Göbekli Tepe: Who Built It, When, and Why?

A Preview to Genesis of the Gods

By Andrew Collins*

Göbekli Tepe is a name that will be familiar to anyone interested in the ancient mysteries subject.
Billed as the oldest stone temple in the world, it is composed of a series of megalithic structures
containing rings of beautifully carved T-shaped pillars. It sits on a mountain ridge at the western
termination of the Ante-Taurus range in southeast Anatolia (today part of the Republic of Turkey),
just eight miles (thirteen kilometres) from the ancient city of Urfa, Abraham’s traditional birthplace.
Here its secrets have remained hidden beneath an artificial, belly-shaped mound for the last ten
thousand years. Agriculture and animal husbandry were barely known when Göbekli Tepe was
built, and roaming the fertile landscape of southwest Asia were, we are told, primitive hunter-
gatherers, whose sole existence revolved around survival on a day-to-day basis.
So what is Göbekli Tepe? Who created it, and why? More pressingly, why did its builders
bury their creation at the end of its useful life?
* Andrew Collins is the author of Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods, Bear & Co, 2014

Schmidt’s Discovery Since 1995 Schmidt and his

international team of specialists, working on
Göbekli Tepe was discovered as behalf of the German Archaeological Institute
recently as 1994 by German archaeologist and the Museum of Şanlıurfa (Urfa’s official
Klaus Schmidt. He was aware that a title), have uncovered four extraordinary
preliminary survey of Göbekli Tepe made in stone structures at Göbekli Tepe, constructed
1963 had concluded that the scattered ca. 9500-8500 BC, along with a dozen or so
fragments of cut and dressed limestone and smaller, and often much simpler, rooms
broken pieces of sculpture found here were dating to ca. 8500-8000 BC.
the product of a long forgotten Byzantine
cemetery. Yet when Schmidt arrived and saw
The Large Enclosures
not only the stone fragments, but also the
thousands of stone tools littering the The largest enclosures, known as C and D
occupational mound, he concluded (see Fig. 1), are by far the most complex,
differently. The mound, which is around 300 which is strange as they are also the oldest
metres (330 yards) in length, 250 metres (275 structures unearthed so far. Elliptical in shape,
yards) in breadth and 15 metres (50 feet) in and measuring between 15 and 20 metres (50
height, belonged to an infinitely older age, and 65 feet) in size, they each have rings of T-
one that thrived at the end of the Paleolithic shaped standing stones—originally twelve in
age some eleven and a half thousand years number—set within oval shaped walls made
ago. He knew also that unless he walked away of quarry stones held in place by a thin layer
now, then he would be at Göbekli Tepe for of mortar (Enclosure C has an additional, and
the rest of his life. slightly later, inner ring of stones, as well as
Thankfully Schmidt did decide to stay an approach passage or dromos entering from
and excavate the site, for it was later the south). The pillars, which are all
discovered that the mountain ridge on which manufactured from limestone quarried from
Göbekli Tepe sits was scheduled to become a the mountain ridge, are very often adorned
quarry, its limestone rock to be used as with carvings of strange creatures of the
foundation ballast for the new Urfa to Mardin natural world, executed either in bas-relief or
highway.

1
 They include bulls’ heads (bucrania), as well
as H shapes, and also an eye cupped by a
crescent. Unique to the twin pillars in
Enclosure D are wide belts with U-shaped
belt buckles (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 1. Plan of GT’s main enclosures (Pic credit:

Rodney Hale).

3D sculpture. They include lions, snakes,

boars, aurochs, asses, sheep, goats, insects, Fig. 2. The twin central pillars in Enclosure D (Pic
cranes, waterfowl, vultures, flightless birds credit: Andrew Collins).
and various canids, including the fox, wolf
and hyena. Festooned across the belts are strange
The stones are positioned like spokes glyphs looking like the letters C and H,
of a wheel facing two much larger T-shaped suggesting, along with the symbols displayed
monoliths, standing side-by-side at the centre as neck pendants, that the Göbekli builders
of the enclosures, like twin portals to another had a highly developed form of symbolic
world. In Enclosure C only the stumps of the script.
central monoliths remain. Yet those in
Enclosure D (see Fig. 2) are complete and rise
to a height of 5.5 metres (18.5 feet). Further
examples of these twin central pillars are to
be seen in Enclosure B, as well as in some of
the younger structures uncovered at the site.

Humanoid Statues
All the T-shapes, as Schmidt likes to
call the hammer-headed pillars, are meant to
represent human figures. Bent arms are
carved in relief on their wider, side faces.
These terminate in hands with long, spindly
fingers that curl around the pillar’s front
narrow edge. Dropping vertically between the
T-shaped “head” and the hands are twin
vertical lines, indicating the hems of an open
garment or stole of some kind. Some T-
shapes have a carved symbol on their
“necks,” above which is a V-shaped double
line indicating that they are to be seen as
pendants strung on cords, perhaps indicating Fig. 3. The belt on Enclosure D’s Pillar 18 (Pic credit:
devices of recognition, or emblems of office. Andrew Collins).

