Update on Gobleki Tepe
I apologize that this post is so long in coming to you, fellow wayfarers. Between the end of the school year and moving to Chicago for my internship, I ran out of time. But here is the promised post.*These notes came from a lecture given in June of 2014 by Dr. Klaus Schmidt at the Freer|Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC.
Gobleki Tepe, for those who may be unfamiliar with it, is a stone-age site in the mountains of southeastern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). It has been carbon-dated to just after the end of the last major ice age, around the 10th century BC, and demonstrates the earliest known Homo sapien creation of a sacred space.
The term sacred space refers to how human beings historically have attempted to conceptualize and rationalize a world other than the physical.
- What kind of a world was/is this to them?
- How do the humans in question interact with this space?
- What do we turn the mental act of worship into the physical?
These are some of the questions that sites like Gobleki Tepe are helping social scientists to answer.
This lecture focused on recently excavated totems in enclosures A, B, C, and D. (Archaeologists lay out their excavations on a grid system to help us keep track of the finds.) These totems appear in several combinations: animals, animals and humans together, and humans fully dressed in animal skins. As the figures progress in date from the earliest to the latest, they go from featuring only animals to a dominant human anthropomorphic figure.
Here's what we know:
- The carbon date of these totems coincides with the dates of animal domestication that were previously determined for this area of Asia Minor.
- These are limestone totems averaging about 5 meters in height and are of excellent preservation.
- So far only one complete totem has been fully excavated; the rest so far are mostly heads with obsedian eyes, chins, noses and ears. (No analysis has been done to date on the obsedian eyes.)
- The humanoid totems are carved in a T-shape: the head and shoulders are distinct and then the torso drops straight down.
- There are 3-D sculptures of known dangerous animals which, based on their position at the site, appear to be guarding the sacred spaces.
Here are some of the latest findings:
In terms of gender differentiation, both carved male humanoid figures and male animal figures have been found. The one female figure discovered was found in grafetti on the site. However, regardless of this, gender does not seem to have been an important factor at this particular site.
The combinations of human and animals are strange. While no definite determination has been made, some of the animals appear to be lions and bears, as well as snakes, cattle, pigs, and birds. This indicates the presence of both foreign and domestic visitors. Further analysis of Gobleki Tepe has revealed 4 distinct centers of domesticated animals: cattle, sheep, pigs and goats.*
*Pigs were thought to have been the earliest domesticated animal. Recent studies have shown that pigs and goats were domesticated at the same time, but in different locations.
The animals depicted at Gobleki Tepe are animals that would have inhabited both the forest and savannah regions, indicating that the human participants were traveling from farther away than originally thought to this site. The architecture supports this theory of a limited use site; no permanent dwellings have been found and there is no cohesive form of architecture present.
No pottery has been found at this site, although there have been some some stone beads. Evidence has also been found of farmers planting trees and many oval-shaped enclosures, possibly as pens for animals. Carbon dating has revealed that there are a myriad of dates represented, indicating that this site was used over an extended period of time.
It is Dr. Schmidt's working hypothesis that Gobleki Tepe was a cultic center. Based on the position of this site, it would have dominated the surrounding landscape, offering views for miles around. This site would have been a gathering place, a common center for the surrounding groups and tribes. Current evidence suggests that this site was of sacrificial significance only. No evidence supporting celestial significance has yet been found. The lack of pottery is another factor that lends credence to the theory of Gobleki Tepe as a limited-use site; pottery takes time and extensive work to make, which is not something usually done at a site that is not used for permanent residence.
Gobleki Tepe has been under archaeological excavation for 20 years and the latest findings indicate that the work is just getting started. Further conservation is being financed by the Global Heritage Fund and current analysis and conservation is being handled at Munich University.
