Ali Kurt

: This article examines Gobeklitepe, the first temple built in Minor Asia, dating back to Neolithic Period. This temple is one of the oldest temples of mankind, according to the archaeologists. Gobeklitepe provides us with crucial information about the religious beliefs of hunter-gatherers - lacking urban life and agricultural production. This temple shows us that archaic people did not lead a life away from religion and beliefs, instead it proved that they had beliefs and constructed temples to observe their beliefs and employed rich religious symbols. Gobeklitepe is a sign that people started to build a temple first to meet their religious needs, even before adapting a settled life, constructing houses, domesticating animals, and starting agricultural production. This article deals with Gobeklitepe, the first temple built in Minor Asia, dating back to Neolithic Period. The archaeological excavations, commenced in 1995 near Sanliurfa, have changed the way we view history, offering us to validate the information we have about history. Gobeklitepe showed that the information we have about the beliefs and views of archaic people does not reflect the realities. People, thought to have led their lives as hunter-gatherers, lacking religious and abstract thinking, even not knowing how to make pottery, not having discovered agriculture and settled life, have profoundly affected scientists with their ability to build sophisticated and symbolically rich temples. Summary: The most interesting components of Gobeklitepe temples, which are the twenty circular structures in total with the span of 10 to 30 meters, are the T-shaped stone pillars with embossed abstract symbols and animals’ pictures. In the centre of the circular structure are two pillars encircled by ten to twelve T-shaped pillars, making up to about two hundred in total. When these T-shaped pillars are analysed in detail, and when the religious beliefs and temple cults of the ancient Minor Asian and Mesopotamian civilizations are studied, we can see that these pillars symbolize gods. Gobeklitepe, encircled by the children and smaller gods, centred by a couple gods – god and goddess – is the sacred place for gods’ pantheon. Gobeklitepe, as well as being a temple, stands as the most important representative of a belief system waiting in the darkness. Gobeklitepe, dating back to the early days of Neolithic Period, when no written resources existed and limited archaeological data survived, shows us the world of belief and thoughts of archaic people from that period. The structural features and forms of this megalithic construction prove that archaic people were not that primitive, as commonly supposed. Gobeklitepe presents us very important information about the birth and progress of religion. It shows that the theories - based upon evolutionist and positivist views claiming that religions originated from simple and groundless ideas like wizardry, soul, fear and ancestor worshipping, and then were transformed into complicated and organised belief systems – do not reflect the truth. Researchers thought that religions were born as a result of the quest for the solution to the problems in the new societies - raised by the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to the settled life and agricultural production. In other words, organised religions were viewed as the product of and consequence of complex social life. However, Gobeklitepe showed that religious beliefs could be traced back to former periods, and they could be more advanced and organised as well despite the common belief. Gobeklitepe is claimed to be the oldest and first temple yet known. This megalithic structure, at least 5000 years older than known ancient temples, clearly indicates how significant and influential religious beliefs could be in the development of civilizations. Klaus Schmidt, leading the excavation for many tears, stated that human’s need to believe is highly important and also prioritized in their genes, by uttering these words, “… first temple was built, and then the city.” Gobeklitepe also indicated that human constructed impressive and complex buildings before their basic needs such as housing, agriculture and pottery, showing that these were induced by the strong sense of belief amidst archaic human communities. The need to worship engraved in human genes inspired man to build temples in the first place. We can see how rich and effective religious systems and realm of ideas represented in Gobeklitepe were, and thus influenced the Minor Asian and Mesopotamian civilizations which emerged in the same region at least 5000 years later. The structures of temples and religious ideas of latter peoples coincide with this megalithic structure. When shedding light to the less known parts of these civilisations, Gobeklitepe offers an unrivalled opportunity to the researchers. When this megalithic structure was unearthed, it resounded well and drew the scholars’ attention. This temple complex, about which much is said in visual and printed media, has been claimed to be the Gardens of Eden, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a Shaman temple, or even the centre of aliens. As more information about Gobeklitepe was revealed in parallel to the archaeological excavations, it was shown that this place is a temple for rituals. The structural formation of Gobeklitepe showed in the first place that this place is definitely a temple. Not only its pillars in circular form but also its strategic location on a top hill away from the residential areas strengthened this idea. It will be more likely approach to state that Gobeklitepe is to be regarded as a sacred place where the hunter-gatherer communities worshipped, sacrificed animals for their gods, observed religious festivals and feasts at certain times of a year, and where these people experienced sacredness in a place in which gods resided. It is a great cultural and economic opportunity for our country that Gobeklitepe has always served a centre for beliefs throughout history and emerged in Urfa, formerly Edassa, known as the city of prophets. This megalithic construction, proving the cultural wealth and ancient mosaic of Anatolia, has been visited by many local and international researchers and scholars since it was unearthed. The first and the oldest temple in the scientific literature, Gobeklitepe is a temple complex inherited by the archaic communities to the contemporaries with mysteries going back to the dawn of man.