Ancient carving of 'first human-built holy place' = Primitive Vulture Central

Sensational Turkish slab bears hewn El Reg logo

An ancient stone carving in modern-day Turkey is sensationally challenging the theory that the origins of Vulture Central lie in France.

In 2012, we reported that a Paleolithic artist in the eastern French Pyrenees paid homage to the mighty vultures soaring above the gorges hemming the river Jonte, in the process creating the El Reg logo some 10,000 years before it was first hewn from the living .gif.

However, historians must now consider the case of Göbekli Tepe ("Potbelly Hill") - a complex dating back to the 10th millennium BC, where German archaeologists uncovered a truly remarkable stone (pictured below).

The purpose of Göbekli Tepe is unclear. According to Klaus Schmidt, who uncovered the remains in 1994, it's "the first human-built holy place".

For others, there's an astronomical explanation, with the winged vulture seen on the left of the column forming "a near perfect outline of the Cygnus constellation".

If that's true, then we must consider the truly incredible avian symbolism of a vulture playing a swan in Turkey.

We'll leave it to reader experts to ponder just where the scorpion fits into the picture, and just why Neolithic stonecarvers capped their work with a trio of Louis Vuitton shoulder bags.

Erich von Däniken was unavailable for comment today. ®