‘ Skull cult’ found at what could be world’s oldest temple

Macabre site has scientists wondering about beliefs

What did our ancestors believe? We can never know for certain, but scientists published evidence from what is possibly the world’s oldest temple.

That evidence focuses on what anthropologists call a “skull cult” that could be the oldest evidence of ritualized behavior or a religious belief system known to man.

The research was carried out by a team from the German Archaeological Institute based in Berlin and published in the journal Science Advances.

The temple complex, called Gobekli Tepe, is on top of a hill in southeastern Turkey and was built around 9,000 years ago — that’s a good 4,000 years before Stonehenge and the pyramids.

The temple consists of an array of chambers and about 200 standing stones, or megaliths— the first of their kind. Over the next few thousand years, megaliths were erected across Europe and North Africa as well as southwest Asia. Then there are the skulls. Skull fragments make up a disproportionate portion of the bones found at Gobekli Tepe— about two- thirds.

Some of the skulls were modified. Scientists hypothesize that carved channels could have held strings to help hold the lower jaw in place. A hole drilled in the top of the head of one suggests suspension from the ceiling.

The modifications were apparently made shortly after death, while the bone was still elastic.

Researchers theorize that the site could have been for venerating ancestors, or simple worship. Or that it was a safe neutral space for conflict mediation, or for rites of passage, such as wedding ceremonies or male initiations. Or it could have been used to demean and frighten enemies.