The archaeological report summarizes an expedition to sites in northern Mesopotamia and eastern Turkey relevant to biblical figures like Abraham. The expedition aimed to reconstruct history from 10,000 BC to the 13th century AD based on newly discovered archaeological evidence. A key finding was Gobekli Tepe, the world's oldest temple dated to 12,000 BC, which suggests religion preceded civilization. The report also examines evidence that Abraham originated from Ur in ancient Haran, Turkey rather than Sumerian Ur in Iraq, based on locations mentioned in Genesis.

1. ACT Preliminary Archaeological Report
2014 Mesopotamian Expedition in Eastern Turkey
Goal: The purpose of this research field expedition was to conduct archaeological surveys of
1. Northern Mesopotamia: Gobekli Tepe & biblical Abram/Abraham
2. Antioch: Alexander, NT archaeology & the Syriac Orthodox Church
3. Mount Ararat: Urartu, Mount Ararat & the Armenian Kingdoms
The academic goal is to begin a theological and biblical reconstruction of what actually happened in
the locations mentioned in the Bible, which subsequently became a part of Christian history, from
10,000 BC to the 13th
century AD. Newly discovered Paleolithic, Hittite and Urartian archaeological
sites will soon rewrite the history of Christianity.
Conclusions: Five moments in history:
1. At least 12,000 years ago, humans were already building temples to worship.
2. Around 2000-1800 BC: Sanli Urfa (biblical Ur of Mesopotamia) and Haran were the cities that
Abram, his father Terah, his Uncle, Haran and his cousin Lot lived before their journey to Egyptian
Canaan. The traditions of Job, Nimrod and Jonah are also found in Sanliurfa.
3. In the 4th
century BC, Alexander the Great defeat Darius of the Persian Empire, changing the
culture, language and theology of Judaism from Persian to Hellenistic Greek. This led to the NT being
written in Greek.
4. In the 1st
century AD, Antioch was the 3rd
largest city of the Roman Empire and where Paul and
Barnabas began their gentile mission. The oldest identifiable Church, St. Pierre, is a grotto that has
been preserved to this day.
5. Around the 13th
century AD, the Armenian kingdom identified Mount Ararat as the location of
Noah’s Ark led to a literalistic reading f the Bible. Jews and Muslims identified a different mountain
range rather than this stand alone volcanic cone.

2. 1. Northern Mesopotamia: Gobekli Tepe and Abram1
1a. Gobekli Tepe: Paleolithic archaeology - 10,000 BC.
Just six miles from Urfa, home of biblical Abram, Gobekli Tepe or “Pot-Bellied Hill” is the oldest
temple ever discovered, constructed 12,000 years ago, some 9,000 years before Solomon’s temple and
6,000 years before Stonehenge. This is probably the most important archaeological discovery of
religion in the past century. As a Christian apologist, I make every effort to investigate Christian
beliefs and where possible, verify claims. Archaeological sites at the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Iran,
Syria and Armenia are central to my research. This part of Turkey was known as northern
Mesopotamia, meaning “the land between the two rivers” - the Euphrates and the Tigris. Today, it is an
area of conflict, with Kurdish freedom fighters battling the Turkish government, Syrian refugees
seeking sanctuary from the civil war, Armenia’s political tensions with Turkey, as well as Iraqi and
Iranian militaries monitoring their borders.
In October 1994, Klaus Schmidt of the Berlin Archaeological Institute re-discovered and has been
excavating Gobekli Tepe for the past twenty years. This breath-taking discovery overturned the theory
that when people started to live in cities, they invented religion to keep everyone honest by serving as a
threat of sanction against rule-breakers. Instead, Gobekli Tepe shows that 12,000 years ago, the human
mind was already ‘made in the image of God’ and was thinking about their creator.
An artist’s rendering of Gobekli Tepe in its heyday, at the Urfa Museum. May 2014.
Large numbers of butchered bones were found on site and so far less than 10% of the area has been
excavated. This astounding find suggests that the site was used for ritual sacrifice and feasting.
Interestingly, no evidence of homes or buildings for human habitation has been found. Schmidt’s team
found no telltale signs of a settlement: no cooking hearths, houses or trash pits. No clay fertility
1
With local traditions of Noah, Job, Nimrod, Haran & Jonah thrown in.

