{"id":4384,"date":"2017-03-01T12:45:04","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T11:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tepetelegrams.wordpress.com\/?p=4384"},"modified":"2023-02-06T10:27:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T09:27:18","slug":"the-gobekli-tepe-totem-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/2017\/03\/01\/the-gobekli-tepe-totem-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"The G\u00f6bekli Tepe ‘Totem Pole’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The ‘totem pole’ from G\u00f6bekli Tepe (Copyright DAI, photo N. Becker).<\/p><\/div>\n

Every excavation season at G\u00f6bekli Tepe reveals new remarkable finds and although the overall spectrum of objects to be exspected is known quite well, there are also surprises. One of these was a large sculpture discovered in 2009 and excavated in 2010 superficially reminescent of the totem poles of North Americas` natives.<\/p>\n

The sculpture had been set in the north-eastern wall of a rectangular room of Layer II<\/a> and was not visible originally due to the wall completely covering it. It has the remarkable length of 1,92 metres. The pole features three main motives, one above another. The uppermost motive depicts a predator, probably a bear or a large felid. The frontal part of the head had been obliterated in antiquity; the surface of the break is covered with a thin limestone coating. Below the head, a short neck, arms and hands are visible. Their human like shape is remarkable. Although we might postulate that this depicts a \u201cMischwesen\u201d, such as the \u201cL\u00f6wenmensch\u201d from the Aurignacian site of Hohlestein Stadel in Southwest Germany, we still cannot eliminate the possibility that these features were intended to depict animal arms and legs and not human limbs. The arms (or legs) are holding another head, which again lost its face in antiquity.<\/p>\n

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Find situation of the ‘totem pole’ after removal of wall stones in front of it (copyright DAI, photo N. Becker).<\/p><\/div>\n

Significantly, the motive of a wild beast holding a human head is well known<\/a> from several sculptures from Neval\u0131 \u00c7ori and G\u00f6bekli Tepe. For this reason it is very probable that the lost face of the head being held by the \u201cL\u00f6wenmensch\u201d (or bear \/ lion \/ leopard) was that of a human. This suggestion is further strengthened by the fact that human arms are depicted below the head. The hands are placed opposite one another and on the stomach of the individual. This is a manner which is clearly reminiscent of the T-shaped pillars. Below the arms and hands a second person is visible. Fortunately, the face of this individual is completely preserved. Also depicted is the upper part of the body, including the arms and hands. Below the hands there is an unidentified object. It seems likely that the person is depicted giving birth, albeit that a very different explanation is also conceivable, e.g. the person could be presenting his phallus. Below the arms of the predator (or \u201cL\u00f6wenmensch\u201d) at both sides of the pole, large snakes are visible. Their large heads (one is partly damaged) are situated just above the head of the small individual. Below the heads of the snakes, structures are visible which might be interpreted as the legs of the uppermost human. It seems obvious that such a piece made of stone must also have had parallels in wood which have failed to survive the millennia. However, it should be noted that fragments of a quite similar totem pole-like object made of limestone were already discovered some 20 years ago in Neval\u0131 \u00c7ori.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/strong><\/p>\n

K\u00f6ksal-Schmidt, \u00c7i\u011fdem, Klaus Schmidt, The G\u00f6bekli Tepe \u201cTotem Pole\u201c. A First Discussion of an Autumn 2010 Discovery (PPN, Southeastern Turkey), Neo-Lithics 1\/10, 74-76.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every excavation season at G\u00f6bekli Tepe reveals new remarkable finds and although the overall spectrum of objects to be exspected is known quite well, there are also surprises. One of these was a large sculpture discovered in 2009 and excavated in 2010 superficially reminescent of the totem poles of North Americas` natives. The sculpture had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2290,1260267,69608],"class_list":["post-4384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-architecture","tag-gobeklitepe","tag-iconography","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4384"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7240,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384\/revisions\/7240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}