Updated 06/03/2024
Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is arguably one of the oldest, if not the oldest known temples in recorded human history, and may have been used in religious ceremonies around the cult of the skull, or a type of death or funerary cult.
"Radiocarbon dating shows that the earliest exposed structures at Göbekli Tepe were built between 9500 and 9000 BCE, towards the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period.[8][36] The site was significantly expanded in the early 9th millennium BCE and remained in use until around 8000 BCE, or perhaps slightly later (the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, PPNB).[36] ... Schmidt had described them as the "world's first temple[s]" that were intentionally and ritually backfilled ... Klaus Schmidt's view was that Göbekli Tepe was a stone-age mountain sanctuary.[citation needed] He suggested it was a central location for a cult of the dead and that the carved animals are there to protect the dead.[citation needed] Butchered bones found in large numbers from the local game such as deer, gazelle, pigs, and geese have been identified as refuse from food hunted and cooked or otherwise prepared for the congregants.[94] Zooarchaeological analysis shows that gazelle were only seasonally present in the region, suggesting that events such as rituals and feasts were likely timed to occur during periods when game availability was at its peak.[17] Schmidt saw the construction of Göbekli Tepe as contributing to the later development of urban civilization.[95]
Schmidt also speculated on the belief systems of the groups that created Göbekli Tepe, based on comparisons with other shrines and settlements. He presumed shamanic practices and suggested that the T-shaped pillars represent human forms, perhaps ancestors, whereas he saw a fully articulated belief in deities as not developing until later, in Mesopotamia, that was associated with extensive temples and palaces. This corresponds well with an ancient Sumerian belief that agriculture, animal husbandry, and weaving were brought to humans from the sacred mountain Ekur, which was inhabited by Annuna deities, very ancient deities without individual names. Schmidt identified this story as a primeval oriental myth that preserves a partial memory of the emerging Neolithic.[96] It is apparent that the animal and other images give no indication of organized violence, i.e. there are no depictions of hunting raids or wounded animals, and the pillar carvings generally ignore game on which the society depended, such as deer, in favour of formidable creatures such as lions, snakes, spiders, and scorpions.[67][97][98] Expanding on Schmidt's interpretation that round enclosures could represent sanctuaries, Gheorghiu's semiotic interpretation reads the Göbekli Tepe iconography as a cosmogonic map that would have related the local community to the surrounding landscape and the cosmos.[99]
The assumption that the site was strictly cultic in purpose and not inhabited has been challenged as well by the suggestion that the structures served as large communal houses, "similar in some ways to the large plank houses of the Northwest Coast of North America with their impressive house posts and totem poles."[24] It is not known why every few decades the existing pillars were buried to be replaced by new stones as part of a smaller, concentric ring inside the older one.[100] According to Rémi Hadad, in recent years "the interpretative enthusiasm that sought to see Göbekli Tepe as a regional ceremonial centre where nomadic populations would periodically converge is giving way to a vision that is more in line with what is known about other large Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites, where ritual and profane functions coexist."[101]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe
Death cults or funeral cults were also maintained in the imperial cults of the Egyptian pharaohs, thousands of years later, also found in, or very close to the classical cradle of civilization known as the "fertile crescent", a crescent moon shaped geographic area beginning around Northeastern Africa, including Egypt, and then North to Turkey and East into the Middle East.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertile_Crescent
