WITNESSES to a devastating comet strike nearly 13,000 years ago created a lasting memorial to the event with stone carvings, according to a team of Scottish researchers.

Researchers from Edinburgh University believe ancient carvings on stone pillars at Gobekli Tepe, in southern Turkey, are a memorial to the effects of a swarm of comet fragments that hit Earth around 11,000BC.

4 A view of the Vulture Stone in the ancient temple of Gobekli Tepi Credit: Alistair Coombs

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The event killed thousands of people, wiped out many large animal species and triggered a mini ice-age that lasted more than 1,000 years.

Engineers studied animal carvings made on a pillar known as the vulture stone at the site, which is one of the world’s most important archaeological locations. The carvings include birds, a scorpion, a snake and a dog or wolf as well as a headless man.

By interpreting the animals as astronomical symbols, and using software to match their positions to patterns of stars, researchers have now dated the event to 10,950BC.

4 This graphic shows the position of the sun and stars in the 10950BC summer solstic

The dating from the carvings agree well with timing derived from an ice core from Greenland, which pinpoints the event - probably resulting from the break-up of a giant comet in the inner solar system - to 10,890BC.

The carvings appear to have remained important to the people of Gobekli Tepe for millennia, suggesting that the event and cold climate that followed likely had a very serious impact.

The Edinburgh researchers suggest the images were intended as a record of the cataclysmic event.

They believe a further carving showing a headless man may indicate human disaster and extensive loss of life.

Symbolism on the pillars also indicates that the long-term changes in Earth’s rotational axis was recorded at this time using an early form of writing, and that Gȍbekli Tepe was an observatory for meteor showers and comets.

4 A general view of the ruins of Gobekli Tepe Credit: Wikimedia Commons

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The find supports a theory that Earth is likely to experience periods when comet strikes are more likely, owing to Earth’s orbit intersecting orbiting rings of comet fragments in space.

Dr Martin Sweatman, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, who led the research, said: "It appears Göbekli Tepe was, among other things, an observatory for monitoring the night sky.

"One of its pillars seems to have served as a memorial to this devastating event – probably the worst day in history since the end of the Ice Age."

Göbekli Tepe, often called "the world’s first temple", is an ancient megalithic site in present-day southern Turkey, not far from the border with Syria.

Until now, the meaning of many of the carvings has remained obscure.

The research is published in the journal Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry.