Turkey's Göbekli Tepe: Discoveries at World's Oldest Temple

by Christopher Hodapp

The 10,000- to 11,500-year-old site of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey is the oldest place of worship on Earth ever discovered, predating the building of the first Egyptian pyramids by 6,500 years. New discoveries are emerging from the ancient site about the primitive hunter/gatherers here who developed a rudimentary understanding of geometry to create the first temples. At least fifty 15-foot-tall monolithic pillars rise out of the ground, covered with intricate carvings of animals like jaguars and reptiles, symbols of death like vultures, and wild game like the the wild boar that still roam these hills in southeastern Turkey even today.

Archeologists believe this to be a site of worship and not a residential settlement, because no evidence of residential buildings or fortifications other than the T-shaped pillars have been discovered. That said, the massive site of Göbekli Tepe, near the modern-day town of Şanlıurfa, has only been five percent excavated, so new discoveries are always possible. 

Each monolith is set within one of at least twenty concentric rings, each of which is built inside the other, with diameters ranging from 30-100 feet and weighing as much as 20 tons.

According to a new article on the Haaretz website, a discovery by Israeli archaeologists suggests the Göbekli Tepe temple complex was even more complicated than previously thought, and required an amount of planning and resources thought to be impossible for those times. A new study of the three oldest stone enclosures by archaeologists Gil Haklay and Avi Gopher of Tel Aviv University has revealed a distinct equilateral triangle that formed the overall architectural plan of these structures.

From Israeli Archaeologists Find Hidden Pattern at ‘World’s Oldest Temple’ Göbekli Tepe by Ariel David:

The finding confirms previous research by Haklay and Gopher at other sites showing that architects in the Neolithic or even in the late Paleolithic didn’t build shelters and homes haphazardly but had the ability to apply rudimentary geometric principles and create standard units of measurement.

At Göbekli Tepe, the discovery of the pattern is evidence of a complex abstract design that could not be realized without first creating a scaled floor plan, Haklay says. At a time when the invention of writing was millennia away, this could be accomplished, for example, by using reeds of equal length to create a rudimentary blueprint on the ground, he suggests.

Read the whole article HERE.

Tiny Solomon's Temple Artifact Discovered

A 3,000 year old stone weight called a 'beka' – mentioned in the Bible and dating from the time of King Solomon's Temple – has recently been discovered from the base of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The tiny round stone was used as a half-shekel weight to calculate the visitor's tax for pilgrims coming to the Temple around 1000 BC. It was discovered by a volunteer in the City of David’s sifting project in Jerusalem’s Emek Tzurim National Park, which carefully attempts to examine every bit of dirt and rubble excavated around the Mount's base.

According to the Times of Israel story,

The word “beka” appears twice in the Torah: first as the weight of gold in a nose ring given to matriarch Rebecca in the Book of Genesis, and later in the Book of Exodus as a weight for the donation brought by the Jewish people for the maintenance of the Temple and the census, as recorded in Exodus 38, Verse 26: “One beka per head; [that is,] half a shekel, according to the holy shekel, for each one who goes through the counting, from 20 years old and upward, for 603,550 [people].”

Curiously, the Hebrew letter bet is inscribed in reverse from its usual appearance, leading archeologists to believe it was pressed into wet clay from a seal that had not been created in a proper mirror image. 

During this era, there was no half-shekel coin. Pilgrims brought the equivalent weight, a beka, in silver to pay their tax, which would have been measured out on scales in the very spot under the Temple Mount where the tiny stone weight was unearthed.

The ‘beka’ biblical weight stone was discovered in earth taken from a 2013
archaeological excavation at the foundations of the Western Wall in a
drainage ditch directly under the Robinson’s Arch. The sifting of that same dirt
continues today in search of more artifacts from the period of the First Temple.

 Archaeologist Eli Shukron directed the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He told The Times of Israel that no other similar weights had previously been found with this exact inscription. 

Shukron said in a press release, “When the half-shekel tax was brought to the Temple during the First Temple period, there were no coins, so they used silver ingots. In order to calculate the weight of these silver pieces they would put them on one side of the scales and on the other side they placed the Beka weight. The Beka was equivalent to the half-shekel, which every person from the age of 20 years and up was required to bring to the Temple.”

The entire article can be read HERE. 

The Doorways of Solomon's Temple

A recent post on the Biblical Archeology website explores a curious detail about the entrance of Solomon's Temple as described in the 1 Kings account of its design which plays such an important role in Masonic ritual and legend.

From "The Doorways of Solomon’s Temple" by Megan Sauter:

King Solomon’s Temple was resplendent. Described in 1 Kings 6–7, the temple was divided into three parts: the forecourt (ulam), the outer sanctum (heikhal) and the inner shrine (devir), also known as the Holy of Holies. Built of stone and roofed with wooden beams, Solomon’s Temple was intricately ornamented. Its interior walls and floors were lined with wooden boards and covered in gold. It took seven years to complete the temple and its furnishings.

