An alternative perspective on the origins of civilization uncovered.

If the history of our species up to this point was expressed as a day, civilization would have begun in the last 30 minutes. At least that’s assuming Homo sapiens It emerged about 300,000 years ago, and civilization began 6,000 years ago in the first city of Mesopotamia. In this story, civilization represents seismic cultural changes that trace its roots back to the beginnings of agriculture about 5,000 years ago, flowing relentlessly through reconciliation with urbanization, population expansion, and social stratification.

Recently, I’ve been talking about something else. Initially, Mesopotamia was no longer considered a ground zero for urbanization. The city was gushing out almost simultaneously elsewhere, including India, China, Egypt and Central Europe. Moreover, agriculture was not the catalyst for civilization we once thought of. Instead, it appears to have been an inevitable invention when traditional hunter-gatherer life became unacceptable. And there are plenty of examples of groups who come back when farming isn’t going well. This means we have to redraw the timeline where we saw our ancestors leave our successful lifestyle for most of human history. We also need to question the very definition of civilization.

It’s obvious where you start looking for answers. This is Göbekli Tepe in southern Türkiye. Archaeologists who have excavated since 1995 have unearthed a series of circular enclosures containing giant T-shaped stone pillars. Back almost 12,000 years ago, these are the oldest known megalith monuments. Building them requires cooperation among many workers and coordinates with leaders…