Original subtitles

Welcome to the Fertile Crescent.

I'm sailing on the Euphrates River

in Southern Turkey.

We're about 30 miles from the border of Syria.

Six thousand years ago, the land between here

and the Tigris River was Mesopotamia.

And it was there that the Sumerians

the Assyrians, and the Babylonians

first rose up to give birth to that thing

that we call civilization. Or were they the first?

Just recently, in the hills nearby,

archaeologists discovered mysterious ancient

constructions left behind by someone else

at a site known as Göbekli Tepe.

It's a puzzle carved in stone.

Circular buildings housing immense stone megaliths

and T-shaped pillars.

They're the oldest standing buildings discovered on Earth,

Erected 12,000 years ago.

And what truly stunned scientists is that Göbekli Tepe

shouldn't even exist.

After all, it was built in the Stone Age, long before

the invention of metal tools, even before the development

of farming. So how is it there?

It is a confounding discovery

that is rocking the very foundations

of what we thought we knew about the origins

of civilization.

Who really built Göbekli Tepe?

And what was its true purpose?

Wild theories about--

some have claimed it's an ancient super calendar

or the handiwork of a lost advanced civilization

or, of course, aliens.

Now, new excavations will finally tell the real story.

Archaeologists are deciphering symbols

and unearthing bizarre clues,

evidence of macabre rituals and rites of passage

that may unmask the site's builders and could tell us

what happened to them as well.

And even more shocking, scientists now believe

that Göbekli Tepe is not alone.

So join me as we journey deep into humanity's past

to the very limit of history itself

as we unlock the secrets of our ancestors,

which may hold a startling message

for the modern world.

Next stop, the astonishing ruins

of Göbekli Tepe.

The past is all around us.

Oh, my God! It goes on forever!

A world of mystery.

Come on! Look at that!

Danger. Hang on!

And adventure.

It's just straight down!

I gotta get a new job.

I travel to the far corners of the earth to uncover

where legends end... I got it!

Yes!...and history begins.

Woo hoo! Here we go!

I'm Josh Gates, and this is "Expedition Unknown."

Our expedition begins here, in the Turkish city

of Sanliurfa, the jumping off point for Göbekli Tepe.

It's a town that may not be Stone Age,

but it's still plenty old.

This is known as The City of Prophets.

Moses, Jethro, Abraham, all walked these cities streets.

According to legend, this pool sprung up

after Abraham was thrown into a fire by a wrathful king.

God decided to save Abraham by turning the fire into water

and turning the burning logs into carp.

Today, hundreds of carp still swim in this pool.

It's said that, if a white carp is seen,

the gates of heaven will open.

- Hello. - Hello.

I could use a little salvation,

so I decide to try my luck.

OK, come on, white carp.

Eternal bliss here we come.

It looks like the gates of heaven are closed today.

Oh, well, you know what they say-- carpe diem.

Oh, well, I guess I'm gonna have to get

into heaven the hard way, by being a good person.

In a local market, though, I grab my ride

for a much different kind of journey.

It's only about 20 miles from here to Göbekli Tepe,

but once you get outside of town,

things get epic.

This is known as the Harran Plain,

about 500 square miles of rolling hills.

And as you look out over this endless sea

of scorched grass,

it's easy to see why people thought

there wasn't much else out here.

But in 1994, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt

noticed one particular hill rising 50 feet above

the surrounding landscape.

He suspected the mound was man-made and was determined

to find out for sure.

Schmidt began excavating the hill the following year,

and what he found there is rewriting

the history of civilization.

Approaching the site, it looks like a vision from the future.

Look at that. Ohh.

But these modern structures have

been erected to protect the oldest puzzle

in human history.

- Hey, Jens, how are you? - Hi, Josh.

- Welcome to Göbekli Tepe. - Oh, my gosh.

Look at this place.

This is incredible.

I have to, like, process what I'm seeing here.

It's complex, yeah, your brain may need some time

to adapt to it, to process what's going on here.

Here to tell me what we know and don't know about this site

is a renowned archaeologist who worked here beside

Klaus Schmidt himself, Dr. Jens Notroff.

It is kind of, to use a very unscientific term, weird.

Yeah, I think weird pretty much covers it.

- It does, right? - It is weird.

When it was discovered, nothing like this

has ever been seen before.

In front of me are a series

of circular stone lined structures

surrounding mysterious T-shaped pillars.

Even from up here on the observation platform,

it's breathtaking.

Originally, wooden posts would have stood here,

as well as a network of beams supporting an expansive roof,

which was likely covered,

creating multiple huge buildings.

