“Göbeklitepe: Dünya’nın İlk Tapınağı” (Göbeklitepe: The World’s First Temple), a documentary by Maker Arts, directed by Ahmet Turgut Yazman, sheds light on the discovery of the world’s oldest known temple at the ancient Göbeklitepe hilltop site located southeast of the Anatolian city of Şanlıurfa (formerly Urfa and Edessa), a miracle that lay buried in the heart of Anatolia for thousands of years.
Awarded the “Most Educational Documentary” award at the 2010 Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival, Turgut’s historical eye-opener, which featured in the 30th İstanbul International Film Festival in April, is set to be released in DVD stores across Turkey in a two-disc special edition on Wednesday. Eighty minutes long, the gripping production supplemented by two- and three-dimensional cartoon animation, transforms a potentially dry subject into a fascinating documentary that is easily understood by the untrained eye and will engage even the most historically disinterested of viewers.
Yazman decided to shoot the film after learning about the long-running excavations in a newspaper article in 2006 in which German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, who has lived in the area for 25 years, discussed his discovery of the exposed mountain-top site in 1994, the digs he had been conducting there ever since and the findings that led to the recognition of the area as a sanctuary site of the 10th millennium B.C. The oldest man-made religious site yet to be discovered, Göbeklitepe contains 20 round structures, four of which have currently been excavated.
Taking the viewer on a spiraling journey back in time to 12,000 years ago in Anatolia, the documentary, which was deemed by Newsweek Turkey as rewriting the story of human evolution, features in-depth interviews and discussion with Schmidt as well as East Indian astronomer B.G. Sidharth, former Egyptian Museum director Wafaa el-Saddik, Sufi Metin Bobaroğlu and İstanbul University prehistory department head Mehmet Özdoğan.
The film reveals how the findings of the Göbeklitepe digs have posed serious questions to the widely held belief that civilized society evolved over time from primitive and unsophisticated beginnings. The discovery of the religious temples dating back thousands of years prior to England’s Stonehenge, the Egyptian pyramids and even the invention of writing, indicate not only a certain culture and civilization but also a religious belief system, undermining a common historical consensus that this was a period where mankind was only just beginning a development towards agriculture and permanent settling.
Posing unanswered questions and reminding viewers of the vast mystery and potential of the undiscovered, Schmidt recounts in the film how through the means of unique preservation techniques, the circular temples were entombed and preserved by materials to create a hill of 300 meters in diameter, leading to the name “Göbeklitepe” (Potbellied Hill). The documentary, which makes use of mythological tales and sacred texts, particularly the Quran, also reveals that archaeological findings reliably suggest that the structure and architecture of Göbeklitepe was taken as an example in the construction of other ancient Neolithic sites in Anatolia in the same era, namely those of Çayönü, Hallan Çemi and Nevali Çori.
With only 20 percent of the temple complex unearthed and predictions that it will take at least 50 years to complete the excavations, many viewers will be hoping for a sequel on the intriguing story of the discovery of a vast architecture that questions our conventional framework of history.
“Göbeklitepe: The World’s First Temple” will be available on Wednesday at DVD stores nationwide.
news: todayszaman-Photo: sundayszaman
