Round

Tags

circle, curves, eggs, flowers, moon, planets, ripples, round, rounded over time, seeds, stars, sun, the head, wheel

Round, like the Earth, the planets and the stars,

the moon and many other moons in the universe,

ripples on the water, seeds in the soil,

rounded like the eggs that bear life,

a mother’s belly and a foetus that curls up inside.

The head, the eyes, the nostrils and the ear canals,

the mouth and all other cavities

on the human body are round.

The elements smooth out

the square, rectangular or triangular shapes

in nature over time,

except the pointed tips and edges of leaves

that fall down and curl up in Autumn,

and thorns of roses, other plants and weeds

whose flowers and petals still complete the theme.

Anything sharp and jagged must be rounded,

carved, or moulded into smoothness,

in time

to fit into the whole.

Is this what inspired mankind to invent the wheel,

and all other inventions inspired by the wheel?

Then if most things we see in life are round,

or rounded over time,

why are our ideas spiky,

intersected by straight lines

and diverted by sharp turns?

Why can’t we soften those angry angles and embrace it all,

like a fresh full circle,

where the beginning meets the end

and continues forever.

Dream or Reality?

Tags

air, blue planet, children, civilization, dreams, earth, fire, innocence, reality, the elements, the universe, water

 

 

A dark indigo sky, inhabited by granite clouds, blown by gusting winds and torrential rain. The water cascades down the hills, together with my tears of sorrow and joy. The valley is flooded, the forces of the elements wash everything down to the sea.

 

Stuck behind a tree trunk, I open my eyes and look around. An eerie silence. Behind me, the pine tree covered hills. Before me, the beach and the sea. Everything seems familiar, yet unfamiliar. Nothing manmade is left in sight. Only nature, as it was created. The vast waters resemble a lake, not a single ripple disturbing its surface. As though time has stopped.

 

The clouds have disappeared and a golden ball of light dominates the azure sky. Sunrays touch my skin. I am naked, the way I was born. Vulnerable and lonely. Do I remember that moment? My memories of that instant are not clear, but I feel the solitude and the despair deep down in my heart. The pain of that first breath, a cry in the void. I am frightened in these alien surroundings.

 

I have no belongings now. The memories, the only baggage I am allowed to take with me.

 

Am I the last person on the Blue Planet or the first one in a new world?

 

What about civilization, everything we have built and done? Have they all been washed to the sea? The heritage we wanted to leave behind, the traces of our existence, to make a difference, to be remembered by and recognized. The untamed part of the human ego. As if the universe cares whether we make a difference or not.

 

Progress, heaven and hell at the same time. Creation and destruction. Yet, nothing manmade is more powerful than the forces of nature, orchestrating life and death simultaneously, and recreating life from death, through the eternal cycle.

 

I hear the lullaby of waves. The water starts to move. A warm breeze sweeps across my face. A flock of birds appears in the sky and flies towards the horizon in a perfect V. The perpetual motion begins. The earth beneath me stirs, then rocks and continues, vibrating in sporadic tremors. The breeze turns into a wind, then an angry storm. The branches of trees bend and bow to the ground at the whim of the great force. Lava gushes out from the centre of Gaia, red-hot. It flows like a river down the mountains and across the plains, melting everything on its path, destroying and creating at the same time. I try to hold onto the tree, with all my might, but I’m weak. My fingers give in, and I go with the flow.

 

 

 

******

 

 

Faint voices in the background travel through the air. Then the most delightful sound in the universe. Children’s laughter. I open my eyes and scan my surroundings. I’m stretched out on a deckchair, under a parasol on the golden sand of the beach. My half-read book, lying on my chest.

 

A little boy and a girl are playing at the edge of the sea. They fill their tin buckets with water and empty them, giving each other generous showers. They giggle and yell, the wonder of life vibrant on their faces. No illusions or disillusionments. They have not yet been injected with fear and doubt. I pray for them to hold onto that childhood curiosity forever.

 

Then I remember my dream, that moment stolen from time. Was it a dream or reality? Life, as it seems, is painted before me, reflected in its three dimensional ingredients. Sound, light and depth. Is this an illusion I have created?

 

I pick up my belongings and head towards home. The laughter of children still in my ears.

 

I have no answers.

 

 

Göbeklitepe, Potbelly Hill, The Oldest Temple in the World

Tags

Father of Göbeklitepe, Göbeklitepe, Klaus Schmidt, Potbelly Hill, The Oldest Temple In the World, Turkey, Şanlıurfa

The Birth of Religion “We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art, and religion. Now the world’s oldest temple suggests the urge to worship sparked civilization.” http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text

 

 

ŞanlıUrfa(Shanliurfa), Southeast Turkey, 1994

 

When Professor Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute arrived in one of the oldest towns in the world, he believed he could find something unique to improve his understanding of the Neolithic era. Perhaps, something to make this town, where Prophet Abraham was supposedly born, inspire interest again. Buried at Göbeklitepe, about twenty kilometres away, he unearthed evidence that might prove his theory that the thinking of the modern archaeologists and anthropologists was probably not quite right. He had worked in the area together with a team of Turkish and international colleagues, and discovered many sites related to the Neolithic Age. This fertile land, between the rivers of Euphrates and Tigris, the cradle of civilization in Anatolia, he knew held all the secrets regarding the progress of mankind. Does it begin with Sumer or is it even older?

 

 

Klaus decided to stay in Urfa and rented a house. The 1960 survey by the University of Chicago and the Istanbul University on Göbeklitepe triggered his interest, and he managed to scrape together the funds to conduct an excavation there, in collaboration with the local authorities.

