Gobekli Tepe

                                   Gobekli Tepe: Religion’s Early Dawn?





Gobekli Tepe in Anatolia is the world’s oldest man-made structure. It dates to the 10th millennium BC – the first glimmerings of the Neolithic, when hunter-gatherer societies became sedentary farming communities. But, say Klaus Schmidt, Oliver Dietrich, and Jens Notroff, this is no settlement. It is a vast monumental sanctuary. Could it be, then, that religion was the catalyst that ignited the ‘Neolithic revolution’?


Towering over the vast Harran plain on the highest point of the Germus mountain range in south-eastern Turkey, Gobekli Tepe dominates the surrounding landscape. This mount is no natural phenomenon, but a man-made hill with sediments deposited over millennia.
It is clear, too, that this is no ordinary settlement. Massive monolithic blocks – carefully aligned to form circular enclosures, and exquisitely carved with detailed animal reliefs – lie deliberately concealed beneath the mound. The subtlety and sophistication of the finely fashioned shapes that emerge from the recovered stone pillars belie the early Neolithic society responsible for the sanctuary’s construction.
The site was first recorded in the 1960’s, when it was written off as Byzantine – the carved stones lying around on the surface were thought to be gravestones. It was not until 1995 that Klaus Schmidt, scientific advisor to the German Archaeological Institute, surveying in the area, noticed flint arrowheads and tools lying scattered on the ground. Then he looked at the ‘gravestones’ and compared them with the carved stones of the nearby Neolithic site of Nevali Cori, which was disappearing under the waters of the Ataturk Dam. He knew he had found a very early Neolithic site indeed. Yet, even now, he did not expect what awaited him at Gobekli Tepe.
Gobekli Tepe translates from the Turkish as ‘potbelly hill’. It is a vast site. Standing 49 feet (15m) high and about 328 yards (300m) in diameter, it covers 9ha of an area that lay in the western part of what was considered the ‘Fertile Crescent’ in ancient times.
Schmidt and his team have reached the oldest and most impressive level. This is Layer III., which dates to the earliest phases of Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN A) in the 10th millennium BC – a time before pottery had been invented.
Significantly, they found absolutely no sign of any domestic activity, such as trash pits or cooking hearths, and no domestic architecture. Instead, the archaeologists uncovered carefully formed concentric rings, ranging from 30-90 feet (10-30m) in diameter, made up of huge, distinctive T-shaped pillars.
These pillars, standing up to 13 feet (4m) in height, are set at equal distances into walls that are lined with benches, and that define the inner and outer spaces of the enclosures. The huge megaliths point towards the middle where two, even larger, central pillars stand. These monoliths are more than 16 feet 6 inches (5m) high and weigh about ten tons each.

The pillars are made from a very hard, crystalline limestone. Traces of quarrying are found all around the surrounding area, and may be one of the reasons the sanctuary was located here. To create monoliths of this size and with such fine carvings requires high-quality limestone, a resource available in abundance on the Gobekli Tepe plateau.
Geomagnetic survey, including ground-penetrating radar (GPR), showed circular enclosures had been built all across the mound. More than ten large circles have already been found – though the archaeologists are confident that this number will double.
The most impressive circle is Enclosure C, which consists of three – or possibly even four – concentric circles. Again in the centre are two large central-shaped pillars: Pillar 35 and Pillar 37. Both had been smashed in prehistoric times. The destroyed pieces were found in a large pit that had been made especially for this destructive purpose. A virtual reconstruction of Pillar 35, made by laser-scanning the broken chunks, showed that it would have stood 16 foot 6 inches (5m) high. Two pedestals for the central pillars had been carved out of the carefully smoothed bedrock floor.
The T-shaped pillars were highly decorated with pictures of wild animals. It seems each enclosure may have had its own special animal attributed to it, similar to tribal totems known in the ethnographic record. In Enclosure C, these motifs are dominated by depictions of wild boars – indeed, most of the wild boar sculptures at Gobekli Tepe have been discovered in Enclosure C. It is interesting to note, too, that there is just a single representation of a snake in this entire enclosure – on one of the large horizontal stone slabs in the southern part of the enclosure – and none on any of the pillars.
The most impressive pillar in Enclosure C is number 27. Beside the flat relief of a boar, there is a spectacular high relief of a predator – a beast that cannot be identified but is clearly larger than the boar below it – with both animal and pillar being carved from a single block of stone.
While Enclosure C may be the most impressive, Enclosure D is the largest. It is also in an excellent state of preservation. The only visible damage dates to its time of origin, and shows signs of successful repair during that same period. So far, ongoing excavation has uncovered two huge central pillars and eleven more in the surrounding walls – though others may still lie hidden.
While the most common depictions here are of foxes and snakes, there is altogether a much wider range of motifs. These include boars, aurochs, gazelle, a wild ass, and a large carnivore – probably a feline. There are also carvings of different birds, like cranes, storks, ibises, and ducks.


The narrative character of several of these depictions is particularly well illustrated by Pillar 43, whose whole surface on the western face is covered by a variety of creatures, all dominated by a great vulture. This huge bird lifts its left wing, while the right wing stretches out to the front, possibly pointing towards the sphere – or disc – at its wing-tip. To the right of the vulture are carvings of another bird – possibly an ibis – and a snake, two H-shaped symbols, and some young fowl.
To the right of the bird’s neck is an especially intriguing motif: it is clearly a person, but it has no head. This part of the pillar is damaged, but the representation of a headless figure is clearly recognizable. He is surrounded by scorpions, snakes, and vultures – all suggestive of a violent death.
The ithyphallic condition of the acephalic man is a reminder of the Old Egyptian myth of Osiris: Isis joined together the dismembered body of her husband and, taking the form of a red kite (the predator bird), reanimated him with her wings long enough to conceive their offspring Horus. Of course, it is highly unlikely that the reliefs of Pillar 43 are illustrating an early version of that Egyptian myth. But, the sequence of pictures on this pillar shows us how impressively rich the mythology of the people of Neolithic Gobekli Tepe must have been – and how slight our knowledge of it still is.
The upper parts of the central Pillars 18 and 31 in Enclosure D both have arms and a stole depicted in flat relief. Pillar 18, facing east, shows a fox on its right arm. Along one side there are reliefs in the shape of a crescent, a disc, and a motif of two contrasting elements whose meanings are as of yet unknown.
Pillar 31, facing west, is wearing a necklace in the shape of an ox’s skull. Due to slope pressure, both pillars had slipped in to an oblique angle, and complete excavation of both was only possible after they had been made stable. Finally, in 2009, the archaeologists were able to reach the floor level which, like Enclosure C, was carefully smoothed bedrock. Again, two pedestals, on the central T-shaped pillars once stood, had been cut out of the bedrock. Both pillars are a breath-taking 18 feet (5.5m) tall, and have been successfully preserved without any damage.
The previously hidden sections of the lower part of the pillars have been recently exposed to reveal hands and fingers on both. More surprising was the discovery that they both wear belts – depicted in flat relief just below the hands. The belt on the eastern pillar is decorated with H and C-shaped symbols.

Both belts have buckles attached to what appear to be loincloths made of fox skins that cover the genitals – thereby concealing the gender of the two individuals. Clay figurines wearing belts that have been recovered from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Nevali Cori are usually masculine, so it seems likely that the pair of statues in Enclosure D also represent males.
We know, then, that the arms, hands, belts, and loincloths of the central T-shaped megaliths of Enclosure D mean they represent anthropomorphic characters: but who are they?
Although these pillar statues depict human forms, they do not necessarily represent human beings. Whereas, for example, the contemporaneous life-size statue found at Balikligol, the so-called ‘Urfa Man’, is a very naturalistic representation of a human being, the art carved onto the pillar statues at Gobekli Tepe are highly abstract in character.
Moreover, they lack faces. Since the lack of heads is intentional, it seems most likely that these statues were seen as supernatural beings who gathered at Gobekli Tepe for certain – albeit unknown so far – purposes.
Enclosure A, while as yet still only partially excavated, has produced some fantastic reliefs with the dominate theme being snakes. The most striking examples are on Pillar 1, which depicts a group of five snakes and a ‘tapestry’ of interwoven snakes, like a net made up of up to 17 snakes. The snake is also depicted on Pillar 5, whereas on Pillar 2 the carvings are of a bull, a fox, and a crane.
In Enclosure B, the fox seems to take over as the leading character. Both central pillars (Pillar 9 and 10) of Enclosure B have a male fox on the inner face, jumping south-east towards the presumed entrance. In the southern part of the circle, on Pillar 14, another fox emerges from the stone.
The terrazzo floor in front of Pillar 9 has a shallow limestone bowl set into it – possibly used for libations that may have played a part in the rituals performed here.
So far, no burials, and only scattered human remains, have been found at Gobekli Tepe – mainly parts of skull.
The outline of the enclosures at Gobekli Tepe, with their benches built into the walls ready for gatherings, suggest these were meeting places. The positions of the anthropomorphic pillars seem to represent an assembly of some sort, with a dozen stone figures around the perimeter bench attendant on a pair of larger figurines at the centre.
A hint at the character of the meetings held there can be gleaned from closer inspection of the filling material of the enclosures. It is clear by now that the circles were not left open after abandonment. They were back filled intentionally and rapidly, in a manner reminiscent of a burial.
This ‘burial’ seems to have been a fixed part of their use-life. The filling material is not sterile soil but, instead, is made up mainly of pieces of limestone – usually smaller than a fist – as well as artifacts. These are mainly flint, but there are also fragments of stone vessels, grinding stones, and other ground-stone tools.
The sculptures of animals and humans appear to have been placed in this fill deliberately: they are concentrated around several of the pillars, fueling the assumption that they represent offerings to whomever is depicted there.
This may also be true for the ducks or geese depicted at the southern border of the pedestal of Pillar 18, the eastern pillar of Enclosure d. The birds are shown in such a way that it is unclear whether they are flying, walking, or swimming – indeed, one could easily get the impression that they are dead , and, therefore, represent offerings, too.
Large quantities of animal bones were found. Most were broken into small pieces, perhaps smashed open to retrieve the marrow inside, but certainly indicative of waste discarded during feasting. There were no evidence of cooking hearths – reinforcing the sanctuary rather than the settlement nature of the site – but a wide range of tools, including blades and scrapers, was recovered that would have been used to cut and prepare meat.
Wild cattle made up the bulk of the meat consumed, but there are also the remains of gazelle, red deer, onager, wild pig, and wild goats – fauna that represent hunted game. These were clearly huge feasts, with enormous amounts of meat consumed.
Such events were most likely of religious significance, but they also had a practical aspect. To construct the monumental buildings, it was necessary to gather together people from a wide area. Ethnographic data show that the prospect of a lavish feast is an effective incentive.
Yet repetitive feasting on the scale seen at Gobekli Tepe would have put serious pressure on the natural resources of early hunter-gatherer groups. Certainly, to secure the required food supply – and on time – for the large number of people gathering at Gobekli Tepe would have been a huge challenge if they were solely reliant on hunting game.
Moreover, for a society to spare the manpower to perfect the artistic skills required to carve such sophisticated monuments suggests an ability to provide more food than is possible by hunting-gathering alone.
Was it a response to this need that prompted the search for alternative food sources and processing techniques? If so, religious beliefs and practices may have been a key factor in the change from hunting and gathering to a farming way of life. It should also be noted that several wild forms of later domesticated plants are found throughout the region around Gobekli Tepe.
For 1,000 years after the abandonment of the large enclosures, Gobekli Tepe nonetheless retained its religious significance. However, this second phase (Layer II) was much less impressive: small rectangular buildings contained just two central pillars, some had none at all. This layer dates to the 9th millennium BC, after which building came to an end.
But who was gathering and celebrating here in the early Neolithic?
While, to date, Gobekli Tepe stands alone in its role as a monumental early Neolithic sanctuary, its material culture shows strong connections with Upper Mesopotamia – a region encompassing the middle and upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris, and the foothills of the Taurus Mountains.
T-shaped pillars were first recorded in the 1980s in a special building at the settlement site of Nevali Cori. Three further sites – Sefer Tepe, Karahan, and Hamzan Tepe – show pillars resembling the smaller ones from Gobekli’s Layer II. These sites form an inner circle of places belonging to one cultic community, although this community was not confined to them.
Excavation at sites like Jerf el Ahmar, Tell Qaramel, Kortik Tepe, Hallan Cemi, Cayonu, Tell’ Abr, Mureybet, Dja’ de, Nemrik or Qermez Dere shows complex settlements with communal buildings. Artifacts recovered, like shaft-straighteners (used for making arrows), plaquettes, and stone bowls, are often decorated with animals and symbols similar to those found at Gobekli Tepe. Such images suggest an understanding of symbolism, and a means of recording cultural knowledge that predates writing. Until now, the ability of early Neolithic society to achieve this has been underestimated.
The large, religiously motivated feasts visible in the archaeological finds from Gobekli Tepe may also have served as an occasion for different groups to meet, exchange goods, and arrange marriage partners. The different iconography of the enclosures with specific animals dominant in each circle may be interpreted as depictions of the totems of different groups.
Certainly, these people enjoyed a complicated mythology, and an understanding of abstract thoughts and art. This substantiates the argument that social systems changed before, rather than after, the shift to farming – a process represented magnificently by the monumental sanctuaries at Gobekli Tepe.


[Sources: Professor Kluas Schmidt, Oliver Dietrich, and Jens Notroff, The German Archaeological Institute (DAI), www.dainst.org]