Göbekli Tepe, A brief summary of research at a new World Heritage Site (2015–2019)

[traveller]

Mark Forsyth, A Brief History of Drunkenness from the Stone Age to the Present Day


Quoting from a secondary source:


“There are huge bathtubs there, at the bottom of which chemical compounds of oxalate are found. They appear when barley is mixed with water - and it is easy to assume that beer was brewed in them.


There are, of course, objections to this theory (maybe the barley was just soaked?) But there is also a bold version that beer was incredibly important to our ancestors who lived 11,000 years ago. Moreover - for the sake of beer, they began to engage in agriculture. Because beer is easier to make than bread (it doesn't need to be baked); because during the fermentation of cereals, vital B vitamins are formed; because beer can be stored; because the alcohol in beer disinfects the water ... And so on - there are many very good reasons why beer is better than bread.


By the way, a fairly popular gyrothesis is that cereals in general in different parts of the world began to be grown initially for the manufacture of beer - including corn. And then we moved on to the bread...

Cereals were mostly consumed as a porridge when pottery became available, not sure about pre-pottery times. Lots of grinding stones were found at GT.

These were the tubs found:





See https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...stern-turkey/A1AA4FB20657599F859860D94CCD090E

 

[Alex Repin]

Good idea! In the pre-ceramic era, food was often cooked in water by throwing red-hot stones into it. Perhaps these baths are the case... And then, it follows that GT was not just a temple/grain storage/trading platform for buying and selling obsidian, but also a public kitchen and canteen! And then in these baths, the grain could sometimes be fermented to beer, which was used at the celebrations. Everything is in full accordance with the "fieste hypothesis" (Hayden, Brian. Models of Domestication // Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory (neopr.) / Anne Birgitte Gebauer and T. Douglas Price. - Madison: Prehistory Press, 1992. - P. 11 -18.)

"The "fiesta" theory admits that within the framework of the local culture there was a demonstration of their power and power, in particular, in the form of organizing crowded holidays, fiestas. To do this, it was necessary to make stocks of game and cereals, some of which grew near dwellings or bred in captivity ."

That is, a symbol of power: "Bread and Circuses!" Such drunken festivities survived in Egypt, which retained a great deal from the Neolithic. Possibly in Sumer, the Akitu festival, the grain festival - beat the king with a whip, perhaps, if only EVERYONE is drunk !!!


Holidays-theaters are what preceded the birth of religious rites, gave an unforgettable vivid impression to people for the whole year, an opportunity to get together, chat, sell and buy something, get married. All this determined the cultural and religious GENERALITY of the tribes, making it a nation/religious "empire". The GT cult was everywhere in Anatolia!

 

[Alex Repin]

By the way, there are theories all the time that grain domestication always had to get beer first! And only then did the selection of cereals begin to produce a crop in order to make bread. For example, the first ears of corn in Mexico were too small to harvest grain. So, they were rather grown for fermentation ...

 

[Alex Repin]

Perhaps one more note about the drawings on the pillars in the GT ... In addition to the usual fauna, where we see foxes and wild boars that are found in the forest-steppe (!), We see strange images of vulture birds with balls (skulls?). In Catal Huyuk, the cult of vultures is of great importance in the funeral ritual, in which there are special towers of the dead, just as it was among the Zoroastrians...
And of course, numerous basket bags, similar to those worn by the Sumerian Anunnaki. Which are constantly found in the Old and New Worlds. They were produced in large quantities by the Jiroft culture from chlorite. Apparently, it was a very important symbol of the "harvest", which distinguishes the gods and priests from ordinary people, which has roots in GT. From which the development of our entire "grain" civilization began. Grain made us who we are...

 

[traveller]

The above image is not from GT, I presume?

The GT enclosures interestingly each have a dominating species. In Enclosure A snakes are the dominating species, in Enclosure B foxes are frequent, in Enclosure C many boars are represented, while Enclosure D is more varied, with birds playing an important role. Enclosure H has many jumping wildcats.

 

[Alex Repin]

Certainly! I only wanted to emphasize the continuity of the tradition from GT in later times. In addition to "drunken holidays", we also meet in ancient Egypt the system of "national projects", when the pharaoh collects taxes, and then, as a "generous giver", distributes bread and beer in exchange for the work of free workers to build the pyramids. Here is the answer how these stone complexes were built.

It wasn't slave labor!

 

[Alex Repin]

The above image is not from GT, I presume?

The GT enclosures interestingly each have a dominating species. In Enclosure A snakes are the dominating species, in Enclosure B foxes are frequent, in Enclosure C many boars are represented, while Enclosure D is more varied, with birds playing an important role. Enclosure H has many jumping wildcats.

But it seems that mostly different types of animals are mixed on one stele.

 

[traveller]

But it seems that mostly different types of animals are mixed on one stele.

It seems there are only a few pillars with many animals, two feature very prominently and P43 (below) specifically has captured the imagination of many amateur researchers. It also shows how the pillars have been relocated, as part of the image is inside a wall.





Others are much simpler.



Some statistics, from https://www.researchgate.net/public...South-eastern_Turkey_A_Preliminary_Assessment:

 

[traveller]

Here is a map of contemporaneous sites with similar features, from https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-te...-distribution-of-sites-with-t-shaped-pillars/.

 

[Alex Repin]

Göbekli Tepe, the beginning of all beginnings... All the religions that arose after, why do they practice sacrifices? But why??? What is the meaning of this from a material point of view? Nothing for a primitive hunter and gatherer!!! Caught, collected and eaten! GT reveals to us the world's first "technological process" that unlocks this troglodyte way of life. In order to cut the grain, you need to get obsidian knives from the priests, "trade brokers". Who bought them for grain from producers on the side. In order to make bread/porridge and wonderful beer, the grain gatherers must carry it to the temple complex where the cooks will prepare the food - hard grain is impossible to eat! Moreover, in order to avoid starvation in case of crop failure, it must be stored - have supplies under the supervision of priests. But for former hunters, this is nonsense. The primacy of his psychology "want / don't want!" Here the word “necessary!” appears, which is framed by the symbols of “gods”, who take gifts and give what they need in return. The priest here became the "broker of the gods." Only in this way could he motivate this process! Later, when more perfect "gifts of exchange" such as copper and bronze arose, there may have been personal gods who dealt with broker-priests. But the priest himself personally could not order anything to the tribe - he could only refer to the authority of one or another god. Much later, this trading cult degenerated into a simple tribute collection, where only a tiny part of the sacrifice was burned, and the rest was eaten by the temple servants. This is vividly demonstrated in the joke about Prometheus, who deceived Zeus...


"The priest could not order the gatherer - bring it to me!" For a primitive man, this would be violence ...