All language subtitles for Secrets.Unlocked.Series.1.Part.1.Garden.of.Eden.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

(dramatic music)
(birds chirping)

Mastrelli: Eden, the original
biblical paradise,

Where adam and eve lived
in a land of plenty,

Until temptation triggered
their fall from grace

And condemned them
to a life of toil.

It's a tale long
considered by science

To be a moral lesson based
in mythology, not in fact.

But a prehistoric structure
uncovered in turkey

Has rocked the foundations
of stone age anthropology.

(dramatic music)

Could the bible's oldest story

Actually be rooted in reality?

(dramatic music)

For centuries the
mysteries of the past

Have kept their secrets,

But there are
clues cast in gold,

Etched in stone,

(crowd shouts)
written in blood.

(dramatic music)

We can unlock them.

Every great
archeological discovery

Attracts a truckload
of superlatives.

The greatest.

The richest.

The biggest.

But when it comes to
real game changers,

Discoveries that
rewrite human history,

That cause paradigm
shifts in our thinking

As seismic as an
actual seismic event,

Those are few and far between.

Now recent excavations in turkey

Are producing results
so epic in scope

That the discovery
of the garden of eden

Itself is being invoked.

(gentle music)

Southeast turkey, 1994,

Klaus schmidt, of the german
archeological institute,

Is alerted to the discovery
of a potential new site.

A local farmer's
plow has uncovered

A set of carved rocks
protruding from the ground.

They stand on the crest of
a mound called gobekli tepe

Near today's war-torn
border with syria.

What schmidt uncovers is
an archeological wonder

Like nothing else on earth.

Conard: Gobekli tepe when
it was discovered,

Was an enormous surprise.

I think most people thought

That this doesn't
really make sense.

Mastrelli: Over the next 20
years it has revolutionized

Archeologists' view
of the stone age.

(tools clanking)

By the time he dies in 2014,

Schmidt's team has
exposed a complex

Of massive limestone pillars,

A series of circular exclosures,

Each between 30 and
a 100 feet across,

Clustered together near
the top of the hill.

Today the site's in lockdown,

Just a few clicks away from
what's long been a war zone.

But the protective shell

Conceals an
architectural phenomenon.

At the center of each circle
stands two huge monoliths,

T-shaped pillars carved
out of a single block,

Standing up to 20
feet in height.

The entire complex is
intricately decorated

With three-dimensional
carvings of animals and birds.

A gallery sculpted in stone.

(dramatic music)

The structure's most
complete ring of stones

Has been recreated at
the museum of sanliurfa

On the syrian border.

Notroff: This reconstruction
of enclosure allows us

To experience the sheer
monumentality of the site.

Standing among
these giant stones

Actually makes us
appreciate the huge effort

These people must have
gone through creating it.

Mastrelli: But the most
breathtaking discovery

Was not the size of the complex.

It was its age.

It was once thought britain

Was home to the world's
oldest stone circles.

But gobekli tepe blows
stonehenge out of the water.

The most ancient organic
material found in the fabric

Of the stonework was
radio carbon

Dated to before 9,000 bce,

More than 11,000 years ago.

That's 6,000 years
before construction

At stonehenge even began.

Notroff: We today
actually are closer

To the builders of stonehenge

Than the people building
stonehenge were to gobekli tepe.

(gentle music)

Mastrelli: Gobekli tepe
represents the oldest

Monumental structure ever built,

Carved, moved, and
erected without anything

More sophisticated than
manpower and stone tools.

Notroff: We're talking
about a period here

Which has not seen metal tools,

And even the wheel
was not invented yet.

So, these monuments were
put together by hand.

(gentle music)

Mastrelli: The art and
architecture at gobekli tepe

Is rewriting
prehistoric archeology.

But it was the identity
of the architects

That would cause
the greatest shock.

Archeologists found the
clues not in the stonework,

But in the trash.

