On a summer day in 1994, a Kurdish shepherd stumbled upon a strange stone in the rolling plains of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey. Little did he know then that he had just made what could be the greatest archaeological discovery ever: the possible site of the Garden of Eden.
Carbon-dating shows that the complex is at least 12,000 years old, maybe even 13,000 years old. That means it was built around 10,000BC. By comparison, Stonehenge was built in 3,000 BC and the pyramids of Giza in 2,500 BC.
Gobekli is thus the oldest such site in the world, by a mind-numbing margin. It is so old that it predates settled human life. It is pre-pottery, pre-writing, pre-everything. Gobekli hails from a part of human history that is unimaginably distant, right back in our hunter-gatherer past. [...]
Over glasses of black tea, served in tents right next to the megaliths, Klaus Schmidt told me that, in his opinion, this very spot was once the site of the biblical Garden of Eden. More specifically, as he put it: 'Gobekli Tepe is a temple in Eden.'
Tom Cox of the Mail Online has more on this fascinating story: Link
One of the posters at the original article said it well:
"Although a very important archaeological discovery, claiming it to be the mythical Garden of Eden is as likely as it being Supermans Fortress of Solitude."
A site as important as one of the oldest known "cities" would seems to me worthy of far more study than a single archeologist running one small excavation. 45 stone pillars with hundreds more to go, doesn't seems like a lot of progress for 15 years of work.
"Do these mysterious stones mark the site of the Garden of Eden?"
Is quite clearly an attempt to gain publicity and to sensationalise. And the content although interesting, for me comes with an immediate question mark dues to the propensity to exaggerate.
1. The writer of the article is trying to promote his Dan Brown-esque book, and leading with a forced comparison between an archaeological discovery of incalculable importance and a christian myth helps him promote his book. This certainly isn't the first time a journalist has pressed an archaeologist for a quote that can be bent to serve an inaccurate lead. Even the NYT has done this, forcing renowned archaeologists to hedgingly acknowledge that a site "could possibly, *in theory* be that of ---- fill in the blank: Atlantis, Homer's Troy, etc. when that really isn't a scholarly claim.
2. Some of you might find Adrienne Mayor's book, "The First Fossil Hunters" interesting. It proves that myths can - at least sometimes - take root in historical events without the myths themselves being true. In the book, Mayor shows that the greco-romans made accidental archaeological excavations of dinosaur remains and the best way they could explain the discoveries were through the myths of Griffins, giants, etc.
It's close-minded to interpret everything in terms of claiming that made up stories by bronze age goat herders are true.
Oh, the name is the same. Well that proves it then, it is based on reality. WRONG!
I'm not a religious person, but I do believe that a great deal of the bible has basis in fact--because a lot of it was a history of a people, and when people don't understand the science behind things, they turn to mystical reasons. Around the time the GoE was to have existed, there was an ice age, and due to weather coming down from the not-so-far-away frozen north, the area that is now desert was likely lush and bountiful, with plenty of water, plants and animals. Then, the ice age ended, the region dried up, and I bet that a group of people felt like someone must have done something to offend God, to make him take away their beautiful 'garden'.
Seriously, people...just because people you don't agree with believe in something doesn't mean that they are just talking out their butts.
and therein lies the problem ..2000 years ago , they didnt know anything and religion and gods were used to explain things that people couldnt understand . And as such are a relic of older times , and have absolutely no place in a modern society .
Second, what has this site to do with Christianity, and how was this determined?