「世界最古の聖地」　ギョベクリテペ遺跡　トルコ

【ギョベクリテペＡＦＰ＝時事】トルコ南東部の山腹にあるギョベクリテペ遺跡。トルコ語で「太鼓腹の丘」を意味するこの遺跡は考古学的に最重要視され、世界最古の聖地とされている。（写真はトルコのシャンルウルファにある古代遺跡ギョベクリテペの石柱）
　先史時代、装飾を施したＴ字形の巨大な石柱の周りには大勢の人が集まり、祈りをささげていたとみられる。英国の古代遺跡「ストーンヘンジ」やエジプト最古のピラミッドより７０００年以上も前の時代だ。
　米ウェストバージニア大学のショーン・ローレンス准教授（歴史学）は、「この遺跡の重要性は言葉では言い表せないほどです」と語る。
　専門家によると、シリアとの国境に近いこの丘陵で人類定住の歴史が始まったのは約１万２０００年前。ギョベクリテペを造ったのは石器時代の狩猟採集民だ。
　人の住まいとしては使われていなかったという説もあり、他の丘陵部まで広がる広大な聖地の一部だった可能性がある。近隣の遺跡は、ギョベクリテペよりさらに古い時代のものだったとする考古学者もいる。

■尽きない謎
　こうした仮説が立てられるようになったのは、ドイツの考古学者で先史学者のクラウス・シュミット氏が１９９５年に同遺跡での発掘を初めて発表してからだ。
　だが、ギョベクリテペがいつごろ造られ始めたのかは具体的には分かっていない。
　トルコはこの広大な考古学的遺産の活用にあまり熱心ではなかったが、文化観光省は昨年、この地域の発掘事業への助成金を拡大した。
　出土品は、近隣の市シャンルウルファの考古学博物館に展示されている。
　この地域は貧しく長年行政に見放されていた上に、シリア内戦でさらに打撃を受けたが、ギョベクリテペのおかげで活気を取り戻した。現在シャンルウルファの人口の４分の１はシリア難民が占めている。
　２０１９年には１００万人以上の観光客がシャンルウルファを訪れた。市では今年、新型コロナウイルス流行以前の活気を取り戻すことを期待している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/07/11-13:43）

On a sun-blasted hillside in southeast Turkey, the world's oldest known religious sanctuary is slowly giving up its secrets.
When we open a new trench, we never know what to expect, said Lee Clare of the German Archaeology Institute, who has been excavating there since 2013.
It is always a big surprise.
Gobekli Tepe, which means Potbelly Hill in Turkish, is arguably the most important archaeological site on Earth.
Thousands of our prehistoric ancestors gathered around its highly-decorated T-shaped megalith pillars to worship more 7,000 years before Stonehenge or the earliest Egyptian pyramids.
Its significance is hard to overstate, Sean Lawrence, assistant professor of history at West Virginia University, told AFP.
Academics believe the history of human settlement began in these hills close to the Syrian border some 12,000 years ago when groups of Stone Age hunter gatherers came together to construct these sites.
Gobekli Tepe -- which some experts believe was never actually inhabited -- may be part of a vast sacred landscape that encompasses other nearby hilltop sites that archaeologists believe may be even older.
- Endless mystery -
None of which anyone would have guessed before the German archeologist and pre-historian Klaus Schmidt began to bring the first discoveries to the surface in 1995.
German and Turkish archaeologists have been labouring in the sun there since, with lengthening queues of tourists now joining them to ponder its many mysteries.
When exactly it all began is even unclear.
Exact years are nearly impossible to verify, Lawrence said.
However, the oldest Egyptian monument, the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, was built around 2700 BCE, more than seven millennia after Gobekli Tepe.
This was the end of what is often thought of as Stone Age hunter gatherer societies and the beginning of settled societies, Lawrence added.
There remain endless mysteries surrounding the site, including how labour was organised and how the sites were used, he said.
Gobekli Tepe has even inspired the Netflix sci-fi psychological thriller series The Gift, which turns on one of the ancient inscriptions on its pillars.
Schmidt -- who often wore a white traditional turban on the dig -- puzzled over the megaliths carved with the images of foxes, boars, ducks, lizards and a leopard for over two decades until his early death at the age of 61 in 2014.
- 'Zero point in time' -
The site was initially believed to be purely ritual in nature. But according to Clare, there is now good evidence for the beginning of settled life with some buildings similar to those of the same age found in northern Syria.
Turkey -- which in the past has not been renowned for making the best of its vast archaeological heritage -- has wholeheartedly embraced the discoveries.
The items excavated from Gobekli Tepe are shown in the impressive archaeological museum in the nearest city, Sanliurfa, which is itself so ancient that Abraham is believed to have been born there.
Indeed its new museum built in 2015 boasts the most extensive collection of the neolithic era in the world, according to its director Celal Uludag. All of the portable artifacts from Gobekli Tepe are exhibited here.
This is a journey to civilisation, (to the) zero point in time, said Aydin Aslan, head of Sanliurfa Culture and Tourism Directorate.
Gobekli Tepe sheds light on pre-history, that's why it's a common heritage of humanity, he said proudly.
- 'Go deeper' -
Last year Turkey's culture ministry boosted funding for furher excavations in the region as a part of its Stone Hills project, including cash for the Karahan Tepe hilltop site -- around 35 kilometres from Gobekli Tepe -- which some suspect is even older.
We will now go deeper because Gobekli Tepe is not the one and only, Culture Minister Nuri Ersoy said last year.
The extra funding gives us a fantastic opportunity to compare our results from Gobekli Tepe with new sites in the Sanliurfa region of the same age, Clare said.
Gobekli Tepe has also breathed life back into a poor and long neglected region, which has been further hit by the civil war just across the border. Syrian refugees now make up a quarter of Sanliurfa's population.
Over one million tourists visited Sanliurfa in 2019 and the city expects to reach pre-pandemic levels this year.
Today Gobekli Tepe has started directly touching the economy of the city, Aslan said, who hopes that its glorious past could be a key part of the city's future.