1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:24,839 Welcome back everybody. 2 00:00:24,839 --> 00:00:28,199 Welcome back to Megalithomania Johannesburg 2011. 3 00:00:28,199 --> 00:00:31,320 Hope you had a lovely lunch break. 4 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:35,679 Interesting weather out there today with the sun and the thunder. 5 00:00:35,679 --> 00:00:41,519 Anyway today's, we now move on with Andrew Collins who is the author from The Ascension 6 00:00:41,519 --> 00:00:47,079 of Angels, Gateway to Eden and many other books looking at different aspects of ancient 7 00:00:47,079 --> 00:00:48,079 civilizations. 8 00:00:48,079 --> 00:00:53,480 His most recent work, Quebecly Tepe, really carries on from one of his early books from 9 00:00:54,479 --> 00:00:59,759 And this new site has brought a whole different aspect to the megalithic world o... 10 00:00:59,759 --> 00:01:05,319 to its incredible antiquity, but also to its incredible stonework. 11 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,599 Andrew also has published several other books. 12 00:01:08,599 --> 00:01:12,400 Obviously tomorrow he's going to be talking about his research on the cave systems under 13 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:17,439 Giza but for now we're going to sort of take a look at these sites in South East Turkey 14 00:01:17,439 --> 00:01:19,120 and the implications of them. 15 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:22,120 So please give a warm welcome to Andrew Collins. 16 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:23,120 Hiya. 17 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:30,000 Okay, lots to talk about today. 18 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,200 Obviously Quebecly Tepe being the main theme. 19 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:38,880 Now you may not have heard of this place but it is the oldest stone temple complex in 20 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:45,240 the world basically and the implications of it and the fact that it's so old are... 21 00:01:45,239 --> 00:01:50,399 enormous for the entire rise of civilization. 22 00:01:50,399 --> 00:01:57,319 Let's begin at the beginning which is 1994. 23 00:01:57,319 --> 00:02:03,560 On a farmstead in South East Turkey, this gentleman you can see on the right hand side 24 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:12,539 here, he was tilling the land when he came across evidence of these carved stones. 25 00:02:12,539 --> 00:02:21,060 Now he recognized them as significant and went to the local museum in the city of... 26 00:02:21,060 --> 00:02:25,699 and tried to interest the museum there in them and they just wouldn't come out. 27 00:02:25,699 --> 00:02:31,500 Luckily a German archaeologist who was already working in the area by the name of... 28 00:02:31,500 --> 00:02:39,939 Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute came along and realized that the... 29 00:02:39,939 --> 00:02:46,699 significant here and he later said that within the first minute I knew that if I... 30 00:02:46,699 --> 00:02:50,340 walk away now then I would be here for the rest of my life. 31 00:02:50,340 --> 00:03:00,259 Well he didn't walk away and he began excavations at this place and uncovered th... 32 00:03:00,259 --> 00:03:05,300 structures basically in the world as far as antiquity is concerned. 33 00:03:05,300 --> 00:03:11,020 Here you're beginning to see some of the layers that were taken off of this site and 34 00:03:11,020 --> 00:03:17,740 these immense and incredible stone pillars that started appearing. 35 00:03:17,740 --> 00:03:21,740 And this is what he's found so far. 36 00:03:21,740 --> 00:03:25,700 Three massive what they call cult buildings which basically means that they think they're 37 00:03:25,700 --> 00:03:27,660 of religious use. 38 00:03:27,979 --> 00:03:38,219 These are rings of slim T-shaped stone pillars which were built around 10,000 BC ... 39 00:03:38,219 --> 00:03:41,219 is assumed to be a hunter gathering society. 40 00:03:41,219 --> 00:03:50,139 Now what I mean by that is that in this age people hadn't settled down into a sedentary 41 00:03:50,139 --> 00:03:52,979 agricultural style life. 42 00:03:52,979 --> 00:03:57,340 They were still going around, their whole life was based around survival, of killing 43 00:03:57,340 --> 00:03:59,780 animals and just finding food and surviving. 44 00:03:59,780 --> 00:04:04,859 That's the way it's interpreted but clearly this is wrong. 45 00:04:04,859 --> 00:04:10,259 Now the actual time frame, the horizon that this is known as as far as archaeology is 46 00:04:10,259 --> 00:04:16,560 concerned is the pre-pottery Neolithic period, PPNA. 47 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:20,839 What this means is that quite clearly what's going on here, these people whoever these 48 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:25,759 were were settling down but they didn't even have pottery. 49 00:04:25,759 --> 00:04:32,239 Now most of the pillars which are set in rings but not rings like stone circles in... 50 00:04:32,239 --> 00:04:37,919 and most other parts of the world but actually like spokes of a wheel. 51 00:04:37,919 --> 00:04:43,799 Many of them are 10 to 20 tonnes apiece as you can see here but some of them and it's 52 00:04:43,799 --> 00:04:50,759 estimated the one that's being propped up by the wood here is possibly as much as 40 53 00:04:50,759 --> 00:04:57,279 to 60 tonnes and there's unfinished one in a local quarry which is larger than all 54 00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:04,519 of them and that's certainly getting towards a 60 ton mark. 55 00:05:04,519 --> 00:05:06,680 Now what were these pillars? 56 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:12,240 Well clearly as I'll show you they were decorated in high relief. 57 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:19,719 However their placing was within dry stone walling very often and the structures seem 58 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,640 to be either underground or at least subserviced. 59 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:27,840 In other words part of them are underground and part of them are almost certainly roofed 60 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:33,180 over and the actual shape of the pillars which are T-shaped would suggest that at... 61 00:05:33,180 --> 00:05:41,200 of them were being used as roof supports and that basically you know you come in from... 62 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:46,380 Now it's been suggested that those involved with the creation of Gebeckli Tepe which by 63 00:05:46,420 --> 00:05:49,259 the way means the hill of the naval. 64 00:05:49,259 --> 00:05:58,100 The naval being a very profound symbol of creation amongst cultures and societies... 65 00:05:58,100 --> 00:06:05,699 is that whoever was behind it must have been some kind of elite, some people who could 66 00:06:05,699 --> 00:06:12,659 control and bring together the local society to achieve something like this. 67 00:06:12,740 --> 00:06:18,540 It's been suggested that they were an elite class of religious leaders as one source 68 00:06:18,540 --> 00:06:27,820 said, or shamans, those who obviously controlled the spiritual destiny of the... 69 00:06:27,820 --> 00:06:31,940 and who would be the link between this world and the next. 70 00:06:31,940 --> 00:06:38,100 They almost certainly would have been of a particular caste or elite that would have 71 00:06:38,100 --> 00:06:45,020 been present and overseen the creation of these monuments. 72 00:06:45,020 --> 00:06:49,260 But quite clearly there would have been not just dozens but probably many hundreds if 73 00:06:49,260 --> 00:06:54,740 not thousands of people involved in these projects. 74 00:06:54,740 --> 00:07:01,780 Of the so far three have been uncovered but another 20 or so remain to be investigated 75 00:07:01,780 --> 00:07:02,980 in the immediate vicinity. 76 00:07:03,860 --> 00:07:06,259 And I'll just put this in context. 77 00:07:06,259 --> 00:07:12,180 If they were constructed around 10,000 BC and I forgot to mention here they were actually 78 00:07:12,180 --> 00:07:19,500 deliberately buried around 8,000 BC so that's around 2,000 years of usage. 79 00:07:19,500 --> 00:07:23,460 You know they were just killed by being buried underground, they weren't destroyed 80 00:07:23,460 --> 00:07:26,980 par se, they were just buried. 81 00:07:26,980 --> 00:07:32,700 All of this was taking place several thousand years before Stonehenge in Britain which 82 00:07:32,700 --> 00:07:38,819 is obviously perhaps the world's most famous megalithic, i.e. large stone monument, but 83 00:07:38,819 --> 00:07:43,939 also 7,500 years before the pyramids of Giza. 84 00:07:43,939 --> 00:07:51,300 Now this is a hell of a long time and yet what we see on the stone pillars at Gebekli 85 00:07:51,300 --> 00:07:57,220 Tepe is styles of art which are unique to this period. 86 00:07:57,220 --> 00:08:03,379 The only thing that comes near to them is the cave art of mostly in Western Europe 87 00:08:03,379 --> 00:08:10,740 which also has high relief which you'll see here at Gebekli Tepe as well because this 88 00:08:10,740 --> 00:08:13,980 is the only thing that's comparable really. 89 00:08:13,980 --> 00:08:17,620 There may be a few odd examples of art here and there around the world but this is en 90 00:08:17,620 --> 00:08:20,540 masse. 91 00:08:20,540 --> 00:08:24,259 The diversity of the carvings are extraordinary. 92 00:08:24,259 --> 00:08:29,780 I mean there's animals, birds, humans, other abstract animals. 93 00:08:29,780 --> 00:08:33,620 For instance let's run through a list of ones that you could immediately pull out. 94 00:08:33,620 --> 00:08:41,740 Bulls, foxes, gazelles, oryx, lizards, dogs, pigs, arachnids, insects, reptiles, snakes, 95 00:08:41,740 --> 00:08:44,899 lions, birds, the vulture in particular. 96 00:08:44,899 --> 00:08:47,500 We'll come back to that one. 97 00:08:47,580 --> 00:08:50,940 As I say they're three dimensional, they're not just two dimensional. 98 00:08:50,940 --> 00:08:52,759 You get carved statues here. 99 00:08:52,759 --> 00:08:57,379 You can see here on the right something like a boar with tusks. 100 00:08:57,379 --> 00:09:02,059 There's a vulture above that, a beautiful piece of stone carving there. 101 00:09:02,059 --> 00:09:06,820 At the base on the bottom right there's an animal which is unidentifiable. 102 00:09:06,820 --> 00:09:13,259 It could be a dog, it could be a lizard, it could be a fantastic, fabulous creature which 103 00:09:13,259 --> 00:09:17,259 was seen in mind by a shaman or whatever. 104 00:09:17,259 --> 00:09:21,939 And you can see how that is carved along the edge of one of the pillars here. 105 00:09:21,939 --> 00:09:27,220 This would have taken an incredible skill, a skill which must have developed over a 106 00:09:27,220 --> 00:09:28,220 period of time. 107 00:09:28,220 --> 00:09:30,500 I mean you don't just do this overnight. 108 00:09:30,500 --> 00:09:39,220 Clearly whoever was behind these skills introduced them to a society and they lear... 109 00:09:39,220 --> 00:09:42,860 were able to practice them in the creation of these. 110 00:09:42,860 --> 00:09:44,960 Now I mentioned earlier on that they subsurface. 111 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:52,960 You can see here right in the centre right bottom this weird window like thing in stone. 112 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:54,840 There are a few of these at Quebec Ly Tape. 113 00:09:54,840 --> 00:10:02,000 I've seen another one, another similar site that's yet to be excavated in the area. 114 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:05,639 And I think they're probably roof entrances. 115 00:10:05,639 --> 00:10:11,920 In other words they're like roof windows that were obviously supported by a very strong 116 00:10:11,919 --> 00:10:16,879 roof, perhaps of wood, and it's collapsed in. 117 00:10:16,879 --> 00:10:22,599 Now there are some incredibly detailed abstract symbols at Quebec Ly Tape. 118 00:10:22,599 --> 00:10:30,079 For example here on the left you can see this weird H with an oval shape in the middle. 119 00:10:30,079 --> 00:10:32,959 Now what this represents, we've absolutely no idea. 120 00:10:32,959 --> 00:10:39,839 Beneath it you've got a crescent with something that looks like an eye. 121 00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:44,560 It could be the sun, it could be a star, and all we can say is that on the right hand 122 00:10:44,560 --> 00:10:50,240 side here's something from Babylonian art several thousand years later which is not 123 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:59,240 that dissimilar and probably represents a goddess, Ishtar most likely, and obviously 124 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:05,600 the crescent moon probably, the horns of an animal, probably a bull, and a star or planet 125 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:07,519 most likely Venus. 