If the history of our species to date was represented as a single day, then civilisation would have begun in the final half-hour. At least, that’s assuming Homo sapiens emerged around 300,000 years ago and civilisation began 6000 years ago with the first cities in Mesopotamia. In this tale, civilisation represents a seismic cultural shift that traces its roots back to the start of farming, some 5000 years earlier, and flows inexorably through settlement, population expansion and social stratification to urbanisation.
These days, we tell a different story. For a start, we no longer see Mesopotamia as ground zero for urbanisation: cities were springing up in other places, including India, China, Egypt and central Europe, at around the same time. What’s more, agriculture wasn’t the catalyst for civilisation we once thought. Instead, it appears to have been an invention born of necessity when the traditional hunter-gathering life became untenable – and there are plenty of examples of groups reverting when farming didn’t work out. This means we must redraw the timeline that saw our ancestors shift away from the lifestyle that had worked well for most of human history. It also requires us to question the very definition of civilisation.
Advertisement
An obvious place to start looking for answers is Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey. Archaeologists digging there since 1995 have unearthed a series of circular enclosures containing huge, T-shaped stone pillars. Dating back almost 12,000 years, these are the oldest known megalithic monuments. Building them would have required cooperation between many workers, along with leaders to coordinate and plan their activities. Such social complexification is one of the hallmarks of civilisation, yet Göbekli Tepe was constructed by hunter-gatherers, who are generally imagined to have lived in small, self-contained, egalitarian groups.
This isn’t the only evidence that cultural change was afoot. The pillars are decorated with striking images of animals and geometric shapes – symbolism . Remains of food and large quantities of culinary tools indicate feasting and carousing. It looks like hunter-gatherer groups from around the region congregated here seasonally. But , including cisterns to collect water, hearths, burials and utilitarian buildings, suggest that the site was also a settlement. One possibility is that .
Global catastrophe
at the University of Edinburgh, UK, has another idea. He believes that some of the enclosures record astronomical observations. These, he argues, include symbols – accounting for cycles of both the moon and the sun – and others depicting the position of constellations at the summer solstice. These might indicate a date, approximately 12,800 years ago, when some believe and caused a global catastrophe, followed by a period of extreme cold known as the Younger Dryas. Was civilisation born out of this cataclysm? “Fear is a powerful motivator,” says Sweatman.
Others are sceptical. Nevertheless, Göbekli Tepe seems to push the origin of civilisation back by 6000 years – around an hour before midnight on the 24-hour representation of our species’ timeline. And this may not even go far enough. In their book , David Wengrow at University College London and the late David Graeber point out that people were building on a monumental scale throughout the last glacial maximum, a cold period on Earth that began 25,000 years ago. Such structures include and so-called , constructed from tusks and bones and thought to be symbolic.
But perhaps monuments and cities are the wrong places to look for the origins of civilisation. Graeber and Wengrow highlight that what we call “early civilisations” are societies held together by authoritarian governments, violence and sexism. Their conception, by contrast, aligns with the Roman concept of civilis, from which “civilisation” derives, which emphasises political wisdom and mutual aid. By this definition, the roots of civilisation extend back 100,000 years ago or more, to when humanity and extended kinship. “In all parts of the world,” they write, “small communities formed civilisations in that true sense.”
This article is part of a special series exploring seven of the biggest chronological conundrums of all time.
Human origins: Neolithic and Bronze Age Turkey
Embark on a captivating journey through Turkey, a land rich with historical treasures that illuminate the story of human origins. Guided by an expert archaeologist, uncover the mysteries of these ancient landscapes and visit museums that showcase invaluable artifacts, bringing the past to life in a vivid and unforgettable way.