2
 Clearly, these people belonged to an BC began rising again at the latitude of
advanced culture, one beyond that expected Göbekli Tepe after an absence of almost
among the hunter-gathering societies existing 5,500 years; this absence being due to the
in southwest Asia at the end of the last glacial actions of precession (the earth’s slow wobble
age. on its axis across a cycle of approximately
On top of this, the twelve-fold division 26,000 years). The sudden appearance on the
of the stones in Enclosures C and D suggests southern horizon of this bright star might,
a harmonisation with the celestial bodies, in Magli proposed, have catalysed the local
particular the cycles of the sun and moon. Did hunter-gathering communities into building
the Göbekli builders synchronize their the first monumental architecture in human
monuments with the movements of the history.
heavenly bodies? It was another very attractive idea, and
coming from an academic like Magli, it was
destined to feature in scientific magazines,
Battle of the Stars journals and websites worldwide. But was it
correct? Had Italy’s leading archaeo-
Perched on the summit of a mountain astronomer found the true purpose behind the
ridge, with clear views of the local horizon, it creation of Göbekli Tepe?
makes sense to explore the possibility that
Göbekli Tepe’s megalithic structures might
once have targeted the movement of the sun, Unimpressive Star
moon and stars. It is a matter that has already
attracted the interest of the academic world. Chartered engineer Rodney Hale, who
In 2012 Robert Schoch, a geologist has examined claims of astronomical
with the University of Boston, proposed that alignments at prehistoric sites for the past
the twin central pillars in Enclosures B, C and fifteen years, took up the matter. He
D at Göbekli Tepe targeted the rising of the determined that when Sirius first began to rise
belt stars of Orion as they would have again around 9500 BC, the star only managed
appeared on the horizon during the epoch of a feeble arc across the southern horizon
their construction. As attractive as this before disappearing out of sight, a situation
proposal might seem—especially in view of that barely changed for hundreds of years.
Orion’s prominence in ancient astronomies— What is more, astronomy tells us that the
Schoch’s findings were dismissed by Italian nearer a star is to the horizon, the dimmer it
astrophysicist and archaeoastronomer Giulio will appear to the eye due to various natural
Magli of the University of Milan. Having factors, including atmospheric absorption and
checked Göbekli Tepe’s relationship with aerosol pollution.
Orion at this time, Magli discovered that for These factors have established values,
these alignments to work the megalithic and when properly calculated for the latitude
enclosures would have to be at least a of Göbekli Tepe for 8950 BC and 9400 BC,
thousand years younger than any current the dates offered by Magli’s alignments for
dating estimates, which suggest a foundation Enclosures C and D respectively, Sirius
date for the main enclosures somewhere in the would have been barely visible as it passed
region of ca. 9500-9000 BC. low over the southern horizon (see Fig. 4).
Moreover, the low arc the star made each
night meant that it shifted its position against
Sirius Rising the local horizon by as much as 3º in just 20
minutes, making it a highly unsuitable target
Instead, Magli proposed that the twin to align monoliths toward with an estimated
central pillars of Enclosures C and D targeted weight of around fifteen tonnes a piece.
the bright star Sirius, which in around 9500

3
 As a consequence, it seems
improbable that the hunter-gatherers of
southeast Anatolia gave up their free lives to
create and maintain enormous megalithic
temples like Göbekli Tepe just to follow the
actions of a somewhat unimpressive star.

Fig. 5. Left, plan of Enclosure D showing position of

holed stone and mean azimuth of the twin central
pillars. Right, the holed stone in Enclosure D. (Pic
Credits: Rodney Hale/Andrew Collins)

respectively, would have been able to gaze

northwards toward the local horizon through a
large porthole bored through one of the wide
faces of a standing stone, positioned in the
north-northwest section of the boundary wall
(Fig. 5 & 6).
Fig 4. The faint star Sirius as it would have appeared
rising on the southern horizon in 9400 BC.

If astronomical alignments really did

feature at Göbekli Tepe, they had to have
more obvious, more practical, implications.
Moreover, their existence should resonate
with the beliefs and practices of the Epi-
Paleolithic (that is, terminal Upper
Paleolithic) peoples inhabiting the ancient
world in the epoch immediately prior to the
construction of Göbekli Tepe.

Where the Stars Turn

Schoch and Magli had concentrated

their efforts in identifying a target star in the
southern sky, simply because the stone
structures at Göbekli Tepe are located in the
southern section of its occupational mound,
suggesting that the gaze of its assumed
astronomer-priests was toward the south. Yet
there is every reason to believe that the Fig 6. Enclosure D’s twin central pillars showing the
position of the holed stone immediately behind them.
structures are directed not southwards,
(Pic credit: Andrew Collins)
towards Orion or Sirius, but north towards the
circumpolar (i.e., never setting) and near Indeed, the position of the portholes
circumpolar stars that forever turn about the exactly reflects the mean azimuths of the twin
celestial pole. sets of pillars in each enclosure, indicating
What is more, a person standing that there might have been something
between the twin central pillars in Enclosures important to watch out for on the north-
C and D at the proposed time of their northwest horizon.
construction, ca. 8980 and 9400 BC

4
Aligned to Deneb France, executed ca. 16,500-15,000 BC (see
Fig. 8). He concluded that it depicts an
Rodney Hale calculated the mean abstract representation of the area of sky to
azimuths of the twin monoliths in Enclosures which it faces, in particular the bright star
C and D using site surveys, and determined Deneb in Cygnus.
that just one bright star aligned with the
portholes each night, and this was Deneb in
the constellation of Cygnus, the celestial
swan, also known as the Northern Cross. This
meant that if a person were to stand between
the twin central pillars in these enclosures,
they could have watched Deneb set through
the circular apertures of the holed stones (Fig.
7).