126 00:11:08,159 --> 00:11:12,720 But what this actually represented at Quebec Ly Tape we don't know. 127 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:18,079 Now star alignments, there's a lot of people working on Quebec Ly Tape at the moment, 128 00:11:18,079 --> 00:11:23,279 and the thing that most people want to try and do is find star alignments. 129 00:11:23,279 --> 00:11:28,600 Now the problem that you've got here is because there are so many pillars and so m... 130 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:33,960 types of animals and birds that you can get lost very quickly trying to interpret them. 131 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:39,680 And even if you interpret several of these you've still got another 20 unexcavated 132 00:11:39,680 --> 00:11:41,879 sites to go. 133 00:11:41,879 --> 00:11:47,920 And I think that it's foolish to try and identify everything, but having said this 134 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:54,000 in my book The Cygnus Mystery which came out in 2006, I looked at the Quebec Ly Tape 135 00:11:54,000 --> 00:12:01,720 in detail and what we find is that it seems to be orientated roughly north-south and 136 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:07,279 this is very similar to a number of other of the so-called pre-pottery Neolithic sites 137 00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:09,879 in this area. 138 00:12:09,879 --> 00:12:16,120 And even if there is an astronomical connection, either looking to the north or... 139 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,680 well there are a lot of traditions in this area that go back thousands of years to do 140 00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:27,240 with the significance of the north and the area of the meridian and the pole star and 141 00:12:27,279 --> 00:12:31,879 constellations in the immediate area of the pole star. 142 00:12:31,879 --> 00:12:34,919 So if that is possible what do you see on the horizon? 143 00:12:34,919 --> 00:12:41,279 Well in 9-10,000 BC there was only one significant constellation that did anythin... 144 00:12:41,279 --> 00:12:48,320 on the northern horizon and that was Cygnus which to us in the ancient world is mostly 145 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:51,320 associated with a swan. 146 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:56,480 And basically what happened was that as this revolved around the night sky, as it came 147 00:12:56,519 --> 00:13:02,159 down on its so-called lower transit very close to the horizon, the stars would just... 148 00:13:02,159 --> 00:13:07,639 there obviously as it crossed the meridian before rising up again. 149 00:13:07,639 --> 00:13:12,120 And because it was placed prominently upon the Milky Way, where the Milky Way actually 150 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:17,840 splits in two to create something called the Cygnus Rift, which has been universally seen 151 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:22,920 as a point of entry and exit into the sky world, I think that somehow this is related 152 00:13:22,919 --> 00:13:26,679 possibly to the beliefs of Gebekeli Tepe. 153 00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:31,759 Here's the dark rift or Cygnus Rift, it's also known as the Great Rift, here that you 154 00:13:31,759 --> 00:13:35,319 can see the stars and this dark area in the middle. 155 00:13:35,319 --> 00:13:41,919 And what's possibly significant is that in the Near East Cygnus was also known as the 156 00:13:41,919 --> 00:13:44,759 Falling Vulture. 157 00:13:44,759 --> 00:13:51,159 Now the vulture is a very, very important symbol amongst the Neolithic cult of the... 158 00:13:51,199 --> 00:13:56,079 They would put their dead out on these wooden platforms, just like the Zoroastrians did 159 00:13:56,079 --> 00:14:02,439 in much later times, and the bodies would be picked clean. 160 00:14:02,439 --> 00:14:06,319 Once the bones had calcined, in other words, they dried, they'd be collected in and they 161 00:14:06,319 --> 00:14:12,319 would be buried in what's known as a disarticulated or secondary burial. 162 00:14:12,319 --> 00:14:16,199 And then the bones, particularly the skull, which was the seat of the soul, would be seen 163 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:21,680 as a point of communication with that ancestor and presumably the ancestral family. 164 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:26,120 This image here, which comes from Çatalhöyük, which is one of the earliest cities in the 165 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:32,320 world in southern Turkey, shows on the left side one of these excarnation, as it's... 166 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:38,040 that's the process known, towers with these vultures, and that's what they are, they're 167 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:43,160 identified as vultures for various reasons. 168 00:14:43,159 --> 00:14:49,079 Even under the wing, this head, which is almost certainly symbolic of the soul, which 169 00:14:49,079 --> 00:14:52,799 they would then act as psychopomps or soul carriers that would take it into the next 170 00:14:52,799 --> 00:14:58,799 world, whereas on the right, you've clearly got a matchstick man that represents the 171 00:14:58,799 --> 00:15:03,179 actual body being, you know, under the process of excarnation. 172 00:15:03,179 --> 00:15:07,959 So it's like the two things, the physical and the spiritual going on next door to each 173 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:13,280 other, and Çatalhöyük is unquestionably a descendant of these early sites like Göbekli 174 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:15,160 Tepe. 175 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:20,000 And the vulture was an important symbol in this Neolithic cult of the dead, with the 176 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:25,960 birds wings and feathers being utilized by the shamans who would believe that in some 177 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:33,560 kind of otherworldly state they would enter into the sky world, perhaps bringing souls 178 00:15:34,399 --> 00:15:39,639 and taking them back into the world, and obviously collecting otherworldly... 