Reprezentarile naturalistice de tip fotografic, ale lucrurilor care ne inconojara ne sunt foarte familiare si nu necesita vre-un efort de intelegere. Fie ca e vorba de imaginea mamei, a unui pom sau orice altceva. Insa cand este vorba de reprezentarea unor notiuni abstracte, atunci lucrurile nu mai sunt la fel de simple. Pentru ca in mod ideal imaginea trebuie sa fie atat sugestiva cat si sa reprezinte cat mai sintetic acel concept. Dificultatea devine evidenta si numai daca revenim la exemplul pe care l-am avut mai inainte ,mama. Nu cred ca sumerienii atunci cand au avut nevoie de un semn sa reprezinte puterile divine atunci, pe loc au imaginat unul. Cred ca au avut de unde alege, din infinitatea de semne preexistente in natura. Am observat ca semnele pictografice sumeriene (adica proto-cuneiforme) nu reflecta totdeauna cu fidelitate forma obiectului descris. Apoi poate ca sumerienii au preluat semnul de la civilizatiile precedente sau poate nu. Insa cu siguranta si culegatorii-vanatorii s-au confruntat cu o dilema asemanatoare: ce semn sa foloseasca pentru a exprima sentimentul de admiratie, evlavie si divinizare ? Nu o sa stim niciodata daca alegerea semnului a avut partial un caracter aleator sau a fost indelung gandita. Noi facem acum apropierea cu craniul de taur si silueta umana. Cumva ca o ironia a sortii, a siluetei umane fara cap ! Sigur ca silueta umana si taurul inspira forta si putere, dar cred ca exista inca multe alte simboluri care ar putea sugera la fel de bine forta si putere.Dar sa nu uitam ca noi interpretam din perspectiva omului modern care are o cu totul alta viziune asupra lumii. Inceputurile religiei in lume ca si populatia culturii neolitice pre-ceramice (PPN/ pre-pottery neolithic) nu a inceput cu divinizarea unor entitati antropomorfe.Parerea mea este ca spre exemplu in cazul Gobekli Tepe populatia a inceput cu divinizarea unor demoni si spirite. Asa cum eu sustin ca posibil primele monumente in T au reprezentat spiritul vietii. Posibil impreuna cu al stramosilor. Savantul rus Emelianov sustine ca sensul original al notiunii sumeriene “Me” care are forma literei tau, a fost “vointa de a trai”. Probabil va intrebati ce legatura poate fi intre doua civilizatii aflate la distanta de 5.000 de ani una de alta. Si eu m-am mirat observand unele legaturi. Este posibil vorba de un gen de continuitate in spatiu si timp a unor locuitori localnici. Din fericire mai exista si alti cercetatori care au remarcat asemenea similaritati: From the Treasures of Syria – NINO Leidenhttps://www.nino-leiden.nl › publication › from-the-tre… Localnicii culegatori-vanatori ai zonei Sanliurfa (campia Harran) traind si fiind total legati si dependenti de natura, au fost suficient de practici, modesti si lipsiti de orgoliu antropocentric ca sa nu-si gaseasca si sa se sprijine pe divinitati asemanatoare lor. Evolutia incepand de la divinizarea unor entitati spirit se poate observa in cea a aspectului pilonilor din stratul III de la Gobekli Tepe, trecand apoi la stalpii in T de la Adiyaman/Kilisik
si terminand cu omul din Urfa. Desi as fi vrut sa gasesc urme si resorturile ultime al semnului T in faza pre-ceramica sau inainte, nu am gasit. Am gasit cate ceva pe teritoriul Armeniei, insa semnele par nu a fi destul de vechi (adica inainte de 9.600 IEN) si interpretarea lor se abate de la cea a expertilor sumerieni. https://www.academia.edu › The_La… Rezultate de pe web (PDF) The Land of the Celestial Gates | Hamlet Martirosyan … In future writings we will try to show that it is necessary to use the “passage, fissure, aperture, door, gate, way” meaning of the ME cuneiform . Din https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adyghe_Xabze
The Adyghe “hammer cross” representing Xabze
A se vedea si religii autohtone ale popoarelor indigene din Caucaz: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Caucasian_neopaganism <<Un element important este credința în sufletul strămoșilor, care au capacitatea de a observa și evalua treburile descendenților lor. Conceptul de durere fizică sau plăcere în (viata de) apoi este absent…. >> Nu am gasit semne T mai vechi decat cele de la Gobekli Tepe in arta si semnele rupestre ori cele ale epocii de piatra. Si chiar daca as fi gasit, este mai degraba imposibil de a extrage vre-o semnificatie clara a lor. Parerea mea este ca semnul fiind din categoria crucilor are legatura cu impactul, intersectia si traversarea, incrucisarea. Poate reprezenta legatura pamantenilor cu cerul si divinitatea, devreme ce semnul T in scrierea veche chineza reprezinta notiunea de JOS. Cumva este naturalistic, pentru ca cerul era imaginat de antici ca o sfera ce inconjoara Pamantul, deci oarecum tangibila. este reprezentat de partea de sus a T-ului.
Oare doua T-uri alaturate:”H” Universul ?? Daca semnificatia semnului T=Me a ajuns sa fie atat de bogata si complexa, ma gandesc ca are o origine veche intr-o societate mai simpla si cu timpul, pe masura dezvoltarii a ajuns sa castige noi si noi semnificatii. Societatea si populatia ariei Sanliurfa de la 9.600 IEN a fost cel putin la fel de avansata si complexa pentru timpul sau ca si societatea ulterioara care ia urmat dupa mii de ani, cea sumeriana !
I found many such traces, clues and elements and I was not particularly concerned with finding explanations. Because the distance in time is so great (5.000 years!), plausible explanations can hardly be sustained.The elements I found refer mainly to symbols (icons) and their meaning. We found many symbols that have a pair and therefore a graphic equivalent in the Sumerian proto-cuneiform signs. Further starting from these pairs generates different assumptions and interpretations.I was also very surprised and pleased that other researchers noticed such similarities. A paper that deals with this kind of “cultural continuity” with the civilizations of the ancient Syrian area, is: From the Treasures of Syria. Essays on Art and Archaeology in Honour of Stefania Mazzoni. Edited by P. Ciafardoni and D. Giannessi. https://www.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de › …PDF Rezultate de pe web www.nino-leiden.nl This pdf is a digital offprint of your contribution … de EON ART 9.000 YEARS OF CULTIC TRADITIONS IN NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA AND SYRIA? THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CRESCENT, THE BULL AND THE POLE WITH HUMAN HEADSAdelheid Otto aotto@lmu.de
<< … Indeed, there seems to be evidence of both the sun disc in a crescent and the moon disc in a crescent in ancient Near Eastern depictions (Collon 1993-1997). A good example of the crescent and disc as a symbol of the moon is given by votive stone discs resembling the full moon, which name the two Akkadian princesses Enheduana and Enmena as the high-priestesses of the Moon-God at Ur. THE BUCRANIUM, THE CRESCENT AND THE DISC ON T-SHAPED PILLARS FROM PPN GÖBEKLI TEPE In view of this state of knowledge, we can imagine what a shock it was when the monumental pillars in Nevalı Çori, Göbekli Tepe and other sites at the northern end of Upper Mesopotamia came to light (Figs. 2-3). Some of the so-called T-shaped pillars exhibit bent arms with hands, girdles, and necklaces in shallow relief, which indicate that they were supposed to represent anthropomorphic beings. The wide upper end of the pillars had apparently been modelled on an oversized head, as is substantiated by an only 80 cm high, but morphologically very similar statuette from Adyaman-Kilisik (Fig. 4a)10, or on two juxtaposed heads, as is shown by a Janus-faced sculpture in the Gaziantep Museum (Fig. 4b)11. The concept on which these T- shaped pillars are based, is thus indeed the strongly stylized and monumentally oversized representation of anthropomorphic beings.There are always two especially large anthropomorphic beings in the center of the round or rectangular buildings. They are much taller than the other pillars, which were integrated in the wall and decorated in a different way. Ever since these T-shaped pillars came to light, there has been a lively discussion whether these pillars represented supernatural powers or deities (Becker et al. 2012), or whether they were “images of ancestors and demons” and “refer to a shamanistic background for the ceremonies… not… to the worship of a distinct deity or of different deities” (Hauptmann 2011, 96, 98).The two largest pillars excavated so far, Pillars 18 and 31 in the center of circle D at Göbekli (Figs. 2 and 3), are – in my opinion – crucial in the discussion about ancient beliefs. The two T-shaped pillars are located in the center of the circular room and with their height of 5.5 m tower over the other pillars, which form an integral part of the circular wall. Especially remarkable is in which detail pillars 18 and 31 are distinguished as anthropomorphic beings (Schmidt 2011, Figs. 32-34): the long arms reach diagonally over the sides of the pillars and the hands are placed on the waists so that the fingers almost touch themselves. They wear a decorated belt with a fur-loincloth hanging from it. Especially important is the fact that the pillar figures wear a necklace on their front sides, directly below the T-shaped widening, i.e. below their heads. This is rendered as two parallel bands, hanging down from the neck in a V-shape – similar to the necklace of the anthropomorphic statue from Urfa (Fig. 5a), and to the T-shaped pillar 2 from Nevalı Çori (Fig. 5b). But in marked contrast to these, pillars 18 and 31 are distinguished by pendants attached to the necklaces, which were obviously meant to identify these colosses.The pendant of pillar 18 (Fig. 3b) consists of two oppositely arranged oblong motives with diagonal extensions, and a semicircular band and a donut-like disc with a central cavity below (Schmidt 2011, 81, Fig. 32). The upper pair of motives is difficult to interpret, the one below can easily be recognized as crescent and disc. The pendant of pillar 31 has rightly been identified by Schmidt as a bucranium, since the bulls on pillar 2 (Schmidt 2011, 68, Fig. 14) and pillar 20 (Schmidt 2011, 73, Fig. 22) exhibit a similar head.12 However, the motives of these “pendants” differ distinctly from other images found on the T-pillars. The numerous depicted animals so far known from Göbekli Tepe – Schmidt (2007, 165) vividly talks of a “stone age zoo” – used to be rendered as complete animals and shown in side view. The isolated bull’s head or bucranium,depicted frontally and perfectly symmetrically, clearly was an abbreviated rendering, and served as a sign or symbol. The crescent and disc are also exceptional, since they seem to have been the earliest renderings of celestial bodies so far. In view of the monumental dimensions of the anthropomorphic pillars 18 and 31 –they are more than three times human live size – it is difficult not to imagine the concept of supernatural powers behind these earliest “colossal statues”. And – since the symbolic value of the bucranium and the crescent with the disc seems evident to all people dealing with the Near Eastern Bronze and Iron Age cultures, where these motives were distinct symbols of certain deities, it is equally difficult not to associate them with these gods. This is all the more so, because the region where the “communal buildings” of the PPN period were prevalent, corresponds almost exactly to the region where the moon god and the storm god had been venerated in their main sanctuaries at Halab, Harran, Doliche and others for millennia (map Fig. 10). PPN POLES, ADORNED WITH A HUMAN HEAD AND A BIRD A slightly different pole (Fig. 6) has come to light in the PPNB settlement at Nevalı Çori, in the extraordinary terrazzo building, which is rightly interpreted as a “Sondergebäude”. Three fragments were separately integrated in the eastern bench of the medium phase of the building, which