Fig. 8. Reconstruction of the enigmatic well scene in

the Lascaux cave in France’s Dordogne region (Pic
credit: Yuri Leitch).

Deneb, at the time, was Pole Star, in other

words its marked the position of the celestial
pole, the turning point of the heavens. It is a
fact expressed, Rappenglück argued, in the
image beneath the birdman of a bird on a pole
(pole stars change across the millennia due to
the effects of precession. Today Polaris in
Ursa Minor is Pole Star. Between 16,500 BC
Fig. 7. The setting of Cygnus’s bright star Deneb
aligned with the holed stone in Enclosure D. Not to and 14,000 BC it was Deneb. Between ca.
scale. (Pic credit: Rodney Hale) 14,000 and 13,000 BC it was the star Delta
Cygni, and between ca. 13,000-11,000 BC it
So why might the Göbekli builders was Vega in Lyra. Thereafter there was no
have been interested in this particular star? pole star for several thousand years, meaning
The answer lies in the fact that it marks the that when Göbekli Tepe was built, ca. 9500-
point on the Milky Way where it splits to 8000 BC, no star marked the celestial pole).
form two separate streams, due to the Arguably the bird on a stick at
presence of stellar dust and debris in line with Lascaux shows the Cygnus constellation
the axis of the galactic plane. Ancient cultures marking the position of the celestial pole,
saw this fork or cleft, known to astronomers with the pole itself representing the so-called
as the Great Rift or Cygnus Rift, as an axis mundi, or axis of the earth. This is a
entrance to the sky-world, or upper world, place or location, usually a ritual or holy site,
existing beyond the physical realm, an idea where the cosmic axis, the turning point of the
that might well go back to Paleolithic times. heavens, was thought to be anchored to the
In 2000 Dr. Michael Rappenglück of the ground. As for the birdman next to the pole,
University of Munich examined the famous he is very likely a shaman ascending to the
painted fresco of a bison and bird-headed man sky world during some kind of ecstatic or
in the Lascaux cave system in southern altered state of consciousness.

5
Vulture Shamanism So in Neolithic times, and arguably during the
Paleolithic age, the human soul was perhaps
On the Euphrates the stars making up seen to enter the afterlife either as a vulture or
the Cygnus constellation were seen not as a accompanied by a vulture. This act is shown
celestial swan, its usual avian identity, but as on Göbekli Tepe’s Pillar 43, a.k.a the Vulture
a vulture, a primary symbol of death and Stone, situated immediately to the left of the
rebirth in the Neolithic age. Indeed, the structure’s holed stone. It shows the soul of a
vulture features prominently in the carved art deceased person as a ball on the wing of a
of Göbekli Tepe and also at other Neolithic strange looking vulture with outstretched
cult centres in Anatolia. The reason for the wings that bears a distinct likeness to the
bird’s prominence in the cult of the dead is its shape of the Cygnus constellation (see Fig. 9).
association with excarnation, the defleshing Vulture wings, some still articulated,
of human carcasses following death, unearthed at one early Neolithic site in
something known to have been practised in southwest Asia indicate that shamans of this
Anatolia during Neolithic times. The soul of period adopted the guise of the vulture to
the individual, usually depicted as a ball-like perform ceremonies in which they would exit
head, is occasionally shown departing its their physical environment and enter
material environment in the company of the otherworldly realms. Their sky-world, where
vulture, acting in its capacity as a the soul returned to in death and new souls
psychopomp, a Greek word meaning “soul emerged from prior to birth, was most likely
carrier” or “soul accompanier.” seen to exist beyond the opening to the Milky
Way’s Great Rift, marked by the star Deneb
in Cygnus. This, as we have seen, was
synchronised at the moment of its setting with
the apertures of the holed stones erected in
Enclosures C and D at Göbekli Tepe. Was it
through the apertures in these stones that the
shamans exited this world so that they might
converse with power animals, ancestral spirits
and celestial beings? Is this what the stone
temples at Göbekli Tepe were—portals to the
sky-world, quite literally star-gates?
If so, then what were these star portals
used for, and by whom?

Cult of the Fox

The biggest clue is an animal

displayed frequently in the carved art at
Göbekli Tepe. This is the fox. It is seen
leaping across the inner faces of various of
the twin central pillars in Enclosures A, B, C
and D (see Fig. 10). In addition to this, the
anthropomorphic twin monoliths at the centre
of Enclosure D have fox-pelt loincloths
carved in relief beneath their wide belts, as if
the T-shapes are wearing them to cover their
Fig. 9. Göbekli Tepe’s Vulture Stone (Pillar 43), with genitalia. What is more, the high level of
the Cygnus stars overlaid on its main vulture carving
(Pic credit: Rodney Hale). faunal remains belonging to the red fox

6
(Vulpes vulpes) found at Göbekli Tepe led trying to save the world during an almighty
archaeozoologist Joris Peters, writing with cataclysm involving fire, flood and ice.
Klaus Schmidt, to conclude that the interest in As early as 1884 US congressman and
this creature went beyond any domestic usage catastrophe writer Ignatius Donnelly (1831–
and must be connected with the “exploitation 1901) proposed in his book Ragnarok: The
of its pelt and/or the utilization of fox teeth Age of Fire and Gravel, that the Fenris wolf
for ornamental purposes.” That this statement and other supernatural canids featured in the
was made before the discovery of the fox-pelt Ragnarok account are abstract memories of a
loincloths carved on the front narrow faces of series of comet impacts that devastated the
Enclosure D’s central pillars means that what planet towards the end of the last great glacial
Peters and Schmidt go on to say in the same age.
paper should not be ignored, for in their
opinion this evidence suggests “a specific
worship of foxes may be reflected here.”
So why the fox? Why was this animal
so important at Göbekli Tepe?

