other animals. the death rituals indicate that there is some concept of an afterlife or rebirth.
What this means is that not only do we have a new model, but we see why the Neolithic revolution occurred:
1. Religion developed first, and temples were constructed on sites that may have been sacred (hypothetical, we can only really make an educated assumption here).
2. To feed the workers and shaman class, the hunters and gatherers would harvest wild grains, fruits, vegetables, and hunt wild animals, and bring them back to this site. While this area is very dead today, the carvings and evidence indicates that it was once lush and fertile.
3. Settlements form complex social organizations, and soon they learn that nomadic lifestyles are not entirely necessary anymore as the temple sites prove to be sustainable.
4. This leads to people farming wild oates and herding animals - herding can theoretically arrive as the result of the human faith of dominance over other animals. This leads to farming the Neolithic Revolution.
5. Cities
6. Civilization
In short:
Farming > Settlement > Religion > City > Civilization
to
Religion > Settlement > Farming > City > Civilization
-Insert Inspiring Quote-