Accordingly, prior to the discovery of Homo naledi and neanderthal funeral/death cults, both the Fertile Crescent's Turkey and Egypt shared among the first (9000-2400 BCE) recorded funeral/death cults or imperial cults (cults of narcissism personality, where the ruler forces those they oppress to consider them God, the son of God, hand of God, messenger of God, voice of God, and/or divine, in order to be worshiped for as long as possible) in the region, which Alexander the Greek would then import to Greece's imperial cult, and which Augustus Caeser (Gaius Octavius) would then import to the Roman Imperial Cult, which applied to Judaism, is what resulted in early Christianity, and over 25,000 branches of Abrahamic religions and/or related cults, which all embrace afterlife culture, funerary rites, and death/funeral cult ideology in a manner than makes sense, each millennia teaching every following millennia the importance of burying loved ones, and/or preparing them for an afterlife.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_cult
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Texts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_imperial_cult
Since then, Netflix has published research documentaries on discoveries related to Homo naledi and neanderthals, which independently propose that Homo naledi and neanderthals buried their loved ones, engaged in funerary practices, and/or prepared their loved ones for the afterlife, but dwarfing Gobekli Tepe in terms of time, having occurred well before modern humans.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32065103/
https://www.netflix.com/title/81473682
"In 2015, archaeologist Paul Dirks, Berger, and colleagues concluded that the bodies had to have been deliberately carried and placed into the chamber by people because they appear to have been intact when they were first deposited in the chamber. There is no evidence of trauma from being dropped into the chamber nor of predation, and there is exceptional preservation. The chamber is inaccessible to large predators, appears to be an isolated system, and has never been flooded. That is, natural forces were not at play.[4]
There is no hidden shaft through which people could have accidentally fallen in, and there is no evidence of some catastrophe which killed all the individuals inside the chamber. They said it is possible that the bodies were dropped down a chute and fell slowly due to irregularity and narrowness of the path down, or a soft mud cushion to land on. In whatever scenario, the morticians would have required artificial light to navigate the cave. The site was used repeatedly for burials as the bodies were not all deposited at the same time.[4]
In 2016, palaeoanthropologist Aurore Val countered that such preservation may have been due to mummification rather than careful burial, and the absence of long bone heads is reminiscent of predation. She believes that discounting natural forces such as flooding for depositing the bodies is unjustified. She identified evidence of damage done by beetles, beetle larvae, and snails, which facilitate decomposition. The chamber does not present ideal conditions for snails, nor does it contain snail shells, which would indicate decomposition initiated before deposition in the chamber.[33]
In 2017, Dirks, Berger, and colleagues reaffirmed that there is no evidence of water flow into the cave, and that it is more likely that the bodies were deliberately deposited into the chamber. They said it is possible that they were deposited by contemporary Homo, such as the ancestors of modern humans, rather than other H. naledi, but that the cultural behaviour of funerary practises is not impossible for H. naledi. They proposed that placement in the chamber may have been done to remove decaying bodies from a settlement, prevent scavengers, or as a consequence of social bonding and grief.[10]
In 2018, anthropologist Charles Egeland and colleagues echoed Val's sentiments, and stated that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that a hominid species had developed a concept of the afterlife so early in time. They said that the preservation of the Dinaledi individuals is similar to those of baboon carcasses which accumulate in caves, either by natural death of cave-dwelling baboons, or by a leopard dragging in carcasses.[34]
In 2021, following the analysis of the bone fragments of an immature individual, Juliet Brophy and Berger again stated that the H. naledi remains were purposefully interred by some human species.[35] This would make Homo naledi the oldest evidence of burial by hominids.[36]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_naledi
Dirk and Berger also found that a tool had been buried with at least one loved one, found in her hand, and where if killed by an animal, the bones most likely would not have been found together, nor the tool found in the hand. This led Dirk and Berger to conclude that the tool was placed by a loved one in her hand as part of the burial ritual, for use in the afterlife, as the Egyptian funeral cult also did, but not limited to the same, as a reoccurring cultural belief and rite found across the world.
