Showing posts with label turkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turkey. Show all posts

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Karahan Tepe

 



Everyone's familiar with Gobekli Tepe, the astonishingly ancient megalithic temple in Turkey originally excavated by Klaus Schmidt from 1995-2014. But we're less familiar with Karahan Tepe, 46 km south east of Gobekli Tepe and equally ancient, being some 11,500 years old, maybe older.

Both sites are remarkable for their extreme age, being built at the end end of the Younger Dryas and the dawning of the Holocene Age, at a time archeologists assumed humans were hunter gatherers and incapable of monumental architecture.




It's a fair assumption. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, what were humans doing beyond drawing pictograms on cave walls, gnawing bark, collecting roots, berries and, if they were lucky, driving the odd bison off a cliff. They were like, so the theory went, North American Indians or their equivalents in Africa.

Gobekli Tepe and now Karahan Tepe change all that. These prehistoric humans were well capable of monumental architecture and art, to say nothing of astronomy. They were clearly much more advanced than supposed. For that matter, were they, in fact, hunter gatherers who came together to build and then settled in one place with agriculture and civic life rising in the wake, or the other way around or both?




We don't know, but we do know this. The larger sculpted stones of the "T-Builders" at Gobleki Tepe weighed around 15 tons and these are the earliest, dating to approximately 9,500 BC, apparently the same holds true for Karahan Tepe. Later structures at both sites are smaller, with older construction being back-filled and replaced by lesser architecture. What does this suggest?

Shockingly, that the earlier builders were more advanced as a civilization than their descendants. They initiated the building and did so massively, later generations didn't. This implies a civilization in decline, for whatever reason, and begs the question, who were the original builders and what did they come from?




It's tempting to imagine an architectural people, and all that goes with it, somehow surviving the Younger Dryas glacial period and emerging in diminished form in what we now call Turkey as the climate mercifully warmed.

But again, we don't know, and with apologies to Graham Hancock, there's precious little evidence. That said, wouldn't it be strange if humanity, whose origins keep getting pushed back into the mists of prehistory, weren't able in hundreds and thousands of years to move beyond rock chucking and grubbing for roots to something better? An antedeluvian megalithic civilization of which little if anything remains, except their heirs in Anatolia around 11,500 BC.




Well, that's as maybe. Perhaps there's a parable in Gobekli Tepe and its twin at Karahan. Viz. They devolved.

Antedeluvia Forever,

LSP

Friday, January 19, 2018

Guns And Meat



It's important to visit the flock and with that in mind I drove out into the great frozen steppe of North Central Texas. Once it was home to bucolic groves of mesquite and cactus but now all that remains is icy tundra and the sad debris of broken solar arrays, a mute testament to one state's failure to pay the Weather Tax.




Sobered by the chill dystopian wasteland, I crunched over the permafrost of my friend's drive, ever thankful of the warming insulation of a pair of Merrells. And there was the Captain, hosing down two empty freezers. We talked, drank coffee and enjoyed a firearms show and tell, which included a Chinese SKS.




"Nice weapon," I commented, sighting down the Chicom beast at a deer feeder 100 yards away. "It's yours, Merry Christmas, padre!" exclaimed the Captain, who then loaded up a cooler with venison, pig and wild turkey. "All yours!"

Then it was time to head back to the Compound, struck by the generosity, eager to try out the latest rifle and defrost some meat. There's plenty.




In related news, some place in Switzerland has refused to grant a vegan citizenship because she was "too annoying."

God bless and big thanks, Captain.

LSP

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving!



It's been a quiet day at the Compound, in fact the young 'un worked, clearing brush like a colonist. Well done.


Random Thanksgiving Glock

Puritan work ethic aside, have a great Thanksgiving and don't forget to take one noted member of the intelligence community's advice seriously. Enter the fray armed, gun, knife (axe?) in your hand. And question.

Shoud you put sugar in cornbread or not?

MAGA and God Bless,

LSP

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Putin On The Blitz



Russian strongman, Vladimir Putin, wasn't too pleased when his Ambassador to Turkey was gunned down by a Jihad murderer at an art gallery in Ankara. The former KGB Colonel said the Islamic "criminals" would "feel the heat."


Art Gallery Jihad

What would that look like? Hint, nothing to do with chalking peace signs on the road while singing All You Need is Love as you spill cocoa on your onesie. Here's an infovideo:




Good luck, savages, Vlad's coming for you. President Trump too, by the sound of it.

Get.It. On.

LSP

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!


Look, everyone, don't let Megyn Kelly's appalling new book ruin your Thanksgiving. Just put it out of your mind and concentrate on having fun with friends and family.

And if you're about to get on the road and drive to, say, Dallas, be careful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

LSP

Monday, April 25, 2016

Obama is Weird & Ridiculous. Germans Wake Up.



