Angela
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Apparently, there were surprisingly few remains of grains at the site, in contrast to animal remains, and while grinding equipment was present, arguments were made that they had other uses than processing grains. I guess not.
See:
Laura Dietrich et al
"[h=1]Cereal processing at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey"[/h]https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0215214
"[h=2]Abstract[/h]We analyze the processing of cereals and its role at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Anatolia (10th / 9th millennium BC), a site that has aroused much debate in archaeological discourse. To date, only zooarchaeological evidence has been discussed in regard to the subsistence of its builders. Göbekli Tepe consists of monumental round to oval buildings, erected in an earlier phase, and smaller rectangular buildings, built around them in a partially contemporaneous and later phase. The monumental buildings are best known as they were in the focus of research. They are around 20 m in diameter and have stone pillars that are up to 5.5 m high and often richly decorated. The rectangular buildings are smaller and–in some cases–have up to 2 m high, mostly undecorated, pillars. Especially striking is the number of tools related to food processing, including grinding slabs/bowls, handstones, pestles, and mortars, which have not been studied before. We analyzed more than 7000 artifacts for the present contribution. The high frequency of artifacts is unusual for contemporary sites in the region. Using an integrated approach of formal, experimental, and macro- / microscopical use-wear analyses we show that Neolithic people at Göbekli Tepe have produced standardized and efficient grinding tools, most of which have been used for the processing of cereals. Additional phytolith analysis confirms the massive presence of cereals at the site, filling the gap left by the weakly preserved charred macro-rests. The organization of work and food supply has always been a central question of research into Göbekli Tepe, as the construction and maintenance of the monumental architecture would have necessitated a considerable work force. Contextual analyses of the distribution of the elements of the grinding kit on site highlight a clear link between plant food preparation and the rectangular buildings and indicate clear delimitations of working areas for food production on the terraces the structures lie on, surrounding the circular buildings. There is evidence for extensive plant food processing and archaeozoological data hint at large-scale hunting of gazelle between midsummer and autumn. As no large storage facilities have been identified, we argue for a production of food for immediate use and interpret these seasonal peaks in activity at the site as evidence for the organization of large work feasts.'
"One model to explain cooperation in small-scale communities involves ritualized work feasts. M. Dietler and E. Herbich define work feasts as events in which “commensal hospitality is used to orchestrate voluntary collective labour,” the incentive to work together is provided by the prospect of large amounts of food and drink [119]. Work feasts can mobilize hundreds of people across kinship or friendship networks, they are temporally finite and no obligations remain after their end. The number of people mobilized depends directly on the quantity and quality of food and drink provided. The main archaeological marker for feasting would be evidence of the presence of larger amounts of foodstuffs and tools than needed by the inhabitants of a site for their subsistence. We have presented evidence for Göbekli Tepe that fits that pattern for plant food. To characterize the intense production at Göbekli Tepe, a comparison with Jerf el Ahmar is helpful. Although there are similarities in site structure (rectangular buildings for plant processing next to round buildings), there is one important difference: at Göbekli Tepe no large silos have been identified. Production was not for storage, but for immediate use."
"K. Twiss [120] has argued that meat is often the most common food at feasts, and large animals are often of peculiar importance as they provide large amounts of meat and–due to the dangers involved in killing them–also prestige to hunters. For the early Neolithic, she emphasizes the importance of the aurochs, which also plays a big role in PPN imagery and ritual deposits [76]. At Göbekli Tepe, the aurochs takes second place among the hunted species [58] but far more impressive is the amount of gazelle bones [75]. Gazelle is migratory; an easily accessible large-scale supply of gazelle meat was available between midsummer and autumn [75]. The mass of bones recovered hints at mass killings in that short period of the year. While the prestige aspect of hunting large game like aurochs is evident, aurochs also provide lots of fat, essential to people for surviving the winter months, indifferent of how many actually stayed on site [76]. Hunting large numbers of gazelle and Asiatic wild ass, the third important species at Göbekli Tepe, cannot, however, be explained by this “quest for fat” [76]. It is likely that they were hunted to supply a large quantity of meat for seasonal peaks in site use [76], which we identify as work feasts.Alcoholic beverages are another important aspect of feasts [119, 120], and producing them is an important use of cereals. Tentative evidence for the consumption of alcohol at Göbekli Tepe has been published [51]. Consumption during feasts may be associated with special serving paraphernalia [120]. Göbekli Tepe has produced around 80 sherds of stone drinking vessels [72]. The vessels are thin-walled and made in part of varieties of ‘greenstone’."
"Thus, at Göbekli Tepe, we have evidence of feasting, tentatively including the use of fermented beverages, as an incentive to participate in large-scale construction work. The necessity to provide food and drink for these work feasts would have resulted in the need for large-scale food supplies and their processing at certain times, which would explain the extraordinarily high number of dedicated tools for cereal processing, analyzed for the first time here. K. Schmidt had hypothesized that the amount of food needed for work feasts could have been a contributing factor in the search for more reliable food sources and ultimately domestication [64]. Our study further proves his argument that feasting was an important social practice and provides an explanation for the possibility of large-scale building activities at Göbekli Tepe. However, our findings rather suggest that such feasts were held strategically in seasons favorable to the natural availability of plant food and meat between midsummer and autumn."
"We argue that collecting and processing cereals was an integral part of the subsistence system of the Early Neolithic groups who erected the megalithic buildings at Göbekli Tepe, that work feasts are a likely model to explain their ability to concentrate the necessary work force at the site, and that providing food (and drink) for these work feasts would have required large-scale food supplies and their processing at certain times of the year."