Similarly, in neanderthals, "Although Neanderthals did bury their dead, at least occasionally—which may explain the abundance of fossil remains[53]—the behavior is not indicative of a religious belief of life after death because it could also have had non-symbolic motivations, such as great emotion[382] or the prevention of scavenging.[383]
Estimates made regarding the number of known Neanderthal burials range from thirty-six to sixty.[384][385][386][387] The oldest confirmed burials do not seem to occur before approximately 70,000 years ago.[388] The small number of recorded Neanderthal burials implies that the activity was not particularly common. The setting of inhumation in Neanderthal culture largely consisted of simple, shallow graves and pits.[389] Sites such as La Ferrassie in France or Shanidar in Iraq may imply the existence of mortuary centers or cemeteries in Neanderthal culture due to the number of individuals found buried at them.[389]
The debate on Neanderthal funerals has been active since the 1908 discovery of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 in a small, artificial hole in a cave in southwestern France, very controversially postulated to have been buried in a symbolic fashion.[390][391][392] Another grave at Shanidar Cave, Iraq, was associated with the pollen of several flowers that may have been in bloom at the time of deposition—yarrow, centaury, ragwort, grape hyacinth, joint pine and hollyhock.[393] The medicinal properties of the plants led American archaeologist Ralph Solecki to claim that the man buried was some leader, healer, or shaman, and that "The association of flowers with Neanderthals adds a whole new dimension to our knowledge of his humanness, indicating that he had 'soul' ".[394] However, it is also possible the pollen was deposited by a small rodent after the man's death.[395]
The graves of children and infants, especially, are associated with grave goods such as artefacts and bones. The grave of a newborn from La Ferrassie, France, was found with three flint scrapers, and an infant from Dederiyeh [de] Cave, Syria, was found with a triangular flint placed on its chest. A 10-month-old from Amud Cave, Israel, was associated with a red deer mandible, likely purposefully placed there given other animal remains are now reduced to fragments. Teshik-Tash 1 from Uzbekistan was associated with a circle of ibex horns, and a limestone slab argued to have supported the head.[253] A child from Kiik-Koba, Crimea, Ukraine, had a flint flake with some purposeful engraving on it, likely requiring a great deal of skill.[58] Nonetheless, these contentiously constitute evidence of symbolic meaning as the grave goods' significance and worth are unclear.[253]
It was once argued that the bones of the cave bear, particularly the skull, in some European caves were arranged in a specific order, indicating an ancient bear cult that killed bears and then ceremoniously arranged the bones. This would be consistent with bear-related rituals of modern human Arctic hunter-gatherers, but the alleged peculiarity of the arrangement could also be sufficiently explained by natural causes,[63][382] and bias could be introduced as the existence of a bear cult would conform with the idea that totemism was the earliest religion, leading to undue extrapolation of evidence.[396]
It was also once thought that Neanderthals ritually hunted, killed and cannibalised other Neanderthals and used the skull as the focus of some ceremony.[309] In 1962, Italian palaeontologist Alberto Blanc believed a skull from Grotta Guattari, Italy, had evidence of a swift blow to the head—indicative of ritual murder—and a precise and deliberate incising at the base to access the brain. He compared it to the victims of headhunters in Malaysia and Borneo,[397] putting it forward as evidence of a skull cult.[382] However, it is now thought to have been a result of cave hyaena scavengery.[398] Although Neanderthals are known to have practiced cannibalism, there is unsubstantial evidence to suggest ritual defleshing.[308]
In 2019, Gibraltarian palaeoanthropologists Stewart, Geraldine and Clive Finlayson and Spanish archaeologist Francisco Guzmán speculated that the golden eagle had iconic value to Neanderthals, as exemplified in some modern human societies because they reported that golden eagle bones had a conspicuously high rate of evidence of modification compared to the bones of other birds. They then proposed some "Cult of the Sun Bird" where the golden eagle was a symbol of power.[55][322] There is evidence from Krapina, Croatia, from wear use and even remnants of string, that suggests that raptor talons were worn as personal ornaments.[399] ... The first Neanderthal genome sequence was published in 2010, and strongly indicated interbreeding between Neanderthals and early modern humans.[87][401][402][403] The genomes of all studied modern populations contain Neanderthal DNA.[87][89][404][405][406] Various estimates exist for the proportion, such as 1–4%[87] or 3.4–7.9% in modern Eurasians,[407] or 1.8–2.4% in modern Europeans and 2.3–2.6% in modern East Asians.[408] Pre-agricultural Europeans appear to have had similar, or slightly higher,[406] percentages to modern East Asians, and the numbers may have decreased in the former due to dilution with a group of people which had split off before Neanderthal introgression.[100] Typically, studies have reported finding no significant levels of Neanderthal DNA in Sub-Saharan Africans, but a 2020 study detected 0.3-0.5% in the genomes of five African sample populations, likely the result of Eurasians back-migrating and interbreeding with Africans, as well as human-to-neanderthal gene flow from dispersals of Homo sapiens preceding the larger Out-of-Africa migration, and also showed more equal Neanderthal DNA percentages for European and Asian populations.[406] Such low percentages of Neanderthal DNA in all present day populations indicate infrequent past interbreeding,[409] unless interbreeding was more common with a different population of modern humans which did not contribute to the present day gene pool.[100] Of the inherited Neanderthal genome, 25% in modern Europeans and 32% in modern East Asians may be related to viral immunity.[410] In all, approximately 20% of the Neanderthal genome appears to have survived in the modern human gene pool.[94] ... Neanderthals (/niˈændərˌtɑːl, neɪ-, -ˌθɑːl/ nee-AN-də(r)-TAHL, nay-, -THAHL;[7] Homo neanderthalensis or H. sapiens neanderthalensis) are an extinct group of archaic humans (generally regarded as a distinct species, though some regard it as a subspecies of Homo sapiens) who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago.[8][9][10][11] The type specimen, Neanderthal 1, was found in 1856 in the Neander Valley in present-day Germany.
It is not clear when the line of Neanderthals split from that of modern humans; studies have produced various times ranging from 315,000[12] to more than 800,000 years ago.[13] The date of divergence of Neanderthals from their ancestor H. heidelbergensis is also unclear. The oldest potential Neanderthal bones date to 430,000 years ago, but the classification remains uncertain.[14] Neanderthals are known from numerous fossils, especially from after 130,000 years ago.[15]
Accordingly, not only are we related to Neanderthals, but they were burying their dead, just like Homo naledi, as far back as 250,000 to 300,000 years ago, so well before Gobekli Tepe and Egyptians engaged in their cults of the skulls, death cults, funeral cults, and/or related animal cults.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal
Furthermore, most to much of this was taking place in roughly the exact same parts of the planet, and/or not far from the same, with the oldest of the Neanderthals found almost in perfect alignment with the epicenter of the Fertile Crescent, making it more probable that Neanderthals passed on their funeral culture, funeral cults, and/or religions to those in Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and/or Europe thereafter, who then would export the same to the areas of the world they invaded and culturally assimilated through colonialization, slavery, and forever wars.
The following map of human migrations is also telling, because at the greatest human-neanderthal admixing location, the near epicenter of the Fertile Crescent above, corresponds to the two most Northeast routes of humans out of Africa between 50,000 years ago and 100,000 years ago below, almost perfectly overlapping with the Neandertal-human admixing dates of 47,000-65,000 years ago to more than 100,000 years ago, above. Note that the Fertile Crescent also then to a lesser extent flows into and across the Northern Mediterranean as does the admixing of humans and Neanderthals, as yet another spacial and temporal correlation. If this was the scene of a crime, and these early human discoveries were pinging cell towers, this might be enough evidence to convince a jury to convict.
This places Neanderthals who were burying their dead in cults of the skull/death/funeral/afterlife/totem in the same place on Earth and at the same time as humans, who they bred with, and thus naturally shared cultures with, and where humans would then between 47,000-50,000 to 11,000 to 4,500 years ago bring the same to the Eastern Mediterranean's imperial cults of Egypt from Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, and then between 4,500 to the modern day to the Abrahamic religions, but not limited to the same, is a reasonable inference.
