“G?bekli Tepe” (“Hill with a Navel”, or “Potbelly Hill”) is found approximately 16 km (10 miles) northeast of ?anl?urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey once named “Edessa” and known as “the City of the Prophets”. While this nearby city has a rich religious history, just how far back religion stretched in this region was unknown until the discovery of “G?bekli Tepe”. The site is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

? ? ? ? ? “哥貝克力石陣”（“肚臍山”或“大肚山”）位于土耳其東南部古城尚勒烏爾法東北約 16 公里（10 英里）處，該城曾被命名為“埃德薩”，并被稱為“先知之城”。雖然附近的這座城市有著豐富的宗教歷史，但在發(fā)現(xiàn)“哥貝克力石陣”之前，人們并不知道宗教在這一地區(qū)的歷史有多悠久。該遺址已被聯(lián)合國(guó)教科文組織列為世界遺產(chǎn)。

建筑與藝術(shù)

The site is the oldest man-made place of worship yet discovered, dating back to 10,000 BCE. The temples were discovered by a German archeologist (Klaus Schmidt) who had previously worked on the Neval? ?ori site and dig, which is now known to be predated by G?bekli Tepe. The temples contain 3 metre (10 ft) pillars situated in the round. Each T-shaped monolithic limestone pillar contains carved reliefs of animals – gazelles, snakes, foxes, and lions – as well as abstract characters and icons. Bones that have been discovered at the site suggest the hill was used for ritual sacrifices and feasts.

? ? ? ? ? 該遺址是迄今為止發(fā)現(xiàn)的最古老的人造禮拜場(chǎng)所，其歷史可追溯到公元前 10,000 年。這些神廟是由德國(guó)考古學(xué)家（克勞斯·施密特）發(fā)現(xiàn)的，他曾參與過(guò)Neval? ?ori?遺址的考古與發(fā)掘工作，目前已知Neval? ?ori遺址比哥貝克力石陣(G?bekli Tepe)還要早。神廟中有 3 米（10 英尺）高的圓形石柱。每根 T 形石灰?guī)r石柱上都雕刻有動(dòng)物浮雕（羚羊、蛇、狐貍和獅子）以及抽象的人物和圖標(biāo)。遺址中發(fā)現(xiàn)的骨頭表明，該地曾用于祭祀和宴會(huì)。

Found in the cradle of civilization, “G?bekli Tepe” (Potbelly Hill in English) is rightfully named. As you drive through the surrounding villages (Derman K?yü, G?ktepe K?yü, and ?rencik K?yü) – one of two ways to get to the site – you are directed to the ancient temple by signs spray-painted on the wall. Then you slowly drive up the hills in between fields that have been worked by farmers for centuries until you see it, like a middle-aged man lying on his back with his shirt off, “Potbelly Hill” stands as the highest point in the area.

? ? ? ? ? 位于文明搖籃中的“哥貝克力石陣”（G?bekli Tepe，英語(yǔ)為 Potbelly Hill），名副其實(shí)。當(dāng)您駕車穿過(guò)周圍的村莊（Derman K?yü、G?ktepe K?yü 和 ?rencik K?yü）（這是前往該遺址的兩條路之一）時(shí)，墻上噴涂的標(biāo)志會(huì)指引您前往古廟。然后，在農(nóng)民耕種了幾個(gè)世紀(jì)的田地間緩緩駛上山丘，哥貝克力石陣就像一個(gè)中年男子脫掉上衣仰面躺在山丘上，“哥貝克力石陣”是該地區(qū)的最高點(diǎn)。

The hunter-gatherers who built the temple lived in a world that predated writing, metal, or pottery, and at a time when archaeologists thought humanity had yet to group together to worship with priests and sacrifices, yet these Neolithic worshippers somehow organized themselves and found a way to cut and transport these 16-ton stone pillars up a hill and arrange them in a circular, ritualistic pattern.

? ? ? ? ? 建造這座神廟的狩獵采集者生活在一個(gè)沒(méi)有文字、金屬或陶器的早期世界，考古學(xué)家認(rèn)為當(dāng)時(shí)人類還沒(méi)有聚集在一起，在祭司的引導(dǎo)下用祭品進(jìn)行崇拜活動(dòng)，但這些新石器時(shí)代的崇拜者卻以某種方式將自己組織起來(lái)，并找到了一種方法，將這些重達(dá) 16 噸的石柱切割并運(yùn)送到山上，并將它們排列成一個(gè)圓形的儀式法陣。

The hill was littered with an enormous amount of Neolithic flint tools – knives, choppers, and projectile points. These tools are not out of the ordinary, but the sheer number of them is something of a phenomenon, and the fact that they were used to build a religious site, in a time when many historians and archeologists believed temples and religious practices of this kind did not yet exist, makes this an even more interesting discovery.

