The 10,000BC 'world's oldest calendar' discovered by Scottish experts

Markings on a stone pillar at a 12,000 year-old site in southern Turkey could record an astronomical event that triggered a key shift in human civilisation and the onset of a mini ice age, experts at Edinburgh University said. The markings were left at Göbekli Tepe, an ancient complex of temple-like enclosures.

Researchers believe that V-shaped symbols carved there could represent a single day after a solar calendar of 365 days was found on one pillar, consisting of 12 lunar months plus 11 extra days.

The summer solstice appears as a separate, special day, represented by a V worn around the neck of a bird-like beast.

Given the depiction of both lunar and solar cycles, the carvings could represent the world’s earliest ‘lunisolar’ calendar, pre-dating other known calendars of this type by many millennia.

Ancient people may have created these carvings at Göbekli Tepe to record the date a swarm of comet fragments hit Earth nearly 13,000 years ago – or 10,850 BC, it is claimed.

Dr Martin Sweatman, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, who led the research, said: “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.

“This event might have triggered civilisation by initiating a new religion and by motivating developments in agriculture to cope with the cold climate. Possibly, their attempts to record what they saw are the first steps towards the development of writing millennia later.”

The comet strike is suggested to have ushered in a mini ice age lasting over 1,200 years, wiping out many species of large animals. It could also have triggered changes in lifestyle and agriculture thought to be linked to the birth of civilisation soon afterwards in the fertile crescent of West Asia.

Another pillar at the site appears to picture the Taurid meteor stream, which is thought to be the source of the comet fragments, lasting 27 days and emanating from the directions of the constellations of Aquarius and Pisces.

The find also appears to confirm that ancient people were able to record dates using precession – the wobble in Earth’s axis, which affects the movement of constellations across the sky – at least 10,000 years before the phenomenon was documented by Hipparchus of Ancient Greece around 150BC.

The carvings appear to have remained important to the people of Göbekli Tepe for millennia, suggesting the impact event may have triggered a new cult or religion that influenced the development of civilisation.

The find also supports a theory that Earth faces an increased risk of comet strikes when it crosses the path of orbiting comet fragments, which we normally experience as meteor streams.

Göbekli Tepe is located in Upper Mesopotamia, a region that saw the emergence of the most ancient farming communities in the world.

Monumental structures, interpreted as monumental communal buildings, were erected by groups of hunter-gatherers in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period that spanned the tenth to 9th millennia BC. The research is published in the Time and Mind journal.