179 00:15:39,639 --> 00:15:45,679 And actually evidence of these vulture cloaks have been discovered in this region, dating 180 00:15:45,679 --> 00:15:49,479 to exactly the timeframe, so this isn't speculation. 181 00:15:49,479 --> 00:15:54,039 And this Cygnus connection goes on, because Cygnus is universally seen as a point of... 182 00:15:54,039 --> 00:15:56,879 and exit into the sky world. 183 00:15:57,519 --> 00:16:04,519 To the north of Turkey, in Armenia, there is a stone circle there at a place called 184 00:16:04,519 --> 00:16:05,519 Karahunj. 185 00:16:05,519 --> 00:16:07,639 A lot of work has been done on this. 186 00:16:07,639 --> 00:16:13,439 It's thought to date to around 5,500 BC, so slightly later obviously than Göbekli Tepe. 187 00:16:13,439 --> 00:16:16,600 And it's, you know, been announced that it's orientated towards Cygnus. 188 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:23,240 In fact, there's a stone that's holed that looks directly at the northern meridian, 189 00:16:23,279 --> 00:16:30,120 at the point where the star Deneb, the brightest star in Cygnus, crossed during t... 190 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:34,080 And some Russian colleagues of mine have been doing work on this. 191 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:40,639 And what they say is Cygnus seems to be associated with a very ancient swan mother... 192 00:16:40,639 --> 00:16:46,680 or Libet, which was venerated in the North Caucasus, and whose influence spread right 193 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:51,460 the way into Russia and possibly into eastern parts of Europe. 194 00:16:51,500 --> 00:16:55,620 And quite clearly her symbol was that of the swan. 195 00:16:55,620 --> 00:16:57,940 Cygnus is generally seen as a swan. 196 00:16:57,940 --> 00:16:59,540 It's a vulture in other parts of the world. 197 00:16:59,540 --> 00:17:01,940 It's whatever bird is indigenous to that region. 198 00:17:01,940 --> 00:17:06,100 Now, it would seem that Cygnus seems to be very strongly associated with the idea that 199 00:17:06,100 --> 00:17:10,420 Milky Way is a goddess in its own right. 200 00:17:10,420 --> 00:17:16,860 This is the Egyptian god Nuit shown in her form as the Milky Way. 201 00:17:16,859 --> 00:17:22,059 And you can see that the area where the dark rift or the Cygnus rift is, where the stars 202 00:17:22,059 --> 00:17:27,299 of Cygnus are placed, represents the womb and birth canal of this goddess. 203 00:17:27,299 --> 00:17:34,219 Now, as I say, obviously up to 20 more complexes at Giza are to be found. 204 00:17:34,219 --> 00:17:39,019 And there are others that are possibly even larger that have yet to be excavated. 205 00:17:39,019 --> 00:17:43,299 I was there in 2004, and I intend going back there very, very shortly. 206 00:17:43,299 --> 00:17:46,539 Now, what else was going on at the Bekli Tepe? 207 00:17:46,779 --> 00:17:49,420 Beer brewing, thank God. 208 00:17:49,420 --> 00:17:58,059 The oldest evidence of the brewing of beer comes from there, dating back at least 11,... 209 00:17:58,059 --> 00:18:06,259 And it has been speculated that beer, the creation of beer, may have been the original 210 00:18:06,259 --> 00:18:11,859 usage of wheat, not actually the creation of bread. 211 00:18:11,899 --> 00:18:17,299 The bread may have actually been a secondary thing, because the beer would have been used, 212 00:18:17,299 --> 00:18:21,579 obviously, to quench the thirst of the workers and whatever. 213 00:18:21,579 --> 00:18:28,979 And that this in itself may have been behind the actual change in lifestyle from the... 214 00:18:28,979 --> 00:18:35,019 to that of the more settled farming communities, who were obviously then... 215 00:18:35,019 --> 00:18:40,299 these farms, these fields of wheat, as we would now see today. 216 00:18:40,299 --> 00:18:48,220 And it's a fact that 68 varieties of wheat that are in circulation today can all be 217 00:18:48,220 --> 00:18:54,059 traced back to wild grasses that grow at a place called Karadag, which is the site of 218 00:18:54,059 --> 00:18:59,220 an extinct volcano, which is just 20 miles from Gbekli Tepe. 219 00:18:59,220 --> 00:19:04,019 And this is the earliest evidence for the domestication of grasses to create cereals, 220 00:19:04,019 --> 00:19:05,579 as I said, for beer and bread. 221 00:19:05,579 --> 00:19:08,500 And that's about 9,000 BC. 222 00:19:08,539 --> 00:19:12,380 What's also interesting is that Karadag is also the scene of, and I've been there, 223 00:19:12,380 --> 00:19:17,700 that's why I know this, of a Bedouin catastrophe myth, which talks of a... 224 00:19:17,700 --> 00:19:23,299 unleashed by the first tillers of the land, i.e. the first farmers, i.e. clearly those 225 00:19:23,299 --> 00:19:26,500 that would have been involved with Gbekli Tepe. 226 00:19:26,500 --> 00:19:30,980 It's said to have climbed into the air and exploded in a rain of fire that nearly... 227 00:19:30,980 --> 00:19:33,500 the world. 228 00:19:33,500 --> 00:19:39,660 And this brings us on, I think, to the greater significance of why Gbekli Tepe wa... 229 00:19:39,660 --> 00:19:42,019 where it was and when it was. 230 00:19:42,019 --> 00:19:47,339 Because I believe that this catastrophe myth, like so many others around the world, is 231 00:19:47,339 --> 00:19:53,779 a memory of a comet impact at the very end of the last ice age. 232 00:19:53,779 --> 00:19:57,779 In a book called Gateway to Atlantis, I talked about this in great detail, with th... 233 00:19:57,779 --> 00:20:02,700 evidence being the so-called Carolina Bays, literally hundreds of thousands of elliptical 234 00:20:02,700 --> 00:20:09,059 craters ranging in size from a few hundred metres to kilometres in length, that are 235 00:20:09,059 --> 00:20:15,180 all orientated north-west to south-east, that cover the eastern states of America, from 236 00:20:15,180 --> 00:20:20,860 New York down to Florida, with the highest concentration being in the area of the... 237 00:20:20,860 --> 00:20:22,860 hence their name. 238 00:20:22,860 --> 00:20:27,299 And these have now been dated to around 10,900 BC. 239 00:20:27,299 --> 00:20:32,220 There's still a lot of conjecture, but it does seem as if we're finally making... 