What Makes People Tick?

Here at What Makes People Tick? we love learning about what drives and shapes people -- religion, history, science, technology, ecology, curiosity... You name it! We like looking at what we see as positive things - new scientific or technological discoveries that shake our world or discoveries about ancient history that totally change what we thought we knew. Göbekli Tepe belongs to the second category and if we had it, would belong to the Wow, this is Amazing! category as well! While the excavation is still a work in progress, we have already learnt so much from this amazing place. It is thought to be the world's oldest temple and some even theorise it may be the Bible's famed Garden of Eden. Whatever it turns out to be, this site provides evidence of amazing skill and workmanship. For a people who lived before modern tools were invented, who lived before the invention of pottery even, this is a grand feat and one well worth keeping an eye on in the future! This Smith...

This blog has featured posts about Gobekli Tepe in Turkey before. As ancient locations go, this is one of the most fascinating sites in the entire world! While we don't browse the web daily looking for news on all topics that interest us, today's article falls right smack in the 'interesting news' category! Owen Jarus writes for NBC News: "Ancient blades made of volcanic rock that were discovered at what may be the world's oldest temple suggest that the site in Turkey was the hub of a pilgrimage  that attracted a cosmopolitan group of people some 11,000 years ago.  The researchers matched up about 130 of the blades, which would have been used as tools, with their source volcanoes, finding people would have come from far and wide to congregate at the ancient temple site, Gobekli Tepe, in southern Turkey. The blades are made of obsidian, a volcanic glass rich with silica, which forms when lava cools quickly." Source :   'World's Oldest temple...

Copy of a short piece I wrote for another blog of mine. First published 12-06-2011 Happened across an article in the Daily Mail today from back in 2009 that caught my fancy. In short, it describes the find of a bunch of carved ancient stones long buried at Gobekli Tepe in eastern Turkey / Kurdistan. This site predates other ancient sites such as Stonehenge or the Pyramids by several thousands of years, meaning it is the oldest such site that has been uncovered to date. Not only does this site teach us amazing new things about our (humanity´s) past, we also learn more about the region, the practices and possible lifestyle and beliefs of the people alive at the time, and oh as an afterthought - reshapes what we thought we knew to be true about human development. Isn´t is just awesome when history, religion and science come together! Some quotes from the article: Carbon-dating shows that the complex is at least 12,000 years old, maybe even 13,000 years old. That means it was b...