Fig. 10. Leaping fox bas-relief on the inner face of

Enclosure B’s Pillar 10 (Pic credit: Andrew Collins).

Cosmic Trickster

The answer seems to be comets. In various

parts of the ancient world the fox, or more
correctly the fox’s tail, has been identified
with the appearance of comets (a three-
pronged comet-like symbol appears on the
belt buckle worn by one of the twin monolith
in Enclosure D, directly above the fox-pelt
loincloth—see Fig. 11). Foxes are seen as Fig. 11. The suspected comet symbol occupying the
manifestations of a supernatural creature in position of the belt buckle on Enclosure D’s eastern
the form of a trickster, and when not a fox, central monolith (Pillar 18), showing also the fox-pelt
this same mythical creature is most often loincloth, possibly indicating comet symbolism (Pic
credit: Andrew Collins).
identified with the wolf. In Norse mythology
the trickster is the Fenris wolf. With its fierce
The Wolf Progeny
lupine offspring, Fenris wreaks havoc at
Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods, a kind of
And it is not just in Northern Europe
pagan Armageddon where even the gods die
that supernatural canines are seen as

7
harbingers of all-encompassing catastrophes the seven stars of the Plough constellation,
involving fire and flood. They occur right also known as the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major,
across Europe, and are found also in the the great bear, which is forever seen to turn
sacred writings of Zoroastrianism, a religious about the celestial pole. One of its stars, the
doctrine that once thrived in Iran, India, and tiny Alcor, which lies close to a larger star
Armenia. In a holy book entitled the named Mizar, is identified with the cosmic
Bundahishn it states: “As Gokihar falls in the trickster, and even bears the name Fox Star or
celestial sphere from a moon-beam on to Wolf Star in various ancient astronomies (see
earth, the distress of the earth becomes such- Fig. 12). It was seen as a visible reminder of
like as that of a sheep when a wolf falls upon the sky-wolf or sky-fox who constantly tries
it.” to attack and bring down the sky-pole holding
Gokihar is generally translated as up the heavens. Therefore it was of
“meteor,” that is, a comet, asteroid, or bolide paramount importance among ancient
of some sort, while the name itself has been cultures, particularly in Europe, to protect the
interpreted as meaning “wolf progeny.” In cosmic axis from the mischievous actions of
other words, the statement in the Bundahishn the trickster, as catastrophic events like
expresses the manner in which the land was Ragnarok were not simply events that
seen to buckle and bend with the impact of happened in the past. They were seen as the
some cosmic object, a terrifying event likened once and future fate of the world.
to the manner in which a sheep collapses The only way of countering the baleful
when attacked by a wolf. influence of the trickster was through the
In many ancient societies epoch- actions of the shaman. It was their duty to
shattering cataclysms were often seen to have enter the sky-world, where the sky-fox or sky-
been caused or triggered by the actions of wolf roamed freely, and here either appease it,
supernatural sky-creatures—cosmic tricksters or outwit it in some manner.
ever ready to attack the axis mundi, the world
axis or sky-pole, and as a consequence bring Catastrophobia
about the destruction of the world. Usually,
the daily turning of the axis was imagined as In central Europe, in what is today the
being undertaken by further cosmic creatures, Czech Republic, and also on the Russian
most commonly oxen pulling a plough or plain, considerable evidence has emerged
wain. They are imagined as circling around from Upper Paleolithic settlements of beliefs
the celestial pole to which they were tethered, and practices involving fox and wolf
causing the stars to revolve about the heavens. paraphernalia, including teeth, claws and
skulls. So to find similar evidence emerging
from Göbekli Tepe of ritual activity involving
the fox should not be ignored. Is it possible
that its stone temples were utilised by
shamans entering the sky-world, via the
Milky Way’s Great Rift sky-portal, to ensure
that the sky-fox, or indeed the sky-wolf (3D
Fig. 12. The Plough or Big Dipper constellation, which carvings of wolves have been found at
forms part of Ursa Major, the great bear, as a celestial Göbekli Tepe), did not bring destruction to
wain, showing the position of Alcor, the Fox Star or the world?
Wolf Star (Pic credit: Andrew Collins/Storm Did the Epi-Palaeolithic peoples of
Constantine/Rodney Hale).
southeast Anatolia have some reason to
believe that cosmic cataclysms, perhaps
Once and Future Fate
associated with incoming comets, might occur
in their own lifetimes? Did these hunter-
Astronomically, this turning
gatherer communities suffer from what writer
mechanism of the heavens is identified with

8
and visionary Barbara Hand Clowe calls blasts, triggered in this instance by
catastrophobia, the recurring fear of disintegrating comet fragments. What is more,
cataclysms? compelling evidence of a close-proximity air
blast at this same time has been found at an
Epi-Paleolithic settlement site named Abu
The Younger Dryas Event Hureyra, just 100 miles (160 kilometres) from
Göbekli Tepe, showing that southwest Asia
Today, scientists are recognising the did not escape the devastation.
fact that some 12,900 years ago the earth
underwent a terrifying period of destruction
caused most likely by fragments of a
disintegrating comet (see Fig. 13).
Geological, archaeological and paleo-
climatological records reveal the terrifying
consequences of this proposed cataclysm,
which caused super-tsunamis, mass flooding,
severe wildfires, and a subsequent period of
darkness, believed to have triggered a 1,300-
year mini ice age known as the Younger
Dryas event.

Fig. 14. The eight-centimetre (three-inch) Usselo

Horizon. This example of the boundary layer was found
at Lommel, Belgium, and dated at 12,940 years ago.
The same ash-rich layer has been found at sites all
over the world (Pic credit: Johán B. Kloosterman).

A Cycle of Catastrophes

Yet even if this cataclysmic event did

occur, how could it have instilled a sense of
catastrophobia within the inhabitants of
Fig. 13. Did a comet impact with the earth around southeast Anatolia, strong enough for them to
12,900 years ago? Did its aftermath result in the build Göbekli Tepe? Well, the fact of the
construction of GT? (Pic credit: USGC) matter is that the Younger Dryas Boundary
impact event, its official title among the
Although scientists believe the largest scientific community, was not a lone event
and most intense impacts occurred on the that took place on a single day. Ice core
American continent, various other areas of the samples from Greenland indicate that
world suffered as well. From Belgium across following the initial event in around 10,900
to Belarus, and from Egypt all the way down BC, the northern hemisphere experienced
to Australia, an eight-centimetre (three-inch) incessant wildfires for hundreds of years
thick layer of ash and fire debris is present in afterwards, culminating with another spike of
the geological record corresponding to a date activity around 10,340 BC.
of approximately 12,900 years ago. Known as Dr. Richard Firestone of Lawrence
the Usselo horizon (see Fig. 14), it has been Berkeley National Laboratory of Nuclear
found to contain microscopic evidence of an Science and his co-authors in their book The
impact scenario, including magnetic spherules Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes (2006), which
and nano-diamonds. These are usually created sets out the full extent of the Younger Dryas
during extremely high temperature aerial

9
impact event, believes that 10,340 BC “may re-examined, and these too suggest that some
be the date of one of the impacts.” This brings kind of hood is being worn by the figure in
us within eight hundred years of the question.
construction of Göbekli Tepe and explains These hooded figures bear all the
why there might well have been a lingering hallmarks of a ruling elite behind the
case of catastrophobia among the inhabitants construction at the site. Do the T-shapes
of southeast Anatolia. If this was the case, therefore represent the great ancestors of
then we can say with some certainty that one those who offered the local hunter-gatherer
of the principal purposes behind its communities the remedy for their proposed
construction was to enable shamans to enter catastrophobia in the centuries following the
the sky-world and curtail the baleful actions aftermath of the Younger Dryas boundary
of the cosmic trickster, which if not kept in impact event?
check might well have brought about the So what was the identity of this ruling
destruction of the world. elite? Where did they come from, and who
were their great ancestors?

The First Gods

Yet even assuming these ideas are

correct, who was responsible for initiating
such a mammoth building project? Was it
simply the product of local hunter-gathering
societies working together over an extended
period of time? Or might there have been
other forces at work here? Answers can, most
likely, be found in the presence of the
anthropomorphic pillars set in circles around
the twin central pillars in the various
enclosures. Clearly, they have human form
and may thus be seen as highly abstract
statues. Schmidt has called them the first
gods, celestial beings, and divine ancestors,
but why do they have hammer-shaped heads?
The front protrusion might easily represent an
elongated face and jaw line, but what about Fig. 15. The T-shaped statue found at Kilisik, near the
the rear extension. What does this represent? town of Adıyaman in southeast Turkey, and thought to
At Kilisik, near the town of Adıyaman be contemporary with the construction phases at
in southeast Anatolia, just over 50 miles (80 Göbekli Tepe. Note the hood-like extension to the rear
of the head. (Pic credit: Gaziantep Museum)
kilometres) away from Göbekli Tepe, a mini
T-shaped figure was found in 1965 (see Fig.
15). Unlike the larger, more abstract T-shaped
The Big Chill
pillars found at Göbekli Tepe, this particular
example, which dates to the same age, gives a
In the wake of the Younger Dryas
more realistic impression of what it is meant
impact event the chances are that ice age
to signify. And suddenly it becomes clear that
populations would have been on the move,
the extension at the back of the head is in fact
seeking new territories. The mini ice age
a hood or headdress of some sort. With this
triggered by the cataclysm not only caused a
knowledge other stone figurines with
drop in temperature in areas affected by the
extended heads found at Pre-Pottery Neolithic
cold spell, but also brought about long-lasting
sites elsewhere in the region can also now be
droughts in regions beyond the extent of the

10
ice, including southwest Asia. This would technology, but the Swiderians also
have resulted in the drying up of springs, established sophisticated mining operations,
streams and river sources, and the some of the only accepted examples from the
disappearance of herd animals seen as Paleolithic age, within the Świętokrzyskie
essential to the survival of Paleolithic hunter- (Holy Cross) Mountains of central Poland.
gatherer societies across the Eurasian Here they extracted “exotic” forms of flint, as
continent. well as hematite, used as ochre. Long distance
Hunting groups would have travelled trading routes were established to transport
hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to find stone tools and pre-form cores across
new territories, where sufficient numbers of hundreds of miles. Thus there is little question
herd animals and adequate food and water that the Swiderians were among the first
supplies, might be found to sustain their miners anywhere in the world. More
communities. As can be imagined, this would importantly, they walked the earth both
have resulted in territorial skirmishes and during and in the aftermath of the proposed
even fierce battles, leading to some Younger Dryas impact event.
populations either being annihilated or taken
over by incoming groups, who would have
seized the opportunity to exploit human
populations and natural resources.