allows the conclusion that in the previous phase the pole had been standing in the terrazzo building. This pole shows two anthropomorphic beings back to back. They embrace each other in a way that the arms of each person embrace the other person from the back. Their hands with the five fingers rest on the narrow sides of the pole (Hauptmann 2011, 99, 134, Fig. 24a/b). One face shows elaborate features with almond-shaped eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The face of the second figure has almost completely dropped off. Both wear a head garment or long hair, which has been engraved in the soft clay as a meshed structure. One figure’s hair reaches down to its back. The hair of the other figure seems to be somewhat shorter, which could be also due to its hair ending at the beginning of the hair line of the other figure. A bird is sitting on top of the upper head. Its legs and body with flight feathers and tail have been preserved, whereas its head has broken off. Nevertheless, it is certain that the bird formed the upper ending of the pole, for the small place of fracture does not allow to carry heavy weight. Such as it is, the stone pole with two human heads and topped by a bird is 1 m high, with the heads being live-sized. Adding the broken-off bird’s head and assuming that the pole extended below the figures, it must have measured at least 1.20 m, but may also have been much taller. Another stone pole with a human head and topped by a bird was found at Nevalı Çori (Fig. 7ab).14 The human face is rendered in a similar elaborate way, with almond-shaped eyes, a strong nose and a mouth. At 29 cm height, the head is slightly over live-sized. The head is crowned with a kind of cap with vertically engraved lines, which is supposed to be either the scalp hair or a head garment. Above and behind the head, the remains of a bird’s convex breast and its acute wings, pointing back downwards, have been preserved. In contrast to the other one, this pole has a clear exhibition side. The existence of a second figure on the other side of the pole can be excluded, but the pole might have extended below the head. A fragmentary sculpture of a bird, which presumably was holding a human head between its claws, was found reused in a wall at Göbekli Tepe (Schmidt 2007 100, Fig. 30). So far, no standards with human heads and birds have come to light further south in the Euphrates valley, but two decorated stone poles, each ending in a bird’s head, were found in situ in the large communal building EA 100 in Jerf al-Ahmar (Fig. 8). The only furniture of this round, semi-subterranean building was a bench along the inner side, which was elaborately adorned with decorated stone slabs. Therefore, the excavators interpret this building as “bâtiment collectif” for reunions (Stordeur, Abbès 2002, 586). The two poles with bird’s heads were placed to the right and left of the largest vertical stone slab in such a way that the heads projected above the bench. The embellishment of the slabs not only consisted of a zigzag decor on the front side, but also of two engraved human headless corpses (Stordeur/ Abbès 2002, 587, Fig. 15): another proof of the association of birds with headless humans.15 Many more stick-like objects ending in a bird’s head are attested from PPN sites in Northern Mesopotamia and Syria, from Qaramel in the West to Nemrik in the East (Kozlowski, Aurenche 2005, 206). In all these cases, the meaning of the human-headed pole topped by a bird, and the pole ending in a bird’s head, escapes us. Since headless bodies and birds are frequently depicted together in the Neolithic period (e.g. on wall paintings at Çatal Höyük or on pillar 43 from Göbekli Tepe), and since the skull cult is a striking phenomenon of the Early Neolithic period in many Near Eastern sites,16 the association of the remarkable pole with human heads and a bird (Fig. 6) with the skull cult is tempting at first sight. However, the open eyes and the hair or head garment as well as the arms speak against it. Without understanding the meaning, we have to agree to Hauptmann and Schmidt, who recognized “bird and human head” as one of the main themes of PPN monumental art (Hauptmann,Schmidt 2007).Having assembled these examples of a pole topped by human heads and/or birds, it is impossible not to think of a very peculiar object that was to be venerated in precisely the same region, but some 6000 years later. THE POLE TOPPED BY TWO HUMAN HEADS AND A BIRD ON OLD SYRIAN SEALS Old Syrian cylinder seals of the early second millennium BC show a strange motive: a vertical pole which is topped by two human heads or – less frequently – by only one head (Figs. 9 a-h). A bird is often, but not always, depicted sitting on top of the upper head. The pole is always depicted socketed, either emerging from a rectangular base, or standing on a quadruped, most often a lion, but sometimes a gazelle.This strange object is unparalleled in the whole Near Eastern imagery. Nevertheless, it must have been an important object, since it received veneration. Many seals show a female person standing in front of it, lifting one hand. Already in 1960, Henry Seyrig proposed to identify this object as the famous semeion, which in the 2nd century AD had been described by Lukian of Samosate as an age-old ritual object that was venerated in the famous sanctuary at Hierapolis, modern Menbij in Northern Syria. According to Lukian, the semeion had no body of its own, but bore the images of other gods and a golden dove on top. Paolo Matthiae has recently collected all the hitherto known depictions of the ‘standard with heads’ and summarized the state of knowledge. Matthiae (in press) stated that the motif was especially common on Syrian seals between 1900 and 1750 BC. Dated and provenienced examples are attested on tablets from Kültepe kārum II, from MB I and MB II contexts at Ebla, Hammam et-Turkman, Ugarit and Alalakh (Matthiae in press; Marchetti 2003). The iconography and style of the more than 40 seals known so far vary considerably (Fig. 9 a-h). Therefore it is reasonable to conclude, that these seals were not cut at one place only, but at several places, and that the pole was a frequently used motif on seals in the Syrian and North Mesopotamian area roughly between the Mediterranean coast and the Balih valley. The varying number of heads, the fact, that the bird is sometimes missing, and the different shapes of the pole’s socle (rectangular or theriomorphic as lion or gazelle) do – in my opinion – strongly speak in favor of different ‘real’ poles with human heads, which served as models for these renderings. There may even be added a few later seals of the late 18th century, which depict the pole with the heads in a slightly different manner, e.g. en face or with a pointed headgear (Figs. 9 g, h). These seals indicate that the pole itself did not cease to exist, but slowly became a less popular motive on seals. A similar disappearance of motifs can be observed throughout Near Eastern imagery. It does not indicate, that the objects themselves disappeared, but that the intention of the seal images changed over time. As concerns the semeion, the much later account by Lukian is a strong argument that the pole itself continued to exist, but was no longer depicted on seals. CONCLUSIONS Definite representations of deities in the Syrian and Northern Mesopotamian region are testified for the first time around the mid 3rd millennium. At least this was the state of knowledge before the monumental T-shaped pillars in Göbekli Tepe, Nevalı Çori and other sites had come to light. They date back to the 10th millennium and already represent anthropomorphic beings. On account of their enormous size, it is obvious that they embody supernatural beings.The largest two pillars excavated so far, placed in the center of circle D at Göbekli Tepe, wear necklaces with a bucranium and a disc- and crescent pendant respectively – motifs, which in much later times were to become the symbols of the storm god and the moon god. This is especially striking, as these two are known to have been major gods in exactly the same region with important cult centers in Halab, Kumme, Harran and others, which are attested at least from the 3rd millennium onwards. Another striking cult object, in Greek texts called the semeion, was presumably venerated mainly in Northern Syria, approximately from the coast until the Balih region. It is tempting to trace its origin back to the PPN poles, which were adorned with human heads and a bird ontop. Already the ingenious idea of Seyrig to relate the ‘head standard’ on Old Syrian seals to the semeion described by Lukian, received disapproval at first, but meanwhile seems to be widely accepted. The major obstacle is, of course, that there seems to be no evidence for the period from 1750 BC to 150 AD. However, this could have several reasons: perhaps the pole and perhaps even the heads were of perishable material. Alternatively, the evidence could have escaped the attention of most scholars19. Another explication, which also Matthiae offers, would be that the heads were images of gods, who in subsequent periods mostly were represented as complete figures. Much more challenging is, of course, to postulate a continuity of the venerated beings over 8000 years without the missing link. But it is really necessary to bridge the gap? Holy places have been in use over millennia in all cultures, especially those located in prominent places, and those associated with abundant water, natural springs or caves. In the region examined here, there are several examples of such holy places. Urfa has remained a place of pilgrimage until today, both the area around the so-called sacred spring and a grotto, which is considered as Abraham’s birth place, thus referring to one of the prime fathers of all religions present in this area until today. But already at PPN times, Urfa apparently not only represented a settlement but rather a holy place: the live-sized statue of a male being (Fig. 5a) is reported to originate from there, and a T-shaped pillar was discovered nearby during construction works. A sacred spring, where holy fishes were kept, was also the center of the sanctuary at Hierapolis, where the semeion was kept at the time of Lukian. According to Lukian’s account, the semeion travelled twice a year to the sea. Some sea water was taken back to Hierapolis, where it was poured into the same opening, where the deluge had disappeared. Indeed, the pole on a rectangular socle is often associated with water (rendered as guilloche; e.g. Fig. 9d), the water god (e.g. Fig. 9g), the rain goddess, or fishes. Harran, situated 44 kilometers southeast of Urfa (or Şanlıurfa), has been famous as the city of the moon god for at least 2,500 years. As well the association of Harran with Abraham and Arabic legends, which localize the grave of Tammuz there (Green 1992), suggest the ancient tradition of a holy place there. Also other forms of the people’s religiousness, which surely trace back to pre-Islamic ideas, can still be found in the region examined: e.g. people seeking for help pilgrimage to “wish-trees”, where they hang up stripes of cloth. One of these wish-trees is located on Göbekli Tepe (Schönberger 2007). Since the upper ends of many PPN pillars are still visible on the surface of several PPN sites, it is possible, that some of them have been always perceivable. Generally, conclusions by analogy over millennia are one of the capital sins of interpretation. If they are drawn nevertheless, the continuity of phenomena is usually explained with the help of the “cultural memory”. For the examples examined here, another model of explanation seems to suggest itself: the continuity of “Holy Places”, which survived in Syria and North West Mesopotamia for millennia.>> ========================== In the first time, the author noticed the presence on Gobekli Tepe monuments of ancient, long-lastin already common symbols : the crescent and moon/sun disc and in addition bucranium. Related to T-shaped pillars, the author preferred extremely intelligently not to decide whether they represent supernatural powers or anthropomorphic entities. Then, although he repeatedly refers to the fact that anthropomorphic entities began to appear massively only after 3,000 IEN, he still flirts with the idea of anthropomorphic entities. In my opinion, the T-shaped pillars represent the divine powers, particularly life, obviously of divine essence. So something abstract rather than concrete anthropomorphic deities. The human features and animals present on the pillars only show that it is about life and beings. MUCH MORE, I ADVANCED THE HIPOTHESIS THAT T-SHAPED PILLAR ARE THE PRECURSORS OF SUMERIAN DIVINE POWERS CONCEPT, “Me” The PPN era and the previous one constrain us but also offer us evidence of other early and previous phases of religion, namely the animist, shamanistic and totemistic ones. From damienmarieathope.com https://damienmarieathope.com/2019/04/12000-year-old-gobekli-tepe-first-human-made-pagan-temple/?v=32aec8db952d&fbclid=IwAR0K1aOiPde9CGGKjv2BNSdltyWbBbNVbyIVp3gU2lYrNuGFd7g1a-DOU94 << Understanding Religion Evolution: Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago), Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago), Shamanism (Siberia: 30,000 years ago), Paganism (Turkey:12,000 years ago) * “paganist” Believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife can be attached to or beexpressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons orin special rituals can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife who are guided/supported by a goddess/god or goddesses/gods (you are a hiddenpaganist/Paganism: an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system) And GobekliTepe: “first human made temple” as well as Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”are both evidence of some kind of early paganism. “Göbekli Tepe is one of the world’s most significant, yet mysterious, archaeological sites, where ancient people erected a series of massive stone circles where groups gathered for religious and social purposes. Analysis of bone fragments found at the site suggests that human skulls may once have hung there on prominent display. The fragments belong to three partially preserved skulls that were carved and altered after death. This is the first indication of how Göbekli Tepe’s inhabitants may have treated their dead, and archaeologists believe it may provide evidence of an Early Neolithic “skull cult” (a veneration of human skulls, usually those of ancestors). …. A development of the same process of images making that started with skulls separated burials. Both phenomena can be set into the long duration panorama of the transition from foraging to farming. A synthesis of finds seem to show the development of this custom ranging from between Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) around 11,500-10,000 years ago and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) around 9,600–8,000 years ago early Levantine, Anatolian Neolithic culture and ranging to Upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent focusing on separated skulls. .>> For example, see the statuette in shape of a totemic pole Image, from Gobekli Tepe Pillar 43 – Vulture Stonehttps://www.facebook.com/Gobeklitepepillar43/posts/35-this-is-a-totem-and-pillar-57-found-at-gobekli-tepe-there-was-a-discussion-on/1359385220779899/
Pillars show signs toward concrete deities (see the crescent, disc, bucranium signs present on the belt but also in general on the surface of the pillars), but they are definitely not yet. The worship and veneration of the stone(s) have extremely ancient origins being the first things revered and deified by man. The stone pillars themselves can in no way represent deities, but can only be the seat of divine powers or incipient deities. The worship of the stone leads so far to stone altars and temples or to the notion of the sacred stone Bet-El / Betuli or the stone from Kaba. Baetylus – Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › BaetylusBaetylus (also Baetyl, Bethel, or Betyl, from Semitic bet el “house of god”) are sacred stones that were supposedly endowed with life, or gave access to a deity. Full developed antropomorpphic deities, apeeared a little later, Urfa-man From https://www.facebook.com/bronzeagecollapse/posts/the-urfa-manworlds-oldest-statue-of-a-humana-neolithic-narrativeurfa-man-carved-/859111487609255/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Miss Adelheid Otto, I read your paper “The treasures from Syria”. Independently and before reading the paper, I’ve found that Gobekli Tepe (not ease explainable), is distant related with later sumerian culture.Especially in icons.Some G.T. signs are paired in proto-cuneiform signs. It seems that this is only the top of the iceberg, cause further many other aspects are intertwined.My “golden finding” and discovery is the astounding long life of the Tau sign and shape present later in sumerian as proto-cuneiform sign “Me”.Not probably, but sure there are some signs on Earth wich had an extensive spreading in time and space (e.g. cross/ celtic cross, swastica or ancient greek letter eta /Heta, etc.).One will find that “Me” is virtually intraductible,because has many/complex meanings.From divine powers, oracle through being, till essence and will to live. Yours, engineer (retired/72) Eugen Rau Timisoara Romania eugenrau@gmail.com I’m inviting you to take a look on some of related issues at tartariatablets.com
Sumerian proto-cuneiform sign Me has the shape “T” 2. twoo signs “T”s= Me-Me 3. Sumerian goddess Gula=Bau=Meme From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mesopotamian_deities <<Gula, also known as Nintinugga, Ninkarrak, Meme, Bau, and Ninisina, is the Mesopotamian goddess of healing and the divine patroness of doctors and medicine-workers.Dogs were considered sacred to her[137] and she is often shown in art with a dog sitting beside her. eugenrau: dog<>Canis Major, canicula<> Sirius !? 4. Sign H= sign “T” + sign “T” …..? possible meme ?============================================ Many researchers almost stubbornly claim that the people who came on pilgrimage to the monuments at Gobekli Tepe had minimal knowledge of the sky and the stars. I agree. Thus the monuments would have an orientation according to the position of the different stars in the sky at the time of construction. I do not necessarily want to make them great astronomers.Some align pillars with the constellation Cygnus, and others find them aligned with Sirius and the constellation Orion. From Göbekli Tepe and the Rebirth of Siriushttp://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Gobekli_Sirius.htm
Fig. 4. The path across the southern horizon of Sirius on the dates 9400 BC and 8950 BC showing its brightness relative to other key stars of the southern sky (Credit: Rodney Hale/Stellarium)
MY OPINION IS THAT COMPLEX D WAS CONSTRUCTED AT ~9.000 B.C. From Gobekli Tepe alignments to Sirius. http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1045729/pg1 An interesting suggestion by Giulio Magli is that the monuments of Gobekli tepe were aligned to the rising point of Sirius, particularly so because at that latitude Sirius had only just began to be visible above the Southern horizon after a prolonged absence due to precessional effect.The megalithic enclosures of Gobekli Tepe are the most ancient stone-built sacred structures known so far, dating back to the 10th millennium BC. The possible presence of astronomical targets for these structures is analysed, and it turns out that they may have been oriented – or even originally constructed – to “celebrate” and successively follow the appearance of a “new”, extremely brilliant star in the southern skies: Sirius. So this would be Sirius as herald of a new age as it were, and over the millenia it would continue to rise ever higher into the skies of the Northern hemisphere, achieving maximum elevation at the present thereabouts. In fact, simulating the sky in the 10th millennium BC, it is possible to see that a quite spectacular phenomenon occurred at Gobekli Tepe in that period: the “birth” of a “new” star, and certainly not of an ordinary one, as it is the brightest star and the 4th most brilliant object of the sky: Sirius. Indeed precession, at the latitude of Gobekli Tepe, brought Sirius under the horizon in the years around 15000 BC. After reaching the minimum, Sirius started to come closer to the horizon and it became visible again, very low and close to due south, towards 9300 BC.
..the extrapolated mean azimuths of the structures (taken as the mid-lines between the two central monoliths) are estimated as follows: Structure D 172° Structure C 165° Structure B 159° As Sirius is a negative magnitude star, it is in principle visible just above the horizon; I will however allow in what follows an altitude of ½ ° (actually the horizon at the site estimated via satellite images looks flat towards the south-east). Then, it can be seen that the above azimuths match the rising azimuths of Sirius in the following approximate dates: Structure D 172° 9100 BC Structure C 165° 8750 BC Structure B 159° 8300 BC So what he is saying is that enclosures were added in accordance with the shifting rising point of Sirius according to precession, but it can also be seen that the former alignment to Sirius has become an alignment to Orions belt, others have considered alignment to that and to some degree the monument can be considered to both at the same time, and not necessarily one or the other. He looks toward other alignments such as toward the Summer Solstice, and the origins of an interest in the helical rise of Sirius;
As a final observation, it should be noted that a further structure uncovered at Gobekli Tepe has an estimated azimuth of 59° (if it was open to the north-east, as it seems) which is pretty close to that of the rising sun at the summer solstice. On the pillar 43 of enclosure D a suggestive, unique scene is represented: a sort of vulture with human traits delicately “rises up” with a wing what seems to be a sphere, or a disk. May this be a representation of the Heliacal rising of the newly born star we today call Sirius, which – as can be easily verified – occurred just a few days before the summer solstice at the end of the 10th millennium BC at the latitude of Gobekli Tepe? a reply to: Kantzveldt The question to ask of what value is that alignment to a person of that time? Well its an engaging theory but I would tend to believe if the sites are oriented anywhere it would be to the rising sun that shows seasons which would have been of value to them.The problem with associating stars to be alignment points is that there are lots of points in the sky and they shift around (highly simplified) a lot so you can find an alignment virtually anywhere.Great stuff as always Kantzveldt.
originally posted by: Hanslune The problem with associating stars to be alignment points is that there are lots of points in the sky and they shift around (highly simplified) a lot so you can find an alignment virtually anywhere.
Exactly. Because of the constant shifting and rotation of the Earth, alignments never really point at specific stars, but rather draw arcs that cross the entire sky. And looking at the positions of the stones at the site, it looks like most of them are more likely aligned to support a roof structure. Besides, why only align some of the larger stones, and not all of them? This is one of those cases where “fudging” becomes a significant factor in proving associations.
a reply to: Hanslune <<The potential significance and my own interest here develops from observing that the Sumerian Goddess Bau had a Post-Diluvian role in the mythology,the restoration to life and provisions in abundance and a general raising of the spirits, as well as the generation of mankind from seed, she also strongly identifies with the star Sirius. Now in looking for an historical premise for a mass extermination event the last ice age and subsequent localized flooding is really the only candidate, the Aryan tradition of Yima and his Vara buried under the ice and snow, in which was preserved the seed of all living things is a Northerly version of such catastrophe, and probably the closest to the mark, so survival was passed down in folklore. Now of course for any Goddess to have had Post-Diluvian origins and relating to Sirius the star itself would have to have been visible, and so the date when this would have been possible emerges as around 11,500 years ago for the latitude of Turkey and that corresponds to the radical changes seen at Gobekli Tepe, thus Sirius could well have been associated with Post-Diluvian re-establishment of populations in the Northern hemisphere, indeed as the very Goddess of such.>> a reply to: Kantzveldt However we have no idea if those later Sumerian ideas even existed then or that the people of GT knew of them if other did (language barrier). What is the oldest attribution do we have for this god? Does it show up fully formed or does it evolve? a reply to: Hanslune Of course the Sumerian ideas as such couldn’t have existed back then, there is a 6,000 year differential in dates, but in identifying the God Ninurta with Sirius and the causation of the Deluge and his consort Bau with the Post-Deluge mopping up operation they at least suggest that star was in some way associated. So if we say take the disappearance of Sirius circa 15,000 years ago with the onset of the period of catastrophe and the return of the stars visibility some 11,500 years ago as new beginings under it’s auspicious blessings we can perhaps perceive how that star came to be associated with those epochs, and all of it’s later mythological associations must find first context when it returned to visibility, and the events that were taking place at that time with which it became synonymous. Of course it would be a thing of wonder if such associations did survive into the historic period and were remembered in the mythology, but i think there is every chance that is the case. a reply to: Hanslune Yes i think it’s very likely because of the mythological associations Sirius retained, death and rebirth, and association with inundation, Ninurta apart from being the God of the Deluge also was responsible for the creation of dams and levees and irrigation systems, his wife monitored the levees, again in Egypt one finds those corresponding traditions of flood and irrigation in connection with Sirius. Once it was determined what the star related to it was unlikely to lose it’s significance without good reason, particularly given the enormous importance attached to those events in regions affected. a reply to: Rosinitiate It is a truly epic tale and of course it was an ongoing one as the star continued to gain elevation in the skies from those early new beginings and the re-population and development of the Northern hemisphere, so a success story, a Goddess that works a reply to: Kantzveldt I would suppose that some posters here are familiar with the book The Sirius Mystery by Robert K.G. Temple? It tells of how ETs from Sirius visited African tribes thousands of years ago as passed down from oral stories.Having a history with UFOs, I’m always distrustful of any science that tends to insist that human activity (including honored gods seemingly created in human minds) is the sole answer to every mystery we attempt to explain. I think the cosmos always allows a wider perspective if one choses to disallow man’s omnipotence over all. Another hunter gather folk did mark Sirius at about the same time although not anywhere nearly as grand as G.T they also pointed to that bright star ,these off-course were the people at Nabta Playa their Goddess figure would have been Hathor but according to some views floating around the net there may have been some connection with G.T in an earlier thread I touched up on the possibility of a Saharan connection with G.T without referencing N.P
Cosmic Birth Almost exactly what we see represented in abstract form on the sighting stone in Göbekli Tepe’s Enclosure D is found also on the Venus and Sorcerer panel inside France’s Chauvet cave, created by a Paleolithic artist some 32,000-30,000 years ago. Here too the abstract legs of the “Venus” seem to signify the twin streams of the Milky Way either side of the Dark Rift, with the head of a young bovine overlaid upon the position of the womb. This bucranium is likely to represent the Cygnus constellation in its role as the head of a bull calf, which in prehistoric times was seen as an abstract representation of the female womb or uterus complete with its horn-like fallopian tubes. The uncanny likeness between the two is something that our distant ancestors would appear to have realized at a very early stage in human development.(23) We are reminded also of the 3D frescoes from Çatal Höyük showing bulls being born from between the legs of divine females (often with the heads of leopards), and the ancient Egyptian belief that the goddess Hathor, in her role as the Milky Way, gave birth each morning to the sun-god in the form of a bull calf, which was seen to emerge from between twin sycamore trees perhaps signifying the twin streams created by the Dark Rift.
From www.andrewcollins.com…# Kantzveldt posted on Dec, 9 2014 @ 04:17 AMlink a reply to: Aliensun His research on the Sumerian angle for that book was surprisingly good given the difficulties in putting a cohesive picture together at that time;
Since An is connected with Sirius, we should thus not be surprised that he has a dog-goddess for a daughter in Sumer. Sirius as the Dog Star was a tradition which was not thought to have existed in Sumer, however, before now. Since the fifty Anunnaki were children of An, and Bau is a daughter of An, it is not far-fetched to see in Bau a survival (for she is an old goddess who faded into obscurity in later times) of the concept of a dog-star goddess equivalent to Sothis. Enlil, whose command is far-reaching, whose word is holy, The lord whose pronouncement is unchangeable, who forever decrees destinies, Whose lifted eye scans the lands, Whose lifted light searches the heart of all the lands,
Sirius Mystery a reply to: 3n19m470 It’s not a coincidence, the Free Masons got the motif from Jewish Kabbalists who in turn had got it from familiarity with the Assyrian and Babylonian tree of life representations. The Starway to Sirius a reply to: Spider879 It’s interesting because Andrew Collins having wrote books on a Cygnus correlation to the Gizamids has not unsurprisingly counter claimed that the Gobekli Tepe alignments point to Cygnus in the North West, that is unlikely because the enclosures open up to the South East and there is a hill behind them blocking any such alignment, however the Celestial axis of the Sumerians according to my own research was an enormous affair with Sirius at it’s pinnacle and the constellations Pegasus (and Cygnus) at it’s base, covering the entire extent of the sky the base is always opposite to the summit, so the positioning of Cygnus is relevant though that is not what is aligned toward. Andrew Collins on Gobekli TepeThe Celestial Tree edit on Kam1231342vAmerica/ChicagoTuesday0931 by Kantzveldt because: (no reason given) 131415 posted on Dec, 11 2014 @ 09:49 AMlink I’ll take the NorthbyNorthwest alignment
In human history there are some signs as cross and swastica wich are present in rock-art lasted millenia. So it seem that the tau cross is much older than tau, stauros the pillar to which the bulls were tied. From First pictorial representation of Göbekli Tepe T-pillars found on tiny bone plaqueAndrew Collins*http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/plaque.htm
<< It was found during routine excavations at the 11,500-year-old site of Göbekli Tepe in southeast Turkey, but no one had recognised exactly what the carved lines on the small bone plaque showed. This was until Matthew Smith, a British telecommunications consultant living in Qatar, visited Sanliurfa Museum, which houses a large collection of portable objects found at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) site of Göbekli Tepe, located around 8 miles (13 kilometres) away to the northeast. Smith recognised something that everyone else appears to have missed, this being that the little plaque – just 6 cm in length, 2.5 cm in width and 3-4 mm in thickness – bears on its upper surface two T-shaped features positioned side by side (see fig. 1). The context of the plaque’s discovery, i.e. at Göbekli Tepe, makes it clear these T-like etchings are pictorial representations of the familiar T-shaped pillars found in all the key enclosures uncovered at the site. > Yes, T signs could be the first pictorial representations of Gobekli Tepe. BUT MUCH MORE THAN THIS, THOSE SIGNS ARE RELATED TO WRITING ! Misters Smith and Collins are not realizing, supporting or trying to prove that the “pictograms” as you call them, are related to writing. Because those T signs has multiple resemblances or the same shape to later signs used in writing. This is an proof, argument and support for the early direct connection with writing. I will not enter in what Collins say “debate over the axial orientation of the site’s main enclosures and any potential astronomical targets” because is highly risky, I enter a swampy ground . From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Euphratean_language “Proto-Euphratean is a hypotheticalunclassified language or languages which was considered by some Assyriologists (for example Samuel Noah Kramer), to be the substratum language of the people that introduced farming into Southern Iraq in the Early Ubaid period (5300-4700 BC).” We have later sumerian proto-writing=proto-cuneiform signs Me and Urudu wich has the T shape. It is possible that this icon were known much more earlier and signified something (had attached an meaning). If the shape remained unchanged throughout the time we are not 100% sure about significance. From https://cdli.ucla.edu/tools/SignLists/protocuneiform/archsigns.html Sign Me
Both sumerian signs has meanings related to divinity and power . From https://is.muni.cz/el/1421/jaro2013/PAPVB_13/um/40794229/Halloran_version_3.pdf me, mì; ñe: n., function, office, responsibility; ideal norm; the phenomenal area of a deity’s power; divine decree, oracle; cult [ME archaic frequency: 363; concatenates 2 sign variants]. v., to be; the Sumerian copula; to say, tell. From https://www.angelfire.com/tx/tintirbabylon/ME.html << ME(1) is a Sumerian word (perhaps pronounced “may”) that has no single exact English equivalent. Samuel Kramer explained Me as the “fundamental, unalterable, comprehensive assortment of powers and duties, norms and standards, rules and regulations, relating to the cosmos and its components, to gods and humans, to cities and countries, and to the varied components of civilized life.” The usual Akkadian translation is parsu, “rite, ordinance, office.” Although the Me in general are referred to frequently in hymns, prayers, and stories, few specific Me are mentioned. We are told that there are 7, 50, or 3600 Me. These numbers are collective numbers symbolizing completeness and totality. Me was obviously a fluid concept that could apply to any type of power, Above or Below.>> From ON ТНЕ ORIGINAL МEANING OF SUМERIAN МЕ (lmages of Weltanschauung and the Methods of Тheir Study) V.V. Yemelyanov http://vdi.igh.ru › issues › articles <<The article discusses the problem of translating and interpreting Sumerian МЕ bу means of the Old Babylonian cuneiform vocabularies and the Neo-Sumerian Gudea texts. The main supposition is that the word was derived from the verb МЕ «to bе apparent, visible» and its original meaning was «will to live». >> From oldeuropeanculture on Twitter: “Sumerian word for copper is …https://twitter.com › serbiaireland › staushttps://www.academia.edu › Sumerian urudu and Kartvelian Metallurgy.pdf | Anna … Thus, the ultimate meaning of the Sumerian urudu is uro ‘a big hammer+ du ‘head, chief’, i.e. ‘the chief big hammer’, ‘the leading big hammer’... One must agree that T shape is the shape of a hammer wich indeed is inspiring power, does not matter, of metal or stone. From ANCIENT METAL NAMES AND THE FIRST USE OF METAL Janos Makkay https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox?projector=1 << …. On the other hand, Mallory believes that there was a contact relation of Sumerian with PIE and the classic example is Sumerian urud and PIE *reudh-. In the opinion of Gamkrelidze and Ivanov the stem *reudh- is of interest confirming the connection between metallurgy in the PIE period with that of the ancient East. (As it is well-known, they locate the PIE homeland to the area of eastern Turkey, i. e. near to the supposed – primordial – source of the stem urudu). According to Diakonov (who also locates a very early, common PIE – -Prot-Kartvelian homeland to the east Anatolian area) a meaning of ‘red ore’ would be more correct, but in his opinion Sumerian urudu probably comes from a pre-Sumerian substratum. These opinions adequetely reflect the uncertainties surrounding the “ethnic” origins of urudu. E. Risen, for example, did not deal with the origin of the borrowed IE root *reudh-. E. Meyer argued that urud/u was borrowed from an – unidentified – Mediterranean language both into Sumerian and also Indo-European dialects. G. Devoto’s opinion stands close to Meyer’s for he suggested that the counterinfluence of non-IndoEuropean peoples could be felt on the peripheries of Indo-European seats, in cluding also the Balkans. In the Balkans these counterinfluences probably oc curred during the Neolithic revolution and are reflected in the distribution of cereal names as well as in the adoption of – – Mediterranean or Sumerian – -urud/u among the Indo-Europeans. There is at present only one possibility for solving these contradictions, especially in view of the fact that evidence for the oldest copper metallurgy is at present known from the Euphrates region, namely from Cayönü Tepesi. In 1944 B. Landsberger pub lished two important studies in the scholarly journal of the Ankara University. On the basis of the old city names of Mesopotamia such as Urim, Uruk, Larsam, Adab, LagaS and Zimbir he reconstructed a substrate language which he called Proto-Euphratic. In northern Babilonia, on the other hand, on the evidence of divine names such asDagan, Zambomba, Amba, as well as Шаг and Adad he concluded that before the arrival of the earliest Semites the area was settled by another original population that differed from the Proto-Euphratians. These people he held to be identical with the original population of Assyria, northern Mesopotamia, and possibly also Syria, whom he called Proto-Tigridians. This probably coincides with the sug gestion of I. J. Gelb in 1961: “… the protopopulation of North Syria was of un known lingustic affiliation (that is, non-Semitic and non-Hurrian)…”.24 Landsberger made an attempt to isolate within the Sumerian vocabulary. ….. … Only in the Turkish variant of Landsberger’s study is the possible origin of the word URUDU discussed which according to Landsberger is neither Sumerian, nor Proto-Euphratic, but was borrowed to the PIE. Theese contradictory hypotheses (to which further confusion was added by P. Kretschmer who assumed a Bell Beaker /¡/contribution to the history of the stem *reudh- , *roudhom ‘red metal)26 can be resolved if we assume that the expression URUDU ‘metal, red ore, copper’ can only have originated from an area where extensive copper metallurgy can be documented already prior to the fifth mill. В. С. and from an area which presumably was not the prehistoric seat of Protosumerians and/or early Semites. Since an IE and Semitic etymology for the word can be rejected out of hand, and a Sumerian etymology is most unlikely, a substrate similar to the Proto-Euphratic or Proto-Tigridian is to be easily assumed. It is the latter which for geographical reasons corresponds best to the presently known location of very early (or earliest) copper metallurgy,Cayönü Tepesi. The geographical position and very early (i. e. 8-7. mill. B. C.) dating of the copper industry in Cayönü opens up new possibilities to review the origins of IE and other stocks relating metal names from pre-Sumerian and Protosemitic sources. >> BONE PLAQUE BEEING AN AMULET, MAKE SENSE AS TO HAVE SIGNS TT=sumerian Me-Me, “divine powers” ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ Another Gobekli Tepe’s artefact, a stone tablet : Image, from Gobekli Tepe, The First Megalith http://antiquatedantiquarian.blogspot.com/2014/08/humanitys-first-megaliths.html?m=1
Called the “Snake, Tree, and Eagle” stone, the true meaning of these markings are completely unknown
PDFby JA Halloran · Cited by 115 — Sumerian Lexicon, Version 3.0. 31 adj., big, large; mighty; great (chamber + abundant, numerous) [GAL archaic frequency: 1004 An example of such chart for sign AB 08 (phonetic value /a/) is displayed in fig. 2
================================ From https://www.amazon.fr/Cygnus-Key-Denisovan-G%C3%B6bekli-English-ebook/dp/B075CN38NB << Soul Holes Professor Klaus Schmidt, who headed excavations at Göbekli Tepe between 1995 and his untimely death in 2014, never passed comment on the site’s porthole stones, which appear in the two most accomplished enclosures discovered to date. He did, however, have something to say about the fragments of stone rings his team found scattered about the site–one of which has been pieced together and is on display at Sanliurfa’s archaeological museum. These are around half a meter (18.5 inches) in diameter and were positioned originally either in the ringwalls of now lost enclosures or in overhead ceilings. As to their function, Schmidt proposed they were seelenloch, a word in his native German language meaning “soul hole.” So what exactly are soul holes? Form and Function A large number of megalithic (that is, large stone) chambered tombs, or dolmens, from Ireland in the west to India in the east, have circular apertures cut into their entrance facades. Like the porthole stones at Göbekli Tepe, these bored holes are usually between 25 and 40 centimeters (10 to 16 inches) in diameter: too small for a grown person to pass through bodily. The porthole stones seen in Neolithic and later Bronze Age dolmens, which generally date to circa 3000–2000 BCE, could have functioned as a means of offering food and gifts to the spirits of human remains interred within the structures. Alternately, the apertures might have enabled further burials to be added, or, indeed, original interments to be removed. Such ideas, however, are inadequate to fully explain the widespread use of circular apertures in a funerary context. For example, in India circular apertures appear in stone slabs used as entrances to cist burials, which were generally sealed beneath the earth following construction. Deliberately bored holes are seen also in ceramic urn jars found in cemeteries across Europe and Southwest Asia. These date to the Iron Age and later Roman times. The purpose of these holes was to provide a means for the release of the soul, the presence of dirt, or any other constrictions not being seen as a hindrance to the soul’s ability to leave its place of interment. In a like manner, small doors or windows known as armen seelenloch, “poor soul holes,” were once incorporated into the walls of houses in the Austrian Tyrol. A number survive today, and there seems little question that their primary function was to allow the exit of a soul following death since these miniature doors were opened only when a death occurred in the household. The function of armen seelenloch has been linked with the porthole stones of megalithic monuments located in the same region, suggesting a continuity of ideas from the Neolithic age through to the present day. Almost certainly connected to the function of armen seelenloch is the fact that members of the Ojibway tribe, indigenous peoples of Canada and the northern United States, would bore a hole in a coffin so as “to let the soul go out and in at pleasure.” In a similar manner, hospital nurses in southern England upon the death of a patient would open the window nearest to the feet of a body so that the soul might escape. Very likely at least some of the porthole stones at Göbekli Tepe served a similar function, although instead of the exiting souls being used by the deceased, it was the soul or spirit of the shaman or entrant that was thought to exit this world using these circular apertures. Shamanistic Practices Shamanistic practices in various parts of the world incorporate the use of a symbolic hole, either in a rock, in the ground, in a tree, or in the roof of a yurt or tent. Their presence enables the spirit of the shaman to leave its physical environment and enter invisible realms described in terms as the Upper and Lower World. The Upper World was thought to exist in the sky; the Lower World beneath the earth. In addition to this, Siberian shamans are known to have employed the use of bones with holes at their center to begin to “see all, and to know all” and that this “is when one becomes a shaman.” In other words, pierced bones were used in ritual practices that involved the participant achieving an ecstatic or altered state of consciousness and then projecting his or her mind through the hole to enter unseen realms. Here they would attain otherworldly knowledge and enlightenment not normally accessible to those inhabiting the land of the living. So the presence of the pecked hole between the twin pillars seen on the carved bone plaque found at Göbekli Tepe indicates that during rites and ceremonies a person entering the site’s enclosures approached between the twin central monoliths and focused their eyes on the porthole stone. Very likely these holed stones formed a bridge, portal, or point of connection between the liminal realm created by the enclosure’s circular interiors and otherworldly environments thought to exist beyond the physical plane of existence.This was an important realization for it helped confirm the axial orientation of Enclosures C and D, which in both cases was toward the north-northwest, where both portholes stones are to be found. Yet why were both the twin central pillars and the holed stones oriented toward the north-northwests. >> From First pictorial representation of Göbekli Tepe T-pillars found on tiny bone plaqueAndrew Collins* http://http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/plaque.htm SOUL HOLES Although the late Professor Klaus Schmidt, the head of excavations at Göbekli Tepe between 1995 and his untimely death in 2014, never commented on these holed stones seen in the two most accomplished enclosures uncovered to date, he did have something to say about the fragments of stone rings found at the site (one of which has been pieced together and is now on display at Sanliurfa Museum – see fig. 7).
Fig. 7. Stone ring found at Göbekli Tepe and now in Sanliurfa museum (picture credit: Andrew Collins).
These, he suspected, had been placed in the walls of now lost enclosures and might have acted as seelenloch, a word in his native German language meaning “soul hole” (Schmidt, 2012, 99). A large number of megalithic dolmens of Neolithic and later Bronze Age manufacture, from Ireland in the West across to India in the East, have circular apertures cut into their entrance stones (see fig. 8). Like the examples at Göbekli Tepe, these bored holes are usually between 25 and 40 centimetres in diameter, too small to allow a normal sized person to pass through bodily. Portholes in megalithic dolmens could have functioned as a means of offering food to the internee. Alternately, they might have enabled further human remains to be added, or, indeed, original interments to be removed. Such ideas, however, are inadequate to fully explain the widespread use of holes in funerary situation. For example, in India circular portholes appear in stone slabs used as entrances to cist burials (Thapar, 2004, 95). Deliberately bored holes are seen also in ceramic urn jars found in cemeteries across Europe and Southwest Asia. These date to the Iron Age and later Roman times (Koster, 1983; Avetisian, 1999/2000). Apparently, the purpose of these holes was to provide a means for the release of the soul from its place of containment. In a similar manner, small doors or windows known as armen seelenloch, “poor soul holes,” were once incorporated into the walls of houses in Austria. A number survive to this day, and there is no question that their primary function was to allow the exit of the soul following death, each one being opened only when there was a death in the household (Schwierz, 2011). Their existence has been linked with portholes identified as seelenloch in megalithic monuments located in the same region (Lukan, 1979, 55). ………………….. Some researchers of the ancient mysteries field have chosen to ignore this data and announce that the twin central pillars of key enclosures at Göbekli Tepe are aligned south, their twin central monoliths turned to face the rising of either the belt stars of Orion (Schoch, 2014, 54-55) or the bright star Sirius, (? CMa) (Magli, 2014). Both of these stellar targets have, however, been shown to be flawed (Collins, 2014, 77-80; Collins and Hale, 2014). What is more, the evidence available offers more compelling reasons for us to conclude that the key enclosures at Göbekli Tepe are oriented north, and not south. Chartered engineer Rodney Hale, working with the present author, determined that the mean azimuth bearings of the twin central pillars in Enclosures B, C, D & E targeted the bright star Deneb (? Cyg) as it set on the NNW horizon during the epoch of their construction (Collins, 2014, 80-82, and see fig. 10). That the setting of Deneb helped determine the axial orientation of these enclosures is verified in a new study of Göbekli Tepe’s astronomical alignments by Alessandro De Lorenzis and Vincenzo Orofino (2015)>> Image, from https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/arqueologia/gobekli_tepe08.htm
Fig. 5. Left, plan of Enclosure D showing position of holed stone and mean azimuth of the twin central pillars. Right, the holed stone in Enclosure D. (Pic Credits: Rodney Hale/Andrew Collins
MY OPINION:
– Pointing to Deneb (Cygnus) is consistent with sky-burial religion, Andrew Collins: ” The purpose of targeting a near-circumpolar star such as Deneb, located in the constellation of Cygnus, the celestial bird, was almost certainly to connect with the Milky Way, on which the asterism is prominently placed. In Eurasian folklore the Milky Way has long been seen as a road or river along which souls, often in the form of birds, journeyed to reach the afterlife (see fig. 11). For a full treatment of this subject see the author’s work elsewhere (Collins, 2006)”
