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[Graham] Electricity works wonders for us.

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Humans have become a 24/7 species.

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But our canopy of lights cuts us off

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from one of the most magnificent aspects
of living on this planet…

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the night sky.

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To the ancients,

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stargazing would have been
the greatest show on Earth,

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the most entertaining way
to pass their long, dark nights.

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They'd have known
every turn of the Milky Way,

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every bright star cluster,
every comet blazing across the sky.

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It might explain why
everywhere we look in the ancient world,

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we find massive structures
pointing our attention to the heavens.

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But what if it's more than that?

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Ancient pyramids
and temples all around the world

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connect sky to ground with precise
alignments to the Sun, Moon, and stars.

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Why did the builders take such care,
and on such a massive scale?

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Could they have been
trying to tell us something?

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Warn us, even, that we must, at all costs,
pay close attention to the heavens.

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I'm in Turkey,
heading for an isolated hilltop

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about 26 miles from the border with Syria.

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Today, this is
a troubled part of the world,

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but it's been hugely significant
to the story of humanity.

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In southeastern Turkey,
near modern-day Sanliurfa,

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something remarkable happened
around the end of the last Ice Age.

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Our Stone Age hunter-gatherer ancestors

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suddenly discovered farming
and began creating settlements.

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This happened throughout what would
later be called the Fertile Crescent,

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extending south to the Persian Gulf.

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Around 6,000 years ago,
the area known as Mesopotamia

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would give birth
to what has long been assumed

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to be the world's first civilization,
the Sumerians.

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But that view of history
now cries out to be rewritten.

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In 1994,
while investigating a farmer's field,

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archaeologists spotted strange
carved stones protruding from the ground.

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Some of gigantic size.

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Subsequent excavations have led to
a series of stunning discoveries.

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This recently excavated
archaeological site

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requires us to abandon all our prejudices
about our Stone Age ancestors.

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Far from being technological primitives,

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their accomplishments here prove

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that they possessed
hitherto unsuspected abilities

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rivaling those of much later

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and supposedly
much more advanced civilizations.

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Beneath the modern canopy
built to protect it from the elements,

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this is Göbekli Tepe.

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And based on everything
we've been taught about prehistory,

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it shouldn't exist.

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Archaeologists accept that it dates back
to around 11,600 years ago…

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making this the oldest acknowledged
monumental structure on Earth.

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It's a highly sophisticated,
highly advanced megalithic site

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that's about 7,000 years
older than Stonehenge

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and about 7,000 years
older than the Giza Pyramids.

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And suddenly the notion
that there was no culture in the world

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that was capable
of doing such things 12,000 years ago

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is blown out of the water.

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It's older even
than the invention of the wheel

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or the domestication of horses.

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Built at a time when the Earth
was just emerging from the last Ice Age,

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when the locals were still supposedly

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unsophisticated hunter-gatherers
living in mud huts.

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But if they weren't advanced enough

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to design and build
this megalithic wonder,

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who did and why?

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What is this place?

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At first glance, what confronts us here
can seem bewildering.

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If we look closer, however,
and piece together all the clues,

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we can get a good idea

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of how ambitious and imposing
it must have been in its prime.

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Perched on the side of a hill

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with few traces
of any human settlements nearby

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are four circular enclosures,
all with a similar layout.

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At the center of each,

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stands a pair
of massive T-shaped megaliths

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weighing up to ten tons

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set into a polished stone floor.

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Twin giant figures,

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some with arms and hands
carved into the rock,

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and tilted heads.

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They're encircled
by smaller T-shaped pillars,

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many intricately carved and decorated,

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and all connected by
ringed walls of stone and passageways.

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How these massive blocks
were lifted and set in place…

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nobody knows.

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What really mystifies all who come here,

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including the archaeologists
who excavated the site,

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are the astonishing carvings.

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Symbols of animals are to be found
everywhere at Göbekli Tepe.

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It's like a Noah's Ark in stone.

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The creatures depicted at Göbekli Tepe
are curiously arranged and stylized

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as though their purpose
is more symbolic than realistic.

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And there's something else unusual
about these megalithic structures.

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When archaeologists carbon dated them,

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it became clear that these four enclosures
weren't built at the same time.

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Enclosure D dates back
to around 11,600 years ago

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but the youngest, Enclosure A,
was built around 10,500 years ago.

