Pre-agricultural peoples mobilized enormous resources for religious construction.
Evidence
The sheer scale of the operation must have been unprecedented—the stones in the Göbekli site weigh between 7 and 10 tons each, located on a site far away from any other known settlements, at a time when sedentary life, and its benefits, was still nonexistent—there were as yet no writing, masonry, metal tools, and domesticated animals to carry loads. And for what purpose would these hunter-gatherers—if indeed they were that—have built these monuments, which must have incurred spectacular costs in calories, time, and effort? — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 388
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- SEED: Could anchor a piece on how costly, apparently wasteful collective projects are what actually built civilization — religious display precedes the economic surplus it seems to require.
Related
- Hunter-gatherers moved multi-ton stones before any sedentary technology existed (similarity 0.86)
- Organized religion may have preceded agriculture rather than followed it (similarity 0.84)
- Göbekli Tepe is an 11,500-year-old temple predating agriculture (similarity 0.82)
- Religious congregation at sacred sites may have driven the adoption of farming (similarity 0.81)
- Religious congregation may have drawn hunter-gatherers into settled agriculture (similarity 0.80)