Mysteries Department
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Questions

Research questions are the building block of our platform of scientific inquiry. Key questions are the ones at the heart of a mystery; every other question helps answer one of them.

5questions0answered0with no evidence yet
Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe2 key questions · 5 questions · 0 answered
Open the mystery
QuestionWhere it stands
Most likelyThe enclosures were roofed communal and ritual buildings within a permanent hunter-gatherer settlement
Most likelyA resident community built and maintained the structures over generations as part of normal life
Most likelyPeople were buried in the settlement; scattered bone in the enclosures came from burials displaced downslope,…
Most likelyThe reliefs are the symbolic and mythic repertoire of the builders, varying between enclosures, with no…
Most likelyEnclosure D was built about 9500 BC and the others followed over several centuries, not at once