But the impressive construction

isn't the only big headline here.

And how old is this site?

The oldest structures here are at least 12,000 years old.

It sounded like you said, "12,000 years old."

I did.

These are the oldest monumental structures ever found.

- Ever? - Ever.

Let's put this in monumental perspective.

Our nation's most iconic stone monument, the Lincoln Memorial,

is just over 100 years old. Looking good, Abe.

India's Taj Mahal, 250 years before that.

The Colosseum in Rome is nearly 2,000 years old.

Are you not entertained?

The pyramids have been gathering dust for almost

5,000 years, while Stonehenge is over 5,000 years old.

And yet, Göbekli Tepe is, wait for it, wait for it,

wait for it, wait for it. There we go.

More than 6,000 years older than Stonehenge.

That's so old that it's just after the last Ice Age,

a time when most people think of our human ancestors as,

well, cavemen, barely scratching out

a primitive existence.

The other thing that makes this site so special is

how long it was used, from 9,500 BC to 8,000 BC.

Of continuous use?

Of continuous use.

Fifteen hundred years of occupation is the equivalent

of the span of time from the fall of Rome...

to today.

Göbekli Tepe was not a temporary settlement.

It was built to last.

Now the big questions. Who built this place, and why?

These are the big questions.

I think to answer these, we have to go inside and have

a closer look. - Can we go down in there?

- We have to. - Please, yeah.

Visitors to Göbekli Tepe can only view

these 12 millennia old ruins from the raised walkway above.

Permission to actually step inside is extremely rare,

but we're being granted incredible access

to investigate within.

The largest of the structures at the site is referred

to as Building D...

and it is huge.

Unbelievable. Look at this place.

- This is insane, - It's incredible.

This room is 65 feet long.

We're in the Neolithic. We're in the Stone Age.

There's not supposed to be 65-foot-long rooms.

Exactly, and this is what makes this place so special.

- It's monumental. - It is monumental, right.

Building D is a circular construction made

of stone blocks and mud mortar.

The outer wall appears to have been ringed

by 11 T-shaped pillars, each up to 10 feet high.

Set between them are benches that seat 25 to 30 people.

But the real centerpieces are the pieces,

you know, at the center.

Now, can we talk about these two-giant monolithic

things here? - They're hard to miss, right?

- Yeah. - Yeah, this is what we call

the central pillars of this building.

Each of them carved from a single piece of limestone,

quarried nearby, and then brought and carved here.

What do you mean, "brought and carved"?

You say it like it's so simple.

They manually just dragged this thing down here?

Yeah, and remember, we're 4,500 years before

the invention of metal tools. - So, wait, and no wheel, right?

We are before the invention of the wheel.

Before the invention of the wheel.

They didn't have domestic animals.

To help drag it?

Yeah, so they had to drag it all themselves.

And I'm sorry, these weigh how much?

- About nine tons. - About nine tons?

Nine tons.

Carved with stone tools, moved by hand?

Yeah. If you've got enough people

and a vision, anything is possible.

And let's talk about what they represent, right?

They have this unique T-shape. Like, what is this thing?

You're putting your finger right on top of it--

it's a human-like shape, actually.

This is a person.

Can you see this big angled shape here?

- Yes. - This is an arm, actually.

- This is an arm? - This is an arm.

And if you look at the front.

Oh, these are hands right here.

Two hands, right.

And if that isn't convincing enough, then just look here.

There is a belt.

The statues, while faceless,

appear to be wearing different necklaces,

which may mean these are distinct

and, presumably, important individuals.

As to who built the statues,

Jens invited me to look around the room

for more clues carved in stone.

OK, I see something carved here.

So this is, I don't know, an ant, a spider,

something like that? - Yeah, some sort of insect.

Yeah, yeah. So an insect here for sure.

As we look at the other pillars,

it's clear that each one is inscribed with animals

from top to bottom.

It's like a nature guide for a Stone Age national park.

Oh, that's a scorpion. Over here, a bird.

- Yeah. - So we've got pillars

covered in animals. - Mmm-hmm.

A lot of them looking ferocious.

- A lot of them game animals. - Yeah.

So, you know, we're in the Stone Age.

Are we talking...

hunters, hunter gatherers? - Exactly.

This place was built by hunter gatherers,

Neolithic hunter gatherers.

This is remarkable.

It upends hundreds of years of thought that hunter gatherers

just after the last Ice Age were nomadic and,

to be blunt, not that sophisticated.

People generally thought that civilization only began

once humans to grow crops and domesticate animals.