"Homo naledi is an extinct species of archaic human discovered in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave system, Gauteng province, South Africa (See Cradle of Humankind), dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimens of bone, representing 737 different skeletal elements, and at least 15 different individuals. Despite this exceptionally high number of specimens, their classification with other Homo species remains unclear.
Along with similarities to contemporary Homo, they share several characteristics with the ancestral Australopithecus as well as early Homo (mosaic evolution), most notably a small cranial capacity of 465–610 cm3 (28.4–37.2 cu in), compared with 1,270–1,330 cm3 (78–81 cu in) in modern humans. They are estimated to have averaged 143.6 cm (4 ft 9 in) in height and 39.7 kg (88 lb) in weight, yielding a small encephalization quotient of 4.5. H. naledi brain anatomy seems to have been similar to contemporary Homo, which could indicate comparable cognitive complexity. The persistence of small-brained humans for so long in the midst of bigger-brained contemporaries revises the previous conception that a larger brain would necessarily lead to an evolutionary advantage, and their mosaic anatomy greatly expands the known range of variation for the genus.
H. naledi anatomy indicates that, though they were capable of long-distance travel with a humanlike stride and gait, they were more arboreal than other Homo, better adapted to climbing and suspensory behaviour in trees than endurance running. Tooth anatomy suggests consumption of gritty foods covered in particulates such as dust or dirt. Though they have not been associated with stone tools or any indication of material culture, they appear to have been dextrous enough to produce and handle tools, and therefore may have manufactured Early or Middle Stone Age industries since no other human species in the vicinity at that time has been discovered. It has also been controversially postulated that these individuals were given funerary rites, and were carried into and placed in the chamber."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_naledi
Homo naledi appears to have been found in the greatest numbers in Northeastern South Africa, and where modern humans are believed to have been derived from South Africa to East Africa, as illustrated in the human migrations map above.
Accordingly, Neanderthals were early humans that we later bred with, much like different species of monkeys able to interbreed to give rise to more new species of monkeys. They buried their death and engaged in what would be considered religious ceremonies today. Homo naledi also buried their dead, and/or prepared their loved ones for the afterlife, and in geographic areas modern day humans came from.
Furthermore, Berger et al. concluded that the burial chamber, tomb, or catacomb entrance had been marked with an unknown language or art that was geometric in shape and not found around the same, ruling out natural geometric shapes that could have otherwise explained away the same, very much resembling interconnected hashtags, number signs, and/or a pattern that could theoretically but not practically be drawn out and interconnected and for infinity, and fractal in nature. Another interpretation of this art or these markings by Christians could readily be interconnected crosses, but hundreds of thousands of years before Jesus and the employment of crosses for crucifixion.
Curiously, this symbol has also been found in Neanderthal caves in France, in the context Neanderthals also buried their dead.
https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2014/09/2014-09-02-neanderthal-hashtag-e1409664058552.jpg
Furthermore, this symbol has also been found on the side of a Double-headed eagle on the Sphinx Gates of the Hittites in Anatolia, today in Alaca Höyük, Turkey, but represented as a double headed bird, also used by the Roman Imperial cult and then the Privilegium maius-forged royal families of the Habsburg crime syndicate, which included Russia, in the context that Egyptians also buried their death, and also prepared them for the afterlife like Homo naledi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-headed_eagle#/media/File:Alacah%C3%B6y%C3%BCk_Sphinxtor_04.jpg
As detailed in our reporting (based on our Editor having been a university professor and an executive for three Freemason branches, as well as a Freemason scholar) and corroborated by and overlapping with the research of professor Dr. Richard Spence of University of Idaho -- the Habsburg crime family went on to overthrow the actual royal families of Europe with Freemasons loyal to them -- and in the context that the very first Freemason founding documents was found in the home of a Habsburg crime family member, known as the Regius or King's Poem, which is an oath to the forged royal Habsburg crime family in England, where the actual royal families of Europe were overthrow from over time -- and where they installed (1) Habsburg crime family members onto the thrones of Europe, (2) Freemasons when royals weren't popular and the people wanted to overthrow (as happened in America for example), and/or (3) Habsburg crime family members who were Freemasons (for example the Freemason "Traitor King, Edward VIII, who betrayed Britain in league with the Nazis by leaking French Intel to the Nazis regarding French weaknesses, resulting in the fall of France, and the Battle of Britain bombing by the Naxis, which Edward VIII urged Hitler to do, in order to bomb the British into submission, and weeks later Hitler did just that, in part financed by the company of Prescott Bush, the grandfather of G.W. and Jeb Bush, followed by the Jewish Wildenstein family [of later Trump Tower] working with Hitler to loot the Jewish families of Europe, whereafter they helped finance G.W. Bush into power).