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Instead of updating
the building they already had,

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the people here
kept building new enclosures

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over the course of some 1,100 years,

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slightly rotating the alignment each time.

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What's even more intriguing

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is that the oldest original enclosure,
Enclosure D,

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also happens to be the largest

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and the most intricately decorated
of the group.

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It's not something
that you're a hunter-gatherer

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and you wake up one morning and think,
"I'm going to build

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the largest megalithic site
that will ever be seen in the world."

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Usually, the more we practice something,
the better we get at it.

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Like these modern-day quarrymen

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still cutting stone at the site
in the hills around Göbekli Tepe today,

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we assume that ancient cultures
must have worked the same way,

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improving their skills over time.

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But Göbekli Tepe,
and in particular Enclosure D,

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seem to turn this assumption upside down.

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How did a community
of Stone Age hunter-gatherers

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succeed so brilliantly

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in building with megaliths
at their very first attempt?

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Isn't it time to consider the possibility
that the great megalithic enclosures

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weren't some miraculous
overnight invention of hunter-gatherers,

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but were a legacy

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from a precociously advanced
lost civilization of prehistory?

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This is a notion

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which mainstream archaeologists
find almost offensive.

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Academic scholars have got locked in
to a particular framework,

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that during the Ice Age,

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the entire human population of the Earth
was at the hunter-gatherer stage.

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And yet, it turns out
the builders of Göbekli Tepe

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were far more ambitious
than your average hunter-gatherers.

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In 2003, a geophysical survey
using ground-penetrating radar

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detected up to 20 other
stone enclosures inside the hill

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and more than 200 pillars.

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Most remain un-excavated.

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A huge megalithic complex
spread out across nine hectares,

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more than 12 soccer pitches.

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It's an enormous site.

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You can't just wake up one morning
with no prior skills,

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no prior knowledge,
no background in working with stone,

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and create something like Göbekli Tepe.

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There has to be a long history behind it
and that history is completely missing.

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And to me, it very strongly
speaks of a lost civilization.

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Transferring their technology,

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their skills, their knowledge
to hunter-gatherers.

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Göbekli Tepe isn't the only complex
dating back to the end of the last Ice Age

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that's recently been discovered here.

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In 2019, Turkish archaeologists
began excavations at another site,

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about an hour's drive east,
called Karahan Tepe…

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and uncovered something unexpected.

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The Turkish authorities have never allowed
outside camera crews to film here

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until now.

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Lead archaeologist, Professor Necmi Karul,

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believes that this site is
around the same age as Göbekli Tepe

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and could be even older.

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But it's quite different.

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The main chamber does feature
T-shaped pillars and megaliths,

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but one edge is carved out of the bedrock

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and it's large enough
to hold dozens of people.

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What do you think
happened in this building?

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Do you have any ideas at all?

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We can interpret it
as a podium for a sitting area…

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-Yeah.
-…and people coming together,

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-because it's a big building.
-Yeah.

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Karahan Tepe seems to be
some sort of ritual gathering space.

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The carvings on the walls

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aren't as well-executed
as those at Göbekli Tepe.

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But we do see robed figures.

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Could they represent
the site's true architects?

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-Lead the way, Professor.
-Yeah, okay.

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Professor Karul leads me
into a curious side chamber,

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eight meters by six meters
and two meters deep.

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Ten pillars resembling phalluses

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have been purposefully and skillfully
carved directly out of the bedrock.

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With an 11th free-standing pillar
in pride of place.

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A snaking channel
has also been cut out of the rock

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to allow some form of liquid
to pour into this chamber,

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water or possibly blood.

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And it's dominated by an imposing
and mysterious sculpted head.

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There's something serpent-like
about that neck of that figure,

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as it pushes out of the rock
and overlooks these pillars

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standing there in the enclosure.

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It's something sinuous, and I would add,
something slightly sinister about it too.

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It's a very powerful face.

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[Karul] It's a human head

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-carved from the bedrock…
-Carved out of bedrock.

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…and it looks to the entrance.

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Yes, the eyes are turned that way.

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Quite imposing.

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-[Karul] It looks like a snake's head.
-Yeah.

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-It behaves like a snake, I would say.
-[Graham] Yes.

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A human-headed snake.

