Architectural design at Göbekli Tepe

January 1, 2024 3:39 AM

This study will discuss the building history of the monumental enclosures in the main area of Göbekli Tepe, as well as the chronological relations between them

Abstract

The site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey keeps fascinating archaeologists as it is being exposed. The excavation since 1995 has been accompanied by a lively discussion about the meaning and implications of its remarkable early Neolithic megalithic architecture, unprecedented in its monumentality, complexity and symbolic content. The building history and the chronological relations between the different structures (enclosures), however, remain in many ways a challenge and open to further analysis. The study presented here is an attempt to contribute in this direction by applying a preliminary architectural formal analysis in order to reconstruct aspects of the architectural design processes involved in the construction of the monumental enclosures. This is done under the premise that such investigation would shed light on the chaîne opératoire of the enclosures' construction and their history, thus enabling a fresh look as well as an evaluation of past suggestions regarding these structures and the people who built them. Indeed, the results of the analysis brought to light an underlying geometric pattern which offers a new understanding of the assemblage of architectural remains indicating that three of the stone-built large enclosures were planned and initially built as a single project.


Göbekli Tepe previously on the blue.

posted by cupcakeninja (9 comments total)

I’ve read about Gobekli Tempe before, but not about these enclosures. They’re fascinating.This article has photographs of the T-shaped pillars and their carvings.
posted by bq at 6:31 AM on January 1 [11 favorites]

Fascinating stuff. And the article bq links could be an FPP in its own right, too.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:10 AM on January 1

The ruins of G.T. are the final stage of its existence. Clearly this was a site of complex activity for hundreds of years before it reached that stage.

Because these people are described as pre-agricultuural hunter-gatherers, it is my opinion that it started as a place to process the proceeds of hunting the massive herds migrating past. If a single seasonal event can feed a community for the upcoming year, there is plenty of time and resources available to improve the place.
posted by Repack Rider at 10:03 AM on January 1 [3 favorites]

Thanks for posting cupcakeninja. The ninth millennium!, we have lost the meaning of time. On the symbolism of the pillars also see When Time Begins to Matter by Marion Benz, in Hodder Consciousness, Creativity, and Self at the Dawn of Settled Life [chapter .pdf on researchgate

I don't know much about Göbekli Tepe but read a lot about Çatalhöyük Turkey as it seems to represent (apparently non/ low-hierarchical) dense human living, with spatial arrangements rooted in belief. It's an absolute trove for design-thinking. Benz looks into the differences of depictions of human animal representation, and that the earliest 'depiction of human hierarchies appear' at Göbekli.

Looking at these sites in depth offer other ways of living to avoid the hierarchy, patriarchy, and separation from nature (which one came first?) that is ruining our planet and further dividing people.
posted by unearthed at 12:02 PM on January 1 [1 favorite]

Using Occam's razor, we might conclude that Göbekli Tepe was a place for ritual murder. Sort of a neolithic Auschwitz. The enclosures were probably for holding victims. Mass-murder has been a constant of human history, from Ur to ancient MesoAmerica to countless examples in our own time. From the disappearance of the Neanderthals, to the disappearance of European hunter gatherers, to the extinction of Native Americans at the hands of other Native Americans and white settlers, to countless examples in our own time: archeological and genetic discoveries are telling the same story over and over - people really like to kill each other.
posted by Modest House at 2:21 PM on January 1

More likely cereal killers Cereal processing at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe. Paper covers how GT has a much higher percentage of cereal grain processing implements and traces compared with other sites in region, and that domesticity has been downplayed or deprecated in many studies.
posted by unearthed at 4:26 PM on January 1 [5 favorites]

... Göbekli Tepe was a hot spot, a regional center. The chapels lack hearths and domestic middens, although recent excavations have unearthed cisterns for collecting rainwater and stone tools for grinding grain (per bq's excellent Domicide link). Cereal processing at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey (2019). I'll go with sacred... brewpub.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:33 PM on January 1 [3 favorites]

but why did the ancients construct such moe faces
what did they know about smol beans
posted by klangklangston at 11:58 AM on January 2

Thank you for this link cupcake ninja. Prehistory is fascinating because researchers are finding that humans were up to all sorts of mischief far, far earlier than we expected. I got hooked by James C. Scott's book 'Against the Grain'. The book is a prominent anarchist's take on recent research showing that the standard account of the rise of agriculture and civilization is almost completely backwards. Lots of fun to read and a good entry point to the field of prehistory. Other fun and instructive reads include Barry Cunliffe's 'Britain Begins' and Tony Joseph's 'Early Indians'. If authoritarians would stop trying to murder everyone in the middle east, we could have more archaeologists on the ground figuring out these mysteries.
posted by SnowRottie at 8:07 AM on January 3 [3 favorites]