But at Göbekli Tepe, none of that applies.

And yet, here it is.

So this brings us to the million-dollar question.

Yeah.

What the hell is this place for?

2 So this brings us to the million-dollar question.

Yeah.

What the hell is this place for?

There's a lot of wild theories about it.

At 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe boasts

the earliest standing structures ever discovered.

Its existence means that everything we thought we knew

about the birth of civilization is probably wrong.

And it turns out, what many people think about Göbekli Tepe

is wrong too.

So can I tell you what I've heard?

Yeah, sure, go ahead.

I've heard people say, "Oh, Göbekli Tepe is an ancient

astronomical observatory." I've heard people say

it's some kind of calendar system.

It was built by aliens, obviously.

- Let's not go there. - Yeah, exactly.

And then there's the kind of, "Oh, it must have been helped

along or inspired by some lost civilization," right?

You've heard all these theories.

- I did, I did. - OK, so hit me with the truth.

Let's knock some pins down here.

So let's start with the astronomical observatory.

The general question would be, "Why"?

Why would Neolithic hunter gatherers need to map the stars?

What was the benefit for them?

And the bigger problem, these structures were covered

by a roof. - That's right.

These T-shaped pillars once supported beams

that, in turn, supported a massive wooden roof,

which was likely then coated in mud plaster.

A small portal and ladder were the only way

of accessing the buildings, and offered those inside

no view of the sky.

So this can't be an observatory.

Likewise, theories that this building

was an elaborate Neolithic calendar

are based on a series of V symbols

carved into a nearby pillar.

It has been suggested that each individual V

represents a single day.

But Jens doesn't buy that either.

These symbols are quite common.

They're not only appearing here on this pillar.

We find them on benches here.

We find them on the belt of this pillar.

If all of these represented calendars,

that would be kind of an obsession.

It really just does seem like a simple decorative design.

- So not a calendar. - I'm not buying that, no.

Right. OK.

So it was definitely built by aliens.

That's what you're saying. You're going on record

as saying it was built by aliens.

- Let's skip the aliens, please. - Are you sure?

It sounded like you were saying "It's built by aliens."

- No, no, no. - OK, not built by aliens.

No aliens. OK, yes.

But what about this idea that there's no way

that these Neolithic hunter gatherers

could have woken up one day

and suddenly known how to carve

these giant megalithic structures?

Oh, I totally agree.

We couldn't have just woken up and done this, and they didn't.

This is a technique coming from wood carvings, I'm convinced.

Jens believes that these Stone Age people were already

adept at carving wood, and in time, they translated

this ability to limestone, which is relatively soft

and easy to shape.

Not to mention that sections of the site seem to have been

modified and improved over time.

In other words, evidence that people

were figuring it out as they went.

So no ancient lost civilization?

No, I'm afraid not, no.

OK, this leaves us with a huge question.

It's not all these other things, but what is it?

If you look around the walls, we can see these benches.

Yes, yes, there are places to sit everywhere.

And if you look at all these other pillars and think of them

as people, you get the idea of a gathering taking place here.

Right, people kind of looking into this room.

Some of those rituals clearly revolve around animals.

Many of the reliefs show dangerous beasts,

like scorpions and leopards, or represent game animals.

They clearly held symbolic significance.

They may even have been the subject myths

or early religious stories lost to time.

To find answers, archaeologists have been

carefully excavating Göbekli Tepe ever since its discovery.

So Jens sends me out of this building

to meet another archaeologist

who's actively digging in the circular structure

next door, known as Building B.

How are you, man?

Welcome to Building B.

Hey, thanks. Nice to meet you.

Dr. Lee Clare of the German Archaeological Institute

oversees the day to day excavation here.

Another incredible building, look at this place.

And this one, unlike Building D,

is not fully excavated, it looks like.

That's right, we're on the eastern side here,

excavating the sediment down to the floor.

Wow, so mysteries around here still.

That's right, we don't know what to expect.

To dig into 12,000 years of human history,

we are gonna have to get our hands dirty.

- OK, time to work. - Time for work, now.

So you're just peeling back each layer?

We're peeling back each layer down to the floor level.

- OK, let's dig. - OK, let's go.

And this is all good to basket out here?

Yep, that can go in there.

Talk about a thrill.

To participate in moving the earth

atop the oldest structure in human history

is the definition of a bucket list item.

Dig slowly, dig carefully.

As we move the soil away, it's collected in baskets

and taken to a nearby sifting station

to see if anything historic

or prehistoric may be hiding inside.

And in this case...

- You find something? - It looks like it.

