DECODING GÖBEKLI TEPE’S ICONOGRAPHY

Situated in the northern part of the Upper Mesopotamia, Göbekli Tepe represents one of the largest early PPN sites in the region. A reference to the disastrous inundations of the Euphrates River and its tributaries seems to have been recorded in the iconography of Göbekli Tepe’s enclosures. The bas-reliefs of Enclosure D show an event similar to the one described in The Epic of Gilgamesh, illustrating with zoomorphic images the different stages of a flood. By comparing this visual story with the Sumerian text, one can imagine the complexity of the mythology of the PPN populations of the Near East.