See:
Laura Dietrich et al
"[h=1]Cereal processing at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey"[/h]https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0215214
"[h=2]Abstract[/h]We analyze the processing of cereals and its role at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Anatolia (10th / 9th millennium BC), a site that has aroused much debate in archaeological discourse. To date, only zooarchaeological evidence has been discussed in regard to the subsistence of its builders. Göbekli Tepe consists of monumental round to oval buildings, erected in an earlier phase, and smaller rectangular buildings, built around them in a partially contemporaneous and later phase. The monumental buildings are best known as they were in the focus of research. They are around 20 m in diameter and have stone pillars that are up to 5.5 m high and often richly decorated. The rectangular buildings are smaller and–in some cases–have up to 2 m high, mostly undecorated, pillars. Especially striking is the number of tools related to food processing, including grinding slabs/bowls, handstones, pestles, and mortars, which have not been studied before. We analyzed more than 7000 artifacts for the present contribution. The high frequency of artifacts is unusual for contemporary sites in the region. Using an integrated approach of formal, experimental, and macro- / microscopical use-wear analyses we show that Neolithic people at Göbekli Tepe have produced standardized and efficient grinding tools, most of which have been used for the processing of cereals. Additional phytolith analysis confirms the massive presence of cereals at the site, filling the gap left by the weakly preserved charred macro-rests. The organization of work and food supply has always been a central question of research into Göbekli Tepe, as the construction and maintenance of the monumental architecture would have necessitated a considerable work force. Contextual analyses of the distribution of the elements of the grinding kit on site highlight a clear link between plant food preparation and the rectangular buildings and indicate clear delimitations of working areas for food production on the terraces the structures lie on, surrounding the circular buildings. There is evidence for extensive plant food processing and archaeozoological data hint at large-scale hunting of gazelle between midsummer and autumn. As no large storage facilities have been identified, we argue for a production of food for immediate use and interpret these seasonal peaks in activity at the site as evidence for the organization of large work feasts.'
"One model to explain cooperation in small-scale communities involves ritualized work feasts. M. Dietler and E. Herbich define work feasts as events in which “commensal hospitality is used to orchestrate voluntary collective labour,” the incentive to work together is provided by the prospect of large amounts of food and drink [119]. Work feasts can mobilize hundreds of people across kinship or friendship networks, they are temporally finite and no obligations remain after their end. The number of people mobilized depends directly on the quantity and quality of food and drink provided. The main archaeological marker for feasting would be evidence of the presence of larger amounts of foodstuffs and tools than needed by the inhabitants of a site for their subsistence. We have presented evidence for Göbekli Tepe that fits that pattern for plant food. To characterize the intense production at Göbekli Tepe, a comparison with Jerf el Ahmar is helpful. Although there are similarities in site structure (rectangular buildings for plant processing next to round buildings), there is one important difference: at Göbekli Tepe no large silos have been identified. Production was not for storage, but for immediate use."
"K. Twiss [120] has argued that meat is often the most common food at feasts, and large animals are often of peculiar importance as they provide large amounts of meat and–due to the dangers involved in killing them–also prestige to hunters. For the early Neolithic, she emphasizes the importance of the aurochs, which also plays a big role in PPN imagery and ritual deposits [76]. At Göbekli Tepe, the aurochs takes second place among the hunted species [58] but far more impressive is the amount of gazelle bones [75]. Gazelle is migratory; an easily accessible large-scale supply of gazelle meat was available between midsummer and autumn [75]. The mass of bones recovered hints at mass killings in that short period of the year. While the prestige aspect of hunting large game like aurochs is evident, aurochs also provide lots of fat, essential to people for surviving the winter months, indifferent of how many actually stayed on site [76]. Hunting large numbers of gazelle and Asiatic wild ass, the third important species at Göbekli Tepe, cannot, however, be explained by this “quest for fat” [76]. It is likely that they were hunted to supply a large quantity of meat for seasonal peaks in site use [76], which we identify as work feasts.Alcoholic beverages are another important aspect of feasts [119, 120], and producing them is an important use of cereals. Tentative evidence for the consumption of alcohol at Göbekli Tepe has been published [51]. Consumption during feasts may be associated with special serving paraphernalia [120]. Göbekli Tepe has produced around 80 sherds of stone drinking vessels [72]. The vessels are thin-walled and made in part of varieties of ‘greenstone’."
"Thus, at Göbekli Tepe, we have evidence of feasting, tentatively including the use of fermented beverages, as an incentive to participate in large-scale construction work. The necessity to provide food and drink for these work feasts would have resulted in the need for large-scale food supplies and their processing at certain times, which would explain the extraordinarily high number of dedicated tools for cereal processing, analyzed for the first time here. K. Schmidt had hypothesized that the amount of food needed for work feasts could have been a contributing factor in the search for more reliable food sources and ultimately domestication [64]. Our study further proves his argument that feasting was an important social practice and provides an explanation for the possibility of large-scale building activities at Göbekli Tepe. However, our findings rather suggest that such feasts were held strategically in seasons favorable to the natural availability of plant food and meat between midsummer and autumn."
"We argue that collecting and processing cereals was an integral part of the subsistence system of the Early Neolithic groups who erected the megalithic buildings at Göbekli Tepe, that work feasts are a likely model to explain their ability to concentrate the necessary work force at the site, and that providing food (and drink) for these work feasts would have required large-scale food supplies and their processing at certain times of the year."