"Obama is ridiculous and weird," says London Mayor, Boris "Bojo" Johnson. And who am I to disagree? Britons, obey your ruler. But of course Bojo is entirely normal and not weird at all. Still, I'm not sure why he insists on messing about in pink cowboy hats unless it's a low gambit to win votes.


I say, Bojo, steady.

Regardless, we used to enjoy the occasional drink together back in the day, not that he'd remember. But speaking of weird, have you noticed how a German comedian is being prosecuted by Frau Merkel's State for making fun of Sultan Erdogan in a rude TV "bit"? 

Nein!

Germans. You must stop this! Obey your Muslim Overlords and your Supreme Sultan, Recep Erdogan. There must be no more German TV with this mocking of your Sultan! It is for your good that you obey him and his servant Merkel.


This is Forbidden!

There must be an end to poems mocking your ruler, Erdogan, and his friendship with goats, young boys, and ISIS. This is forbidden. Forbidden with Jail! Germans obey!


Bojo, Cut it Out.

But seriously, you can go to jail in Germany for making fun of the crazed Muslim despot Recep Erdogan? Really? C'mon guys, don't put up with that.

In the meanwhile, let's have Hagia Sophia back. I'm counting on Putin.

New Constantine,

LSP


Wednesday, April 13, 2016

It's Bushcraft Wednesday!



Bushcraft isn't about relying on supermarkets or even butchers and fancy modern kitchen conveniences, like Viking ranges and Agas. No, it's about surviving in the great outdoors, in the bush.

Part of that means catching your own food when in season, such as turkey, and cooking it in the wild. Here at the Compound we hope you find this short infovideo as helpful as we do.

Make sure you use this method near a plentiful water source.

LSP

Friday, December 25, 2015

Christmas, The Aftermath



Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, some other vegetables, I'm not sure what they were, gravy and fun company. Presents, too and a good day was had by all.

I hope you've had a blessed and merry Christmas.

Be good,

LSP

Friday, November 27, 2015

Our Pals Turkey And ISIS Oil




ZeroHedge -- Finally, note that Ceyhan is less than two hours by car from Incirlik air base from which the US is flying anti-ISIS sorties. In other words, ISIS oil is being shipped to the world right down the road from Washington's preferred Mid-East forward operating base.

Now that we can add what looks like quantitative evidence that ISIS oil is shipped from Turkey to the voluminous qualitative evidence supplied by ex-Turkish lawmakers, investigative reporters, and the Russian government (to name just a few sources), we can now proceed to consider one final question: where does the crude that helps to fund Bakr al-Baghdadi's caliphate ultimately end up? More on that over the weekend.


We have to ask, to what extent is the US complicit?

LSP

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Turkish Math




Looks like the Turks aren't so hot at math.

ZeroHedge -- Miraculously, there were no further escalations overnight, but as we outlined in detail on Tuesday, something doesn’t add up about the story Ankara is telling. According to a letter Turkey sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the 15 members of the UN Security Council, the Russian warplane, flying at 19,000 feet, “violated Turkish national airspace to a depth of 1.36 miles and 1.15 miles in length for 17 seconds.” If you do the math on that, it means the Su-24 was basically flying at stall speed. 


Our Friends, The Moderate Jihadists, Executed This Pilot

As you reflect on that wisdom, don't forget that the Al-Qaeda affiliated Jihadists who executed a Russian airman are backed by the US. Why?


Our Frenemies, ISIS


Because they're moderates, of course. And we have to ask, why is Turkey even a member of NATO? But given that it is, why not sign up the Caliphate too.

I mean to say, it's not as though we're supplying them with guns and money, or anything.

Cheers,

LSP

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A Nice Day at the Beach

Beach Kit

I went for an armed stroll over at what my philisophical friend, GWB, calls "The Beach." The Beach is this swampy, snakey series of ponds out by Brandon. I thought that there might be fish and possibly dove or other small game, maybe squirrels, rabbits, even an unwiley coyote or a careless hog. You never know.

Gangland

So I got all quiet and tactical and went to scout out the Beach; there were plenty of dog tracks in the dark earth, which was still wet from all too rare rain. A big coyote had passed through recently and as I pondered that I saw a gang of turkeys. They were very unafraid and would have been an easy shot in season. I'll remember that spot for later in the year.

Spot the Bird

At the Beach proper I was disappointed to see there weren't any fish, but there was a large turtle who eyed me quizzically from the turgid depths of the pond. The air was thick with dragon flies and I waited, still, in the silence, which became loud with insects and birds.

The Beach

If I'd waited long enough something would have shown up and I would have shot it, but I picked my way through the swampy brush, keeping an eye out for arrowheads and associated archeology. You never know what you'll find, certainly not any dove, annoyingly.

I see there's a Putinist subculture in America. Well go figure.

Good hunting,

LSP