3. figurines that litter nearby sites of about the same age. But there was evidence of tool use, resembling
others from nearby sites carbon-dated to 9000 BC. Subsequent carbon dating confirms that the dates
are similar. The abundance of wild game bones indicate that the people had not yet domesticated
animals or farmed – this was prior to the agricultural revolution. The world’s oldest domesticated
strains of wheat were discovered at a prehistoric village 20 miles away. Agriculture developed there
around 8500 BC. These findings suggest a novel theory of civilization. Scholars have long believed
that people learned to farm and live in settled communities before they had the time, organization and
resources to construct temples and support complicated social structures. Schmidt argues that the
extensive, coordinated effort to build the monoliths laid the groundwork for the development of
complex societies. To carve, erect and bury rings of 10-ton stone pillars would have required hundreds
of workers, all needing to be fed and housed. Hence the eventual emergence of settled communities in
the area around 10,000 years ago. I had an epiphany - Religion led to civilization!
Some 2000 years later, around 8000 BC, the site was filled up and apparently abandoned. This
tantalizing discovery would be of great interest to any biblical scholar, theologian, pastor, missionary
or evangelist. I had to make sure to meet the man himself.
With Dr Klaus Schmidt who in 1995, discovered and identified Gobekli Tepe. May 2014
May 24th
: I was introduced to Dr Schmidt for a private tour of the site. We walked up the “Pot-Bellied
Hill” to rectangular pits shaded by a corrugated steel roof. This is the main excavation site. He has
mapped the summit using ground-penetrating radar and geomagnetic surveys, charting where other
megalith rings remain buried across 22 acres. The one-acre excavation covers less than 5 percent of the
site. In the pits, stone pillars are arranged in circles. Four other rings of partially excavated pillars are
visible. Each ring is centered by two T-shaped stone pillars encircled by smaller stones facing inward.
The tallest pillars measure 16 feet and weigh up to 10 tons. Some are blank, while others are
elaborately carved: foxes, lions, scorpions, crocodiles, lizards, kangaroo-like animals and vultures.

4. Camel-Kangaroos of Gobekli Tepe? May 2014
Crocodiles of Gobekli Tepe? May 2014

5. Giant Rats of Gobekli Tepe? May 2014
No one knows what the symbols and animals mean – Schimidt reminds me that this was created over
6000 years before the invention of writing. “This is the first human-built holy place, humanity's first
“church on a hill” Perhaps, Schmidt says, the site was a burial ground or the center of a death cult, the
dead laid out on the hillside among the stylized gods and spirits of the afterlife.
Schmidt was not a religious man but he said that these finds made him rethink the significance of
worship so far back in human history and it challenged his personal assumption. As we walked round
the site, he politely asked about my own faith convictions and was surprised that I was willing to allow
my own assumptions to be tested by the scrutiny of real life scientific excavation. Then I informed him
that I started my first field excavation in 1997 with Bar-Ilan University and sponsored by Princeton
Seminary. I had long gotten my hands dirty and my troublesome knees and ankles remind me of those
days. He began to open up about what he really felt regarding paleolithic religious worship.
It would be our first and last meeting. I had planned a second visit in 2015, but in June, I received news
that Klaus died of a heart attack. His sudden death at 61 stunned us all. This is a reminder to carpe
diem.

