Findings clearly show that Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunters were first shifting to a sedentary life of farming. Only further investigation would reveal the special significance of this mound, which gradually rose layer upon layer like Schliemann's Troy, but dates at least five thousand years earlier than the "City of Priam."
It appears that there is at least 20 underground chambers but it is what lies inside these chambers that is incredible. Each contains a series of T-shaped limestone monoliths, the tallest of which are some five meters high. These freestanding stones are anthropomorphic, with the top of the T representing the head of the figure. The stem of the T represents the body, with arms carved in light relief on either side. Many of the monoliths are covered in relief carvings of wild animals, usually either predatory or dangerous, such as lions, snakes, foxes and scorpions. The floors of the temple chambers are of burnt lime, and benches line the walls. That these massive stones were quarried, cut to shape, carted into place and sculpted to such a high standard by Stone Age man -- obviously using only stone and flint tools -- is wholly remarkable, especially when you consider that England's Stonehenge wouldn't be built for another 7,000 years.
The available evidence suggests that this was a place of communal rituals and it can be argued that it was the need for communal rituals that first brought people together. Agriculture, pottery, domesticated animals and cities all came later.