Joris peters has spent
more than two decades

Examining 11,000-year-
old animal remains

From the landscape
around gobekli tepe.

But it's the animal
bones discovered

Within the enclosures,

Which were the most revealing.

Most had been shattered,

(suspenseful music)

A clear sign they'd
been butchered

To extract bone marrow.

(dramatic music)

But the key clue was in the
type of bones discovered,

Only the richest cuts.

(people chatting)

Peters: Normally when you
have domestic animals

Living in a place, when
you slaughter them,

You will find all the
elements of the body.

The head, the spine, the
lower legs, it's all there.

But for gobekli tepe,

The picture is
totally different.

Most of the bones we found

Are the ones that
carry a lot of meat.

Mastrelli: The animals hadn't
been butchered onsite.

They'd been carved up
wherever they'd been killed,

And the meatiest joints
brought up the hill.

For archeologists
it was evidence

That these animals were wild,

And for the builders of
gobekli tepe, they were prey.

Peters: The focus on
meat-bearing parts

Points to hunter-gatherers.

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: The discovery of
gobekli tepe

Threw anthropologists'
theories about life

In the stone age into chaos,

And rumor quickly spread
of a mysterious monument

To nature in an
ancient land of plenty.

(dramatic music)
(birds chirping)

Could gobekli tepe hold
the secret to the location

Of the bible's garden of eden?

(gentle music)

On a hilltop in eastern
turkey called gobekli tepe,

Archeologists have unearthed

An 11,000-year-old complex
of standing stones.

It's the oldest monumental
structure on earth

And predates stonehenge
by 6,000 years.

Archeologists have discovered

It was erected by
hunter-gatherers,

Obliterating the theory that

Nomadic tribes never
built in stone.

Its intricate carvings
suggest a people at one

With nature in a landscape
brimming with wildlife,

From pigs, to birds,
wild cats, and serpents.

The world's media quickly
connected gobekli tepe

To the bible's most famous
story: The garden of eden.

Rose: That story is at the
foundation of western thought.

Whether we like it or not,

That story is embedded
in our worldview.

Mastrelli: In 2006, germany's
most popular weekly magazine,

"der spiegel", splashed the
story on its front cover.

The idea had taken hold.

For some the garden of
eden story is an attempt

To answer a question
common to all humanity.

How did we get here?

Schiffman: It doesn't matter
whether talking about buddhists

Or hindus or jews or
christians, muslims,

The human being is
designed to want

To fill the brain that we have

With more and more
understanding,

And there is
something about trying

To understand why
we are really here.

Mastrelli: For many the search
begins in the old testament,

With the clues laid
out in the text

Of genesis chapters
two and three.

It describes an earthly paradise

At the point where
four rivers split.

Schiffman: Now of the four
rivers mentioned in the bible

As coming out of the garden,

Two of them are the
tigris and euphrates.

That means the garden of eden,

Has got to be somewhere up
there in the northern regions

Of what was mesopotamia
and today is turkey.

(gentle music)
(birds chirping)

Mastrelli: While gobekli
tepe sits right

In the sweet spot for
this biblical hunt,

Gobekli tepe is
not the first place

To be held up as a
possible original paradise.

Over the centuries scholars
have claimed that other

Ancient mesopotamian
sites could be eden.

Schiffman: You have people
claiming that the garden of eden

Is in southern mesopotamia
near the persian gulf.

You've got people claiming

That it's northern
mesopotamia in turkey.

What this shows is very simply:

A, we don't know,

And b, these people
miss the point.

Mastrelli: For most
scholars the hunt

For the biblical
paradise is futile.

For the faithful
the book of genesis

Tells a theological story,

Not one that can be
proven with archeology.

Still neither scientists
nor theologians

Can miss the remarkable
animal carvings

That decorate almost
every surface,

And as archeologists
uncover the enclosures,

They discover that in each one

A different animal predominates.

Notroff: There's one enclosure
where a lot of foxes appear,

And in another one
were a lot of boars.

