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12,000-year-old Göbeklitepe burials explain scattered bones

172 points · 55 comments · yusufaytas

  1. culi · · focus · HN ↗
    More evidence for David Graeber and David Wengrow's reading of the site.

    Between Göbekli Tepe, Poverty Point, Cahokia, and other sites we have pretty good evidence of complex urban societies that did not rely on agriculture. And even in these few sites we have abundant evidence of diversity of social structures from radically egalitarian to hierarchical

    The linear narrative of the evolution of human societies is dead

    1. lumost · · focus · HN ↗
      Out of curiosity couldn’t this also mean that we are missing the agriculture? Or that the practices they used were very different from today.
      1. avadodin · · focus · HN ↗
        I don't think so.

        We have a good idea of when and where the crops were domesticated.

        10kya on was a time of climate change. It is plausible that they were just so blessed in terms of food that they could waste their time creating new problems for themselves.

        > Grg in all his evil has amassed 8000 wild wheat berries but I myself have only gathered 400. Is this fair? How about everyone provides 100 berries to the one that goes to beat him in the head for the common good?

        1. NotSuspicious · · focus · HN ↗
          We have evidence of crop cultivation going back much further than 10kya. I would imagine they just used a different cereal than wheat. The Ohalo II site in Palestine shows cereal cultivation (Barley and Millet) 23kya. While it would certainly be interesting to have evidence of a non-cereal-cultivating metropole, the evidence doesn't quite bear that out.
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