There was no separation between the sacred and the profane, and therefore one cannot speak of a temple in the modern sense of the word. Professor Schmidt assumes, however, that in the case of Gobekli Tepe an organized religion may have arisen before the invention of agriculture and other aspects of civilization. Gatherers began to establish settlements - a grouping of houses with hundreds of inhabitants - so that together they could more easily obtain food and protect themselves from the dangers of the outside world. Religion emerged to relieve the tensions that arose when hunter-gatherers settled down and formed large communities.