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Yeah, maybe.

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[Graham] It's a kind of unique discovery.

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-Yeah, it's fantastic.
-Yeah.

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There's a feeling of fear or of terror
that comes with that enclosure.

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I know this is not science.

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[chuckles] It's just my emotional reaction
to what I was seeing.

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But I can't help wondering
if fear and terror

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were involved
in the creation of it as well.

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If it's expressing something
that we need to know about our past.

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That it's fearful for a reason.

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The professor confirms
that as with Göbekli Tepe,

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they found no evidence of farming.

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The people who built this complex
were definitely still hunter-gatherers.

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The notion used to be
that agriculture came first,

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and then it allowed people
to settle and create places like this.

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But if I understand you correctly,
you're saying that settlement came first.

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Settlements came first.

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-They are hunter-gatherers.
-Yeah.

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And then they started
to produce a different life.

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They changed the buildings,

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-they changed the technology, et cetera.
-Yeah.

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A kind of revolution in ideas.

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We can call it a revolution.

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So this is something which
is casting new light on human history.

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00:15:39,483 --> 00:15:43,723
So far, only two chambers
have been excavated at Karahan Tepe.

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But ground-penetrating radar
has revealed at least 20 more chambers

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that have yet to be explored.

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Just as at Göbekli Tepe,

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both sites
built at the end of the last Ice Age,

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just before humans living here
started farming and raising cattle.

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There was no agriculture
at Göbekli Tepe when it was built,

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but strangely, at exactly the time that
it was being created 11,600 years ago,

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agriculture appears all around it.

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For me, what the evidence
speaks to is pretty clear.

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It's a transfer of technology.

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People who already knew
how to create megaliths

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and build a big megalithic site
came to Göbekli Tepe.

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They already had knowledge of agriculture,

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and they used that site
to mobilize a local community,

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to organize them
and to introduce them to agriculture.

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According to the lore
of ancient Mesopotamia,

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that's exactly what happened.

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Amongst the many
flood and cataclysm myths of antiquity,

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the Mesopotamian deluge tradition
is of particular interest here.

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00:17:05,683 --> 00:17:08,443
It speaks of a small band
of wise ancients,

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00:17:09,003 --> 00:17:13,003
the Apkallu, who taught the people here
the skills of civilization.

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00:17:15,603 --> 00:17:18,402
In the beginning, before recorded history,

236
00:17:19,203 --> 00:17:24,043
humanity was created by the gods
to be stewards of the land and animals.

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00:17:25,043 --> 00:17:29,402
But the first humans were too lazy
and too unruly to do the job,

238
00:17:30,443 --> 00:17:32,323
and their numbers grew unchecked.

239
00:17:33,723 --> 00:17:35,643
So the gods sent a great deluge…

240
00:17:35,723 --> 00:17:36,563
[thunder rumbling]

241
00:17:36,643 --> 00:17:40,283
…to wipe the slate clean
and start humanity over again.

242
00:17:41,803 --> 00:17:45,323
And they also sent
seven sages, the Apkallu,

243
00:17:45,403 --> 00:17:49,123
traditionally depicted
as bearded figures in flowing robes,

244
00:17:49,203 --> 00:17:50,843
to instruct the survivors.

245
00:17:51,763 --> 00:17:55,763
Their leader was Oannes,
said to have come from the sea,

246
00:17:55,843 --> 00:17:58,843
usually depicted as a half-man, half-fish.

247
00:18:00,123 --> 00:18:01,843
He walked among the people

248
00:18:01,923 --> 00:18:08,283
teaching agriculture, architecture,
and knowledge of the stars.

249
00:18:14,003 --> 00:18:16,043
That's a list I can't help thinking

250
00:18:16,123 --> 00:18:22,043
that includes many of the advances
supposedly invented at Göbekli Tepe.

251
00:18:23,083 --> 00:18:26,803
Oannes is yet another example
of a civilizing hero.

252
00:18:27,603 --> 00:18:31,443
A teacher who suddenly arrives,
usually by sea,

253
00:18:31,523 --> 00:18:33,643
after a time of great cataclysm,

254
00:18:34,523 --> 00:18:36,803
like Quetzalcoatl in Mexico,

255
00:18:37,403 --> 00:18:41,323
or like Osiris,
who legend says traveled by boat

256
00:18:41,403 --> 00:18:43,923
to teach humanity
the ways of civilization.