The Swiderians

In 1987 American historian Mary

Settegast, in a compelling book entitled Plato
Prehistorian, wrote about the imagined
impact a global catastrophe would have had Fig. 16. Map showing the distribution of Swiderian
on human populations at the end of the last tanged points found in Central and Eastern Europe
glacial age. Not only did she uncover during the tenth and eleventh millennia BC.
evidence of widescale bloodshed and violence
across Europe and western Asia at this time, Obsidian Obsession
but she also noticed the footprints (see Fig.
16) of a very specific group of reindeer One of the exotic materials coveted by
hunters reaching all the way from the the Swiderians was the black volcanic glass
Carpathian Mountains in Central Europe known as obsidian. This they procured from
across to the Crimean Mountains, north of the find sites in the Carpathian Mountains, where
Black Sea in what is today the Ukraine, a even today obsidian is considered a magical
distance of some 850 miles (1,400 substance, born of the sky and embodying the
kilometres). This easterly migration she saw power of fire itself; it also happens to be one
as hunting groups exploring foreign of the sharpest substances on earth.
territories, looking to exploit new resources The Epi-Paleolithic communities
now that the precious reindeer herds had existing in eastern Anatolia during the
disappeared into the arctic regions far to the Younger Dryas cold spell also coveted
north. obsidian for making tools and projectile
These reindeer hunters are known as points. This they obtained from key find sites
the Swiderians, after the “type site” where close to a volcano named Nemrut Dağ on the
their cultural traits were first recognised at shores of Lake Van, Turkey’s largest inland
Świdry Wielkie in Otwock, near Warsaw, in sea, and in the foothills surrounding Bingöl
Poland. Not only were they an advanced Mountain, located in the nearby Armenian
hunting society, with a unique stone tool Highlands. Tools and points made from

11
obsidian deriving from these locations have Eastern Gravettians, who thrived in highly
been found in great quantities at proto- advanced settlements in both Central Europe
Neolithic sites in eastern Anatolia, seen as and on the Russian Plain between 30,000 and
precursors to Göbekli Tepe. 20,000 BC. They built communal buildings,
experimented with cereal farming as much as
Swiderian Takeover 30,000 years ago; introduced the Mother
Goddess cult, expressed in the production of
Among the stone tools and projectile full-bodied Venus figurines; wore tailored
points found at Göbekli Tepe are many made clothes, sewn together using bone needles,
from obsidian originating from both Bingöl and revered both the wolf and arctic fox,
Mountain and Lake Van. Both in style and the which would seem to have been associated
manner of production they bear close with the soul’s journey into the afterlife.
similarities to the toolkit of the Swiderians,
who are known to have reached as far east as
the Caucasus Mountains, where they would
have come up against indigenous peoples,
most likely members of another advanced
society known as the Zarzians, who almost
certainly controlled the local obsidian trade at
this time. It seems likely that Swiderian
groups continued southward, reaching
eventually the obsidian find sites around
Bingöl Mountain and Lake Van. This would
have brought them within easy reach of the
late Palaeolithic and early Neolithic
communities of southeast Anatolia (even
Klaus Schmidt himself has compared the
hunting strategies of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic
peoples of southeast Anatolia with those of
the Swiderians of the East European Plain).

Upper Paleolithic Ancestors Fig. 17. On the left a Solutrean lance head around
20,000 years old, and on the right a Swiderian point
The advanced tool making skills and fashioned from chocolate flint, around 11,000 years
old. Not to scale. (Pic credits: J. L. Katzman/Aggsbach
mining capabilities of the Swiderians, whose Paleolithic Blog).
hunting strategies Schmidt has himself
compared with those of the earliest Neolithic Neanderthal Hybrids
communities of southeast Anatolia, have been
connected with those of the Solutreans (see Anthropological evidence suggests
Fig. 17), one of the most mysterious cultures that at least some Swiderians were of striking
of the Upper Paleolithic age. They thrived in appearance. They were tall, with large,
Western Europe between ca. 25,000-16,500 dolichocephalic (that is, elongated) heads,
years ago, and developed an extraordinary long faces, high cheekbones, and strong jaws.
stone blade technology. They were also Very likely, they derived not only from the
responsible for some of the earliest ice age art Cro-Magnons, the earliest anatomically
in Western Europe, including the bison and modern humans to enter Europe some forty-
birdman fresco in France’s Lascaux Cave. three thousand years ago, but also from
The Solutreans came, most likely, another human type known to have existed in
from Central Europe, and were connected to Central Europe around twenty-five thousand
another advanced population—that of the years ago.

