Göbekli Tepe

When Klaus Schmidt first set foot on a dusty, nondescript hill in Southeastern Anatolia in 1994, he had no idea he was about to rewrite our early history.

The Great Pyramid of Giza, a colossal tomb rising from the Egyptian sands, was a testament to human ingenuity in an era shrouded in mystery, and spectators and archaeologists alike have been in awe of the massive efforts needed to undertake this incredible construction some 4600 years ago.

Similarly, the discovery of Mohenjo-Daro, nestled in the fertile plains of the Indus Valley, revealed a sophisticated urban settlement with advanced engineering and urban planning, far beyond what was thought possible for a civilization that flourished around 2600 BCE.

And so it went: some time around 10,000 years ago, farming began in earnest—the agricultural revolution—and then around 5000 years ago, the first cities and civilizations began to form, because humans were now able to organize into large enough groups to go major projects. Prior to …