257
00:18:45,403 --> 00:18:49,083
And it's not just their stories
that are similar across ancient cultures.

258
00:18:50,043 --> 00:18:53,923
Their depictions in ancient art
are remarkably similar too,

259
00:18:54,803 --> 00:18:57,523
down to their robes
and distinctive handbags.

260
00:18:59,803 --> 00:19:02,363
I think that these are
real accounts of real events.

261
00:19:02,443 --> 00:19:04,483
In some cases, they may be overlaid

262
00:19:04,563 --> 00:19:07,403
with symbolisms
and storylines that distract us,

263
00:19:07,483 --> 00:19:10,803
but fundamentally,
I think we need to trust the myths.

264
00:19:14,363 --> 00:19:18,883
Göbekli Tepe's circular
stone wall enclosures open to the sky

265
00:19:18,963 --> 00:19:23,283
also remind me a bit of Ġgantija
and Malta's other temples.

266
00:19:25,043 --> 00:19:27,603
Is it possible they share
a common inspiration?

267
00:19:31,043 --> 00:19:33,403
On Malta, Lenie Reedijk showed me

268
00:19:33,483 --> 00:19:36,843
how the changing alignments
of the ancient megalithic temples

269
00:19:36,923 --> 00:19:42,123
track the changing rising points
of a single star, Sirius,

270
00:19:43,603 --> 00:19:45,323
across thousands of years.

271
00:19:50,083 --> 00:19:54,843
Remarkably, we find
the same phenomenon at Göbekli Tepe.

272
00:19:57,683 --> 00:20:01,083
The central pillars
of the three oldest enclosures

273
00:20:01,163 --> 00:20:03,483
also seem to have targeted Sirius.

274
00:20:05,043 --> 00:20:08,803
At around the end of the Ice Age,
their differing orientations

275
00:20:08,883 --> 00:20:11,963
tracking the star's
differing rising points across time.

276
00:20:15,723 --> 00:20:18,643
This shared focus on Sirius is, for me,

277
00:20:19,323 --> 00:20:23,883
another hint that the ancient builders
in both Malta and Turkey

278
00:20:23,963 --> 00:20:26,963
had access to a pool of shared knowledge

279
00:20:27,723 --> 00:20:30,843
concerning astronomy
and megalithic construction.

280
00:20:32,243 --> 00:20:36,163
Is it possible that
the great building projects in both places

281
00:20:36,923 --> 00:20:40,243
were directed by the survivors
of a more advanced culture

282
00:20:41,643 --> 00:20:44,443
who traveled the world
at the end of the last Ice Age,

283
00:20:45,323 --> 00:20:49,323
perhaps represented
by those stone pillar giants

284
00:20:49,403 --> 00:20:51,603
or Karahan Tepe's hooded figures?

285
00:20:52,763 --> 00:20:54,123
People who arrived here

286
00:20:54,203 --> 00:20:56,603
in the Fertile Crescent
after a great flood.

287
00:20:58,963 --> 00:21:01,763
If so, what were they trying to say?

288
00:21:05,323 --> 00:21:09,483
Could all those animal carvings
actually be telling us something?

289
00:21:13,603 --> 00:21:15,963
On these recent investigations,

290
00:21:16,043 --> 00:21:18,923
I've learned new information
about Göbekli Tepe,

291
00:21:19,003 --> 00:21:22,843
which further adds
to the intriguing picture.

292
00:21:26,603 --> 00:21:30,803
I've come to meet Dr. Martin Sweatman,
at the nearby Sanliurfa Museum,

293
00:21:31,683 --> 00:21:36,003
home to a stunning recreation
of Göbekli Tepe's largest enclosure.

294
00:21:37,683 --> 00:21:41,203
A trained scientist
with an interest in archaeoastronomy,

295
00:21:41,283 --> 00:21:44,083
much of his research
has focused on Pillar 43,

296
00:21:45,403 --> 00:21:47,723
also known as the Vulture Stone.

297
00:21:50,803 --> 00:21:53,603
What's the significance
of this for you, Martin?

298
00:21:54,483 --> 00:21:57,163
[Dr. Martin] It's probably
one of the most important artifacts

299
00:21:57,243 --> 00:21:58,803
in the whole world, you know?

300
00:21:58,883 --> 00:22:00,003
It's just incredible.

301
00:22:00,843 --> 00:22:03,443
Essentially, this pillar
is like our Rosetta Stone.

302
00:22:03,523 --> 00:22:04,723
Right.

303
00:22:04,803 --> 00:22:08,083
Dr. Sweatman believes
that the symbols on the stone

304
00:22:08,163 --> 00:22:10,323
might represent asterisms,

305
00:22:11,523 --> 00:22:15,043
figures meant to depict
bright star clusters in the night sky.

306
00:22:15,843 --> 00:22:18,203
-We see directly that there is a scorpion.
-Mmm-hmm.

307
00:22:18,283 --> 00:22:20,403
So we can take that
perhaps to be Scorpius.

308
00:22:20,483 --> 00:22:22,843
[Graham] It's very tempting
to conclude it's Scorpius, yeah.

309
00:22:22,923 --> 00:22:24,203
Absolutely.

310
00:22:24,283 --> 00:22:27,923
[Graham] Different cultures have given
different names and different figures

311
00:22:28,003 --> 00:22:30,163
to the constellations of the zodiac.

312
00:22:30,243 --> 00:22:35,123
So it's a bonus to see one asterism
we recognize on Pillar 43.

313
00:22:35,203 --> 00:22:38,403
[Dr. Martin] Then above,
we would expect to find Sagittarius,

314
00:22:38,483 --> 00:22:42,203
and we know Sagittarius
as the archer with a bow and arrow.

315
00:22:43,083 --> 00:22:47,683
And so we see the vulture with the wings
and they're spread in just the right angle

316
00:22:47,763 --> 00:22:49,363
to represent the bow and arrow.

317
00:22:49,443 --> 00:22:51,763
And then we can see
that there are other animal symbols

318
00:22:51,843 --> 00:22:54,043
which correspond to more constellations,

319
00:22:54,123 --> 00:22:57,803
representing almost like
a map in the night sky.

320
00:23:01,443 --> 00:23:03,843
[Graham] This is a map
of the most visible stars

321
00:23:03,923 --> 00:23:07,323
in the area around
what's today known as Scorpius.

322
00:23:09,003 --> 00:23:13,163
Once we line up Scorpius
with the Scorpion on Pillar 43,

323
00:23:14,403 --> 00:23:17,043
the other nearby asterisms seem to match

324
00:23:17,123 --> 00:23:19,523
some of the other figures
depicted on the pillar.

325
00:23:23,803 --> 00:23:26,443
-So it kind of all fits together.
-Absolutely.

326
00:23:27,763 --> 00:23:29,963
[Graham] But Dr. Sweatman's
real breakthrough

327
00:23:30,043 --> 00:23:32,203
came when he considered the suggestion

328
00:23:32,283 --> 00:23:35,603
that the central circle
could represent the Sun.

329
00:23:37,563 --> 00:23:41,803
So what would you be trying to say
if you have an image of the Sun

330
00:23:41,883 --> 00:23:45,203
in a particular position
relative to the constellations?

331
00:23:45,843 --> 00:23:48,843
One thing that you might
be trying to indicate is a date.

332
00:23:51,803 --> 00:23:55,963
And a clue to that is the fact
that there are three other animal symbols

333
00:23:56,043 --> 00:23:57,123
at the top of the pillar

334
00:23:57,203 --> 00:24:00,843
that re-cemented this idea
that this was a date,

335
00:24:00,923 --> 00:24:02,443
a date stamp essentially.

336
00:24:04,163 --> 00:24:05,523
[Graham] Dr. Sweatman believes

337
00:24:05,603 --> 00:24:08,923
that the three small animals
carved atop Pillar 43

338
00:24:09,003 --> 00:24:13,563
appear next to symbolic representations
of three sunsets.

339
00:24:15,483 --> 00:24:18,243
Taken with the Sun disc
in the middle of the stone,

340
00:24:18,323 --> 00:24:22,003
they could depict
four key moments in the solar year,

341
00:24:22,083 --> 00:24:27,523
the summer solstice, the winter solstice,
and the spring and fall equinoxes.

