Archaeologists have discovered what is thought to be the world’s oldest calendar.
Etched in a 12,000-year-old stone pillar at the mysterious Göbekli Tepe site in Turkey, experts say it could rewrite our timeline of civilization.
The timekeeping system strongly suggests ancient humans had accurate ways to keep time 10,000 years before it was documented in Ancient Greece in 150 BC.
Another find exciting researchers is that the carvings depict a comet strike that caused a mini ice age for 1,200 years, which wiped out large animals and galvanized agricultural development and complex societies.
Experts said the memorialized event served as the defining moment that forced the ancient people to switch from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to more permanent settlements.
Dr Martin Sweatman, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, who led the research, said: ‘It appears the inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe were keen observers of the sky, which is to be expected given their world had been devastated by a comet strike.
‘This event might have triggered civilization by initiating a new religion and by motivating developments in agriculture to cope with the cold climate.
‘Possibly, their attempts to record what they saw are the first steps towards the development of writing millennia later.’
The Gobekli Tepe site is the oldest man-made structure ever found.
It was constructed between 9,600 and 8,200 BC, predating Stonehenge by more than 6,000 years.
The site features several stone pillars and after a recent analysis, researchers a the University of Edinburgh in Scotland concluded one structure was carved to be a calendar.
The pillar featured a ‘V’ symbol to represent a single day, which the team found 365 etched throughout.
The structure also included 12 lunar months with 11 additional days.
The pillar was divided into two sections with rows of ‘V’ symbols at the top and smaller box symbols in the lower main portion which shows a bird holding a circular disc symbol above a scorpion.
The team also identified a tall bird bending down toward a wriggling snake, which could depict the autumnal constellation Ophiuchus.
The discovery has suggested that people recorded dates using precession, the wobble in Earth’s axis which affects the movement of constellations across the sky.
It was long believed that the ancient Greeks were the first to use this method in 150 BC.
But the main discovery was that the ancient inhabitants memorialized a catastrophic comet strike.
The team has long been working at the site and determined in a 2021 study that the comet struck around 13,000 years ago based on high levels of platinum and nanodiamonds that form during high-energy explosions from comets.
