{"id":4403,"date":"2017-03-02T15:15:17","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T14:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tepetelegrams.wordpress.com\/?p=4403"},"modified":"2023-02-06T10:27:09","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T09:27:09","slug":"the-death-of-an-aurochs-gobekli-tepe-pillar-66-enclosure-h","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/2017\/03\/02\/the-death-of-an-aurochs-gobekli-tepe-pillar-66-enclosure-h\/","title":{"rendered":"The death of an aurochs: G\u00f6bekli Tepe, Pillar 66, Enclosure H"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next in our series about the pillars <\/a>of G\u00f6bekli Tepe (here<\/a>, and here<\/a>) is P 66 in Enclosure H, located in the northwestern depression of the tell.\u00a0The most prominent decoration of this pillar is a large horned beast, likely an aurochs, engraved with rough lines on one broadside. The animal is depicted in side view, its legs are flexed and its tongue is hanging out of the mouth. All this taken together could mean that the animal is depicted dead. Below it a smaller animal is shown, possibly in similar condition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"gt14_k1025_p66_7209\"

Pillar 66 in Enclosure H (copyright DAI, photo N. Becker).<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course this depiction is immediately reminiscent of the two famous paintings from buildings F.V.1 and A.III.1 at \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck, showing large cattle surrounded by considerably smaller human figures (e.g. Russell 2012: 79-80, Figure 2)<\/strong>. Mellaart’s original interpretation of the depictions as hunting scenes has been widely discussed, and we agree with Russell (2012) who has collected the multitude of different opinions – from hunting or teasing over sacrifice to ritual bull leaping – that chances of arriving at a definite interpretation are low. However, we believe that Rice (1998: 81)<\/strong> has a point when he observes that the tongues hanging out of these animals\u00b4 mouths and the positions of their legs may indicate that the animals are depicted dying or dead. Most important, and that is agreed upon in nearly all interpretations, are the differences in size between humans and cattle in the images. The tiny human figures encircling the large (dead?) animals clearly indicate how awe-inspiring big cattle must have been for Neolithic people. The size of the animal is emphasized also in the new depiction from G\u00f6bekli Tepe – by the smaller animal depicted alongside the large bull.<\/p>\n

The two animals however do not seem to be the original decoration of the pillar. They are scratched into the surface with rough lines, which is usually indicative of preparatory drawings for reliefs at G\u00f6bekli Tepe. Moreover, above the large animal\u00b4s head a rest of an older relief, maybe of a bird, and several unclear lines are visible. The placement of the pillar deviates from the usual arrangement, it is not ‘looking’ towards the central pillars, but stands parralel to them. Taken together, all clues hint towards a secondary use of an older pillar.<\/p>\n

A large worked block was placed on the pillar\u00b4s head. This has been observed also for other pillars, especially those of Enclosure B<\/a> in the main excavation area. A possible explanation could be height compensation, at least in the case that the pillars originally carried a roof.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rice, M. 1998. The Power of the Bull. New York.<\/p>\n

Russell, N. (2012): Hunting Sacrifice at Neolithic \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck. In: Porter, A.M. & Schwartz, G.M. (eds.), Sacred Killing. The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the ancient Near East, Winona Lake, 79-95.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next in our series about the pillars of G\u00f6bekli Tepe (here, and here) is P 66 in Enclosure H, located in the northwestern depression of the tell.\u00a0The most prominent decoration of this pillar is a large horned beast, likely an aurochs, engraved with rough lines on one broadside. The animal is depicted in side view, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1260267,69608,489839847],"class_list":["post-4403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gobeklitepe","tag-iconography","tag-t-pillars","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4403"}],"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=4403"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7329,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4403\/revisions\/7329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}