Origins of the Gods

Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: The Temple of the Watchers and the Discovery of Eden by Andrew Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A short while ago there was an ancient temple unearthed in Southern Anatolia and it was called Goblek Tepi. It challenged and changed our perception of humanities history. Common though is that the first three civilizations were the Sumerians, Egyptian and Indi. This temple is saying that there was developed humanity even before the Sumerians.

The temple was hidden inside a tel or a mound as if it had been buried over purposely. It has a ring of stones an altar and several rooms to this complex place. Very complex . There are representation of twelve for each of the months and the temple design suggests rather advanced knowledge of astronomy. Back in those days the pole Star was the Signus Star but over the thousands of years things have changed we have a new Pole Star but the name eludes me.

Who built this temple? Why was it build and why was it buried? The author puts forth a very intricate and exciting hypothesis. Y pulling together various pieces of archaeology, mythology and historical record. It will challenge several notions we have about humanities development. I will say it makes more sense than ancient aliens.

In a nutshell, there was a group of Neanderthal/HumAn hybrids called the Swaderians who were basically reindeer hunters. They forged specialized arrowheads and they leave a trail going from the Carpathian Mountains all the way to Goblek Tepi. This group had an elite priesthood that wore hoods or feathers and they taught a bunch of hunter gatherers how to build a temple and many other elements of civilization. But why would a bunch of hunter gatherers want to listen to strange looking people from a distant land.?

There is a ring of stones that represent hooded figures. These figure are wearing the insignia of foxes. What do the foxes mean? Foxes are interchangeable with wolves. Both are known to be tricksters and in many mythologies wolves bring bad news. Transitioning into the Neolithic period the world was faced with disasters. Comets, a mini ice age lead to frightening times.

The Swaderians would migrate from there and spread into the Levantine and Armenia. They, according to the author would later become the watchers. What follows next is a reexamination if ancient texts that changes the setting of many mythology from the levant.

If tracing human development is your thing this book is definitely for you. I thoroughly enjoyed it. With ancient history it is hard to say that certain things definitely occurred and lots of it is speculation at best. The author met with some scholars and a few had differing opinions but that’s ok.

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