In another enclosure there's
a very strong focus on birds.

Mastrelli: Archeologists
believe these carvings

May represent tribal signatures.

Notroff: It's interpretation.

It's speculation.

We have the idea
where each enclosure

May belong to a certain group,

Was erected and used
by a certain group.

Mastrelli: If each enclosure
represents a different tribe,

But each tribe was using

Similar symbols
carved into the rock,

It flies in the face
of decades of theory.

It means these roaming
hunter-gatherer groups

Weren't operating in isolation,

Shunning contact with
neighboring tribes.

They were part of
something bigger.

Notroff: We're talking
about single bands

Of hunter-gatherers here,

But they also seem to share
a common, common culture,

A common background.

(gentle music)

Mastrelli: Archeologists
believe that the

Hunter-gatherers of
the region had enough

In common to make
them come together

And carve their shared
culture into stone.

They were part of
a wider society.

Rose: As an american when
I lived in the uk,

The saddest day of the
year was thanksgiving,

Because it was the
day I felt out of sync

With the rest of society.

We get at gobekli are all
of these disparate tribes

Scattered over hundreds of miles

All meeting together
in this one spot

And agreeing that these symbols
mean the same thing to them.

Gobekli acts as this

This prehistoric
mecca unifying people.

(gentle music)

Mastrelli: Nomadic hunter
-gatherers of prehistoric turkey

Were part of a wider society,

But what was attracting
them all to gobekli tepe?

(dramatic music)

The broken up
animal bones confirm

It was the site of
food consumption.

But these weren't
every day trash heaps.

The enclosures were packed full
of smashed up animal bones,

And some of the meat hadn't
been properly butchered,

Just tossed aside half-finished.

Peters: The fact that it
has not been cut up

And chopped means they were
consuming the meat quite fast,

Which could be
indicative of feasting.

Mastrelli: This wasn't a case
of hunter-gatherers carefully

Stripping down carcasses
for every available calorie.

Rather, gobekli tepe
seems to have played host

To epic meat-fueled feasts.

(dramatic music)
(tribesmen chatting)

The tribes of hunter-gatherers

Were coming to gobekli
tepe to celebrate.

But why did they
build a stone monument

Larger and more
complex than anything

The human species
had ever produced?

(tribal people chatting)

(gentle music)

The world's oldest
monumental stone structure,

This ornately carved complex
of enclosures at gobekli tepe,

Seems to have been the
focus for huge congregations

Of stone age hunter
-gatherer tribes

Assembling for ritual purposes.

It may represent the first steps

Towards an organized religion,

Shattering the theory
that religious behavior

Came out of later,
settled societies.

(dramatic music)

For those who
believe the teachings

Of the old testament re-tell
a version of human history,

The discoveries at gobekli tepe
are an exciting development.

Schiffman: Humans originally had
a kind of idealistic life

Where everything
was given to them,

But then as a result
of a transgression,

They end up having to
really support themselves

By very, very great
toil and great effort.

Mastrelli: Now researchers
believe the rituals celebrated

By people of gobekli tepe
may have been the trigger

For a revolution in
their way of living.

(gentle music)

Dr. Reinder neef is a
specialist in ancient plants.

Neef: They were probably
experimenting

With cultivation of cereals,

And that is something which
you can expect from people

Who are building such
incredible monuments.

They were experimenting,

And not only with stone but
also with plant material.

Mastrelli: Scientists
think gobekli tepe

Was blessed with the perfect
grassland environment

To begin humanity's experiment
with plant cultivation.

(grass rustling)
(gentle music)

But what caused mobile
hunter-gatherers

To start focusing
on immobile crops?

Now, archeologists may
have found the spark

That ignited the
flame of farming.

(dramatic music)

It came with the discovery
of a collection of huge,

40-gallon stone troughs
at gobekli tepe.

A gray residue on the
inner surface of some

Of the troughs offered an
opportunity for analysis.

