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Comment by mkl | Hacker News Reader

Agreed, I highly recommend it. It's a thick book, but covers a lot of ground.

It looks like that book is from 2006, predating widespread recognition of Göbekli Tepe's significance. At the time, from my recollection, the mainstream view as that human culture at 10k BPE was nowhere near being able to produce the kind of social organisation that a complex like Göbekli Tepe would require. Was the book ahead of its time in recognising the potential for something like Göbekli Tepe? Or does it need a new edition, in light of what's been discovered?

Well, here are some quotes from it: "When standing on that hilltop late on an October afternoon in AD 2002 I truly felt that it had been at Göbekli and not Jericho that the history of the world had turned.", "Çatalhöyük turned out to be quite simply the most remarkable Neolithic settlement ever discovered – although that status must now be shared with, or perhaps even surrendered to, Göbekli Tepe."

The book certainly makes its significance clear, and explains the unexpected early social organisation required.

There is quite a lot about Göbekli Tepe and Jerf el Ahmar in chapter "Pictograms and Pillars". About the people who did it and how they made it. Not sure if something new was found since then.

EDIT: Ok, there are definitely some new ideas https://astronomy.com/news/2020/09/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-f...

There's been several huge discoveries since 2006, especially in Turkey. I'm also interested if there's an up to date (or revised) book covering this topic.

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