Foto de Berthold Steinhilber/Laif-Redux (Newsweek)

A través del magnífico blog de la Long Now Foundation, encuentro esta historia que redefine lo que se entendía hasta ahora como “comienzo de la civilización”. Un templo en el sureste de Turquía de casi 12.000 años de antigüedad, muy anterior a los primeros poblados, la cerámica, la agricultura y ganadería, etc (la última glaciación terminó hace unos 10.000 años).

Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the story of human origins. Schmidt has uncovered a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. The site isn’t just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years ago—a staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agriculture—the first embers of civilization. In fact, Schmidt thinks the temple itself, built after the end of the last Ice Age by hunter-gatherers, became that ember—the spark that launched mankind toward farming, urban life, and all that followed.

Se puede leer el texto completo en Newsweek. Merece la pena.