The First Builders of Civilization Weren’t Farmers—They Were Believers

Ancient consciousness was metaphoric. Modern consciousness is literal.

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Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, the archeologist Klaus Schmidt made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time — a temple complex Göbekli Tepe dating about 11,000 years old.

The most striking thing about this discovery was that the temple complex dated before the advent of agriculture and a…