Let's go have a look.

What'd you find? Where?

Is that bone? Is that part of a skull?

Yeah, that's a fragment of a human skull.

This is part of the skull from a Neolithic individual,

10,000, 12,000 years ago.

That's right. In your hands now.

This is somebody who had a name, somebody who may have

had a family, somebody who has a story

that we'll never really know.

But we have this, we have this piece of it.

If some worker lived here, they were one of them.

This could be the oldest human being I've ever encountered.

It is positively awe inspiring.

A very special thing to find, actually.

Yeah, you're very lucky to be here today.

- That's incredible. - Mind if I have a quick look?

- Yeah. - Sometimes we get a few scratch

marks on these, cut marks from defleshing.

Defleshing them, so they would have been, what?

Laid out and then they would have been scraped clean?

Well, they would have exhumed the skulls from some burials.

For what purpose would they have done that?

If you come with me, I can show you.

- You can show me? - Yeah, sure.

- Please. - Let's go.

Dr. Clare brings me outside of the footprint of Building B

and into the third building discovered here at Göbekli Tepe,

called Building C.

Oh, my word.

This is incredible.

This is, like, a three dimensional

carving now. - That's right, a high relief.

We have the low reliefs, which are in the majority,

but we have a few of these high reliefs as well.

And so this is a leopard? - That's right.

You can see a great amount of detail in here.

The teeth, for example, even the whiskers

and the ribcage and the claws.

This is really terrifying if you look at it.

Like, it is a really fearsome looking animal.

Is he hunting the, what is it, the boar?

That's right.

This is a wild boar, and we think this is

a dichotomy between the predator and the victim,

as it were. - That's awesome.

OK, so as cool and terrifying as this is,

what does this have to do with our skull fragment?

OK, what I wanted to show you here are the perforations

in the side of the pillar. - Oh, this is drilled out.

That's right. And, of course, there's one

this side as well. - OK.

And also through the tail.

OK. And so, what are these for?

- Something's hanging here? - That's right.

We think they're attaching things to the pillars

with cord. - OK.

And, of course, that's where our skull comes in.

They defleshed it, they perforated it,

they decorated it, they used cord,

and, yeah, they were decorating them and displaying them.

OK, so the leopard is no longer the most terrifying part

of this now. - Possibly, yeah.

So we see these perforations on other pillars?

- On quite a few. - Wow.

So this would be what we would call a skull cult.

We can refer to it as a skull cult.

The word cult, as it's used here, means the worship

or veneration of a specific object.

In this case, a decapitated skull that has

been exhumed, cleaned, and placed

on this intimidating pillar.

About 10,000 years later, the Aztecs would famously

display skulls, often of their vanquished enemies.

But the practice of skull cults, which may have begun right here,

likely had a much different intention.

So this all feels very, temple of doom,

because when we think about skulls hanging from cords,

we think about predator.

We think about horrifying, terrifying imagery.

But they may not have seen it that way at all.

Exactly. We can't project our modern day

image of all of this onto the past.

So it was quite different in that time.

Right. It may have been

a beautiful thing. It may have really tied

the room together. - Well, it was the ancestors.

And the ancestors were very important.

They played an important role in life as they did in death.

So clearly, as they come into these rooms,

there's something very primal

and important about animals here,

but also with their own past, with their ancestors.

These are really, sort of, narrative centers.

This is where people came to learn about, you know,

who they were. - Right.

This is our collective purpose. This is who we are.

This is who we are.

And we have no evidence of conflict or warfare here

at Göbekli Tepe. - Right.

And therefore, I think these buildings are playing

a very important role in that.

Over its centuries of use.

There's no evidence of power struggles or battles here.

Twelve thousand years ago, people seemed to be living

in relative harmony, having developed very deep ideas

about their ancestors and the animals they hunted.

Thinking about skulls and these animals,

and with a roof over this,

it might have been really atmospheric in here.

It's hard not to imagine rooms like this as being

for some kind of ritual.

The building would have been enclosed and dark

with the T-pillars looming over people perched on benches

along the wall.

There is evidence of fire, and it's easy to imagine

the air pulsing to the rhythmic sound of drums.

Participants in the skull rituals may have been

in an altered state, induced by fermented beer

or even psychedelic compounds.

The fact is, we don't know for certain what happened

in this room.

So we return to the dig in Building B to continue

sifting through the dirt for more clues.

- What's that? - Piece of flint.

It's a flake or it could have been originally a little blade.

People in the Stone Age created tools by splintering off

shards of flint from a central core.

The resulting flakes could be used as blades

or cutting instruments.

