Prehistoric Pillars of Civilization

·1 hr 21 min·5 clips

Why do 12,000-year-old arrowheads at Gobekli Tepe show no advancement, while the site's megaliths display incredibly advanced stonework?

Kyle Allen delivers a presentation originally given at a New York event, focusing on stoneworking technology at Gobekli Tepe and connections to Egypt. He begins by describing Gobekli Tepe as a massive tell in southeastern Turkey with complex layered architecture filled with midden. The site is dated to roughly 12,000 years ago based on carbon-14 from mortar and typological dating of arrowheads, specifically Helwan points. Kyle questions whether the pre-pottery Neolithic people, known for crude lithic technology unchanged for 300,000 years, could have built the advanced megaliths and bedrock cuttings. He analyzes building D and C at Gobekli Tepe, showing how rock walls were constructed over a 2,000-year period, often surrounding and propping up broken pillars, which he interprets as restoration efforts rather than original construction. Kyle compares pre-pottery Neolithic lithics to contemporaneous Clovis points from North America, highlighting the disparity in technological sophistication. He examines stone vessels from the period, noting stylistic elements like tripod bases that appear over millennia. The presentation explores how to determine higher technology through examples like modern plastic plates versus handmade stone plates, and scanned Egyptian vases showing precision in softer limestone versus harder porphyry. Kyle connects the Helwan points found at Gobekli Tepe to Helwan, Egypt, near the Sphinx, suggesting a possible link between the sites. He discusses Robert Schoch's dating of the Sphinx to 12,000 years ago and Graham Hancock's hypothesis of a lost civilization influencing hunter-gatherers. The episode includes banter between the brothers about harvest, winery construction, and interactions with audience members like Hugh Newman and Ben. They speculate on archaeological practices, the lack of excavation at certain pillars, and potential connections to other sites like Karahan Tepe and the Sinai.

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