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

Habermehl, A. 2018. A creationist view of Gӧbekli Tepe: Timeline and other considerations. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism , ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 7–13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. A CREATIONIST VIEW OF GӦBEKLI TEPE: TIMELINE AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS Anne Habermehl , Independent scholar, 25 Madison St., Cortland, NY 13045 USA, anneh@twcny.rr.com ABSTRACT Gӧbekli Tepe is a prehistoric archaeological site in SE Turkey that has captured the attention of the world by how advanced it is for its age, an astounding 12,000 years old on the conventional timeline. This has required conventional scholars to readjust their thinking about the capabilities of ancient people because, according to their worldview, humans should not have been able to produce carved stone monuments like these that far back in time. Creationists do not find this difficult to accept because they believe that early man was a capable being, as created by God. In addition, because the creationist timeline is far shorter than the conventional one, Gӧbekli Tepe was not built as long ago as conventional scholars believe. In this paper we discuss the conventional versus biblical timelines and show the enormous telescoping of the conventional timeline in historical times that is necessary to correlate it to the two slightly variant biblical timelines (Masoretic and Septuagint). Using the end of the Neanderthals, the end of the Pleistocene, the Nile Delta formation, and Abraham’s visit to Egypt, it is proposed here that Gӧbekli Tepe was most likely founded somewhat more than one hundred years before Abraham’s visit to Egypt (Masoretic timeline) or, alternatively, around two hundred and fifty years before Abraham’s visit to Egypt (Septuagint timeline). It is postulated that geological events at the end of the Ice Age may have caused the builders of Gӧbekli Tepe to first migrate to the site, and then later abandon it. KEY WORDS Gӧbekli Tepe, archaeology, conventional timeline, biblical timeline, prehistory, Ice Age, Neanderthals. Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org 7 INTRODUCTION An unusually interesting site that has surfaced in archaeological news in recent years is called Gӧbekli Tepe (pronounced “go-bek- lee’ te’-pe”; translation “potbelly hill”), located on a mountain ridge about 50 km north of Harran (or Haran) in southeast Turkey (Fig. 1). The site is a tell (mound) about 15 m high and 300 m in diameter, at an elevation of about 750 m, with low hills all around. Four stone circles incorporating large T-shaped carved stone pillars have been excavated so far; in the layer above these are later rectangular enclosures with smaller and fewer pillars (Fig. 2). Many more of these circles-with-pillars remain underground, according to geophysical surveys. For a more detailed description of this site, with photos, see the online article written by the Gӧbekli Tepe research staff (Tepe Telegrams n.d.), as well as an excellent perspective by Strebe (2017). Creationists have also written about this site (see, for example, Cosner and Carter 2011; Smith 2014; Thomas 2012). What has made Gӧbekli Tepe so especially interesting, and what has astounded the archaeological world of scholars, is how old and how advanced technologically this site is. Because all published archaeological dates are on the conventional historical timeline, creationists need to work out where those dates fall on their biblical timeline. We will therefore attempt to correlate the conventional timeline with the two slightly differing biblical timelines (Masoretic and Septuagintal) to determine approximately where the date of Gӧbekli Tepe sits. We will then look at some wider implications of the chronological conclusions. In this paper Masoretic dates will be designated as BC(MT) and Septuagintal dates by BC(LXX). Conventional dates (i.e., standard historical dates, sometimes called secular dates) will be indicated as BC(CT). CONVENTIONALDATING OF THE GӦBEKLI TEPE SITE Currently archaeologists date the earliest level that they have excavated to just under 10,000 BC(CT); this is level III where the largest pillars are. Scholars consider this ancient date of Gӧbekli Tepe to be solid, with carbon dating backing up their other dating methods (Dietrich et al. 2013). The building and reconstruction work at Gӧbekli Tepe lasted somewhat under 2,000 years before the site was abandoned (Dietrich 2016; Gresky et al. 2017). Nearby Nevali Çori (45 km NW of Gӧbekli Tepe, now under water behind the Atatürk Dam) has some similar architectural characteristics to Gӧbekli Tepe, including T-pillars, but is slightly younger (Gleick et al., pp 184–185; Tobolczyk 2016); several other sites withT-pillars in the Gӧbekli Tepe area date to this period (Guler et al. 2012; Moetz and Celik 2012). To compare with other sites worldwide, the age of Gӧbekli Tepe is much the same as Qaramel (65 km south of the Turkish/Syrian border, 25 km north of Aleppo) (Mazurowski et al. 2009, pp. 771–781). It is just a bit older than the earliest Jericho habitation, widely considered to be about 9,000 BC (CT) (Kenyon 2017). The dates of these sites are well before the Egyptian Predynastic period that started about 5,500 BC(CT) in Lower Egypt and 4,400 BC(CT) in Upper Egypt (Shaw 2003, p. 481). Most world history starts in the era of the Egyptian dynasties (the 1 st Dynasty began ca. 3,000 BC(CT)); historians are able to tell us little about the people who lived earlier. BIBLICAL TIMELINE Gӧbekli Tepe most certainly represents a post-Flood archeological site. The site was built above Paleogene bedrock (Bingöl 1989)