Despite the Biblical description and archaeological parallels, there are still some mysteries about Solomon’s Temple. For example, 1 Kings 6:31 describes the doors between the outer sanctum and the inner shrine of Solomon’s Temple as having five mezuzot (the plural form of mezuzah). What is a mezuzah? In the Bible, mezuzah is normally translated as “doorpost.” However, in the context of Solomon’s Temple, doors with five doorposts do not make sense...

A nearby temple of the similar period located just 20 miles away from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem — Khirbet Qeiyafa — may hold the answer to this curious description and the enigma of "five doorposts." That temple is known to have been occupied in the 11th-10th century B.C., and was a fortified site in Judah from the time of King David.

[Researchers] Madeleine Mumcuoglu and Yosef Garfinkel present a building model from Khirbet Qeiyafa that depicts a doorframe with three—or maybe four—interlocking doorframes surrounding an opening. They suggest that these interlocking frames are what is meant by mezuzot in the description of Solomon’s Temple. According to their interpretation, then, the doors to the inner shrine (devir) of Solomon’s Temple did not have five doorposts—but rather five recessed doorframes.

Temples with recessed doorways have been uncovered throughout the ancient Near East, and Madeleine Mumcuoglu and Yosef Garfinkel further note that recessed doorframes set apart inner rooms and spaces as being sacred. In the case of Solomon’s Temple, the more recessed the doorframes, the holier the space:

"There is a gradual increase in the number of recessed doorframes from the entrance to the forecourt (three) to the outer sanctum (four) and finally to the entrance from the outer sanctum to the devir (five). It is as if the devir had the highest number of mezuzot because it was the most sacred part of the Temple."

This reconstruction of the doorway into the Khirbet Qeiyafa temple (photo) depicts an elaborate doorframe surrounding the opening. The recessed doorway within the four interlocking frames sets apart the inner room as a sacred space. These may have been what was referred to in the Biblical account as the five mezuzot.

Ancient Temple in Syria Damaged By 'the Devastations of War"

It is a heartbreaking irony that the regions described in the holiest books of three of the world's major religions still remain the most war-torn parts of the globe today. A Turkish Air Force missile attack has severely damaged an historic Hittite temple site in Syria dating to 1,000 BC, and believed to be similar in design to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. It has survived for 3,000 years, but it may not survive the 21st century.

The American Schools of Oriental Research’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives is reporting that an important Biblical-era archeological site known as the Tell Ain Dara Temple in northwest Syria was hit on or before January 22, 2018 by two Turkish missiles. Preliminary surveys of the site show substantial damage to the already toppled ruins caused by the explosions. Analysis of shrapnel indicates the damage was caused by two JDAM missiles fired by a Turkish F-16.

What partially makes this temple important to archeologists is that it is believed to be a design similar to the famed Temple of Solomon on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem that plays such a central role in Masonic ritual and symbolism. Most of the Syrian buildings themselves had been toppled perhaps centuries ago, but these new explosions have destroyed surviving artifacts and carvings at the site.

According to the ASOR website: Current Status of the Tell Ain Dara Temple:

The most significant find at Tell Ain Dara is the remains of an Early Iron Age (ca. 1200–550 BCE) ​in antis​ temple. This structure is the best-preserved example of a temple from this region during this time period. Located along the northwestern edge of the high mound, the northwest-southeast oriented temple rests on a low platform and is decorated with a series of basalt reliefs and animal protomes (an adornment consisting of the frontal view of the creature) carved in the highly distinctive Syro-Hittite style. The core of the temple consists of a portico, an antecella, and a cella. In addition, a passageway runs around the western, northern, and eastern faces of the central series of rooms. A series of limestone thresholds in the temple’s main doorways are adorned with carvings of larger-than-life human footprints that lead inward, conveying the idea that a deity has entered the temple. The presence of these impressions is unique to this building. 

The precise dates of the temple’s construction and use remain unknown. The temple was likely founded towards the end of the second millennium and underwent a series of changes before its destruction, possibly in the 8th century BCE. According to the excavator, the building was cleared of rubble in preparation for its reconstruction, but this never materialized. The building was eventually covered and built over in the following centuries.

The god or goddess worshipped in the building remains unknown. The excavator attributed it to Ishtar on the basis of a stele depicting that goddess that was found in a secondary context. Scholars have also offered other suggestions, including the weather god Ba’al Hadad.

Since its discovery, the Ain Dara temple has played a central role in discussions about the appearance of the contemporary Temple of Solomon, which is described in the Old Testament. Some scholars view it as a close parallel. Others are less certain.

The Temple site in 1990.

More details and photos at the link HERE.