The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

not seem coincidental. Furthermore, after only staying for a short period (on our biblical timeline), they abandoned the site. We may wonder whether the territory of their former homeland had now become stable and they could live there again. There are other things to wonder about. Had these people been building monuments like Gӧbekli Tepe elsewhere before they arrived? In our creationist worldview, there could have been people building very advanced monuments long before the time of Gӧbekli Tepe. After all, the earlier Babel building project had been a remarkable one, judging by its description in Genesis 11. And after these people left Gӧbekli Tepe, did they go on building monuments like this somewhere else? If so, monuments like this could be waiting to be discovered elsewhere, perhaps covered over with sediments. THE CONUNDRUM FOR EVOLUTIONISTS: GӦBEKLI TEPE’S SUPERIOR WORKMANSHIP AND ANCIENT DATE Gӧbekli Tepe has made scholars rearrange their beliefs about the capabilities of humans of the distant past (see, e.g.,Curry 2008b; Hancock 2015, p. 5–9; Jones 2015). According to standard scholarly belief, in 10,000 BC(CT) men were not supposed to be able to erect large stone pillars like these with such detailed carvings (Collins 2014, p. 38; Peters and Schmidt 2004). As Strebe says (2017), the T-shaped pillars amaze visitors with “their immense size, consummate artistry, and improbable age.” Furthermore, there is a problem for evolutionists in that the largest, most finely carved pillars are the oldest ones at Gӧbekli Tepe. (See Fig. 5 for a close-up of one of the large carved pillars at Gӧbekli Tepe.) When these people arrived, they set out to build these large pillars right away. As time went on, the pillars they produced became smaller with rougher workmanship (Strebe 2017). This shows evolution going in reverse, and goes against the conventional belief system. As Hancock (2015, p. 9–10) says, We are used to things starting out small and simple and then progressing— evolving —to become ever more complex and sophisticated, so this is naturally what we expect to find on archaeological sites. It upsets our carefully structured ideas of how civilizations should behave, how they should mature and develop, when we are confronted by a case like Gӧbekli Tepe… However, archaeologists do not rule out the possibility that some earlier, smaller pillars may yet be found at the bottom of the tell if they dig deeper (see, e.g., Hancock 2015, pp. 9–10, where Klaus Schmidt insists on this). They believe that surely the T-pillars had to have started out small and gradually evolved upwards to the big ones before devolving to later, smaller ones. ALTERNATIVE THEORIES Gӧbekli Tepe has attracted attention from outside the traditional scholarly circles, and there are people promoting alternative theories. One of these theories is that ancient aliens came to earth and enlightened mankind with advanced technology (it is not explained where the aliens came from or how they acquired their skills). The TV show Ancient Aliens promotes this idea; its episode that includes Gӧbekli Tepe was aired on Dec. 16, 2010, in its second season (Unexplained structures 2010). Another version of this is put forward by Collins (2014, pp. 270–300), who believes that those behind the construction of Gӧbekli Tepe are the Watchers of the Book of Enoch and the Anunnaki gods of Sumerian tradition. Yet another is that during the IceAge there was superior knowledge known to man, that has now been lost (Hancock 2015, p. 1). We might dismiss these widely promoted ideas as being outlandish, even bizarre. But if we think about it, there is a certain logic to these alternative theories. These people all recognize that there is something amiss in the conventional evolutionistic worldview of traditional archaeology and they are trying to make sense of what they see in anomalies (in their thinking) like Gӧbekli Tepe. Because their eyes are blinded, they do not understand that they are nearly right. Early man really was capable of advanced technology according to what the Bible tells us. CONCLUSIONS In this attempt at placing Gӧbekli Tepe on the biblical MT and LXX timelines, we see that ancient places and events are crowded close together far more recently in historical time than we are led to believe by conventional historians. Because of its claimed age, Gӧbekli Tepe therefore appears to be a lot older to conventional archaeologists than it actually is. It is proposed that the Gӧbekli Tepe site was most likely founded somewhat more than 100 years before Abraham’s visit to Egypt (Masoretic timeline) or, alternatively, about 250 years before Abraham’s visit to Egypt Habermehl ◀ Göbekli Tepe ▶ 2018 ICC 11 Figure 5. Close-up of carving on large T-stone. The temporary roof is seen in the background. (Photo A. Habermehl 2015.)