– Pointing to Orion is consistent with faith in afterlife where soul rise to most monumental constellation visible on night sky, Orion. Out of this is for many ages and cultures, not only for hunter-gatherers it is “the hero/hunter” Following image, from Göbekli Tepe: Turkey’s Stonehenge, But At Least 7000 Years Older https://ro.pinterest.com/pin/383650461991428519/
I AM NOT MUCH INTERESED IN WHAT DEGREE THOSE HUNTER GATHERERS WERE INVOLVED AND WATCHED THE SKY. CAUSE THERE ARE CLUES FOR BOTH PRESUMED SOUL DESTINATIONS, CIGNUS/ORION. There are for and against arguments for every of it. From Gobekli Tepe – my uninformed ramblings by knotmagick https://knotmagick101.wordpress.com/2019/10/20/gobekli-tepe-my-uninformed-ramblings/amp/?fbclid=IwAR1OLR5rIcQihkd6agPjXOnzIN2kLhzw2jqRWyLi1YQxgb6nah0LBO3emkA <<The presence of birds in this context would have been very important to some societies, because of the links drawn between birds and the human soul. There is evidence around the globe, from the Middle East to North America, of the association between the souls of the dead and birds; everything from buzzards and eagles to the crane and ibis. We can see the same associations extending into Christianity, with the dove being the representation of the soul. For this reason, in conjunction with the supposition that sky burial was practised by the builders of Gobekli Tepe and the high number of crane and bird depictions found in enclosure D, Andrew Collins suggests that the worshippers of Navel Hill saw the spirits of their beloved dead in the form (or in the company) of birds and that their religious activities at the temple were intended to ensure a smooth transition from earth into heaven. But where did the spirits go? based on the apparent orientation of the temples to view the southern sky the answer of “the stars” seems clear but which stars? And what did the worshippers see when they looked to those stars? If we accept that the surrounding pillars are human intercessors, who’s spirits had already flown to the stars,who enable us to connect with to the more than human beings represented by the t-pillars a question still remains; who are they? Archaeologists, historians and conspiracy theorists alike consistently look to the southern stars for the answer, though the answers that they give you can vary quite a bit. Star Gods Cygnus – The Soul Bird Andrew Colin’s, in his various books, notable the Cygnus Key and Cygnus Mysteries, argues that the temples focus is the stars of the Constellation of Cygnus, also known as the Northern Cross. Located just above the junction of the dark rift of the Milky Way Collins contends that the Constellation, the Latin name of which refers to a swan, has always been associated with birds of one form or another and that many ancient cultures around the world saw the Constellation as a point of transmigration for the soul. Collins draws evidence from cultures as far afield as North America and Ancient Egypt, claiming that Cygnus is the focal point for multiple ancient stone monuments across the globe. Whilst Collins makes a very strong case for the motif of the bird as soul, going as far to link it to the early hominids known as the Denisovans, the connections that he makes in respect of Gobekli Tepe being aligned to the constellation do not stand up to scrutiny. For starters his dates do not match the archaeological evidence. The sighting stones do not align with the constellation when compared against the dates of construction as provided by radio carbon 14 dates. In fact there is quite a substantial margin of error to the extent that it really cannot be ignored. Collins would argue that his thesis with regard to Gobekli Tepe has been independently verified in 2017 by two researcher from the University of Edinburgh. This might sound like vindication for the Cygnus connection however when read the paper reads as though the two started from the premises posited in Collins 2014 publication and sought to evidence it themselves. Unfortunately this means that the two Engineers make the same errors in oversight that Collins does, completely ignoring the archaeological evidence available, which in 2016/7 more securely dated the construction of Enclosure D to a time when Cygnus could not have been in the sight of the portal stone. This is not to say we should throw the baby out with the bath water. The concept of the flight of the soul in the form of a bird both as as an ancient motif and one which is repeated at Gobekli Tepe has strong merit, even if the stars proposed don’t quite align. Orion – The Headless Hunter A better fit, though not perfect, is the suggestion that monuments are aligned to the rising of the starts of Orion’s belt. That a hunter gatherer society would focus on Orion, chasing Taurus across the sky in an endless hunt, makes a great deal of sense, though it does assume that the builders looked to the constellation and also saw a hunter. Whilst A and B do have some level of alignment to Orion the sighting is not consistent across all the excavated monuments. Perhaps as more enclosures are excavated and their alignments plotted a connection to Orion’s belt will be strengthened but for the time being it is possibly safer to assume that whilst Orion was important he was only part of the night sky show that the builders were attempting to capture. Sirius – The Companion and Star Goddess Just below the heel of Orion sits the star Sirius, known as the Dog Star by modern sky watchers it’s summer time rising in the southern sky heralds the so-called “dog days of summer”. The birth of a new star in the night sky, particularly one which proves predictable as it emerges over the horizon, is generally something of note which is why many archaeoastrononical alignments settle on the helical rising of one star of another. Though procession does, over time, move the point in the sky where the rising will occur it would appear to our ancestors that it rose and set in the same place consistently and only the observations of a dedicated few over many generations would notice that this was not the case.
Megalithic alignments with Sirius are as common as with Orion and Cygnus when such things are plotted, the most famous being the Orion alignment found in the Great Pyramid of Giza where the southern shaft exiting the Queen’s Chamber aligns with Sirius. Robert Bauval, Graham Hancock and Andrew Collins (to name just a few) maintain that this is a deliberate alignment of the “soul ascension” machine to enable the souls of royal women to ascend to the next world. Of course, this alignment is paired with a similar shaft in the King’s Chamber, aligned to the belt of Orion, and two northward shafts which would allow the descent of the souls in the northern walls aligned with major stars in the constellation of Ursa Major. The Sirius association between the Great Pyramid and the southern sky of Ancient Egypt in 2500 BCE can be debated long and hard, and a lot seems to depend on what star simulation program you chose to use, but if we accept it as a clear and proven fact what does this mean for Gobekli Tepe? Were the Egyptians echoing a much more ancient association between Sirius and the Soul laid down into a collective memory by the Hunter Gatherers of 9600 BCE?The archaeology does seem to indicate that this is the case. Of the sites excavated so far enclosures B, C and D all have port hole alignments which match the helical rising of Sirius at a time depth consistent with the secure radio carbon 14 dates associated with the construction deposits at the site. This would indicate that each of these enclosures were build with the rising star in mind as an important feature and that it continued to be factored in to even after temples were closed, back filled and then reconstructed in a different location on the Tell. Whether or not all of the un-excavated enclosures will show the same alignments and associations remain to be seen but as work continues we will surely find out. This theory does have its detractors however, most notably Andrew Collins and Robert Hale. They maintain that Sirius, despite its rising status, would not be visible to its declination at the dates proposed and would therefore not be available to sight the construction of the monument but that it would be of little interest to the builders, so attention should be paid to the north. Whilst a valid argument it assumes two things. One – that little to no process of observation occurred in advance of the construction of Gobekli Tepe and that construction was spontaneous. This is consistent with Collins belief that the builders of Gobekli Tepe were influenced to build as they did by the Denisovans human species based on their savant like knowledge which far exceeded that of any other human race and the alignments were “downloaded” into the builders culture from elsewhere. We known from later cultures that sky watching was the main night time activity and there is every evidence that the same was true in this case. Even if the rising is not visible initially there is no reason to assume that the sky watchers were not capable or observing the angle of rising and reverse plot it to its rising point on the horizon. Then we come to the second issue – the assumption that the rising would not be visible. In our modern experience we see very little of the night sky, particular on the horizon, due to light pollution. There are very few places where it is possible for us to get a true sense of the majesty of the Milky Way or the brightness of the stars at night without the horizon being blurred by some degree of light pollution. The same would not have been true in Mesolithic Turkey and it is likely that the rising of Sirius would have been visible, if faint, and expected by those who have spent many generations observing the movements of the star. It is important to keep in mind that Sirius is consistently considered a companion star, with Orion featuring along side it as is the case in the Pyramid of Giza. There are echos of twin deities being associated with the evolution from a nomadic way of life to one associated with agriculture and animal husbandry as far back as the Sumerian. In the story ‘Debate between Sheep and Grain’ two sky beings (god’s) located on a hill discuss whether or not to share with mankind the knowledge of grain and do mestication of animals.>> BUT I AM CONFIDENT THAT ORION CONSTELLATION WAS ENOUGH BIG AND VISIBLE TO BE NOTICED FOR TENS OF THOUSEND YEARS BEFORE, EVEN IF IT WASN’T STUDIED CLOSELY. GOBEKLI TEPE AND ALL RELATED SITES WERE HIGH DEVELOPED CIVILISATIONS AND PROBABLY PRECURSORS OF SUMERIAN CIVILIZATION From Temple of Sumerhttps://www.facebook.com/TempleofSumer/posts/blessed-du-ku-from-temple-of-sumer-the-month-of-the-sacred-moundholy-hills-and-s/833633270129967/ << Blessed Du-ku from Temple of Sumer! “The Month of the Sacred Mound” Holy Hills and Sacred Mountains – The Foundations of the Duku Festival Holy hills and sacred mountains permeate much of Ancient Near Eastern Literature, from the earliest cuneiform tablets, all the way to their central place in Biblical scripture. From the image of Moses, standing on top of Mount Sinai, receiving sacred cuneiform tablets from God, giving deified Hammurbian laws to mankind; to the image of the Prophet Elijah, standing on Mount Carmel, asking his God to prove himself more powerful than Baal; and all the way on to the image of Jesus giving the sermon on the Mount. Mountains have always had great significance in both Jewish and Christian literature, since they are seen as being “closer to God” who dwells where the Heavens meet the sky. As a result of this idea, we often see God bestowing his divine wisdom from a mountaintop in scripture. These are concepts and central motifs which stretch back to the earliest times, to long before the Bible was set to parchment, and long before the Patriarch Abraham first began his journey from the Sumerian City of Ur, all the way back to a time when civilization was just beginning. For it was said that upon this Sacred Mound, “the ḫursag̃” (hill) of Heaven and Earth, that the ancestral Gods were created. In the earliest literature, the Sumerian poem ‘The Debate between the sheep and the Grain’, dated to the 3rd millennium BC, we are given the creation myth telling of the Sumerian ‘Edin’, meaning ‘steppe’, the place where the Anunna Gods were first created. This hill was situated at the point where the Heavens rested upon the Earth, and where mankind were given their first habitat. This sixty one line myth was set to stone over two thousand years before the Bible was even written, and before the “Garden of Eden” was even a concept. Later in time, from Third dynasty of Ur period (2200BC) onwards, we would find the term ‘Edin’ rephrased to ‘Hursag’ meaning ‘hill’, or in some cases ‘tillu’ in Akkadian, a term that was widely used to describe pre-historic tell mounds. In ‘Riches Hidden in Secret Places’ the acclaimed Assyriologist Jeremy Black noted that the Sumerians, unlike the scholars of today, had no interest in where their people had come from, and rarely wrote about it in their literature. Their Gods were Gods of civilisation, intent on bringing order to the universe, and civilisation to the society in which they served. Because of this, the Sumerians themselves were an incredibly forward looking people, focused on ingenuity and invention, and working towards a better tomorrow, rather than looking back to their past. On the other hand, the Sumerians knew they had not inhabited the earth since the very beginning of time, and that there had been a time before civilisation, when the very first men had lived in an uncivilised state like the animals, which was possibly the inspiration for Gilgamesh’s Enkidu. The Sumerians understood that civilisation had been a much later development, and it fascinated them to speculate on how the world had come into being, and how things has been at the beginning of time. In ‘The Debate between the sheep and the Grain” we see the Holy Mound take centre stage, as it was set as the birthplace Of the Anuna Gods at the time before sky and earth were separated. The Anuna Gods were ancient Gods from a time before recorded history. They were Gods that during the Sumerian period, and into the late Akkadian period were portrayed as seven judges who sit before the throne of Ereshkigal in the Underworld, their primary function is to decree the fates of humanity. During the Old Babylonian period, the Anuna were believed to be the chthonic deities of the Netherworld. In the ‘Curse of Akkad’ the Sacred Mound is also described as the resting place where the great ancestors of the Great God Enlil, En-duku-ga the Lord of the Sacred Mound and Nin-duku-ga the Lady of the Sacred Mound. These primordial gods even predated Enlil himself, and Enlil is the first born son of An and Ki. They may be the parents of one of Enlil’s parents, or they may go even further back. Jeremy Black theorised that at the time of writing this myth, the Sumerians lived in a land surrounded by these tell mounds, and knew they were the ruined habitation of their most ancient ancestors, and possibly even the Gods themselves ancestors, which fuelled their mythic imaginations. Although Sumer emerged as a complex civilisation between 5500BC to 4500BC, it is clear that there had been inhabitants in the land between the rivers long before that point back to Neolithic times. We call these early inhabitants the proto-Euphrateans, or Ubaidians, and they had left many markers behind. Many of these early inhabitants were probably very ancient ancestors of the Sumerians themselves, although before that point in time they were not classed as ‘civilisations’. The term ‘civilisation’ only comes into play with ‘recorded history’, and when characterized by a series of set markers, of which include urban development, social stratification imposed by a cultural elite, a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment, and symbolic systems of communication such as complex writing systems. So, while the Sumerians were the first true civilisation to fit all of those criteria, their ancestors had probably already lived in this area, and its surrounding areas, for millennia before this point. Jeremy Black went on to state that: “The imagination stimulus for the idea of a single Holy Mound -a dul or tell- must have been the numerous ruin mounds that dot the surface of the Mesopotamian plain, with evidence of ancient habitation. Nobody lived on them, but you only have to investigate them cursorily- if your village is next to one and you stroll up there of an evening- to realize, from the ceramic remains and the occasional skull and bone, that they had been inhabited in the past. But by whom? The mythic imagination tells us that this is where the gods lived in the most distant past, with their feet on the ground but close to the sky. A mythic image or metaphor such as the Holy Mound, then, is a single cosmic location derivable from generalized elements of the landscape, such as uninhabited ruin mounds, that are multiple and ubiquitous.”The acclaimed German archaeologist and pre and proto-historian Klaus Schmidt firmly believed the original ‘Duku’ that was written of in ‘The Debate between the sheep and the Grain’ was none other than Göbekli Tepe, the ancient Neolithic mountain sanctuary dating back to around 9130BCE. He believed that the poem itself was a cultural memory of ancient site, and a mythohistorical narrative from the time when mankind moved from being predominantly hunter gatherers to a time of permanent settlement. It’s worth considering that the site of Göbekli Tepe is situated in what would one day be classed as Northern Mesopotamia, and the site itself was only seven days walk on foot from what would one day become the Sumerian City of Ur in Southern Mesopotamia, and even closer than that when travelling by donkey, or by boat down the River Euphrates. It’s probably no coincidence that this buried and abandoned “ancient city” was situated in a hilly and mountainous environment just like in the Sumerian myth, and being what many believe to be birthplace of animal husbandry from the archaeological evidence at the site, fits the myth perfectly too. What is even more compelling however is the creation of grain that takes place in the myth, especially when you consider the ancient einkorn wheat, found in the hills surrounding the Göbekli Tepe, just happens to be the single genetic ancestor of every strain of wheat grown and eaten across the earth today. During the Third Dynasty of Ur period, and over seven millennia later, the Sacred Mound had taken on a symbolic representation during the Duku Festival, as a likeness of it was built in harvested grain in the lead up to the religious holiday. This new meaning for the term ‘Duku’ seems to have caused confusion among scholars, as while most academics held to the Sacred Mound as a historic locality, others such as Thorkild Jacobsen, who read texts detailing the construction of this symbolic depiction saw its origin as a “plastered-over pile of harvested grain”, and concluded that the Duku must have been some sort of underground storage. However as practitioners of the Sumerian religion we sometimes have the luxury of seeing hidden meanings where perhaps the academics are too focused on literal depictions in the text, and as any who are well versed in the concepts of sympathetic magic will attest, in this case the laws of similarity are obvious in their apparency. We can see from the method of construction of the walls of this grain ‘Duku’ are incredibly similar to the construction of ancestral tells, together with the harvest it contains, the offerings of milk it is given, and offerings of dozens of lambs prepared, all tie in intimately with the myth ‘Debate between Sheep and Grain’ and it’s links to the mythic Sacred Mound, on which the Gods were given life. Because of this I would say this grain Duku came later, and was the development of a symbolic construction originally created to be as part of the cultic activities, which then later developed from there to the idea of grain silos…… …… Although the Festival of the Sacred Mound was generally seen as a great time of celebration and feasting, we must also be mindful that is had sombre undertones, as it was also a time when the Gods of the underworld were paid homage, and the ancestors were remembered, so we should also remember to pay our respects to those we have lost in the past, and in doing so pay tribute to their achievements. Though those memories, those we have lost will never leave us. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RELATIONS, ICONS AND SIMILARITIES WITH THE LATER SUMERIAN CULTURE 1.Porthole slab
has the shape of proto-cuneiform signs GA2 :”basket,box”
The Ach Valley Tusk is a piece of mammoth ivory, recovered from Geißenklösterle Cave near Ulm, Germany, that has a human figure carved into one side and a series of 86 pits or notches cut into the other. Rappengluek identified the human figure as a star map representing the constellation Orion. ……. All in all, this Orion figurine is the most egregious of Rappenglueck’s claimed identifications of Paleolithic star maps, and I find it totally unbelievable. Peter Faris https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Gobekli+Tepe
See Cupules Definition, Description & History of Cupule Rock Art. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/cupules.htm(PDF) Cupules – ResearchGatehttps://www.researchgate.net › 281317650_Cupules From Cupules—- the oldest surviving rock art ROBERT G. BEDNARIK https://originsnet.org/Bednarik%20cupules%202002.pdf << Cupules (Fig. 1) are the earliest surviving rock art we know about in the world, but this does not necessarily make them the first rock art produced.The oldest rock art we know about in every continent are linear grooves and cupules, especially the latter. It can date from Middle and even Lower Palaeolithic times in the three Old World three continents, so it is very considerably older than the celebrated Upper Palaeolithic art of south-western Europe. This has become evident despite the considerable bias against such forms of rock art, which have often been ignored by researchers, misunderstood or explained as utilitarian rock markings.However, cupules are such a ubiquitous feature in world rock art that they were made in many periods, and considerable experience is required to estimate their age (Bednarik 1997a, 2000). Numerically they are probably the most common forms of surviving rock art in the world, and they can be found not only in very early and archaic traditions, but also in very recent ones. In India, for example, cupules occur in the Pleistocene, but most are from the Holocene, and they were made from Acheulian to Historic times. In many parts of Europe, cupules are particularly numerous in the Metal Ages. It is therefore false to assume that cupules are always an indication of archaic traditions. Purpose It is also very doubtful that all cupules were made for similar purposes, and it is even possible that some of those found on horizontal surfaces were used for some utilitarian process. However, there are distinct differences between cupules and grinding hollows. The latter occur on near-horizontal surfaces only and are well over 10 cm in size, whereas cupules are frequently found on vertical walls and rarely exceed 10 cm diameter. ================== Natufian culture was the culture wich just was before PPN Gobekli Tepe From Feeding the Living, Feeding the Dead: The Natufian as a Low-Level Food Production Society in the Southern Levant (15,000-11,500 Cal BP)https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Early-Natufian-agro-technological-system-el-Wad-Terrace-1-WCM-2-5-deep-bowls-6_fig4_347439244 <<The Natufian culture is generally accepted as having been a hunter-gatherer’s society positioned on the “threshold of agriculture.” This is based on the culture’s sedentary nature and the numerous plant processing tools-sickle blades and ground stones-it had created and used, but preceding plant domestication by thousands of years.>>
The function of large cupules has eluded researchers for many years, and cannot simply be grinding holes since they are found in great numbers marking vertical wall surfaces as well as horizontal surfaces. >> Eugen Rau: If large diameters ,larger than 10 cm could indicate as possible grinding purposes, they are too many, one beside another and vicinity of large basins are indicating fertility-increase rituals and rain related ? From https://books.google.ro › books Theory in Africa, Africa in Theory: Locating Meaning in Archaeology Stephanie Wynne-Jones, Jeffrey Fleisher — 2015 · Social Science << But when normal rituals and medicines consistently failed and droughts … There are often many cupules because the rainmakers had to start again each time and make new ones.>> From Increase Ritual – Australia: The Land Where Time Beganhttps://austhrutime.com › ritual_increase Karahan Tepe: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site – Another Temple of the Stars? https://www.academia.edu/8030198/Karahan_Tepe_G%C3%B6bekli_Tepes_Sister_Site_Another_Temple_of_the_Stars <<Karahan Tepe Northern Knoll The exposed surface of this knoll marks the beginning of an extensive area of bedrock covered with groupings of deeply bored cupules, or cup marks, usually 15 to 20 centimetres (6 to 8 inches) in diameter and easily as much in depth (see fig. 5). Similar cupules are found on exposed bedrock at Göbekli Tepe, close to Enclosure E, the so-called Felsentempel (“Rock Temple”), and also at other Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites such as Başaran Höyük (Güler,Çelik & Güler, 2013, 295, fig. 11) and Hamzan Tepe(Çelik, 2010, 262, fig. 6), both located in the Sanlıurfa province. …… Other, much larger holes, ranging in diameter from between 40 to 50 centimetres (15 to 20 inches),are also present within the exposed bedrock. At least three sets are placed together in pairs, giving them the eerie resemblance of dark eyes gazing up at the beholder, a fact that, regardless of their true function, seems deliberate (see fig. 6). In addition to this, we find a large basin cut into the bedrock, which is oval in shape and approximately 3 metres (9.85 feet) across its widest part. It probably functioned as a water cistern, although this is simply conjecture at this time (two similar rock-cut basins are to be seen close to cupule clusters at Göbekli Tepe, and another three exist at Hamzan Tepe, again near groupings of cupules, see Çelik, 2010, 262-3, Figs. 7/8).>> From Rita Robert’s Blog Göbekli Tepe, Mother of Myths? https://spredtetanker.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/gobekli-tepe-mother-of-myths/
The shepherd and his family live in a small schack at the bottom of the excavation area, near the “parkinglot”. Just inside the stone-fencing there are several carvings in the bedrock. Two enormous holes, big enough to be used as pools, and along these houndreds of small circular holes of different sizes and placements dug directly in the rock.