12
 Named as “Brünn Man” by became the ruling elite responsible for the
anthropologists of the late nineteenth and creation of Göbekli Tepe. Is it the memory of
early twentieth centuries, evidence of their their great ancestors, who might have
existence was first noted among human included Solutreans, Gravettians and even
remains found at a Gravettian site unearthed Neanderthal-human hybrids, that is enshrined
in 1891 at Brünn, modern Brno, in Moravia, in the twelvefold rings of T-shaped pillars
the modern Czech Republic. Other examples found in key enclosures?
were found in 1894 alongside wolf skulls at It was the Swiderian elite who most
another Gravettian site unearthed at likely introduced the manner in which the
Predmostí, also in Moravia. hunter-gatherer populations of southeast
The Brünn type humans were tall with Anatolia could alleviate their catastrophobia,
large, elongated skulls, long faces, strong the fear of further cataclysms in the wake of
brow ridges, and other striking features. the Younger Dryas impact event. These
Anthropologists of the late nineteenth and individuals, and their descendants, probably
early twentieth centuries found firm evidence controlled and managed the various phases of
that the Solutreans were linked to the Brünn building activity at Göbekli Tepe, something
population. Moreover, that these suspected that led eventually to the introduction of
ancestors of the Solutreans had migrated to animal husbandry and agriculture across the
Central Europe from the Russian Plain, where region, marking the earliest stages of the
advanced Gravettian settlements have been Neolithic revolution.
unearthed, some of which have produced
human remains comparable with those of the
Brünn type. The Final Abandonment
If the Swiderians did derive
Over a period of around fifteen hundred years
physiological traits from the Brünn
twenty or more major enclosures were
population, then it is possible that both gained
constructed within the gradually emerging
at least part of their unique physiognomy and
occupational mound at Göbekli Tepe. Old
technical skills from the Neanderthals,
enclosures were periodically
humanity’s closest cousins, whose
decommissioned, deconsecrated and covered
communities lingered on in Eastern Europe
over, quite literally “killed,” at the end of
until around 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. In
their useful lives. New structures were built to
fact, Swiderian physiognomy was linked with
replace them, but as time went by they
the concept of Neanderthal hybrids as early as
became gradually smaller and more simpler in
1956, following the discovery of two human
construction, until eventually they were no
crania, one in Lithuania and another in
bigger than a family-sized Jacuzzi with pillars
Central Russia, which show Neanderthal-
no more than one and a half metres (five feet)
hybrid traits, and yet are attributable to the
in height. Somehow the world had changed,
Swiderian population. Further confirmation
and the impetus for creating gigantic stone
has come from the discovery of skeletal
temples with monoliths as much as five and a
remains belonging to a Post–Swiderian
half metres high was no longer there.
culture, which have been compared with those
Sometime around 8000 BC the last
of the Brünn population, who were
remaining enclosures were covered over with
themselves most probably Neanderthal-
earth and refuse matter, and the site
human hybrids.
abandoned to the elements. All that remained
was an enormous belly-shaped mound that
The Ruling Elite
became an ideal expression of the fact that the
stone enclosures had originally been seen, not
It is proposed that having assumed
just as star portals to another world, but also
control of the obsidian trade in eastern
as womb-like chambers, where the souls of
Anatolia, the incoming Swiderian groups
shaman, or indeed the spirits of the dead,

13
could quite literally journey to the source of Neolithic revolution are named as the
creation, located somewhere in the vicinity of Anunnaki, the gods of heaven and earth. Their
the Cygnus constellation. It was a concept birthplace was said to have been the Duku, a
dimly reflected in the name Göbekli Tepe, primeval mound located on the summit of a
which in Turkish means “navel-like hill.” world mountain called Kharsag, or Hursag.
Here the Anunnaki gave humanity the first
The Serpent-headed People sheep and grain, which we can see as a
memory of the introduction of animal
Even after Göbekli Tepe was husbandry and agriculture at the time of the
abandoned, its memory, and those of the Neolithic revolution. The Anunnaki are
ruling elite behind its construction, lingered occasionally likened to serpents, reflecting the
among the Halaf and later Ubaid peoples who snake-like physiognomy of the ruling elite of
flourished during the latter part of the the earlier Halaf and Ubaid cultures.
Neolithic age, ca. 6000-4100 BC.
Like their predecessors, they gained The Coming of the Watchers
control of the all-important obsidian trade
from find sites such as Bingol Mountain and Then we come to the impact Göbekli
Nemrut Dağ, close to Lake Van. Their elites, Tepe had on the earliest Semitic peoples of
who would appear to have belonged to North Mesopotamia. Their oral traditions
specific family groups, artificially deformed would one day be carried into the land of
their already elongated heads. Canaan by the first Israelites and recorded
It is very possibly these ancestors who down in religious works such as the book of
are depicted as the snake- or reptilian-headed Enoch and the book of Giants. In these so-
figurines found in Ubaid cemeteries (see Fig. called Enochian texts the prime movers
18). behind the construction of Göbekli Tepe, and
the subsequent Neolithic revolution, are
described as tall, pale-looking human angels
called Watchers (see Fig. 19 & 20), who wear
feather coats, have visages like vipers (that is,
they have long facial features), and are
occasionally described as Serpents (indeed,
one Watcher is named as the Serpent that
beguiled Eve in the Garden of Eden).

Fig. 18. Snake-headed figurines found in Ubaid graves,

ca. 5000-4100 BC. Now in the British Museum.

Rise of the Anunnaki

The elite of the Halaf and Ubaid were

probably the forerunners of the god-kings
who ruled the first city-states down on the
Fig. 19 & 20. Left, a Watcher by artist Billie Walker
Mesopotamian plain, which eventually John drawn in 1995, based on descriptions offered in
became the civilizations of Sumer, Akkad, Enochian material. Right, artist Russell M. Hossain’s
Assyria and Babylon. Their scribes preserved 3D sculpt based on Billie Walker John’s original (Pic
in cuneiform writing the ruling dynasties’ credits: left, Billie Walker John/Andrew Collins &
mythical history, in which the founders of the right, Russell M. Hossain).

