Gürkan Ergin, ' The Göbekli Tepe calendar and the Younger Dryas Impact: another major media fail', ArcheoThoughts Posted on August 16, 2024
Major media outlets have recently been reporting on a new sensational claim that animal carvings on a stone pillar at the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey are a very early form of calendar, and that they commemorate a cosmic impact about 13 000 years ago that triggered the Younger Dryas cold snap (Sweatman 2024). This coverage has been almost universally uncritical. I have seen no attempt to actually evaluate the claim, even though it should be obvious to even moderately informed readers that the study is highly speculative and does not support its findings adequately. [...] The press release from the University of Edinburgh starts with “Markings on a stone pillar at a 12,000 year-old archaeological site in Turkey likely represent the world’s oldest solar calendar, created as a memorial to a devastating comet strike, experts suggest.” This is the main message that made its way, usually uncritically, into the coverage from major outlets [...]Too bad the Archaeology Department of the University of Edinburgh cannot see their way to doing the same. Or any other archaeological body in the UK ("not my problem M8")[...]
We live in an age in which a sensational speculation consistently gets a lot more coverage than a reasoned, well supported conclusion, even in allegedly serious media. Institutions such as AAAS and public figures such as journalists have a responsibility to inquire before they disseminate, and when they do disseminate, they have a responsibility to be critical.
The media used to consider itself a fourth estate in our body politic, with a role to play in keeping the citizenry informed.
Academics in general have a responsibility to evaluate the ideas they see disseminated, and to help the public make sense of them. I will continue to do so as best I can.
Anyway, the carvings are quite obviously vulvas, lots of them, anyone can see... surely. Prove me wrong.
Sweatman, M. B. (2024). Representations of calendars and time at Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe support an astronomical interpretation of their symbolism. Time and Mind, 1–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment