https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/2017/04/10/just-dont-call-it-the-garden-of-eden/

In 2006 German magazine DER SPIEGEL came up with a cover story on the Göbekli Tepe excavations (“Die Suche nach dem Garten Eden. Archäologen auf den Spuren des biblischen Paradieses” [external link]), suggesting it was the (pre-)historical basis for the Biblical narrative about the ‘Garden of Eden’. Ever since this story multiplied and was picked up then and again, actually emphasising the great interest in our research on one hand, but also the pitfalls of all too simplifying analogies on the other. Only recently Discovery’s Science Channel (which features, among others, a segment about our research at Göbekli Tepe) was digging up the story again (excuse the pun) for an episode of “What on Earth” called “Gateway to Eden” [external link].

To be honest, it’s not even hard to actually see where this fascination is coming from. A mythical garden, ‘paradise’ par excellence, is quite an archetypical narrative and a metaphor deeply rooted in our collective memory. The story of that ‘Garden of Eden’ seems to have great potential to fuel our imagination. Yet actually looking beyond that metaphor for a real place and location would mean to somehow misconceive the whole narrative’s elucidating intention.

Since there are a number of peculiar elements brought up repeatedly in support of an assumed link between the Göbekli Tepe findings and the Eden myth, it seems worth the time having a closer look into and a short evaluation of these arguments in the course of this blog post.

I can just imagine wild-eyed Mormons talking about baptismal fonts and endowment sessions in Göbekli Tepe and how brilliant Joseph Smith was to restore them after 12,000 years without even knowing of Göbekli Tepe. More proof of Joseph’s awesome seer skills.

Maybe there was a Garden of Eden with vegan lions, but the actual Adam and Eve according to genetics would probably have been born too far apart (in time) to have ever met.

But but but... Adam-on-a-diamond!!! Jackson County, Missouri!!!