{"id":807,"date":"2016-05-18T11:07:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tepetelegrams.wordpress.com\/?p=807"},"modified":"2023-02-06T10:30:07","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T09:30:07","slug":"who-built-gobekli-tepe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/the-tepe-telegrams\/2016\/05\/18\/who-built-gobekli-tepe\/","title":{"rendered":"Who built G\u00f6bekli Tepe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, the short answer would be: Stone Age people with Stone Age tools. Nothing more needed, no aliens, no giants, as you can read here<\/a>. For an answer to the question, who these Stone Age people were, where they came from and lived (G\u00f6bekli Tepe is not a settlement), we will have to make the finds speak.<\/p>\n

A point to start is the distribution of sites with similar architecture. G\u00f6bekli Tepe is not the only site with T-shaped pillars. Similar sites concentrate roughly between the Upper Balikh and the Upper Chabur rivers [read more here<\/a>]. They clearly mark a region with similar cultural traits. However, the area the builders of G\u00f6bekli Tepe came from exceeds this region by far.<\/p>\n

Gusir H\u00f6y\u00fck (Karul 2011, 2013) in the Turkish Tigris region has considerably widened the distribution area of circular enclosures. However, the pillars discovered there are slightly different, they miss the T-bar. Similar stelae have been discovered in \u00c7ay\u00f6nu (\u00d6zdo\u011fan 2011) and in Qermez Dere (Watkins et al. 1995). In addition to these two different architectonic regions, to the west, in northern Syria, a third distinct building style can be pointed out. Domestic sites like like Jerf el Ahmar, Mureybet or Tell \u00b4Abr 3 (Stordeur et al. 2000; Yartah 2013) also have circular communal buildings. These are constructions with pis\u00e9 walls and wooden supports however. Upper Mesopotamia can thus be differentiated by building traditions. But the common element is the existence of similarly arranged communal buildings, and, more important, of a range of common symbols.<\/p>\n

\"Figure

Distribution of G\u00f6bekli Tepe\u00b4s iconography and of wild wheats (Map: T. G\u00f6tzelt, Copyright DAI).<\/p><\/div>\n

For example, shaft straighteners and plaquettes from Jerf el Ahmar (Stordeur & Abb\u00e8s 2002) and Tell Qaramel (Mazurowski & Kanjou 2012), as well as Tell \u00b4Abr 3 (Yartah 2013), and K\u00f6rtik Tepe (\u00d6zkaya & Co\u015fkun 2011) feature decorations in the form of snakes and scorpions, quadruped animals, insects, and birds strongly reminiscent of the iconography of G\u00f6bekli Tepe, where they appear not only on the pillars, but also on similar items.<\/p>\n

\"G\u00f6bekli

Plaquette with depiction of a snake, a human (?) and a bird (Photo Irmgard Wagner, Copyright DAI).<\/p><\/div>\n

Most striking in this regard is a small plaquette from G\u00f6bekli Tepe. From the left to the right, it shows a snake moving upwards, a stylized human figure (?) with raised arms, and a bird. What makes this small find so interesting, is that the combination of depictions reappears not only in similar (e.g. in Jerf el Ahmar with a fox in place of the human-shape?), but also in completely and nearly identical form twice on another site, Tell Abr\u00b43 in northern Syria (K\u00f6ksal-Schmidt & Schmidt 2007; Yartah 2013, with images [external link<\/a>]).<\/p>\n\n\t\t