? ? ? ? ? 山上散落著大量新石器時(shí)代的燧石工具：刀、砍刀和射彈尖。這些工具并不罕見(jiàn)，但數(shù)量之多卻是一個(gè)不尋常的現(xiàn)象，而且在許多歷史學(xué)家和考古學(xué)家認(rèn)為還不存在神廟和宗教活動(dòng)的時(shí)代，這些工具被用來(lái)建造一個(gè)宗教場(chǎng)所，這使得這一發(fā)現(xiàn)更加有趣。

對(duì)理解宗教發(fā)展的意義

The historian K.Schmidt believed that what he called this "cathedral on a hill" was a pilgrimage destination attracting worshippers up to 160 km (100 miles) distant. The discovery of G?bekli Tepe “suggests, at least to the archaeologists working there, [...] that the human sense of the sacred—and the human love of a good spectacle—may have given rise to civilization itself.” As excavator Klaus Schmidt put it, "First came the temple, then the city." Schmidt believes that civilization rose not due to ecological reasons, as has been the concensus, but rather that "civilization is the product of the human mind," a theory that would change the landscape archeology and our understanding of history.

? ? ?The new discoveries are finally beginning to reshape the slow-moving consensus of archeology. G?bekli Tepe is "unbelievably big and amazing, at a ridiculously early date," according to Ian Hodder, director of Stanford's archeology program. Enthusing over the "huge great stones and fantastic, highly refined art" at G?bekli, Hodder—who has spent decades on rival Neolithic sites—says: "Many people think that it changes everything…It overturns the whole apple cart." [If this is true, then, as Hodder puts it] "All our theories were wrong." (Newsweek)

? ? ? ? ? 歷史學(xué)家 K.Schmidt 認(rèn)為，所謂的“山丘上的大教堂”是一個(gè)朝圣地，吸引著 160 公里（100 英里）以外的朝拜者。哥貝克力石陣的發(fā)現(xiàn)“至少對(duì)在那里工作的考古學(xué)家來(lái)說(shuō)，[...]表明人類對(duì)神圣的感覺(jué)以及人類對(duì)美好景觀的熱愛(ài)可能是文明的起源?！闭绨l(fā)掘者克勞斯·施密特所說(shuō)：“先有神廟，后有城市”。施密特認(rèn)為，文明的興起并非像人們所認(rèn)為的那樣是由于生態(tài)原因，而是“文明是人類思想的產(chǎn)物”，這一理論將改變景觀考古學(xué)的面貌和我們對(duì)歷史的理解。

? ? ? ? ? 新的發(fā)現(xiàn)終于開(kāi)始重塑緩慢發(fā)展的考古學(xué)共識(shí)。斯坦福大學(xué)考古學(xué)項(xiàng)目主任伊恩·霍德?（Ian Hodder）表示，哥貝克力石陣“大得令人難以置信，令人驚嘆，而且年代早得離譜”。霍德對(duì)哥貝克力的“巨大的石頭和奇妙、高度精致的藝術(shù)”充滿熱情，他曾花了幾十年時(shí)間研究與之相似的新石器時(shí)代遺址，他說(shuō)：“許多人認(rèn)為它改變了一切......它顛覆了整個(gè)apple cart（Upset the apple cart是一個(gè)成語(yǔ)，意思是改變了事物的既定秩序）。[如果這是真的，那么正如霍德所說(shuō)，“我們所有的理論都是錯(cuò)的”。(新聞周刊）

Even with these new theories and changes in understanding the development of civilizations, religion, and cities, at present G?bekli Tepe still raises more questions for archaeology and prehistory than it answers. The site seems to have lost its relevance and was abandoned in the 8th millennium BCE, but it clearly has strong implications for our understanding of the ancient world today.

? ? ? ? ? 即使在理解文明、宗教和城市發(fā)展方面有了這些新理論和新變化，但目前哥貝克力石陣對(duì)考古學(xué)和史前史提出的問(wèn)題仍然多于它所回答的問(wèn)題。該遺址似乎已經(jīng)失去了聯(lián)系性，在公元前 8000 年就被遺棄了，但它顯然對(duì)我們今天了解古代世界有著重大影響。

參考書(shū)目：

Gobekli Tepe: The Worlda€?s First Temple?Accessed 1 Dec 2016.

Schmidt, K. "G?3bekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey A Preliminary Report on the 1995-1999 Excavations." Pal??orient, Vol. 26 / 2000, pp. 45-54.

Schmidt, K. "G??bekli Tepe a€“ the Stone Age Sanctuaries. New results of ongoing excavations with a special focus on sculptures and high reliefs." Deutsches Arch?¤ologisches Institut, Documenta Praehistorica XXXVII (2010), pp. 239-256.

The Birth of ReligionAccessed 1 Dec 2016.

The World's First TempleAccessed 1 Dec 2016.

Turkey: Archaeological Dig Reshaping Human HistoryAccessed 1 Dec 2016.

Wilson, M. Biblical Turkey. Ege Yayinlari, Istanbul, 2014.

原文作者：Ronnie Jones III

原文網(wǎng)址: https://www.worldhistory.org/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe/