Paths to the early history of humanity: At the Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia, archaeologists are uncovering unique Stone Age monuments. They are thereby contributing to a new understanding of settlement history and of incipient agriculture.
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TOWER OF POWER It has been called the world’s first skyscraper. 11,000 years ago, a society of hunter-gatherers built an 8-metre tall tower and staircase out of stone – for apparently no reason. Ever since it was discovered, the Tower of Jericho has puzzled archaeologists. Some have suggested that it was built as a watchtower, but there’s no evidence of any invasions. Instead, the tower might have been a way for the first villagers to bond. Roy Liran and Ran Barkai at Tel Aviv University, Israel, recently simulated the way the tower would have looked during the summer solstice. They found that the shadows of the surrounding hills would
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Did Cities or Temples Come First to Human Life? A Comparison between Göbeklitepe, Nevali Çori, Çayönü, Çatalhöyük and Ain Ghazal Göbeklitepe has a significant place with its unique design among many ritual centres, shrines, communal buildings and settlements in Near East and Anatolia during the Neolithic Period. Göbeklitepe is located ten kilometres away from Şanlıurfa, Southeast of Turkey (Curry, 2008, pg.1) and covers eight hectares area (ibid). Limestone T-shaped pillars weight roughly five to ten tonnes (Banning, 2011, pp. 620-622) and carved figures of dangerous animals such as; rampant lions, wild donkeys, scorpions, snakes, a headless male figure identifiable with his erected penis and many other animal depictions give
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Can the enclosures of Göbekli Tepe be seen as examples of the earliest recognized shrines, even temples, that completely exclude domestic functions? What was the social organization of the community that gathered their efforts to carve out large pillars, up to 7m tall, and occasionally to dress them with elaborate images of mainly wild and male animals? To what end was such a large labor pool mobilized? How big was the area around the site from which people were drawn in order to construct and/or visit this particular place? Was there a connection between broadly contemporaneous examples of intentional intensification in the use of wild plant resources across
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Symbolism and Sacrifice at Göbekli Tepe Catalhöyük, dating from 6,400 to 6,200 bce, presents evidence of one of the earliest human settlements: its construction, its social organization, its symbolic, artistic, and ritual life. A lesser known, but much earlier and potentially even more signiicant link in the evidential chain of the story of “how we became human” is provided by another archaeological site, situated some 450 miles east-southeast of Çatalhöyük. his site, generally recognized to be a temple complex, has been discovered at Göbekli Tepe (literal translation: “Potbelly Hill”) in southeastern Turkey, near the present-day frontier with Syria. It lies about fifteen kilometers northeast of the present-day city of Şanlıurfa,
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Many ancient compositions were overlaid upon a template of a Body. The Bodies need not have been human but could also be based on animals, insects, or even plants and inanimate objects. The “T” shape of the pillar was based on the basic gesture sign that represented, below1 (the surface). That, in itself may be enough of a clue to tell us that the Pillar's form was not that of a human. The “T” Form was also compounded to include a horizontal rectangle and a vertical rectangle. These signs indicated a horizontal plane or place and a vertical plane or place (one having height and depth). Gobekli Tepe
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Towards an Iconography of the PPN in Upper Mesopotamia More than 120 T-shaped pillars have so far been found at the PPN site of Göbekli Tepe. These are often adorned with low reliefs depicting various animals, abstract signs and, in some cases, garments and belts, thus underlining the anthropomorphic design of these pillars. he combination of motifs observed on several pillars features a clearly narrative aspect, and most of these are monumental compared to similar images known from other PPN sites where they are typically found engraved onto small stone or bone objects. Some of these images give the impression of miniature reproductions of the reliefs from Göbekli
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New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, South-Eastern Turkey Göbekli Tepe is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of modern times, pushing back the origins of monumentality beyond the emergence of agriculture. We are pleased to present a summary of work in progress by the excavators of this remarkable site and their latest thoughts about its role and meaning. At the dawn of the Neolithic, hunter-gatherers congregating at Göbekli Tepe created social and ideological cohesion through the carving of decorated pillars, dancing, feasting—and, almost certainly, the drinking of beer made from fermented wild crops.
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After discarding, on historical and structural grounds, the idea that Neolithic sumptuary buildings could represent temples, it is assumed that the pillars of Göbekli Tepe relate to a system of belief illustrated by a mythology featuring interacting mythical beings. Like a mirror, the form taken by this symbolical interrelation must reflect something of that society’s own form of internal social relations. Numerous ethnological studies, like the work of Lévi-Strauss, have shown that among primitive societies2, the exchange of women is the most crucial subject of social interaction. These matrimonial rules exist under a great number of forms, but there is one universal principle determining them all and it
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New results of ongoing excavations with a special focus on sculptures and high reliefs Göbekli Tepe is one of the most fascinating Neolithic sites in the world. It is a tell, an artificial mound dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It was not used for habitation; it consists of several sanctuaries in the form of round megalithic enclosures. The site lies about 15km north-east of the Turkish city of Sanlıurfa, at the highest point of an extended mountain range that can be seen for many kilometres around.It is a landmark visible from far away (Fig. 1). Its enormous deposition of layers, up to fifteen metres high, have accumulated over several millennia over
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