14
Two hundred of their number are said to have Araxes, are seen to take their rise in the same
descended among mortal kind and taken vicinity—on the slopes of Bingöl Mountain,
mortal wives, who produced giant offspring one of the primary sources of obsidian located
called Nephilim. around 200 miles (322 kilometers) from
According to the book of Enoch, the Göbekli Tepe (see Fig. 22). Local tradition
rebel Watchers revealed to their wives the asserts that Bingöl was also the source of the
secret arts of heaven, many of which fourth river of Paradise, the Pison, while
correspond pretty well with a number of firsts ancient writers recorded that the true source
for humanity that took place in southwest of the Tigris was also in the Armenian
Asia in the wake of the Neolithic revolution. Highlands. This then was the true
Are the Watchers a memory of the geographical location of Paradise.
appearance in Anatolia of the Swiderians,
whose striking appearance fits the description
of the Watchers? If so, then does it suggest The Place of Descent
that the strange appearance of the Watchers,
with their long serpentine faces, might in part Also just 180 miles (290 kilometres) from
be due to them being Neanderthal-human Göbekli Tepe is the original “Place of
hybrids (see Fig. 21)? Descent” where, according to tradition,
Noah’s Ark came to rest following the great
flood, the story told in the book of Genesis.
This is Mount al-Judi, the modern Cudi Dağ,
which rises above the town of Cizre in
southeast Anatolia, and not Mount Ararat
further north in Armenia, which only received
its status as “Place of Descent” in the fifth
century AD. In Muslim, Syriac and Kurdish
tradition, the true Place of Descent is Mount
al-Judi. It is here that Noah and his family
began the process of repopulating the world
after the deluge that nearly destroyed the
Fig. 21. 3D sculpts showing a Swiderian male and
female by artist Russell M. Hossain based on available
human race.
anatomical evidence. Are these the faces of the elite
who inspired the creation of Göbekli Tepe, as well as
the Watchers and Anunnaki of myth and legend? Do
they show also Neanderthal-human hybrids? (Pic
credit: Russell M. Hossain)

The Rivers of Paradise

A memory also of this crucial epoch in
human development is perhaps preserved in
the stories of Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden. According to the book of Genesis this
was located, in geographical terms, where the
four rivers of Paradise took their course. Fig. 22. Map of eastern Turkey showing the principal
Three of these rivers are easily determined. rivers identified with the four rivers of Paradise.
They are the Euphrates, the Tigris and the
Araxes (the biblical Gihon), which all rise The Secrets of Adam
either in the mountains south of Lake Van or
nearby in the Armenian Highlands. What is One of the most prolific branches of
more, two of the rivers, the Euphrates and Gnostic Christianity were the Sethians, a

15
name honoring Seth, the third son of Adam the monks here preserved archaic traditions
and Eve. In the centuries following the death concerning the Garden of Eden and the
of Christ they believed that Seth’s “seed”, existence of a holy relic of incredible
which included the antediluvian patriarchs of religious significance. Confirmation of the
the book of Genesis, were the only true and presence of this holy relic at the monastery
righteous descendants of Adam, and the (which in the seventh century was given a
inheritors of his divine wisdom. special decree of immunity from attack signed
Sethian writings, such as the various by the prophet Mohammed himself) reveals
tracts found in a cave at Nag Hammadi in what could be Adam’s ultimate secret—the
Egypt in 1945, speak repeatedly of the secrets manner in which we as mortals may re-enter
of Adam being passed to Seth before his Paradise and become, as once we were, like
father’s death. Seth is said to have recorded angels ourselves. Strict copyright © Andrew
them either in book form, or on tablets or Collins 2014.
pillars called stelae. These were hidden in or
on a holy mountain, existing in the vicinity of All references for this article can be found in
Paradise, so that they might survive a coming the book Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods,
cataclysm of fire and flood. published by Inner Traditions/Bear & Co,
Called variously Charaxio, Seir, or Şir, Rochester, VM, 2014.
this mountain is linked in early Christian
tradition with the site inhabited by the
generations of Adam following the expulsion
of the first couple from Paradise. So what are
the secrets of Adam, and where might they be
found today?
Do the secrets of Adam, written down
by Seth, pertain to the manner in which
Göbekli Tepe was built to curtail the
catastrophobia rife among the indigenous
peoples of the region in the wake of the
Younger Dryas impact event? Had this
information been given to the local hunter-
gatherers of the region by incoming
Swiderian groups, whose elongated heads and
long ancestry was connected with their
origins as Neanderthal-human hybrids? Did
they become the human angels called
Watchers of the book of Enoch?
As Angels Ourselves

Where exactly was Charaxio, or Mount Seir,

where the books of Seth containing the secrets
of Adam await discovery? This is the quest I
embark upon in the second half of Göbekli
Tepe: Genesis of the Gods, with the result To contact the author either email him via
being the discovery in the Eastern Taurus www.andrewcollins.com, or contact him
Mountains of a forgotten Armenian using facebook. Alternatively, write to Inner
monastery overlooking the traditional site of Traditions at author@innertraditions.com.
the Garden of Eden. Before its destruction at
the time of the Armenian genocide of 1915,

16