 

 

1995-2014

 

The following year the excavations begin. He discovers the lime-stones at the top of the mounds, dismissed as Byzantine and Ottoman in the survey, are much older. The more they dig, the more they find. Layer upon layer of stone, the technique and artistry getting more sophisticated under each layer, the oldest dating back to Stone Age, more than 11,600 years ago.

 

“There are more flint tools in a square meter or two, here than many archaeologists find in entire sites,” says Klaus, to Chigdem, a Turkish research archaeologist from his team, both with a passion for Göbeklitepe. The mutual obsession, which lasts a lifetime, sparks a romantic relationship, and some years later they get married. They live between Urfa and their house in Germany. The excavations continue, two months in the summer and two months in the winter.

 

As the head of the excavation, Klaus ponders on V. Gordon Childe’s theory that the primitive foragers and hunters settled first, then began their attempts to develop agriculture, giving rise to the need to invent better tools and objects to facilitate their lives. The settlements grew, societies advanced and religion was established. Yet, the excavations imply otherwise. Göbeklitepe finds in Mesopotamia reveal no evidence of settlements, but only rings of tall, T-shaped pillars with carvings of many animals and beasts on them.

 

Klaus closes his eyes and imagines. They look like human beings assembled in a circle around the fire, perhaps dancing, meeting or praying.

 

Totalling 200 pillars, between three layers, they range between 5-10 meters high, their diameters 20-50 centimetres wide, and they weigh between 20-50 tons.

 

“How did they erect these stones here? The mounting system for the central pillars must have been designed so well,” Klaus asks his colleague, German architect and civil engineer, Eduard Knoll.

“They hadn’t yet mastered engineering then. Perhaps they propped them up by wooden posts.”

“The lime-stone source is at least one hundred meters away. They must have cut the pieces with flint and carried them here. So far, we’ve found no domestic evidence on the site. Most probably they brought food here, as we came across animal bones, gazelle and aurochs, even stone basins that could have been used for beer.”

“The nearest source of water is about six kilometres away. How did they carry everything, without wheels or any pottery?” Chigdem asks.

“I think they must have used many workers going back and forth. Those who lived here were not inhabitants, but only staff. The visitors came to celebrate or pay their respects to a higher power. Nature, most likely. They used their imagination and created the supernatural. The creatures and beasts, as well as the gifts of nature around them, inspired this belief.”

“So you’re refuting Childe’s theory? Belief first, followed by settlement and agriculture, and civilization last.”

“This is the oldest temple in the world when human-beings were nomads. Everything is a result of human imagination. Unique in its mysterious ways.”

“And your faith in this place all these years proves your theory, my love.”

 

Klaus’s previous work at Nevali Çori, a settlement in the nearby mountains, dating to 500 years later than Göbeklitepe, exhibits the first evidence for plant domestication, at a time called Pre-pottery Neolithic. Similar T-shaped pillars with carvings of animals and beasts are also found there. Catalhoyuk, the famous Neolithic village in Anatolia, is 2000 years later than Göbeklitepe.

 

Klaus believes in the French Archaeologist, Jacque Couvin’s theory that this is “a revolution of symbols” where human consciousness imagined a universe beyond the physical world.

 

The excavations continue, the world looks at the site with curiosity. Some archaeologists and anthropologists conclude this is a discovery that could change all beliefs and theories about the origins of civilization. Others disagree and say, the fact that no settlements were found, does not prove religion came before civilization. Maybe they all came at the same time, but different aspects surfaced first in different places.

There is no definite answer to the Neolithic Revolution.

 

In the summer of 2014, Klaus passes away, at the age of sixty, after a heart attack, leaving a sad and lonely Chigdem behind.

 

 

2015

 

In the Spring of 2015, Chigdem travels to Göbeklitepe for the first time without Klaus. The locals who call him Klaus Bey have organized a ceremony for the Father of Göbeklitepe.

 

She looks around with tears in her eyes and remembers the man who believed in his dream and did not miss one day of excavation during the last twenty years. From six a.m. till the end of the long day, he worked with his team. His words echo in her mind, “Twenty years ago, everyone believed civilization was driven by ecological forces. I think what we are learning is that civilization is a product of the human mind.”

 

This is based on a true story, in memory of Klaus Schmidt, a Dreamer, the Father of Göbeklitepe.

 

Video:

 

 

Life in 42 words

Tags

42 words, learning to lose, lessons, life, love, probabilities

 

Liberty or Slavery,

Poverty or Prosperity,

Learning to lose,

Learning lessons,

Faith or Disbelief

– Contemplation –

Words are running out,

How to explain life,

to an immortal alien?

the or‘s and the and‘s,

all probabilities and nuances,

The most important,

Love.

Spectrum of Colours

Tags

colours, darkness, dreamers, dreams, life and death, nemesis, reality

 

My eyelids flutter

not wanting to leave

the pastel coloured dreams,

and to stay in that moment of tranquillity,

instead of the harsh solid colours of reality,

shades of darkness, splashed with violent blood-red,

dark purples of sorrow and pain, flooded with tears.

What happened to the golden sun,

the blue sky of hope?

Why is everything grey,

has the purity of white disappeared completely?

What did we do to mankind,

where did the dreamers go,

did we exhaust their dreams?

 

The culprits lurk in the shadows,

they come in shades of gloom

and in different shapes and minds.

They will not rest

until they have destroyed every one of us,

but the Planet will remain and

there will be new life

with a fresh spectrum of colours

after death.