AND DID THOSE FEET IN ANCIENT TIME GAZE UPON GÖBEKLI TEPE ...

EXTRAORDINARY ILLUSTRATION SUGGESTS THAT NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH ARTIST AND POET WILLIAM BLAKE SAW GÖBEKLI TEPE

"And did those feet in ancient time" is a line from nineteenth-century artist and poet William Blake's classic poem "Jerusalem", which is today England's unofficial national anthem.

The poem, made into a hymn by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916, is an ode to the idea that Jesus visited England with his uncle Joseph of Arimathea before embarking on his ministry back in the Holy Land.

Yet those same words can well be used to question whether, during his lifetime, Blake had in mind a much more ancient mystery - that of Göbekli Tepe, the oldest stone temple in the world, located in what is today southeast Turkey.

The English artist, who had links with Druid revivalists and openly claimed that his art was inspired by visions and dreams, left behind a tantalising clue suggesting that he knew Göbekli Tepe.

This extraordinary piece of evidence comes from an engraved print, one of several Blake did for a pictorial edition of the Bible's Book of Job, published in 1826.

The illustration shows Job, the most righteous of all God's servants, and his wife seated beneath a tree receiving tidings of disaster from a messenger.

Behind the couple are a pair of "Druidical pillars" identical to T-shaped monoliths seen today in Göbekli Tepe's most impressive stone circle, built around 11,500 years.

The likeness is uncanny begging the question of how one of England's most famous artists could have glimpsed a stone temple not uncovered until the end of the last century.

Left, the twin monolith's standing in Göbekli Tepe's Enclosure D, and, right, William Blake's engraved print of T-shaped pillars that bear an uncanny likeness to those at Göbekli Tepe.

Did Blake - who saw his first angel at the age of eight - travel back in time to observe this wonder of the past?

Or did he see Göbekli Tepe in a vision or dream?

Incredibly, cutting edge science might hold the answer.

The concept of quantum entanglement explains how sub-atomic particles come in pairs, and no matter how far apart they get they still communicate with each other - spooky action at a distance Albert Einstein called it.

This so-called "non-local" communication is unique in that it can occur not only across space, but also through time as time does not exist on a quantum level.

What this means is that we all share seas of sub-atomic particles that occasionally dance the same dance, and can thus make information - words, facts and pictures - exist in more than one mind at the same time.

Quantum entanglement provides a scientific basis for everything from telepathy to past lives, premonitions and, of course, glimpses of the past.

So is this what happened - William Blake quite literally glimpsed the past, in a dream or vision perhaps?

Did the author of "Jerusalem" really see into the mind of someone who looked up at Göbekli Tepe's T-shaped pillars around 11,500 years ago?

It is an incredible theory, although Blake's openness concerning his visionary experiences makes this the currently most likely explanation to a very baffling mystery.

Report by Andrew Collins, April 1st, 2016

The full illustration done by William's Blake for a pictorial edition of the Bible's Book of Job.

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