In the very first 'Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge' podcast, we aim to provide a context for the phenomenon of the T-Pillar sites of South Eastern Turkïye and to set the scene for the journey we are about to embark upon with the whole Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge film project, In order to fulfil the promise of the project our prehistory focus has shifted over to the Levant and the Fertile Crescent.  And our tiny minds have been a little bit blown just a bit. We've never accepted the idea of Göbekli Tepe as this 'Ground Zero' of civilization as it presents in the popular press and now largely in the public imagination, or even worse, that it must have been constructed by aliens (how could hunter-gatherers have made THAT?). But of course, there is a story that leads up to Göbekli Tepe, the other Taş Tepeler (stone hills) and other sites; one that stretches back a further 10,000 years, right to the shores of the Sea of Galilee. We hope you enjoy this condensed overview of what came before Göbekli Tepe. 00:00:00 - Intro & show outline 00:04:24 - Why the Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge podcast? 00:10:46 - It didn’t all start with Göbekli Tepe 00:15:59 - Ohalo II 00:20:00 - The Epipaleolithic 00:23:18 - Archaeological sites of the area 00:26:05 - Zarzian Culture 00:27:04 - Available information about the Epipaleolithic 00:29:47 - Kharaheneh IV 00:32:58 - Natufian Culture 00:39:51 - Bread & beer? 00:43:27 - More about the Natufians 00:45:23 - Halizon Tachtit 00:47:04 - Tortoises 00:49:54 - The Younger Dryas 00:55:22 - Special buildings, silo storage and the Tas Tepeler sites 00:58:32 - Göbekli Tepe precursor sites 01:03:45 - Desert kItes and the hunting of gazelle 01:06:40 - Rounding up & goodbyes For those of you who would like to take a closer look at some of the sites we discussed in the podcast, below is a list of some of the key settlements. Ohalo II, northern Israel. A 22,000 year-old site that was discovered when sea of Galilee dried to a very low level in 1989 The small settlement of oval houses also contained a single burial of a male between 35-40 years old Due to the waterlogged conditions there was an unusually high level of preservation. Thousands of seeds and fruits showing that these people exploited over 100 different plant species with evidence that they lived there all year round. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohalo_II Kharaneh IV, Jordan The site’s main period of occupation was 21,000 to 18,500 years ago. Traces of stone foundations for round huts - more widely known as hut circles. Over time the site developed into a low mound covering over two hectares or five and a half acres. The surface was littered with literally millions of discarded flints. Also interesting here is that these people apparently socialised in some way with other more distant groups. archaeologists have also found beads here made from marine shells which came from the mediterranean and the red sea - which are 125 and 250 miles away respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharaneh_IV El Wad, Mount Carmel, northern Israel A cave settlement dating to around 14,500 years ago. As the community grew in size, the area outside the cave was terraced to allow the building of circular stone huts with paved floors. It was the excavations at El Wad in the 1920s that prompted Dorothy Garrod to name these people the Natufians after recognising similarities between the stone tools found at El Wad and her previous excavations at Shuqba cave near Wadi en-Natuf. Interesting that excavations have shown that some Natufian graves were reopened specifically to remove the skull of the deceased https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Wad Tel Abu Hureyra - northern Syria Established about 13,000 years ago but abandoned before the end of the younger dryas. Then reoccupied around 10,800 years ago. The site is significant because the inhabitants of Abu Hureyra started out as hunter-gatherers but gradually moved to farming, making them the earliest known farmers i