Look at that. Evidence of worked flint.

Yep.

Excavating a Stone Age site means accepting

an infuriating challenge.

Any artifacts here are made out of the same material

you're brushing away.

It's like looking for a needle in a needle stack.

But that doesn't mean it's impossible.

- Oh, hold on. - Oh!

Oh, oh, oh! What is that?

- Is it flint? - I don't think so.

Wow!

- It's drilled. - Yeah, it's got two perforations through it.

- Is it a bead? - That is actually a bead.

- That's a piece of jewelry. - Yeah, it's great.

Get out of here. Look at that.

It's beautiful.

Up until now, the stonework I've seen

at Göbekli Tepe has been structural.

This is anything but.

It's precise, delicate, and personal.

This rare find is more valuable than gold.

That is actually, beautiful. That is quite rare.

- Fantastic. - And so it has these two...

perfect holes drilled through it.

- How would they have done that? - With a stone tool, with flint.

- Just picking away? - Yeah, I mean, there's little

drills made of flint that we would have used for that.

And so this would have been, what, part of maybe a sequence

of these in a necklace?

On a necklace, or perhaps attached to the clothing.

You know, these people put value on what they were wearing.

This is, obviously, just a small part of something

really stunning. - Yeah, I would say so.

The artistry required to design this ornament

and the skill required to create it

reveals something rather monumental,

that these so called Stone Age people

were anything but primitive.

- Maybe more to come. - Let's hope so.

- Shall we have a look? - Yeah, for sure.

This is a site of ancient wonders.

We continue to sift through the earth undisturbed

for 9,000 years.

Hang on, I think we've got something here.

Stone? Oh, is that shaped?

Looks like it could be.

Yeah, yeah.

- What is that? - It's something quite special.

What am I looking at?

It appears to be a fragment of what we refer

to as a scepter.

- A scepter? - A scepter.

You mean a scepter for a king?

2 What am I looking at here?

This is a fragment of a stone scepter.

It's not something we find every day here at the site.

Wow. Unbelievable

I'm with Dr. Lee Clare

in his excavation of Göbekli Tepe,

which at 12,000 years old is literally redefining

our concepts of human civilization.

The hunter gatherers here were able to build a society

that erected monumental structures before farming

or even the wheel.

And now we have evidence of what Lee thinks is a scepter.

This needs to be photographed.

We'll take a picture of it in situ.

I'm stunned. This is amazing.

We can't disturb the artifact

until it's been properly documented.

So the team takes measurements and photographs the relic

exactly as we found it. Only then can we examine it.

OK, moment of truth. Here we go.

- Here we go. - Is it loose?

Yeah, it's loose.

- Oh, that... - OK, there we go.

- Unbelievable. - It's a great find.

Quite rare.

That is incredible.

OK, so what would this have looked like?

This would have continued down here?

It would have continued down just like that.

This is one of very few examples of stone scepters

that have been found in the structures at Göbekli Tepe.

It is a truly important and exceedingly rare discovery.

You know, when we hear the term "scepter,"

we think kings, right? Kings carry scepters.

There is no evidence, though, of burials here

or anything that would indicate a king.

We're way before kings and kingdoms here.

Right, exactly.

But we are not before the concept, maybe, of leaders.

Exactly. I think they're making

that transition, and we're seeing, sort of,

initial hierarchies appearing. I mean look around you.

I mean these buildings they're planned.

It's incredible.

Like everything else I've seen here this scepter

is mind blowing.

We're standing in the ruins of perhaps humanity's first

organized society, and we're seeing compelling

evidence that they may have organized themselves

around a leader.

It's so clear that the work that's happening here is

helping to unravel the story of this place,

but it also seems like there's so much

about the daily life here we don't fully understand.

We've got some good information, but, of course,

you know, further excavations will provide more data.

But, you know, there's much to be done.

Fortunately, Göbekli Tepe is not alone.

So, this is not like an anomaly.

There are other sites like Göbekli Tepe.

There are several more out there.

And in fact, one of the largest, in fact,

that they've only just started excavating.

Really?

Thanks to the researchers here, we now know

that hunter gatherers erected the monuments of Göbekli Tepe,

performing elaborate rituals here to honor their ancestors

and the animals that sustained them,

but what happened to the people who built it?

These elite hunters

who managed to defy the limits of their time,

where did they go?

A newly uncovered site nearby may be able to solve

the rest of this mysterious Stone Age puzzle.

All right while I am motoring about 27 miles east

of Göbekli Tepe to a site known as Karahan Tepe.

