Free The Genesis Secret: by Tom Knox Page A

nine months of exegesis and laboratory work to process what they had found in the three months of actual digging. That wasthe archaeological year: three months of spadework, nine months of thinking. Quite relaxed, really.
    Franz and Christine and the paleobotanist-Ivan-were having a debate in the tented area. They greeted Rob with a wave and he sat down and more tea was served. Rob liked the endless production line of Turkish tea, the ritual tinkling of spoons and tulip-shaped glasses, the taste of the sweet dark cay. And hot black tea was oddly refreshing in the dry desert sun.
    Over his first glass of tea Rob told them his news. That he was finishing up, that this was his last visit. He checked Christine’s face as he said this. Did he see a flicker of regret? Maybe. His mood sashayed a little. But then he remembered his job. He had to ask some more questions, his very last queries. That was why he was here. Nothing else.
    His journalistic need was to put the dig in context. He’d been reading some more history books-prehistory books-and he wanted to place Gobekli Tepe somewhere within that history. See how it fitted in, how it gleamed in the mosaic of wider human history-the evolution of man and civilization.
    Franz was happy to oblige. ‘This area,’ he waved his arm at the yellow hills beyond the open-sided tents, ‘is where it all began. Human civilization. The first written language is cuneiform, that started not far away. Copper smelting is originallyMesopotamian. And the first true towns were built in Turkey. Isobel Previn could tell you all about that.’
    Rob was mystified. Then he remembered the name-Christine’s tutor at Cambridge. Isobel Previn. Rob had also read the name in various history books-Previn had worked with the great James Mellaert, the English archaeologist who excavated Catalhoyuk. Rob had enjoyed reading about Catalhoyuk-not least because they dug it up so quickly. Three years of lusty shovelling and it was nearly all revealed. That was the heroic, Hollywood age of archaeology. Nowadays, as far as Rob could tell, things had slowed down. Now there were so many experts in different fields-archaeometallurgists, zooarchaeologists, ethnohistorians, geomorphologists-it had all got very intricate. A complex site could take decades to unravel.
    Gobekli Tepe was such a site. Franz had been digging in Gobekli since 1994; Christine had implied that he would spend the rest of his working life here. A whole working life on one site! But then again, it was the most amazing archaeological site in the world. Which was probably why Franz looked so chuffed most of the time. He was smiling right now-explaining to Rob about the early history of pottery and agriculture, both of which came after Gobekli Tepe was built. Both of which also started nearby.
    ‘The first ever signs of farming can be foundin Syria. Gordon Childe called it the Neolithic Revolution and it happened not far to the south. Abu Hureyra, Tell Aswad, places like that. So you see this really is the cradle. Metalwork, pottery, farming, smelting, writing all began near Gobekli. Ja? ’
    Christine added, ‘Yes, though actually there is some evidence of rice farming in Korea in 13,000 BC , but it is enigmatic.’
    Ivan, who had been silent until now, also joined in: ‘And there is some strange evidence that pottery may have started and then stopped before that, in Siberia.’
    Rob turned. ‘Sorry?’ Franz looked slightly irritated by his colleague’s interruption, but Rob was intrigued. ‘Go on?’
    Ivan blushed. ‘Erm…we have evidence from eastern Siberia, maybe Japan, of an even earlier civilization. A northern people. Possibly they died out, because the evidence disappears. We do not know. We have no idea where they went.’
    Franz looked nettled. ‘ Ja, ja, ja, Ivan. But still! This area is where it really happened. The Near East! Here.’ He slapped his hand on the table for emphasis, making the teaspoons rattle. ‘All of it. All of