240 00:20:32,380 --> 00:20:33,380 in this. 241 00:20:33,380 --> 00:20:38,940 Thanks to the work of Dr Richard Firestone, an American scientist in Lawrence Berkeley 242 00:20:38,940 --> 00:20:43,500 National Laboratory, his work was published not only in papers, but in a book called 243 00:20:43,500 --> 00:20:50,980 The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes in 2006, which he gives incredible evidence of this 244 00:20:50,980 --> 00:20:55,539 event, which, as I said, he gives a date of about 10,900 BC. 245 00:20:55,539 --> 00:20:59,660 But don't worry about specific dates here, because these can be a thousand years out 246 00:20:59,860 --> 00:21:02,860 when you're dealing with things like Carbon 14 dating. 247 00:21:02,860 --> 00:21:07,420 He talks, as many other writers have done, including myself, of mass firestorms that 248 00:21:07,420 --> 00:21:14,820 would have devastated large regions of the North American continent, the destruction 249 00:21:14,820 --> 00:21:20,420 of the megafauna, mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, giant camels, saber-toothed tigers, 250 00:21:20,420 --> 00:21:23,380 all of them were decimated during this period. 251 00:21:23,380 --> 00:21:26,180 Many became extinct soon after. 252 00:21:26,180 --> 00:21:30,620 Some lingered around for a few thousand years, but definitely their numbers were... 253 00:21:30,620 --> 00:21:33,539 almost certainly through catastrophe. 254 00:21:33,539 --> 00:21:39,980 And there is an ash layer 20 centimetres deep that has been found all over the world 255 00:21:39,980 --> 00:21:49,580 to exactly this period, 12.94 thousand years ago, in other words, 12,940 years ago. 256 00:21:49,580 --> 00:21:55,820 And this has been found as far away as Australia, Egypt, Russia, Europe, and it's... 257 00:21:55,819 --> 00:22:02,059 the Ossilo Horizon after the first place it was found in Holland. 258 00:22:02,059 --> 00:22:07,899 That shows that some kind of nuclear winter followed this event as the ash remained in 259 00:22:07,899 --> 00:22:14,220 the sky, which would have dropped the climate down, but we'll come on to that in a second. 260 00:22:14,220 --> 00:22:20,299 Richard Fierstein estimates that 75% of North America's population would have been... 261 00:22:20,299 --> 00:22:21,859 by this event alone. 262 00:22:22,779 --> 00:22:28,299 As I say, the global ash cloud causes a re-advance of the ice sheets in an event... 263 00:22:28,299 --> 00:22:29,899 Younger Dryas. 264 00:22:29,899 --> 00:22:35,059 Now, the Younger Dryas, which came at the very end of the last ice age, when the ice 265 00:22:35,059 --> 00:22:41,859 was beginning to recede in its own right, took a grip almost instantly and lasted for 266 00:22:41,859 --> 00:22:43,219 probably a couple of hundred years. 267 00:22:43,219 --> 00:22:47,339 There's debate over how long and how quickly it came on, but it seems to have ended very 268 00:22:47,419 --> 00:22:54,339 abruptly as well, because the transition from very cold flora to that of much warmer 269 00:22:54,339 --> 00:22:59,699 climates was extremely quick, maybe just a few years or a few generations. 270 00:22:59,699 --> 00:23:03,339 And it's generally believed that the Younger Dryas altered the climate and led to the 271 00:23:03,339 --> 00:23:10,339 spread of the sedentary lifestyle, i.e. the farming lifestyle, which began around... 272 00:23:10,339 --> 00:23:17,659 10,000 to 9,000 BC, and obviously perhaps even to these building projects. 273 00:23:17,659 --> 00:23:19,459 But who built Gebekele-Tepe and why? 274 00:23:19,459 --> 00:23:22,459 Well, one clue is the book of Genesis. 275 00:23:22,459 --> 00:23:28,699 Klaus Schmidt himself in 2007 said that Gebekele-Tepe is the Garden of Eden, a ver... 276 00:23:28,699 --> 00:23:32,419 statement that got him into big, big trouble. 277 00:23:32,419 --> 00:23:38,079 And it's long been believed that the land of Eden, the Garden of Eden, was in the area 278 00:23:38,079 --> 00:23:43,859 of what used to be Armenia, which was a much bigger area, today it's southeast Turkey 279 00:23:43,859 --> 00:23:45,759 for the most part. 280 00:23:45,759 --> 00:23:52,519 This is a map from 1675 that shows the land of Eden, the Garden of Eden, and it was... 281 00:23:52,519 --> 00:24:00,519 in the Bible and various other ancient Judeo-Christian texts that where Eden came... 282 00:24:01,519 --> 00:24:08,180 Eden was placed, the four rivers of paradise flowed from, or gained their source. 283 00:24:08,180 --> 00:24:13,119 Now it's easy enough to pin down two of these, they're the Euphrates and the Tigris, 284 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:18,400 that both rise in the area of Lake Van, a huge inland sea, which is at the centre of 285 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:20,200 this cross that I've created. 286 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:23,400 The other two rivers are a matter of speculation. 287 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:29,119 One is why certainly the Artes is, that comes in towards the west from the Caspian Sea, 288 00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:36,039 and the other one has been believed to be the Great Zahar River, which was believed 289 00:24:36,039 --> 00:24:42,159 to be so by the Armenian Church right from the time, its earliest times of inception, 290 00:24:42,159 --> 00:24:44,279 almost 2,000 years ago. 291 00:24:44,279 --> 00:24:51,699 And all of them take their headway in the rough area of Lake Van, but most of them flow 292 00:24:51,699 --> 00:24:55,439 to the west of Lake Van in the area that we're talking about. 293 00:24:55,640 --> 00:25:00,680 And this is what I identified as early as 1996, before Gebekli Tepe came out as the 294 00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:06,799 original Garden of Eden, and also the homeland of the gods of the Sumerians and... 295 00:25:06,799 --> 00:25:09,039 So why is Eden important to this story? 296 00:25:09,039 --> 00:25:13,440 Well another profound statement that Schmidt made is that the stones were erected for the 297 00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:16,080 watchmen of the period. 298 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:18,039 Now what the hell does that mean? 299 00:25:18,039 --> 00:25:23,400 This was brought to my attention, it was obviously translated from German, but it's... 300 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:31,120 because the pseudepigraphal work, the Book of Enoch that goes back to about 150 BC and 301 00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:36,519 comes from much earlier sources and is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, states that Eden 302 00:25:36,519 --> 00:25:41,240 was the same as paradise, the same as heaven, and it was a place where the so-called... 303 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:46,519 or angels lived as a community, and from where they fell. 304 00:25:46,519 --> 00:25:52,320 It says that the rebel watchers gave mortals the arts and sciences of heaven. 305 00:25:52,319 --> 00:25:56,859 Now is this a memory of what's known as the Neolithic Revolution, which actually began 306 00:25:56,859 --> 00:26:00,839 in the area of Gebekli Tepe, and that's not in any kind of doubt. 307 00:26:00,839 --> 00:26:09,119 Here's some of the earliest advances in technology, well and just lifestyle, settl... 308 00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,079 that we find in the very area of Gebekli Tepe. 309 00:26:12,079 --> 00:26:17,319 The earliest ceramics, fired pottery and statues, the earliest metal usage, the... 310 00:26:17,319 --> 00:26:23,399 melting, the earliest rectilinear buildings, the earliest mortar floors, which are... 311 00:26:23,399 --> 00:26:32,399 flat, plant domestication, beer, as I said, wine, hard stone lapidary, you know, really 312 00:26:32,399 --> 00:26:39,359 hard jewels with being pierced all the way through so that they could be strung, eye 313 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:46,759 beautification using blue cobalt, goat herding, animal husbandry, woven fagbrek, ... 314 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:53,720 were in the same area where Eden was placed, and the watchers were said to have given 315 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:58,920 the arts and sciences of heaven to humanity. 316 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:03,680 But of course the Book of Enoch also says the story of the watchers coming upon the 317 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:08,680 mortal women, which is also found in the Book of Genesis, and taking them as wives and 318 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,720 creating giant offspring known as Nephilim. 319 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:19,079 Now this suggests that the ruling elite in this area were coming upon the local people 320 00:27:19,079 --> 00:27:24,640 and that, you know, children were being born that were considered to be, you know,... 321 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:31,839 different to the locals, you know, and something bad was now going on. 322 00:27:31,839 --> 00:27:35,559 Before we come on to why that might have been, let's get some more descriptions fro... 323 00:27:35,559 --> 00:27:36,559 Book of Enoch. 324 00:27:37,399 --> 00:27:43,039 The watchers were adorned in feather coats originally in this Enochian text. 325 00:27:43,039 --> 00:27:44,919 They're described also as birdmen. 326 00:27:44,919 --> 00:27:46,359 Now what does this mean? 327 00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:51,659 Well clearly this seems to suggest that we're talking about shamans dressed in cloaks of 328 00:27:51,659 --> 00:27:52,659 feathers. 329 00:27:52,659 --> 00:27:57,799 I've already said that the vulture was the symbol of the cult of the dead and that they 330 00:27:57,799 --> 00:28:05,359 would adorn themselves in these feather jackets, you know, so that they could make... 331 00:28:05,439 --> 00:28:08,240 journeys for whatever reason. 332 00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:12,159 I think this is what the Book of Enoch is referring to, and what's interesting is that 333 00:28:12,159 --> 00:28:19,799 later versions of the Book of Enoch, the cloaks and feathers were actually changed ... 334 00:28:19,799 --> 00:28:25,079 by the early Christian writers, which I find is an interesting transition. 335 00:28:25,079 --> 00:28:31,679 The watchers therefore were shamans, a priestly elite, gods not mortals. 336 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:37,200 The watchers were also said to be very tall, pale yet ruddy skin, piercing eyes and long 337 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:39,240 white hair. 338 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:44,720 And this is how I recreated it from my book, From the Ashes of Angels. 339 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:49,640 And so is this what the founders of Gebekli Tepe actually looked like? 340 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:55,279 You know, and are figures like this those who actually created this Neolithic revolution 341 00:28:55,279 --> 00:28:58,560 which leads to civilisation? 342 00:28:58,559 --> 00:29:03,639 The watchers are also described in the Enochian text as having a visage like a vi... 343 00:29:03,639 --> 00:29:08,399 a serpent, and one is actually even described as the serpent that's emptied Eve in the 344 00:29:08,399 --> 00:29:10,559 Garden of Eden. 345 00:29:10,559 --> 00:29:16,240 And you find down in the Fertile Crescent, which is just below the area of south-east 346 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:22,079 Turkey in modern-day Iraq, where of course the civilisations of Babylon, Sumer, Akkad 347 00:29:22,079 --> 00:29:29,799 and Assyria rose, these weird statues with these serpentine or lizard-like heads which 348 00:29:29,799 --> 00:29:34,879 were found in the graves of a people known as the Ubayd, and is thought to represent 349 00:29:34,879 --> 00:29:40,480 either their ancestors or their gods or some kind of elite that they believe would protect 350 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,519 the dead in the grave. 351 00:29:43,519 --> 00:29:48,960 And I believe that these statues are also images of the watchers. 352 00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:53,360 Of course this is a subject that's been made of much by the likes of David Icke and... 353 00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:59,039 for stories of lizard-headed aliens, but that's another story for another day. 354 00:29:59,039 --> 00:30:05,440 The texts also from Sumer and Akkad talk about the gods as the Ananarchi. 