Now, this is a relatively new dig.

They just started excavating there a few years ago.

But I'm told what they recently uncovered there may shed light

on the strange rituals of these settlements

and the ultimate fate of the people who lived there.

All right, let's ride.

The road to Karahan Tepe winds through the hills and towns

of Southern Turkey.

Including one traffic circle that's sporting some familiar

looking modern replicas.

Hey, kids, look!

It's Göbekli Tepe.

I can't get right.

Hey, look, kids, it's Göbekli Tepe.

I can't get right. I can't.

Oh, boy.

I eventually got right.

From there, I made my way onto the remote back roads here

that are only a spitting distance

from the border of Syria.

Up into the hills,

until seemingly in the middle of nowhere,

I approach Karahan Tepe.

There's no roof covering this dig.

The discovery is much too recent for that,

but radiocarbon dating indicates that Karahan Tepe

and Göbekli Tepe are around the same age.

and that this site was continuously occupied

for 1,200 years.

Here to introduce me to this very active excavation

is its director, archaeologist Dr. Necmi Karul.

Welcome to Karahan Tepe.

Thank you so much. Great to meet you.

This place is awesome.

- Yeah, we were very busy. - Yeah, very busy.

I know you haven't been digging here very long.

- Can you show me what you found? - Please.

Yeah, come on, let's see.

Oh, man! Look at this place.

Wow.

It's the central place of Karahan Tepe.

It is incredible.

Karahan Tepe's largest structure is round, like Göbekli Tepe's,

but at 75 feet across, it's even larger.

Its roof was held up by 17 T-shaped pillars,

and the central pillars, now fallen,

were over 20 feet tall.

Its seating capacity was equally impressive.

This room could hold 200 people.

200 people!

First theater in the round, right here.

The question is, what's the show?

That's the question. What happened here?

Similar to Göbekli Tepe,

the animal depictions continue here.

There are carvings of a leopard, a wild cat,

and a wolf.

More proof of the significance the animal world had

with the people here, either as honored prey

or mythological symbols. And that's not all.

Yeah, there's these holes all over the room in front

of the benches.

Wow!

...again and again.

It's a part of the skull cult.

The remains of human skulls have been found in this room,

sporting now familiar cut marks.

Firm evidence that the ritual skull cult that existed

at Göbekli Tepe was here as well.

But there's another room that Dr. Karul's team has found

that may be tied to a much different kind of ritual.

Come.

Wow.

That's not something you see every day.

No.

These columns look very happy to see me.

- We call it a phallus room. - They are phalluses?

- They are phalluses, yeah. - No question?

No question.

Why are you setting me up for that?

OK, sorry.

Some of them are bigger than others.

OK.

Ten phalluses were carved from the bedrock itself,

along with the face of a bearded older man

who seemingly observes the room.

Meanwhile, a carved snake-like channel

appears to have once filled the entire chamber

with several feet of water.

So tell me what you think this room is all about.

This is for rite of passage.

You have to find the way to the exits

if you can find your way,

you will be a part of the society.

You'll be a man, you'll be an adult.

- You'll be a man, an adult. - Right.

Things like this really connect us

to 12,000 years ago, because this transition

from adolescence to adulthood is something

that we all still feel today.

It's a very important part of every culture,

what it means to grow up,

to become an adult in your society.

And this is something they're thinking about.

Twelve thousand years ago, what it means to pass

through this time in your life. It's incredible.

The larger room, with its skull cult honoring the dead,

connects to the phallus room, likely a place

of fertility and life.

This complex worldview may have evolved to prepare members

of this apex hunting culture for the hard work of survival.

In a different structure nearby, we see more evidence

of their emerging abilities.

- Is this a later evolution? - Yes.

Right. You can see here the beginnings

of a corner. - Exactly.

Almost every building today is square.

- We just take that for granted. - They invented it.

Look at that, the beginning of the corner.

So every time you walk into a building today,

you can thank the people here.

Do the buildings ever get fully rectangular?

No, no, in the beginnings, they're circular.

Maybe she found something.

- She found something? - Let's go.

Find something?

- Is it a piece of flint? - Yes, it's a flint

but there's something on the edge.

Oh, here There's, like, a notch there.

Ohh! It's a human head!

2 - It's a human head! - Hey!

Are you kidding me?

Amazing! It's carved.

At the recently discovered Stone Age site known

as Karahan Tepe,

Dr. Necmi Karul's excavation team

has just found a sculpture that may depict

one of the settlement's residents.

- May I? - Yes, of course.

It's OK?

Oh, look at this.

