There's something endearing about a romantic, and we have a resident romantic in Michael. Schmidt, the archaeologist, is too hyperbolic. As one of the commentators on the Smithsonianmag posting below says:
"Still, I muse on how even 11,000 years ago (roughly 9,000 B.C.) could be called 'Oldest'. How anyone, especially of scientific (not subject to overly emotional, but verifiable) bent could make such a claim. The claim has got to be 'Oldest found to date'." And I notice an Indian claims older sites are known in India and China. Depressing footnote: On towards 50% of of the comments on the Smithsonian thng are from Armenians outraged that Gobekli Tepe should be called a Turkish site, since the Turks stole that territory from Armenia -- so it's an Armenian site. But (1) none of the copy calls it a "Turkish site"; they simply say it's in Turkey. And (2) there was no Armenia 11,000 years ago. Another commentator has the good sense to lament the immediate politicization of something like this. In a message dated 11/14/08 7:17:16 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > This is a staggering claim: German and other archaeologists claim they > have found the site of the first permanent human civilization. > > Utterly fascinating. > > http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/1410,features,digging-for-history-in-turkey > http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,452365,00.html > http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html > http://www.dainst.org/index.php?id=642&sessionLanguage=en > > > ************** Get the Moviefone Toolbar. Showtimes, theaters, movie news & more!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212774565x1200812037/aol?redir =htt p://toolbar.aol.com/moviefone/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000001)