355 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:10,559 They call them the Builder Gods, and they're thought to have been behind the construction 356 00:30:10,559 --> 00:30:17,440 of the very earliest cities, and they are said to have come from an area known as Eden, 357 00:30:17,519 --> 00:30:23,759 which was a word that basically means steppe terraces, which is easily a description of 358 00:30:23,759 --> 00:30:27,720 a mountainous region or hilly region. 359 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:31,559 Other texts talk about them coming from the north, occasionally from the east, and from 360 00:30:31,559 --> 00:30:33,080 a homeland called Dilmen. 361 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:39,360 The name Dilmen still lingers in the area of south-east Turkey, and in the Assyria of 362 00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:45,039 Angels I identified that as the very area where Göbekli Tepe was found. 363 00:30:45,039 --> 00:30:49,619 And a number of the Sumerian and Akkadian kings believe that they were descended from 364 00:30:49,619 --> 00:30:51,319 this race of gods. 365 00:30:51,319 --> 00:30:57,480 I believe that race of gods was the watchers, the builders of Göbekli Tepe. 366 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:02,839 And it's quite clear from the description of the watchers that at least some of their 367 00:31:02,839 --> 00:31:07,480 number, not all necessarily, but certainly those that had memorable features, clearly 368 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:09,920 looked like albinos. 369 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:17,400 Now these albinos would seem to have had very long faces which were described as that, 370 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,279 like vipers, like serpents. 371 00:31:20,279 --> 00:31:27,880 And I found this image a long time ago of an East Asian person who I felt looked... 372 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,220 perfect for the description as given. 373 00:31:31,220 --> 00:31:35,920 But having said East Asia, it could easily come from Central Africa. 374 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:41,120 I mean for instance the ancient Egyptians depicted some of their kings like Akhanaten 375 00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:42,880 with very long faces. 376 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:51,039 This has often been believed because of assumed black African roots. 377 00:31:51,039 --> 00:31:59,080 So to me the watchers were also the immortals of Iran who have very similar stories... 378 00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:00,080 to their origins. 379 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:04,880 They're also known in various texts throughout this region, the Shining Ones. 380 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:10,280 The Ananarchi as I said, and they're the original angels basically. 381 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:15,880 Not those that are spiritual, but those that were of flesh and blood. 382 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:20,120 And I think these were the architects of Göbekli Tepe. 383 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:26,400 Now Göbekli Tepe itself, it doesn't seem as if there was any activity going on here 384 00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:28,120 before this time. 385 00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:33,200 And if that's the case, then these watchers, if I can dare to call them that, came from 386 00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:39,680 somewhere else because they obviously arrived here and began these building projects. 387 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:44,279 I mean maybe something else will be discovered with these other complexes that... 388 00:32:44,279 --> 00:32:45,840 be excavated. 389 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:52,319 But the moment something began around 10,000 BC, possibly in the wake or in the timeframe 390 00:32:52,319 --> 00:32:57,720 of this catastrophe, this comet impact that I talked about. 391 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:01,720 And if that's the case, then where did these people come from? 392 00:33:01,759 --> 00:33:06,240 Now some people have suggested it was Russia, there was some quite advanced cultures going 393 00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:07,240 on there. 394 00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:10,440 It has been suggested that they come from South East Asia. 395 00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,839 Stephen Oppenheimer, an anthropologist, suggested this. 396 00:33:14,839 --> 00:33:18,559 And there are other possibilities of call, of course. 397 00:33:18,559 --> 00:33:25,240 But for me, I think the importance is to remember that this comet impact through th... 398 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:26,720 affected many parts of the world. 399 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:31,000 It would have caused floods, it would have caused the cessation of animal migration, 400 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:38,680 starvation, territorial invasions, open combat, religious changes, ethnological... 401 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:43,960 people going about all over the place changing territories on a regular basis an... 402 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:47,440 those who were in them, certainly if they're the weaker. 403 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,839 So where did they come from? 404 00:33:49,839 --> 00:33:56,079 Well to me, I think that there's a strong chance that they came from Africa. 405 00:33:56,079 --> 00:34:02,839 For instance, in what is today Mali, in the very area of the famous tribe known as the 406 00:34:02,839 --> 00:34:09,960 Dogon, we find the earliest evidence for pottery on the African continent is dated,... 407 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,920 found in the last five years, to 9,500 BC. 408 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:16,880 Now this is contemporary with Gebekeli Tepe. 409 00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:21,880 So is it possible that those from Gebekeli Tepe came from West Africa? 410 00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:27,360 It's possible, although I think it's more likely that they came from the Nile. 411 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:34,280 The reason I say that is that there are extremely advanced communities on the uppe... 412 00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:41,039 as the Isnan and the Quodan, due to the sites that they were first found, their remains. 413 00:34:41,039 --> 00:34:46,480 And they had a proto form of agriculture, so early experiments with agriculture were 414 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:52,719 advanced settlements, so advanced in fact that they didn't reappear in the same state 415 00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:57,920 until several thousand years later, and a very sophisticated stone technology. 416 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:02,480 Again, the most advanced anywhere in that part of the ancient world, and that includes 417 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,440 Europe. 418 00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:12,240 And this was all on the Nile from about 15,000 BC through until around 10,000 to... 419 00:35:12,240 --> 00:35:15,199 BC, when it suddenly just disappears. 420 00:35:15,199 --> 00:35:24,319 And I wonder whether these communities did not move from the Nile, from Egypt and what 421 00:35:24,319 --> 00:35:30,559 is today Sudan, all the way to the Euphrates. 422 00:35:30,559 --> 00:35:38,119 Now if that's the case, then because we know, and let's go back to that, that this ash 423 00:35:38,119 --> 00:35:44,960 layer was found all over the world, including Egypt, then can we find evidence from Egypt 424 00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:45,960 of this catastrophe? 425 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:47,400 Well, yes, there's loads of it. 426 00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:56,119 I mean, the story of the goddess Hathor in her fierce state as Sekhmet, the lion-nest 427 00:35:56,119 --> 00:36:02,199 goddess, was said to have rained down fire from the sky, and nearly destroyed the human 428 00:36:02,199 --> 00:36:10,679 race at the hands of the sun god Re, before she was stopped from completing her duty. 429 00:36:10,679 --> 00:36:16,239 Other stories talk about a Coptic king called Sured, and a fire that rained down on the 430 00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:22,559 earth and again nearly destroyed the civilization that he had. 431 00:36:22,559 --> 00:36:27,259 There are others as well which talk about this serpent in the sky that caused a time 432 00:36:27,259 --> 00:36:33,759 of darkness and destruction and floods that destroyed the first inhabitants of what would 433 00:36:33,759 --> 00:36:36,559 later become Egypt. 434 00:36:37,199 --> 00:36:42,960 There's also stories about people being displaced, particularly in connection with... 435 00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:45,960 of Sekhmet and how she destroyed the human race. 436 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:52,880 It was said that she tried to chase those that attempted to get away and hide in holes, 437 00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:57,840 it said, i.e. underground, at the orders of Re. 438 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:03,840 So I think it's not a bad idea to suggest that whatever was going on in Egypt must have 439 00:37:04,039 --> 00:37:09,960 had an impact and perhaps caused migrations of people into the area of the Euphrates 440 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:12,640 and the Tigris. 441 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:18,039 So what does Gebekli Tepe actually represent? 442 00:37:18,039 --> 00:37:24,120 Well we go back to Klaus Schmidt again, because he mentioned in one of the few... 443 00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:28,720 he's done on the subject that Gebekli Tepe was a Stone Age zoo. 444 00:37:29,599 --> 00:37:34,559 This is a very, very interesting statement, because I think that that's probably what 445 00:37:34,559 --> 00:37:35,559 it was. 446 00:37:35,559 --> 00:37:42,279 I mean to me it's like a celebration of the powers of nature, its abundance, its life, 447 00:37:42,279 --> 00:37:47,959 its energy and of death, you know, of the natural process of death. 448 00:37:47,959 --> 00:37:54,639 And I think that it was created certainly in part as a memorial to some kind of paradise, 449 00:37:54,639 --> 00:38:01,199 a declining golden age which probably ended with this catastrophe, this comet event that 450 00:38:01,199 --> 00:38:07,819 we know devastated the North American continent and also must have affected... 451 00:38:07,819 --> 00:38:11,039 other part of the world. 452 00:38:11,039 --> 00:38:17,519 And it's my belief also that there is some semblance of reality behind the story of 453 00:38:17,519 --> 00:38:22,679 Noah's Ark, which is so obviously connected with the flood, which I believe is also a 454 00:38:22,799 --> 00:38:29,440 memory of this catastrophe from this period of time, and that the story about the animals 455 00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:35,199 and the birds being marched in two by two has got something to do with the memory of 456 00:38:35,199 --> 00:38:41,279 the carvings and the way that they were created on Gebekli Tepe and most probably... 457 00:38:41,279 --> 00:38:46,639 as well that have still got to be excavated in this area as a preservation of what was, 458 00:38:46,639 --> 00:38:51,199 so that it would be preserved forever. 459 00:38:51,199 --> 00:38:54,799 And what else do we know then about the origins of the Annan Ark and their influen... 460 00:38:54,799 --> 00:38:56,079 the world? 461 00:38:56,079 --> 00:38:59,759 Well, that's the story that I shall be telling you tomorrow. 462 00:38:59,759 --> 00:39:05,919 I'll be describing to you what went on in Egypt and I shall be telling you the story 463 00:39:05,919 --> 00:39:10,399 of how we rediscovered Giza's lost cave world. 464 00:39:10,399 --> 00:39:12,879 And this is just a taster of it. 465 00:39:12,879 --> 00:39:17,519 That exists beneath the Giza Plateau and has not been seen for 200 years. 466 00:39:17,519 --> 00:39:18,119 Thank you very much.