6. 1b. Old Testament Archaeology of Northern Mesopotamia: Ur and Haran
Where was Abram born? The two candidates are Anatolian Ur (Turkey) and Sumerian Ur (Iraq). Prior
to the 1970s, most biblical scholars believed that Abram was born in Anatolian Ur, otherwise known as
Edessa and more recently, Sanli Urfa. Then in 1927, Leonard Woolley discovered the royal cemeteries
at Sumerian Ur and declared that his finds were “worthy of Araham.” This announcement was more
public relations than science. By associating his finds with biblical Abraham, it would all but guarantee
for his excavations. Although the majority of scholars today adopt Woolley’s claim, lingering doubts
remain. Indeed, Cyrus Gordon2
writes that the Biblical evidence is by itself conclusive in placing Ur of
the Chaldees in the Urfa-Haran region of south central Turkey, near the Syrian border, rather than in
southern Mesopotamia where it is located on so many “Biblical” maps. Genesis 11:31 relates that
“Terah took Abram … and they went out … from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan; and
they came to Haran and dwelt there.” Then Terah died (Genesis 11:32) and Abram went on to Canaan
(Genesis 12:15). This means that Haran was en route from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan. By no stretch
of the imagination would anyone go from Sumerian Ur (in southern Mesopotamia) to Canaan via
Haran. A glance at the map shows that Haran is much too far out of the way.3
Map of the Anatolian Ur (Urfa)in Mesopotamia and the Sumerian Ur in Babylonia4
2
The late Cyrus H. Gordon was Professor of Hebrew Studies at New York University.
3
See Cyrus Gordon’s “Where was Abraham’s Ur?” at http://members.bib-
arch.org/search.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=3&Issue=2&ArticleID=5, Paul Y. Hoskisson at
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1991/07/research-and-perspectives-where-was-the-ur-of-abraham?lang=eng and
Alan R. Millard’s “Where was Abraham’s Ur?” at http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/Ur.htm
4
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1991/07/research-and-perspectives-where-was-the-ur-of-abraham?lang=eng

7. The ruins of Haran. May 2014
In 1976, a tablet found at Ebla, Syria refers to “Ur in Haran” and Sumerian Ur is never called “Ur of
the Chaldeans” in any cuneiform discovered so far. First, Chaldea only appears as a nation in the 9th
century BC, over a thousand years after Abram was supposed to have lived. Next, the southern Ur lies
west of the Euphrates, so it could not be described as “across” the river (Genesis 31:21). Finally, in the
OT, when Abraham sought a wife for his son Isaac, and when Isaac sought a wife for his son Jacob,
both their servants were sent to their ancestral home (Gen. 24:4, 10 and Gen. 28:2). In both cases, the
servants brought the young men to their homes near Haran, just 24 miles southeast of Edessa
(Anatolian Ur) rather than over a thousand miles south to Sumerian Ur.5
Haran means “journey” or “caravan” in Akkadian. This ruins of ancient Haran had been occupied from
3000 BC until medieval times. According to Gen. 11 and 12, Abraham’s father, Terah, lived here and
Abraham himself was resident until he was 75. It was a famous cult center of Sin, the Mesopotamian
Moon god. Haran served as the last Assyrian capital, the home of Babylonia’s last king, Nabonidus,
and came under Persian control in the 6th
century. Under the Greeks, its name was Hellenized to
become Carrhae. Here, the Parthians destroyed the Roman army and murdered Emperor Caracalla. By
the 5th
century AD, the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius tore down the Temple of Sin., which dated
back at least 2300 years. By AD 649, Haran fell to the Arabs and served as the last capital of the
Ummayad Dynasty, Caliph Mervan II, builder of Ulu Camii (Turkey’s oldest surviving mosque). In
the 9th
century Harun al Rashid founded its university but in 1260, the Mongols destroyed the
university, the citadel and the city walls. The ruined city never recovered.
Today, more and more scholars are convinced that we have misidentified Abram’s Ur for almost 90
years. I myself stand among those who also thought Abram was an ancient “Iraqi.” Islamic tradition
5
Mark Wilson, Biblical Turkey, Yayinlari: Istanbul, 2010.

8. also identifies Anatolian Ur as the birthplace of Abraham (Ibrahim).6
Today, Urfa is a major
pilgrimage site, especially to the cave reputed to be where Abram was born.
Prior to my arrival in Istanbul, I was duly informed that due to terrorist activities by Kurdish militants
in the border area between Syria and Turkey, my planned visit to Abram’s birthplace has been denied.
This was a serious blow for I had prepped a head of time and consulted Mark Wilson, a New
Testament scholar and director of the Asia Minor Research Center in Antalya, Turkey as well as
Dennis Olson, professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, my alma mater.
However, on May 24th
, 2014, my guide, archaeologist Serra Somersan announced that we have
received last minute permission from the Turkish government to visit both Haran and Urfa,
My field guide, archaeologist Serra Somersan of Ege University at the Haran site, May 2014
I delighted in my heart but kept this to myself. I did not want to jinx the opportunity. I managed to visit
both modern towns of Urfa and Haran, as well as the magnificent Urfa Museum. Many shops,
restaurants and hotels were named after Abraham and the tradition is strong to this day. You can see
the pride with which its citizens identified themselves with the biblical patriarchs. For a lifelong
Christian like me, and one fascinated by the complex history of the Hebrew Bible as well as its
reception history, I was intrigued by how local modern Muslims understood the role of Abraham in
their lives today. There are many legendary stories and imaginative tales taken very seriously by the
townfolks. Not only did Abraham live here, he battled his archenemy, the biblical Nimrod. Job
(Ayyub) lived in Uz, east of Jerusalem. Some Muslims identified the location of his suffering inside a
cave here in Urfa (Edessa), in the region of Haran. The Shrine of Job is busy building with a large
compound, filled with people hoping to be healed of their ailments by appealing to this great saint.
6
The modern town of Urfa, called Orhai in Syriac sources and Edessa in Greek, maintains a traditional
association with Abraham

9. Map of Haran archaeological site. May 2014

10. 2. Antioch: Alexander, NT archaeology & the Syriac Orthodox Church
2a. Alexander of Macedonia defeated Darius III of Persia:
The Battle of Issus near Iskanderun and Antioch was a decisive Hellenic victory. Nov 333 BC marked
the beginning of the end of Persia and the first time the Persian army had been defeated with the King
present.
Issus today – May 2014
The Hellenization of the Babylonian Jews in Persia affected the theological vocabulary and media used
to convey sacred texts. The New Testament came to be written in Greek by Jews during the Roman
occupation of Palestine.

11. 2b. NT archaeology at Antioch:
The oldest known church (other claims date back to AD 70,7
except the church as a religion distinct
did not yet exist) is St Peter’s, a cave complex about 2 km from downtown modern Antakya.
St. Peter’s Grotto at Antioch, 2009
2c. The Syriac Orthodox (Syriac) Church of Antioch:
This is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox Church based in the Eastern Mediterranean. It employs the
oldest surviving liturgy in Christianity, the Liturgy of St. James the Apostle, and uses Syriac as its
official and liturgical language. Syriac is the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now called Sanli Urfa
(probably where Abram was born) in Northern Mesopotamia (Eastern Turkey). The Church is led by
the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch (SOC). The SOC traces its history to one of the first
Christian communities in Antioch, described in the Acts of the Apostles (New Testament, Acts 11:26)
and established by the Apostle St. Peter in AD 37.
The Oriental Orthodox tradition has been a distinct church body since the schism following the
Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 but its roots date back to the first founded church outside Jerusalem
in Antioch in AD 37 when and where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. A long history
7
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/jordan/2106752/Worlds-oldest-Christian-church-
discovered-in-Jordan.html.

12. of persecution led the seat of the Patriarch to move. In 518, it relocated to various locations in the Near
East. In the 13th
century, to Mardin, Turkey, then Homs, Syria in 1933, and Damascus, Syria in 1959.
A Syriac Orthodox Church in Antioch (Antakya), Turkey. 2014
The SOC of Antioch claims to be the most ancient Christian church in the world. According to the
Gospel of Luke. “The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). St. Peter and St.
Paul are regarded as the cofounders of the Patriarchate of Antioch in AD 37, with the former serving as
its first bishop and he is considered as the first patriarch of the SOC.
According to ecclesiastical tradition, the Church of Antioch is the second established church in
Christendom after Jerusalem Just as Jewish Christianity originated at Jerusalem with James, so Gentile
Christianity started at Antioch with Peter. From Antioch it spread to the various cities and provinces of
Syria, among the Hellenistic population as well as among the Hellenistic Jews in Syria.
According to the historian Eusebius, when St. Peter left Antioch, Evodios and Ignatius presided over
the Patriarchate. Because of the prominence of St. Ignatius in the church's history, almost all of the
Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs since 1293 were named Ignatius.8
The Syriac Orthodox Church led by His
Holiness Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II is not to be confused by the Syriac Catholic Church,
led by His Beatitude Patriarch Mor Ignatius Youssef III.9
8
Chaillot, Christine, The Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, Geneva: Inter-Orthodox
Dialogue, 1988.
9
http://sor.cua.edu/Intro/.