More simply, both the forged Habsburg crime family and their Freemasons would later usurp the double-headed Eagle symbol, and/or some version of the same in the context that the Habsburg crime used their forged royal claims to restart the Roman Imperial Cult practice of having those they oppressed worship them as divine in the renewed Holy Roman Empire Imperial Cult, which eventually resulted in control and influence over at least half of the world's Protestants, but where those imperial cults cultures were transferred to the Romans by the Greeks and Egyptians, largely through Alexander the Great's conquering of Egypt.
Furthermore, in addition to historically being a subversion, sedition, treason, and insurrection clandestine group for forged English, French, and/or Germanic royals, but not limited to the same -- the Freemasons, who employed a version of the Habsburg's, Roman's, Greek's, and Egyptian's imperial cult funeral/death cults' preparation for the afterlife, also employed the double-headed Eagle hashtag geometric shape, employing the square and compass to do so.
Taken collectively, there is compelling evidence that Homo naledi were burying their death and/or preparing their dead for the afterlife (by burying possessions with the body for use in the afterlife, as the Egyptians would also later do in a similar manner) before or at the dawn of humanity in Southeastern Africa, where humanity is in part though to have come from and/or migrated to, and/or involving art and/or language resembling a slightly rotated hash tag, in the context that the Neanderthals were burying their dead in the Fertile Crescent region of Egypt and Turkey, and/or involving the rotated hashtag symbol, followed by the Egyptian imperial cult funeral, death, and/or afterlife cults burying their dead in tombs, caves, catacombs, and/or pyramids, and/or employing the rotated hashtage symbol, followed by the Greek and Roman imperial cults burying their dead and employing the double-headed Eagle (also represented Western and Eastern Roman Empires), resulting in Christianity (the hybridization of the Roman Imperial Cult of August Caesar and Judaism, and where the Roman Imperial Cult allowed for hybridization of local religions under their control with the Roman Imperial Cult) and Christians burying their dead and preparing for the afterlife, and/or employing a fish symbol also found in rotated hashtag symbol, and then all of that being usurped by the Privilegium maius-forged royals of the Habsburg crime family and their Freemasons, through to WWII, and to the modern day.
The following diagram illustrates how the rotated hashtag can be interconnected in an infinite manner, and so these different species, including some that came before humans, and from regions where the first humans came from and/or migrated to, not only buried their death, prepared them for an afterlife, but also employed a rotated hashtag or number sign, which itself can be made into an infinite pattern, in the context that religions like Christianity believe in an afterlife that goes on forever, and where this aligns with some scientific theory, for example the laws of thermodynamics.
Interestingly, the laws of thermodymanics, as specified by Emile de Chatelet, when combined with the work of Albert Einstein, have collectively made the case for the mass of our bodies and the mass of the universe being made out of energy, and that energy can't be created, nor destroyed, only changed, and where the change in energy over the useful life of a living thing or geometric form is the inherent power of that living thing over the course of its life to do work or affect change, and where all changes in infinitely changing energy across all time is the infinitely changing power of everything, from which we all come from, are a part of, and return to, which many people more simply refer to as God.
Photo Attribute: https://www.flickr.com/photos/justinsymington/231267269