NHK Educational TV's new program "Master Ancient Civilizations in 3 Months" (Wednesdays at 9:30 pm) will begin on October 1st. This 12-part series will explore the new face of ancient civilizations based on romantic footage of ruins and excavated artifacts, as well as the latest archaeological research.
A Japanese archaeologist active around the world will also appear in the studio, looking for clues to help us think about the present through ancient civilizations.
The subtitle of the first episode is "Shocking! The oldest huge ruins: Reexamining the 'beginnings of civilization'." It focuses on the mysterious huge ruins built more than 5,000 years ago by the world's oldest civilization, Mesopotamia.
Göbekli Tepe is a ruin discovered in Turkey that overturns conventional wisdom about ancient civilizations. It consists of a row of circular stone buildings, each about 20 meters in diameter. The towering stone pillars are over 5 meters high. This means that humans were building huge stone buildings long before Mesopotamia, considered the beginning of world civilization.
What on earth is this ruin from an era long before the beginning of agriculture, when there were no pottery or metal implements? What can it tell people living today? Think about the "beginnings of civilization."