13. 3. Ararat: Urartu, Mount Ararat & Armenia
3a. The Khaldinis of Urartu
“Urartu” is an Assyrian name for the people of Bianili. That is what we have now come to know these
Khaldinis, who worship the deity Khaldi, as – the Urartians. They ruled their kingdom from Tushpa
(Turushpa), near Lake Van. Some 800 by 500 miles, it included three major bodies of water: Van
(Turkey), Sevan (Armenia) and Urmia (Iran). Mentioned in Assyrian sources from the early 13th
century BC, Urartu enjoyed considerable political power in the Middle East in the 9th
and 8th
centuries
BC. The Urartians were succeeded in the 6th
century BC by the Armenians., Most remains of Urartian
settlements are found between the four lakes Çildir and Van in Turkey, Urmia in Iran, and Sevan in
Armenia.
Copying Urartian Inscriptions at Cavustepe “Castle”. May 2014
The heyday of the Urartian kingdom from 840 to 612 saw the Urartians, which had earlier absorbed or
imitated the amenities of Assyria’s higher civilization, produced its own distinctive counterparts to
many Assyrian achievements. During the reigns of Ishpuini (c. 830–810) and his son Meinua (c. 810–
781), Urartian conquests are attested from widespread inscriptions. Ardini, or Muṣaṣir, once conquered
by Tiglath-pileser I of Assyria about 1100, now became part of the Urartian sphere of influence. A
number of Urartian inscriptions dealing with religious subjects date to Ishpuini’s reign. The state
religion received its established form at that time, with the hierarchy of the many gods in the Urartian
pantheon. The Urartians were finally overcome by a Median invasion late in the 7th
century BC.10
Its modern re-discovery took place in 1827 when Father E. Schulz copied 42 cuneiform inscriptions at
Van Fortress, published it in 1840, but was only deciphered in 1880. Their war god was Haldi,
unknown elsewhere in the ANE.
10
http://www.britannica.com/place/Urartu.

14. Documenting Uratian inscription at Hoşap “Castle”. May 2014
Taking a break at Tepe Ayanis “Castle”. May 2014

15. Tepe Ayanis Castle with archaeologists, Serra Somersan of Ege University, Professor Mehmet Isikli of
Ataturk University and Professor Jennifer Tobin of Illinois University. May 2014
An Urartian alphabet key. May 2014

16. 3b. Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark
On the cold morning on May 20th
2014, I sipped hot coffee, looked out the window and saw Mount
Ararat with my own eyes. Visions of Noah’s Ark flooded my mind as I stared in wondered absent-
mindedly. I took out my iPhone and started taking shots of this majestic view. Since the 1970s, I have
read many writers who claim to have discovered physical evidence of the Ark, but somehow, they all
lost them on the way down. No, my purpose was not to initiate an exploration of the mountain – I
knew better. Let me explain.
Mount Ararat in Judeo-Christian tradition is associated with the "Mountains of Ararat" where,
according to the Book of Genesis, Noah's Ark came to rest. It also plays a significant role in Armenian
culture and nationalism. The mountain can be seen on the coat of arms of Armenia.
Mount Ararat. May 2014
The Genesis text does not identify the modern-day Mount Ararat but rather, simply the mountains of
‘rrt’, which refers to the ancient kingdom of Urartu or Ararat.
Mount Ararat has nothing to do with the biblical Noah’s Ark, itself a re-telling of an ancient story
called the Epic of Gilgamesh. The biblical writers were less interested in describing an international
ecological rescue of non-marine animals or the origin of spectral optics (the rainbow) than they were
with conveying God’s love for the world that he created and announcing that as a warrior-god,
Yahweh would never again draw his war-bow (symbolized by a post-deluge rainbow) against

