The oldest solar calendar in the world may have been unearthed in Türkiye

At first glance, the V-shaped symbols carved into the pillars of Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in southern Turkey, don't look like much compared to the animal shapes next to them, which represent the cycles of the sun and moon.

But according to researchers, the markings could be evidence of two important discoveries: The ancient pillar could be the world's oldest lunisolar calendar, and it could serve as a memorial to a comet impact that struck Earth about 13,000 years ago, triggering a mini ice age.

“It appears that the inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe were keen skywatchers, which is to be expected given that their world was devastated by a comet impact,” said Martin Sweatman, a scientist at the University of Edinburgh who led the research team that made the recent discovery.

The results were published last month in Time & Spiritsuggest that a series of V-shaped symbols carved into the pillars of Göbekli Tepe each represent a single day. Taken together, they appear to record the date when a swarm of comet fragments struck Earth in 10,850 BC, triggering a 1,200-year ice age that led to the extinction of many large animals, including mammoths, steppe bison, and other large Pleistocene mammals.

“This event may have marked the beginning of a civilization by giving rise to a new religion and stimulating developments in agriculture to cope with the cold climate,” Sweatman said.

The possible comet impact has long been a source of fascination – and disagreement – among scientists. If the V-symbol hypothesis is correct, it could provide groundbreaking support for the hypothesis.

“It is possible that their attempts to record what they saw were the first steps toward the development of writing thousands of years later,” he said.

Copyright: NPR