By: Milt Montague

for almost twenty years archaeologists
have been unearthing a mound
that once was a temple complex
from ten to twelve thousand years ago

the oldest man made edifice on earth

predating Stonehenge in England
The Great Pyramids in Egypt
by over 5,000 years

unearthing twenty large circular enclosures
dominated by T shaped pillars
each a single huge stone
hewn from nearby bedrock
transported and erected
with primitive stone age tools

each weighing up to 20 tons
with animals carved on them

Gobekli Tepe is Turkish for Potbelly Hill
sits atop a small mountain ridge
in south eastern Turkey
near the border with Syria

several times local wars
amongst the muslim tribesmen
and their neighbors have interrupted
the excavations for extended periods

yet they have been able to
resume their search to
cogently explain
this sudden spike in human achievement