17. humanity. By adopting an ancient flood story, Noah’s name would forever be identified with a global
post-apocalyptic renewal. Claims that Noah’s Ark has been discovered continue to make headlines.11
In Armenian mythology Mt. Ararat is the home of the Gods. After the formation of the Armenian
kingdom, the Armenian Church claimed a beautiful volcanic cone on their territory as the location of
Noah’s Ark, establishing yet another sacred place to buttress their claim to God’s favor. We have since
inherited this tradition. In contrast, Jews and Muslims believe that the Ark landed on Judi Dagh, part of
a mountain range that is much closer to Ur and Haran of Northern Mesopotamia (Anatolian Turkey).
3c. The Armenian Church at the Ruins of Ani, near Kars
Armenia was influenced by the older Anatolian civilizations of the Urartians (Ararat), the Hurrians and
the Hittites, in Anatolia. The Hittite civilization dissolved around 1200 BC, with many Hittites
becoming a part of Israel. Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, whom King David murdered.
She became the mother of Solomon, who was neither ethnically nor genetically Jewish in his maternal
lineage. To be an Israelite in biblical times was a faith identity rather than a genetic pedigree. David
himself was not genetically Jewish as he had non-Hebrew female ancestors – can you name the four
non-Jewish women of Jesus’ own maternal lineage?
By the time of Jesus and the early medieval period, Armenia was the most important kingdom that
rivaled the Roman and Byzantine Empires in terms of the story of Christianity. However, its recent
history has made visiting the nation very challenging. With the fall of the USSR and the emergence of
modern Armenia, the time has come for me to pay a visit, at least to the Turkish side of ancient
Armenia, a buffer state between the warring kingdoms of Rome and Parthia. So I flew from Istanbul to
former Soviet town of Kars. It sits almost 6000 feet above sea-level near Turkey’s borders with
Georgia and modern Armenia. My goal was also to visit the nearby ruins of Ani, a former capital of
Armenia, built atop an even more ancient Urartian settlement dating back to 800 BC, around the time
of the prophet Isaiah. Both cities served as capitals of Medieval Armenia.
Ancient Armenia succeeded the Uratian Kingdom of Bialini as the Kingdom of Van around the 9th
century BC, contemporaneous with the time of the prophets Amos and Isaiah. So the current
excavations of Uratian culture will give us a deeper understanding of pre-Christian, pre-Islamic
Armenia. The kingdom was Christianized when Gregory the Illuminator persuaded the king to convert
to Christianity, very likely a strategic political as well as a religious move. From the 4th
to the 7th
centuries, the region came under the influence of Byzantium and Persia. But by 640, Armenia was
conquered by the Muslim Army to become the Emirate of Armenia and subsequently dominated by
two families, Artsruni and Bagratuni. In 806, the Caliph of Baghdad named Ashot Bagratuni “Prince of
Armenia.” In 961, Ani became the capital of Ashot III Bagratuni of Armenia and was called the “City
of 1001 Churches.” The Turco-Mongols, Turkmen and Cilicians ruled during the 11th
to the 16th
centuries, followed by the Perso-Ottomans until the Russian period in the 19th
century. The First
Republic of Armenia emerged in 1918 and for two years,engaged in warfare with Azerbaijan, Georgia
and Turkey – all countries on my list to explore. By 1920, it fell to the Soviets and became the
Armenian SSR. Today’s Republic of Armenia achieved independence in 1991 with the collapse of the
USSR. I expect to visit Armenia in 2016, hopefully nder the guidance of archaeologists from the
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Stay tuned.
11
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100428-noahs-ark-found-in-turkey-science-religion-
culture/

18. The ruins of the ancient Armenian capital Ani, near Kars, Turkey, May 2014
A Zoroastrian Fire Temple at the Ruins of Ani, May 2014.

19. This ancient bridge along the Old Silk Road sits at the border of Armenia and Turkey where
Christianity, Islam and Buddhism encountered and influenced each other. May 2014
This concludes my preliminary layman’s report. I expect to spend the next 6 months of so going
through my detailed notes and drawings to compile a fuller theological report of this amazing
opportunity. I would like to acknowledge my thanks to the faithful donors who funded this expedition.
My field notes during long bus journeys between archaeological sites
Ron Choong, Academy for Christian Thought, www.actministry.org