On a hunch, the team sent a
sample to southern germany.

(gentle music)

Dr. Martin zarnkow
is a bio-technologist

With a lab at the technical
university of munich.

His team prepared the residue
from gobekli tepe for testing

And discovered a
surprising result.

The analysis suggests that the
11,000-year-old stone troughs

Of gobekli tepe contained beer.

Zarnkow: I believe there is
a good possibility

That beer was inside
these vessels,

But you cannot be
absolutely sure.

(gentle music)

Mastrelli: Troughs full
of stone age beer

May have been a key component
of gobekli's ritual feasts,

And the bigger the celebration,

The greater the need for
cereal to supply the brewers.

Notroff: Organizing a feast,

Including these huge
amounts of meat

And maybe the
alcoholic beverages,

Might put some stress to an
economy based on hunting.

(dramatic music)
(tribal people chatting)

Mastrelli: Any party
must be well supplied.

Nobody's happy when the
refreshments runs dry.

In order to adequately supply
their stone age festival,

The people of gobekli tepe

Needed a reliable
source of sustenance,

So they turned to their crops.

Notroff: These people were
already gathering plants

And were nourishing on plants,

And whether it was
some kind of gruel,

Or if it really was beer,

This might have been
the stimulus to farming.

Mastrelli: If this
theory is correct,

The single most important
turning point in the history

Of civilization may have been
caused by the craft brewers

Of the stone age.

(insects chattering)
(dramatic music)

At gobekli tepe ancestor worship

And ritual were
bringing a nomadic

Hunter-gatherers together.

Out of the need to provide

For that immense social
upheaval, farming was born.

Anthropologists call it
the neolithic revolution.

Rose: This period of
time is the most

Fundamental revolution
in all of human history,

And the fact that even today

We still eat porridge
for breakfast.

You know, we have cereal grains.

That all happened because
of the neolithic revolution.

What gobekli does give us is
a window into this revolution.

The first piece of the
puzzle was, was religion.

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: The discoveries made
at gobekli tepe are rewriting

The textbook on the origins
of farming and civilization.

It's a story echoed in
the bible's old testament,

Where adam and eve
suffered a fall from grace,

And were sent from
eden to work the land.

Rose: After adam eats the
fruit of knowledge,

He's sentenced to have
to toil the fields

By the sweat of his own brow.

What is this fruit of knowledge?

In some jewish traditions
it is a grain of wheat.

Some have suggested this

Symbolizes the
transition to farming,

The transition to having
to produce our own food.

(gentle music)

Mastrelli: The hunter
-gatherer tribes

Congregating at gobekli
tepe 11,000 years ago

Had started down the path
of organized religion,

Sowing the seeds
of a wider culture,

Paving the way for the
agricultural revolution,

And kick-starting
civilization itself.

(gentle piano music)
(fire crackling)

Thousands of years before
the garden of eden story

Was written down,
hunter-gatherers congregated

At gobekli tepe to
worship their ancestors.

There they lit the
fuse of religion,

Building an extraordinary
monument in a land of plenty.

To fuel their ritual
feasts and celebrations,

They took advantage of the
wild grasses on their doorstep.

Unwittingly, they set off down
the path toward civilization.

(sheep bleating)
(gentle music)

When the community at gobekli
tepe had finally moved on

From their hunter
-gatherer existence,

Their monument ceased
to have meaning.

The enclosures were buried,

Laying to rest an old
-fashioned existence.

Peters: In the end it
was given up

Because the hunter-gatherer way

Was replaced by a
farming way of life.

Rose: As far as a historical
perspective of our species,

This was the biggest
moment in our history.

(bright uptempo music)

Mastrelli: It's an extraordinary
moment, no doubt.

The garden of eden,
the fall of man,

The dawn of agriculture
all bundled into one.

It deserves to be
properly memorialized

With a little of the good stuff.

After all it's home-brewed
beer that kick started it all.