342
00:24:30,163 --> 00:24:34,003
The carvings would represent asterisms
that appeared in the night sky

343
00:24:34,083 --> 00:24:36,523
behind or around the setting Sun

344
00:24:36,603 --> 00:24:39,043
on each of those key dates
in the calendar year.

345
00:24:41,243 --> 00:24:45,923
So, suddenly we have a lock
of all four key moments of the year,

346
00:24:46,003 --> 00:24:48,843
with the moment
they really want us to focus on

347
00:24:48,923 --> 00:24:51,083
-dominating the pillar.
-Exactly.

348
00:24:53,603 --> 00:24:56,003
[Graham] It's a brilliant
and compelling idea.

349
00:24:57,563 --> 00:25:02,123
A date inscribed in stone
in the universal language of astronomy.

350
00:25:04,283 --> 00:25:06,803
So what date is the pillar referring to?

351
00:25:09,003 --> 00:25:10,843
By using computer software

352
00:25:10,923 --> 00:25:14,563
designed to track changes
in the night sky over thousands of years,

353
00:25:15,403 --> 00:25:21,083
we can find a precise 100-year window
that perfectly fits Martin's theory.

354
00:25:22,043 --> 00:25:25,043
Eventually, I found
that actually we could work out

355
00:25:25,123 --> 00:25:29,403
it's around about 10,900 to 10,800 BC.

356
00:25:34,043 --> 00:25:36,003
[Graham] But that's more
than a thousand years

357
00:25:36,083 --> 00:25:38,803
before construction began at Göbekli Tepe.

358
00:25:40,803 --> 00:25:42,563
Why should that date have been important?

359
00:25:42,643 --> 00:25:47,483
Well, we know quite a lot
about that specific time in history.

360
00:25:47,563 --> 00:25:52,843
Almost exactly within that time period,
that short span of around 100 years,

361
00:25:52,923 --> 00:25:58,603
there was a dramatic climate event,
which is known as the Younger Dryas.

362
00:25:58,683 --> 00:26:00,723
It completely changes their world.

363
00:26:01,323 --> 00:26:02,763
[thunder rumbling]

364
00:26:07,483 --> 00:26:10,403
[Graham] We've been referring to this
as the Ancient Apocalypse,

365
00:26:10,483 --> 00:26:13,243
but scientists call it the Younger Dryas.

366
00:26:14,403 --> 00:26:19,363
It began 12,800 years ago
with a cataclysm,

367
00:26:19,443 --> 00:26:23,163
and it ended 11,600 years ago,

368
00:26:23,243 --> 00:26:25,563
the exact date
of the construction of Göbekli Tepe.

369
00:26:28,443 --> 00:26:33,483
The world suffered through some kind
of tremendous geological upheaval,

370
00:26:34,043 --> 00:26:35,923
including immense floods,

371
00:26:36,963 --> 00:26:40,763
followed by more than 1,000 years
of freezing temperatures.

372
00:26:41,883 --> 00:26:44,843
Life on Earth fundamentally changed.

373
00:26:46,123 --> 00:26:49,283
The saber-toothed tigers
and mammoths went extinct.

374
00:26:51,763 --> 00:26:53,523
But humanity survived.

375
00:26:56,203 --> 00:26:59,243
And around 11,600 years ago,

376
00:26:59,323 --> 00:27:02,923
the freeze ended
with another final immense flood

377
00:27:03,003 --> 00:27:05,083
that raised sea levels around the world.

378
00:27:08,323 --> 00:27:11,963
It was then,
only after the Earth was calm again,

379
00:27:12,043 --> 00:27:14,563
that the work on Göbekli Tepe began.

380
00:27:16,283 --> 00:27:19,043
And I believe
the timing was no coincidence.

381
00:27:21,203 --> 00:27:23,683
That's ultimately
what I came to see Göbekli Tepe as,

382
00:27:24,323 --> 00:27:27,163
as a reboot of civilization

383
00:27:27,243 --> 00:27:29,603
from a time when there had been
an earlier civilization

384
00:27:29,683 --> 00:27:31,763
that was destroyed in a great cataclysm.

385
00:27:38,083 --> 00:27:40,323
It's nice to see Pillar 43 from here,

386
00:27:40,403 --> 00:27:43,763
and it's amazingly well-preserved,

387
00:27:44,323 --> 00:27:47,243
considering it's 11,600 years old.