- This hair up here? - This is hair.

Wow. This is unbelievable.

This is, like, coming

face to face with the past, literally.

- Ten thousand years ago. - Look at that.

How incredible is that?

But this one is the finest find in 2024.

- Best find of the year? - Best find of the year.

Come on, amazing job. That's incredible.

- May I? - Yeah, of course, please.

It's really fantastic.

Now, he needs a name. What are you gonna call him?

Fred Cakmaktash.

Maybe you know, cartoon "Flintstones"?

- Oh, Fred Flintstone? - Yes.

Oh, that's a perfect name.

Fred Flintstone from Modern Stone Age family, right there.

Makes sense.

This could be the face of one of the hunter gatherers

that would congregate at Karahan Tepe.

A leader, perhaps. A champion?

Or maybe a cherished family member.

We can't know for certain.

But nearby, the team made a discovery that did answer one

of the biggest questions about the people here.

Namely, where did they live?

What is this?

This is one of the domestic buildings.

This is a domestic building?

Yes, we found lots of domestic artifacts, tools.

So, this is not some ritual site.

This is, like, people could be living here.

Yes. These are dwellings

where the people live. We have found

almost twenty of them? - Twenty of them, wow!

They surround the main building.

- Exactly. - And so the bags we see here,

this is sediment and soil that you're testing?

Yes.

So these big central buildings, these are not some remote place

that people would pilgrimage to.

People were living right around them.

- Exactly. - Wow!

These dwellings literally change our concepts

of human history.

Here, before agriculture, before domesticated animals,

before the wheel, hunter gatherers truly settled

at Karahan Tepe and Göbekli Tepe.

It would be centuries

before they produced their own food,

yet they appear to have made year-round homes here.

Incredible. This is like a population.

This is a community here.

And that community was engaged in much more than a skull cult.

Their level of sophistication is only now being understood,

as Dr. Karul has just swept the dirt away

from his team's latest jaw-dropping find.

Are you kidding me? What am I looking at?

This is the largest collection stone vessels ever found.

Ever.

So, to be clear, these are not ceramics.

These are made out of solid stones.

- Yes. - These are all etched

with these incredible patterns.

They were real artists.

The image of primitive Stone Age people is shattered.

These people were undeniably skilled.

But how did all of these materials survive?

So the confusing thing is, why is all of this right here?

It looks so perfectly placed. Why?

It's a part of the burying process.

They literally buried all of this.

It is buried. They buried the whole building.

Including the big building?

They buried all of it.

You heard that correctly.

Every building in Karahan Tepe and Göbekli Tepe as well was

intentionally collapsed, buried, and abandoned.

Everything covered over like it never existed.

If they're burying all of this, and in fact all

of these buildings,

something must change in their society.

To make such a decision

to move somewhere else... - Right.

...it means the end of this belief system.

For the people of these communities to abandon

their homes of 1,500 years, the reasons

must have been profound.

Climate change could have driven away the prey,

which was their main source of food.

The development of agriculture could have inspired

the residents to migrate to more arable ground.

But whatever made them leave here,

they never returned.

So, from here, they go out into the world, into the plains,

and civilization spreads?

You think this is civilization?

Right. Here we have these accomplished

people that are living communally without war.

Right.

Today we have endless conflict, endless war.

Yes.

Yeah. So maybe these were the people

who had it all figured out. - Yeah.

Is it possible that, by abandoning these places,

man was leaving a Garden of Eden?

The next step in their development

is a mystery,

so we're left to ponder the possibilities.

But the best chance we have to find solid answers is

to uncover more settlements like this.

Because they buried these sites, does that mean

there are more sites out there to be found

that are underground?

That's why we're trying to find out.

OK, how do you do that?

I can show you, but you have to come back later today.

Later? Later when?

- Midnight. - Midnight?

If you want to see that, you have to come midnight.

I have no idea what's going on, but I'll see you at midnight.

Well, it looks like nobody's gonna sleep tonight.

Sorry, guys.

As the clock strikes tomorrow, I blearily return to the dig.

Dr. Karul, do you have any coffee?

Yeah, why not? We can make some.

That'd be great. Be great.

Three cups, please.

And I see that I'm not the only one Dr. Karul has invited

for the evening.

His colleagues are here to help us discover more buried

buildings at Karahan Tepe. I'm Josh.

- I'm Ökmen. - Ökmen.

- Ali. - Ali, nice to meet both of you.

By using a state of the art thermal drone.

The things that we're looking for here under the ground,

how will they appear on the thermal imager?

- The stone appear in red. - So they're warmer.

