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Did civilization arise before religion or did religion arise before civilization?<\/p>\n

History books teach us that civilization arose with the Neolithic Revolution when hunter gatherers first settled down because of the discovery of agriculture. \u00a0Settled life then led to cities, writing, and religion.<\/p>\n

The discovery of G\u00f6bekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey several years ago may change that story. G\u00f6bekli Tepe contains a series of circles with limestone pillars carved with bas-reliefs of animals like gazelles, foxes and wild boar. The tallest pillars are 18 feet high and weigh 16 tons. \u00a0It looks like a temple \u201creminiscent of Stonehenge,\u201d according to the National Geographic.<\/a><\/p>\n

But G\u00f6bekli Tepe is much older than Stonehenge and over seven thousand years older than the Pyramid at Giza. It was built before the Neolithic Revolution, 11,600 years ago. As the New Yorker Magazine<\/a> noted, most historians believe that hunter gatherers did not have the \u201ccomplex symbolic systems, social hierarchies, and the division of labor, three things you probably need before you can build a twenty-two-acre megalithic temple.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the online magazine, Archaeology<\/a>, Klaus Schmidt, of the German Archaeological Institute and the chief archaeologist at G\u00f6bekli Tepe, believes that the animals on the pillars \u201cprobably illustrate stories of hunter-gatherer religion and beliefs, though we don\u2019t know at the moment. \u00a0The sculptors of G\u00f6bekli Tepe may have simply wanted to depict the animals they saw, or perhaps create symbolic representations of the animals to use in rituals to ensure hunting success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does G\u00f6bekli Tepe mean that the need for religion or for a scared site led hunter gatherers to organize themselves into a workforce, settle down for a long period of time, and eventually discover agriculture?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a clip from National Geographic about building G\u00f6bekli Tepe \u00a0and below that a longer documentary from National Geographic about the discovery.<\/p>\n