388
00:27:47,963 --> 00:27:49,203
It's quite amazing.

389
00:27:52,323 --> 00:27:56,923
What if this mysterious complex
wasn't just a place of rituals,

390
00:27:57,003 --> 00:28:01,243
but also a memorial
to commemorate a world-changing event?

391
00:28:03,883 --> 00:28:05,323
It would make sense.

392
00:28:05,923 --> 00:28:08,963
Some of our grandest buildings today
are memorials too.

393
00:28:10,403 --> 00:28:12,963
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC

394
00:28:14,443 --> 00:28:16,443
or the Taj Mahal in India.

395
00:28:17,523 --> 00:28:20,563
But could Göbekli Tepe
be even more than that?

396
00:28:22,603 --> 00:28:25,003
What if its architects
sought to leave behind

397
00:28:25,083 --> 00:28:27,883
a message of the greatest importance,

398
00:28:27,963 --> 00:28:31,043
a message for later generations to decode?

399
00:28:32,123 --> 00:28:34,203
Because when archaeologists

400
00:28:34,283 --> 00:28:37,523
determined the age
of the rubble covering up the site,

401
00:28:37,603 --> 00:28:39,403
they got another surprise.

402
00:28:41,963 --> 00:28:44,523
Sometime around 10,000 years ago,

403
00:28:45,763 --> 00:28:47,723
all the structures were buried

404
00:28:48,403 --> 00:28:53,523
rapidly and quite deliberately
at the same time.

405
00:28:56,083 --> 00:29:00,363
An enormous effort
was put into burying Göbekli Tepe.

406
00:29:00,443 --> 00:29:02,403
I mean, not just burying it,

407
00:29:02,483 --> 00:29:06,603
but actually putting
a man-made hill over the top of it.

408
00:29:06,683 --> 00:29:10,043
We must envisage
teams of hundreds of people

409
00:29:10,123 --> 00:29:14,243
carrying baskets of rubble
and pouring it into the enclosures.

410
00:29:18,283 --> 00:29:21,563
But then the question arises,
why did they do that?

411
00:29:24,283 --> 00:29:28,123
It wasn't abandoned.
It wasn't destroyed or looted.

412
00:29:28,203 --> 00:29:32,403
It was carefully buried,
hidden away and preserved.

413
00:29:33,843 --> 00:29:37,763
And there it remained,
safe for thousands of years

414
00:29:38,443 --> 00:29:40,323
until its recent rediscovery.

415
00:29:42,123 --> 00:29:46,883
To my mind, what we're looking at here
only makes sense as a time capsule.

416
00:29:46,963 --> 00:29:49,203
And like all time capsules,

417
00:29:49,283 --> 00:29:52,643
its purpose was to
transmit a message to the future.

418
00:29:56,163 --> 00:30:01,283
At Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe too,
serpents dominate the imagery.

419
00:30:02,083 --> 00:30:03,403
There's something about the way

420
00:30:03,483 --> 00:30:06,443
their winding, descending shapes
are depicted,

421
00:30:06,523 --> 00:30:09,283
as if the builders
were obsessed with them,

422
00:30:10,203 --> 00:30:12,323
as if these serpents were the one message

423
00:30:12,403 --> 00:30:15,443
they wanted us
to take away from both sites.

424
00:30:17,283 --> 00:30:22,083
But are they serpents
or could they represent something else?

425
00:30:26,403 --> 00:30:31,723
It seems that everywhere we find traces
of a forgotten episode in human history,

426
00:30:31,803 --> 00:30:33,323
we also find snakes.

427
00:30:34,363 --> 00:30:37,923
In Mexico, Quetzalcoatl
himself is a serpent.

428
00:30:38,843 --> 00:30:42,483
In Malta, one crosses
into Ġgantija's inner sanctum

429
00:30:42,563 --> 00:30:44,403
by stepping over a snake.

430
00:30:47,563 --> 00:30:52,923
I think I know what those serpents mean,
and the best example isn't here in Turkey.

431
00:30:54,363 --> 00:30:59,363
It's halfway around the world
in the middle of America, in Ohio,

432
00:31:00,203 --> 00:31:06,163
where ancient sages crafted
an earthen serpent on a gigantic scale

433
00:31:06,923 --> 00:31:10,883
to serve both as a memorial
and perhaps as a warning.