- Yeah, that means warmer. - All right.

Should we see if there's more out there?

Let's do it.

OK, here we go. You ready?

- Yeah. - OK, here we go.

The drone lifts off, casting an eerie light over

our team and radiating out over the ancient site.

The hunt is on to find other lost settlements buried

by our ancestors 10,000 years ago.

2

These days, humans are less hunter gatherers than shoppers,

which is fine if you've got the dough,

but those without means can go hungry.

Luckily, Turkey's got a fix for that.

- Hello. - Hello.

Askida ekmek.

The phrase means "bread on a hanger,"

and the concept is similar to paying it forward.

The customer buys two items, but leaves one to hang around

for someone who needs it.

OK, so it's one loaf for me and one for Askida.

Thank you. The baker notes the prepaid

loaf on his board and sets it aside.

How long will the loaf sit there?

Until somebody hungry wants it.

Dillow, we're eating dinner in like an hour.

These guys. Askida ekmek.

Pass it on.

2

Let's take a look here. See what we got.

Yeah.

Look at this.

Predator vision.

This specialized drone measuring heat signatures is

scanning for long buried structures that would be among

the oldest ever found on Earth.

Within, we hope, could be answers about the people

who concealed them.

We begin to gauge its readings by flying over the existing dig

here at Karahan Tepe. This is incredible.

Look at this view.

You can see the color differential here, right?

The science is surprisingly straightforward.

During the day, even buried stone walls and pillars are

warmed by the sun and retain that heat far longer

than the soil around them.

You can already see just how effective this technology is.

It shows the outline of the entire site.

- Yeah, yeah. - It's amazing.

OK, so now where are we going to be scanning?

Any subterranean structures will hopefully

stand out in the same way.

So we fan out and scan the area with the thermal imager.

Now, this red we're seeing here, this is just like a rock?

This is geological.

So this is not ancient, this is geological.

Ooh, something here.

That concentration of red there?

- Yeah. - Yeah?

You think this could be ancient?

- Could be an ancient. - Yeah.

With evidence that there may be structures

buried nearby to discover,

we send the drone on a pre-programmed route

to thoroughly cover the anomaly, photographing the ground

every few seconds for us to examine later.

OK, so we've started our autonomous pass.

How many photos will it take total?

- Two thousand. - Two thousand photos.

The process takes hours, with the drone taking thermal

readings until the approach of first light.

All right, drone's coming back. We'll see if we have data.

- OK, here we are. - Yeah.

- It's a new day. - And new data.

And new data. A new day, new data.

I love it. OK, did we get good data?

- Yeah, great data. - OK, good.

- The main site. - This is where we are right now.

- Oh, look at that. - Yeah.

- This looks like a circle. - Yeah.

Really exciting.

They are clearly in a circular shape.

- Yeah. - So do you feel like

this is an ancient building?

Yes, it looks like an ancient one.

- We will see. - That's incredible.

Now, this site that we've just identified is where?

To the south here?

It's not far from here.

Should we walk down?

Yeah.

To investigate, we quickly walk over to where the drone found

the heat signature.

This is it.

- Yes. - Oh, look at this.

- It is like a mound, isn't it? - And the pillar.

Oh, there's a pillar. Look at that!

Sticking up out of the ground. Unbelievable.

This is literally the top

of one of these big limestone pillars.

Yeah, most probably 12 feet tall.

Incredible!

Imagine what could be under our feet right now.

- Nobody knows. - Nobody knows, right?

There could be incredible carvings, sculptures.

Anything is possible.

You know, sometimes people ask me,

"Are there still things left to be found in the world"?

I am sure. This is the best example.

- Right under our feet. - Yeah.

This is awesome.

I can't wait to see what you find here.

- You have to come again. - I'll be back, for sure.

- Yeah. - Hey, thank you so much.

- You have to go. - Thank you so much.

Cheers. This is incredible.

All right, well, let's get digging.

Come on, let's get some shovels.

Let's go. Much to be done.

When Klaus Schmidt started digging in the hills

of Southern Turkey a few decades ago,

he could never have suspected

that he was opening a profound portal

to the past...

and discovering the story of human society,

how it began, and even what it is.

Many have long held the view that civilization began

once our ancestors settled down and gave up their simple

hunter gatherer ways.

But the truth is that there was nothing simple about them.

Just after the last Ice Age, while still roaming

the great plains, these expert hunters

also built monumental structures,

created art, mythology, ancestor worship,

rites of passage, and a deep sense of community.

And they did it for 1,500 years without violence and war.

And what could be more civilized than that?