Carvings at site in Turkey could depict comet strike that ushered in civilization: Study

A Turkish site thought to predate the Great Pyramid of Giza by seven millennia is host to mysterious carvings that archeologists believe could depict a devastating ancient comet strike.

The carvings recently deciphered at the Göbekli Tepe archaeological site in Turkey suggest the monument could also represent the world's oldest solar calendar, according to new research . The nearly 12,000-year-old architectural wonder is thought to be the oldest place of worship ever discovered, even older than the 4,500-year-old pyramids.

The temple-like enclosures at the site – also believed to be the oldest in the world – are adorned with intricately carved symbols. Researchers who recently visited the site to take a closer look at the symbols determined that they may, in fact, be a recording of an astronomical event that triggered a momentous shift in human civilization.

If true, the team's findings could mean that ancient people recorded their celestial observations to create a solar calendar to track the seasons using a method the Greeks famously used some thousands of years later.

"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," study lead author Martin Sweatman, a chemical engineer at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.

Researchers interpret V-shaped symbols as ancient calendar

Strange V-shaped symbols carved onto pillars at Göbekli Tepe could be interpreted to represent a single day, the researchers said.

By totaling up the V-shapes, the researchers counted out a solar calendar of 365 days on one of the pillars, consisting of 12 lunar months plus 11 extra days.

A separate symbol depicting a V worn around the neck of a bird-like beast was thought to represent the summer solstice, according to the study. The researchers also theorized that other statues at the site with similar markings at their necks likely depict deities.

Because the prehistoric monument depicts both the phases of the moon and the sun’s cycles, archeologists concluded that the carvings could represent the world’s earliest " lunisolar calendar " – predating other known calendars of this type by millennia.

Did comet strike usher in dawn of civilization?

Ancient people likely created the calendar as a way to memorialize the date when a swarm of comet fragments hit Earth nearly 13,000 years ago, the researchers claimed.

Another pillar at the site appears to show the Taurid meteor stream – thought to be the source of the comet fragments that rained on the planet for 27 days.

Such a comet strike around 10,850 BC could have ushered in a mini-ice age lasting more than 1,200 years, which would have wiped out many species of large animals. Incredibly, the comet strike would have wrought enough devastation to effectively usher in the dawn of civilization in the fertile crescent region of West Asia as people accustomed to hunter-gatherer techniques increasingly turned to agriculture for food.

The researchers suspect that the monument remained important to the ancient people for millennia, suggesting the comet strike could have triggered a new religion.

"This event might have triggered civilization by initiating a new religion and by motivating developments in agriculture to cope with the cold climate," Sweatman said in a statement.

Sweatman further said the findings support the theory that Earth faces increased comet strikes as its orbit crosses the path of circling comet fragments, which are normally experienced as meteor streams.

Predating the Greeks

The find also appears to confirm that ancient people were able to record dates by studying the Earth's precession, in which the rotation of the Earth’s axis can alter the movement of constellations across the sky.

The researchers wrote that this suggests the ancient people had accurate ways to keep time 10,000 years before the phenomenon was documented in Ancient Greece in 150 B.C.

"Possibly, their attempts to record what they saw are the first steps towards the development of writing millennia later," Sweatman said.

The research was published Tuesday in the journal Time and Mind.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carvings at site in Turkey could depict comet strike that ushered in civilization: Study