Heizer (1953) noted that some northern California groups, including the Shasta, made cupules as “rain rocks” to control weather. — E. Breck Parkman (1992, 1993)
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au › …PDF ORIGINS OF SEDENTISM – ANU Open Research de RD Wickham · 2019 — attired shaman figures engaged in rain- bringing ceremony
CUPULES ON TOP OF T-PILLARS LEAVE THE ONLY POSSIBILITY to be RAIN & FERTILITY RELATED Image, from SHRINE STONE PRESShttps://shrinestonepress.com/cupules/ <<Cupules are an enigmatic style of rock art that is found universally throughout the entire archaeological world. Here in California they are known as “bedrock mortars,” a central part of the acorn grinding indigenous cultures that are well known here. Throughout the world cupules are commonly attributed to the work of ancient peoples and their “primitive” methods of food production, but there are currently no known methods to date them and they have been passed over for generations as little more than “curiousities,” barely worth a mention. It can be readily seen, though, that many of the cupules could possibly have some other unknown function, or perhaps even some other unknown age, that is yet to be revealed. For example, in a brief survey of a very few sites here in California one can observe that many of them would appear to be too small for any sort of food production and they can also be seen in groupings or arrangements that would seem to suggest something more. Many of the arrangements can also be found on the vertical sides of boulders where, once again, any efficient means of food production would would have to be questioned, if not ruled out. But what stands out again and again even more is that this form of rock art shows up at the most ancient, most enigmatic and the most sacred sites found all over the world. They appear in the most highly-ritualized and sacred ceremonial settings on every continent (and many islands) from the famous stone Moai of Easter Island, to the megalithic, Olmec heads of Mesoamerica, to the giant stone pillars of Göbekli Tepe, in Turkey, even possibly to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. There are tens of thousands of other sites known to exist all around the world. Here in the following photos are a few sites that are found here in Sonoma County, California, as well as a few from my own travels abroad where I have been somewhat surprised to find them. And finally, I’ve included a few other photos of cupules from other important sites to be found around the world.>>
At Gobekli Tepe there is no water source in the vicinity !
<<The Sun played an important role in the ascension of the deceased warriors. After death the warrior’s spirits descended into the great underworld (the sign made by the Large “T” shaped pillars) and were carried by currents or “the crisscrossing streams of water” (the Net of crisscrossing Serpents depicted by one pillar). Ultimately the spirits arrived back at the earth’s surface at a spring site or a pool of water (perhaps the cistern at Gobekli Tepe that is surround by the Triangular three cupules that indicate, female-spirits. especially when the cupules, female-water-spirits, are filled with rain water or water taken from the cistern) where the spirits wait for the Sun to take the water (evaporation) and the spirit up to the sky and Venus. The evaporation of the water from the cupules demonstrated the validity of the cosmology.>>
From Gobekli Tepe’s Pillar 18 Dissected Cliff Richeyhttps://www.academia.edu › Gobekli_Tepes_Pillar_18_… <<The Tops of the Gobekli Tepe Pillars are covered with Cupules that are the sign for, moisture or wetness. It is composed of many (red) Triangular, female-spirit, signs. When it rained this combination of signs would become, the Horizontal Rectangle, the horizontal-place, positional, on the surface, holding, the female-water-spirits, as in bowls. The utility of these signs would be lost if the Pillars had been roofed over. The tops of the smaller “T” shaped Pillars are almost level with the surrounding surface of the ground. The meaning of the “T” as a gesture sign for the Large, the great, “T”, below, the great underworld.
…..On the horizontal -place or surface are the (red) Cupules that in their overall Form indicate the sign for, moisture, and it is filled with the Triangular signs for, female-moisture-spirits.5 It seems that the concept is one where after a rain the Cupules are filled with water and become, female-waterspirits. At Gobekli Tepe Cupules and a Cistern are in close proximity to each other, There may have been some ritual that during dry periods, involved transfer of water from the Cistern to the Cupules in order to demonstrate evaporation (the ascension of the spirits in the water that was part of the ancient cosmology).>>
From Göbekli Tepe – the Stone Age Sanctuaries. New results of ongoing excavations with a special focus on sculptures and high reliefs Klaus Schmidt https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/294839319.pdf
Fig. 23. Enclosure B and its portholestone in centre (foto Irmgard Wagner, DAI).
https://www.facebook.com/983492441702514/posts/3671326896252375/ Also, I also believe from my research these cupules found at Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe are a Natufian attribute, which hopefully I will be able to write about one day. …… #158 Here is my latest paper called ‘Gobekli Tepe’s Vulture Stone: Deciphering the Mysteries of the Vulture Stone by tracing the Zarzian and Natufian’s connection that effectuated the construction and demise of Gobekli Tepe.‘ In this document I will outline a connection between the elite Zarzian shamanic priests and their subjects the Natufians as those who built Gobekli Tepe. By mapping the origins of an ancient obsidian trade in the Anatolians and the Levant. P R E L I M I N A R Y C O N C L U S I O N Out of tens posibilities for purposes (see R.G. Bednarik list of all potential interpretations of cupules at the end of the page)…. we have at Gobekli and Karahan Tepe, two category/kinds of cupules: 1) not proper cupules, (“tacitas“) because diameter is larger than 2-10 cm (10-20-40cm…+large basin 3m) To see the difference betwen cupules and tacitas, TACITAS OR CUPULES – Rupestrewebhttps://www.rupestreweb.info › tacitasTacitas or cupules? an attempt at distinguishing cultural depressions at two rock art sites near Ovalle, Chile. Maarten van Hoek va oe roc kart@parelnet.nl.The significance of the morphometric and contextual variation in stone hewn mortars during the Natufian-PPNA transition in the southern Levant https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314164064_The_significance_of_the_morphometric_and_contextual_variation_in_stone_hewn_mortars_during_the_Natufian-PPNA_transition_in_the_southern_Levant <<Numerous explanations have been advanced regarding the use of ancient and recent bedrock features. However, while it is clear that bedrock features were indeed used for many functions including the processing of various substances, it seems that the most common utilization was pounding and pulveraizingfood. In the Levant the bedrock features appear for the first time in Early Natufian sites around 15,000 years Cal BP, within the context of the transition to sedentary lifeways. The communities that adopted greater dependency on local resources brought about changes in various practices and aspects of both mundane and ritual behaviors.>> The Function and Context of Natufian Stone Mortars: A Reply to …https://www.x-mol.com › paperRedirectAre the numbered specimens Natufian mortars, cup marks, or cupules? What do the “complexes” mean, and how were they defined? <<…’most of the Natufian bedrock features and boulder mortars as related, in a way or another, to food processing in its broader sense’ …..’some may have had a more ceremonial role than a mundane function’ >> In my opinion: THESE SHALLOWS/DIMPLES/BUCKETS HAD RATHER UTILITARIAN THAN CULTIC PURPOSES ( Possible rain-bringing rituals but rather for grinding purposes ) 2) cupules proper ; under 10cm (2-10 cm). – on top of T-pillars – on portholes rims Those were used in cultic rituals possible performed by shamans, with known (by them) purposes, e.g. increase/fertility rituals or unknown, forgotten even by them purpose but of high sacred value/importance. -cupules had a history of hundred of thousend years & purposes , meanings changed fergotten new one apperead then lost, forgotten, so could be e.g. : – for holy water, ancestor-funerary context, magical charms , symbolisms that are no longer recoverable , rain bringing=life sustenance=fertility, welfare/wellness/wellbeing ======================== The interpretation of cupules https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322343171_The_interpretation_of_cupules Robert G. Bednarik << A list of potential interpretations of cupules The most commonly mentioned interpretations of cupules found in the literature could be grouped into a number of classes, based on their purported uses. Unspecified or specified cultic or magic rituals 1.1: Components of sacrificial altars. 1.2: Human or animal blood sacrifices. 1.3: Meeting places of witch covens. 1.4: Magical charms protecting dwellings against witchcraft. 1.5: Fertility rituals related to rockslides, which are thought to occur widely in Europe, Africa and South America. 1.6: Ritual boring relating to the preparation of stone axes. 1.7: Snake symbolism. Utilitarian preparation of substances 2.1: Preparation of paints. 2.2: Production of medicines of mineral or organic origins. 2.3: Pounding of pigments of mineral or plant substances. 2.4: Preparation of spices or foods. Mnemonic or record-keeping devices 3.1: Measurement of time or as calendars. 3.2: Commemoration of major events, such as earthquakes. 3.3: Genealogical markers. 3.4: Recording of pregnancy months. 3.5: Records of stock animals. 3.6: Records of administrators or warriors. 3.7: Records of oaths, e.g. concerning land ownership. Elements of belief systems 4.1: Impressions of hands, feet or knees. 4.2: Use of cup ules as receptacles of holy water. 4.3: Use of the resulting mineral powder in amulets or talismans. 4.4: Use of cupules in funerary contexts. 4.5: Release of a life essence in the form of the resulting mineral powder. 4.6: Use of the resulting mineral powder to induce pregnancy. 4.7: To influence wind and weather. 4.8: To attract or replace thunder. 4.9: Use in reported supplication rituals in recent years. 5.Depiction of heavenly bodies 5.1: Depiction of star constellations. 5.2: Depiction of the Moon or moon phases. 5.3: Depiction of the Sun. 5.4 : Depiction of observations of supernovae. 6.Depiction of topographic elements 6.1: Elements of pre-Historic maps. 6.2: Referents to nearby topographic features, including springs, peaks, rivers and mines. 6.3: Aids in orientation. 6.4: Markers of land property boundaries . 6.5: Purported markers of deposited or hidden goods or treasures. Board games 7.1: Use in mancala games. 7.2: Use in boa games. 7.3: Games involving the use of marbles or coins. 7.4: Use in the board game huwais in Arabia. 7.5: Use in the pursuit game mangura in the Congo. 8.Symbolisms that are no longer recoverable 8.1: Indeterminable cabalistic meaning. 8.2: Writing symbols or messages. 9.Receptacles for offerings 9.1: For offerings to deities or priests. 9.2: For offerings to goblins or lost souls. 9.3: For elves or spirits of nature. 9.4: For offerings by the sick. 9.5: To deposit supplication coins. 9.6: For offerings to flocks of birds to entreat them to spare the fields. 9.7: To place food tokens on the thresholds of churches. 9.8: For depositing coins or jewellery in cupules on stone crosses. 10.Specific symbolisms 10.1Depiction of vulvae, occurring with or without anthropomorphs. 10.2: To commemorate visit of a location. 10.3: Production of cupules with coins to convert these into luck charms. Other purely utilitarian purposes 11.1: Use as mortars. 11.2: Use as recess to keep door hinges in place. 11.3: Cooking of food. 11.4 Use as recess for salt for animals, such as cattle or deer. 11.5: Receptacles for bird food or to allow butter to melt. 11.6: Illumination or marking of paths with the aid of oil and a wick placed in cupules. 11.7: Receptacles of the first berries of the season. 11.8: Receptacles for smoke or fire signals. 11.9: Use as lamps. 11.10: Production of rock powder for ingestion (geophagy)by humans or animals for medicinal purposes. 11.11: Receptacles for food and water for chickens. 11.12: Receptacles for pointed vertical posts in the construction of buildings. 11.13: Supports for the legs of beehives to prevent entry of specific insects. 11.14: Preparation for splitting of rocks. 11.15: Use to measure quantity of grain. 11.16: Use as lithophones. 11.17: Use to indicate local hydrology >>
Tartaria tablets 
