Dig Deeper Dept.

Not every day you open the paper and see news about how key concepts in human history may be upended.

Turkey: Archeological Dig Reshaping Human History - Newsweek.com

... it was the urge to worship that brought mankind together in the very first urban conglomerations. The need to build and maintain this temple ... drove the builders to seek stable food sources, like grains and animals that could be domesticated, and then to settle down to guard their new way of life. The temple begat the city. ...

... The temples offer unexpected proof that mankind emerged from the 140,000-year reign of hunter-gatherers with a ready vocabulary of spiritual imagery, and capable of huge logistical, economic, and political efforts.

Given that there's neuroscience to support the need to find something greater than the self (the "religion instinct" or "transcendent urge"), this makes sense. I'm expecting a lot more work to be done on this subject, both in terms of new research and re-evaluating everything that's already crossed our desks. (Is language itself a product of this, for instance?)

Before this, Turkey had Çatalhöyük; now, they have something to be even prouder of as far as historical treasures go.