The Meaning of Göbekli Tepe Animal Symbolism: A New Hypothesis | Ancient Architects
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- čas přidán 1. 02. 2022
- Since the end of last year I’ve been reading a blog called Old European Culture and I have to say it is one of the most fascinating reads I’ve come across on the Internet. I first came across it through Twitter because the author really does post some interesting ideas, interpretations and observations regarding the ancient world.
Read the blog at oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/
Follow them on Twitter at / serbiaireland
I was specifically interested in their views on the imagery displayed on the T-Shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe and that’s because they have a somewhat unique and intriguing hypothesis regarding the use of animal iconography in ancient art.
There are hundreds of blog posts on the site, discussing many different cultures and eras of history, and I’ve linked it below in the description, because it’s a wonderful rabbit hole to go down into and so please forgive me if I don’t give the work justice because I’m trying to really give a summary in video format for a broad audience.
In a nutshell, the claim is that animal representations in the ancient world are calendar markers. Animals are universal, their habits and behaviours are predictable and often seasonal, and hence a depiction of animal can, in effect, encode the time of the year.
So how does this hypothesis affect our knowledge of Göbekli Tepe? Well, if correct, it means the animals displayed on the T-shaped pillars of Göbekli Tepe, such as the famous Pillar 43 or Vulture Stone, are portraying the important seasons and annual events in the calendar, which for a Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture would be so important to life. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this amazing hypothesis so please do comment below.
All images are taken from Google Earth and the below sources for educational purposes only. Please subscribe to Ancient Architects, Like the video, and please leave a comment below. Thank you.
Sources:
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/
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More sources to follow
#AncientArchitects #GobekliTepe #AncientHistory
At 13 mins 40 seconds, I had to use a different microphone 😂 Apologies for this! But the show must go on! 👍
For shame 😏
Hey dude 🤘😜🤘
These things happen.
If u didnt wrote, i wouldnt notice, actually i still dont 😂😂😂
Thanks Matt for making this video and introducing your audience to my Animal Calendar Markers hypothesis.
The most interesting thing about Animal Calendar Markers is that they eventually became deified...In all the cultures where they were originally used as part of the agricultural calendar. And they became the base on top of which pretty much every Eurasian and North African mythology was built...They are the deepest layer, the plaster, on top of which all our amazing mythological images are painted. And because of this, when Animal Calendar Markers are used as key to decipher ancient myths or artefacts, the result is consistently the same...I have spent last year basically verifying this with European, Near Eastern, Central Asian, Indian, Iranian, Chinese and Egyptian myths and artefacts, and so far the hypothesis works...The "crazy" mythological creatures, the "random" assemblies of animals and gods, the ''archetypes that stem from our deep collective unconscious", suddenly become logical, expected, and very very "boring" calendars 🙂 You can see why the priests of various religions would want to spice these things up...
Anyway, maybe we have here stumbled across a new "Rosseta stone"...
More about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/p/animal-solar-year-markers.html then check the rest of the blog posts I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter twitter.com/serbiaireland threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...
I find this idea more appealing than most. What amazes me most is how and why these folks built this place and found the time to build it. I built all the structures on my five acres of ground. All for the same reasons to protect me and mine from rain. wind, cold(-25C at the moment) and protection from mosquito. My life is pretty easy compared to the life of these folks and it seems they didn’t live there though maybe when the rest of the sites get excavated… then they find to fill the whole thing in? Humans are strange.!
Well... they didn't have a time piece, so they had "all day" to them, sun up to sun down... and, I'm wondering if shadows against some of those pillars might have told them the seasons... get out the "magic rod", stand it up in the direct sunlight, and see where the top of the stick reaches on the pillar... just a thought...
@@dermagerhaser6622 Man, you beat me to it. I just posted something similar. Hats off.
This is very relatable for me Matt. Having lived in Southwestern US, the scorpion timing is spot on. Now having lived in Southeastern US for a bit and tend to be outdoors much much more, I adjust my outdoor cautions about snakes by the weather, regardless of the calendar. When the night temps are above the soil temp for three nights in a row, out they come. The opposite is true for late fall. This simple metric is more accurate than any calendar. I am sure there are hundreds of different examples. Very intriguing stuff!
Thank you
What has to do the US with Turkey? Typical american fool....
Loving the continuing series on Gobekli Tepe. I am fascinated by these animal representations. Thank You for bringing us this information.
Thanks Barry 👍
I am enjoying this as well. It feels more focused.
In ancient times, animals were clan symbol. For example the eagle men carrying pots/kamandals. It's depicting a mythological story, albeit based on real events. In Atlantis, Gadura/Gadeirus' people, the eagles were subservient to the Snakes even though both were descended from Poseidon/Purushottam. Then they revolted and went on conquest in four directions and even stole the pot of immortality from the gods. This is the story depicted here.
You know I always wondered what this pot of immortality was over which so many battles were fought in Indian mythology. Devas/Gods fought with Daityas, Asuras and Rakshasas. Since none of them managed to get it from gods, I couldn't understand what this 'pot of immortality' could be. But Gadur is different. He did manage to get it. Although later it was 'returned' in exchange for being Vishnu's emblem in India and Zeus's emblem in Greece. So now we know what this pot was. It's a right to be worshipped which he did have for sometime that his many destroyed temples proclaim. Indeed this is what is written that after drinking from the pot of immortality, the devas ascended to godhood. Well, at least US still worship him!
It's a fascinating hypothesis, maybe it has merit. I'm always wary when prehistoric imagery is all conveniently explainable by something seen through modern eyes, of course. The developments will be interesting to scrutinize. Great channel!
I deeply appreciate the more skeptical perspective you've cultivated. I much prefer we just be comfortable saying "we simply don't know" rather than making something up to fill in gaps or meet some agenda.
The "handbags" could represent storage bags (from leather, cloth or straw) that contained various harvest products such as grain and vegetables where they could also be stored in. It would go along with the story of the pillar art being depictions of seasonality. Also, maybe these storage bags were place at the top of the pillar as this would be the pinnacle event of the year as their whole sustenance would depend on the success of their harvest. The top of the pillar would signify the finality of their year. Another supporting factor may be that the animal positions are carved going up as the season progresses, so that the harvest would be the culmination of that season year, thus being located at the top.
In ancient times, animals were clan symbol. For example the eagle men carrying pots/kamandals. It's depicting a mythological story, albeit based on real events. In Atlantis, Gadura/Gadeirus' people, the eagles were subservient to the Snakes even though both were descended from Poseidon/Purushottam. Then they revolted and went on conquest in four directions and even stole the pot of immortality from the gods. This is the story depicted here.
The Sumerians were big on the bags.
@@amybarb25 It's not a bag, it's a kamandal, more specifically the pot of Amrit/immortality that gave you the right to be worshipped. In the hands of the eagle man Gadura/Gadeius of Atlantis, it's the story of Gadeius/Typhus attacking gods and obtaining immortality
Thank you for explaining that Bill
@@deepika2440 Thank you Deepika
I've heard somewhere that the " hand bags" on the pillar is actually depicting a rising sun over a field. The animals next to them show the seasons and when it's time to harvest.
I just love these new interpretations and hypotheses! 🤗
You always make me use my brain and look at things from a different perspective 🙂
Master Tepe at it again!
Thanks Kayleigh!
I'm just an old and retired American boomer with a lot more time on my hands than I've had for a very long time. And so I have the great privilege to sit here in my nice, warm, dry and well lit house watching a video from one of my all-time favorite YT channels and thinking old boomer thoughts while it's pouring cold rain outside and think about what it must have been like to live in Turkey 13,000 years ago and wonder why the people carved animals and humans on T-shaped pillars in circular enclosures. (Not to mention why it all got buried on purpose and by whom.)
I can only opine from my own point of view. That 'view' has changed recently because I've moved to a new area with a very different climate that is much less populated than the one I knew well and for decades. Wild animals are in my yard every day. I use my cell phone to take a lot photos and videos of the plants and animals I see to send to my youngest grandchildren on the other side of the country. I've lived here for nearly a year. I've learned when to expect certain sorts of weather based on a calendar and weather forecasts I can look up whenever I choose, I'm just beginning to learn when certain wild flowers bloom and when certain animals mate and bring their off-spring into this world. I can look all that up on the internet, of course, and then follow up with my own observations. Before long, I won't need the internet to know what season is about to begin. The animals and plants will tell me.
It sure seems to me humans back then did much the same thing. They built a record of their observations, even built monuments, even venerated that which gave them life, year after year after year. They used that record to keep themselves on top of what needed to be done next and next and next. It must have been a really good place to live year after year for decades and then centuries, even millennia...until it wasn't anymore. Food for thought in these changing times and changing climate, it seems to me.
With gratitude and respect, Matt. THANK YOU!
I really like the colors added to the art on the pillars, as shown on the title image.
Amazing theory! I find myself liking it. People were more in tuned with nature and would have used it as markers and language. as it would have been understood by all or most. It makes a lot of sense. I will be reengaging other sites with that in mind. Thanks for putting it here as i am not on twitter.!
Thank you for bringing OldEuropeanCulture's blog and work to light. His twitter threads are amazingly detailed, research and knowledge incredibly thorough, and I agree he has a very compelling hypothesis, one which shows how the zodiac and animal symbols may have developed over time.
The ancestors put all the work in setting up those 'T' pillars and enclosures, then carved stories of the seasons/events in the world they experienced using animals metaphorically to tell the stories. yet didn't carve a language into the T pillars (I know..).
Why its interesting, I assume there was verbal communication with complex thoughts of construction, social structure, different trades, hunting/gathering/cooking, beliefs of creation etc...
As the ancestors were together in these enclosures, they were speaking their language to explain these imagery and the story of the seasons, the Sun and Moon journey and probably stars/constellations as well, in their language.
What I would give to be a fly on a ''T' pillar to listen in on those conversations .. We don't even know who these people were? I sure do not believe they were mute people making grunting noises :p
"In the beginning...."
I see that your fascination with Göbekli Tepe has not passed, wonderful! What amazes and fascinates the most is what is the most original and least known in our history. Thanks to you, it is getting better and better known! So it's a calendar? Thanks, greetings! 😍
Maybe a calendar! It’s work in its infancy but more to think about 👍
@@AncientArchitects I look forward to your further research and congratulations! ;)
It's portraying a mythological story (which is a stand in for real events), where Gadur/eagle/Gadeieus of Atlantis wage war on gods to get the pot of Amrit(nectar of immortality) and his image is worshipped wherever he conquered
Glad you cited Old European Culture blog. I have learned a lot from that site. The article about people eating acorns in ancient Greece was very interesting.
Yes! He goes way into that!
Matt, I respect your work Sir. You are one of the few people that use the word "Hypothesis" and "Theory" correctly. Most people say "Theory" when in reality they are describing an "Hyopthesis. o7
There are some very interesting and logical hypotheses here. One shouldn't, of course, ignore non-European/Mesopotamian information from archaeology, anthropology and sociology. Animals, as suggested near the end of the video, could be totemic, calendric, seasonal, or personal identifiers, and likely more than one depending on context. Thanks, Matt, for another thought-provoking video!
being a skeptic keeps your mind open, tempering your skepticism with discernment leads to knowledgeable understanding. accepting that your ideas may be incorrect and the drive to seek out better knowledge means you're an investigator well worth watching. Keep up the good work.
Great information it actually makes sense. Meanwhile, I wonder why when artists depict scenes from those days everyone is naked, how far back are these artists going? lol The oldest sewing needle found so far is about 60k years old setting the date of clothing making even farther than 5000 BC.
👍
We come into this world with out clothes,and don’t need them when we go.
When Klaus Schmidt and his team excavated Göbekli Tepe, the first hypothesis to the animals of this what they called 'prehistoric zoo' was: there must have been a lot of mythological stories we cannot reconstruct.
Maybe this new hypothesis does not directly contadict the old one. Since several myths like the one of Demeter reflect on the change of the seasons you can imagine that the people of Göbekli Tepe could have been telling stories together with the ongoing periodical changes of their environment.
I've been going down a rabbit hole on ancient animal symbolism for a while now and it, imho requires Occam's machete more than a razor as there seems to be layers of concept and vital context involved. I have found it handy to look towards common symbolism and context shared by ancient cultures to help determine baselines and touchstones of reference. For example with the snake, we find the snake very widely used in many ancient cultures with some notable overlap. A cobra near the head of a person like Shiva from India and Pharaohs of Egypt are connected to the concept of heightened perception or awareness or consciousness. So it also seems that many of the animal associations may have been connected to star constellations and astrology if not also astronomy, thus I think it rather crucial to consider that these symbols we not the specific and singular associations we give to many symbols today but that the ancients may have been intentionally codifying multilayered concepts into their use of animal iconography. Considering the similarities between symbols at Gobekli Tepe and those found in far off cultures and places and time periods, it seems counter intuitive to not explore the concept that they may have been rooted in a much more widely understood lexicon of sorts that we have yet to give our ancestors credit for such as the similarities found between cave art symbology found across most continents.
Very interesting 🤨 brilliant to have an open mind to consider other things we hadn’t even thought of pretty cool
Excellent work 🥰 I’m looking forward to future videos.
Yay!
I lost track of this website over a decade ago and you found it again for me!!!!!
I love this site!
Yes, I think he's brilliant. Wait until you see what he does with the Celts!
And thru all these years, I have no forgotten what he does with the burial of the dead in central Europe!
Have fun!
😍
Thanks for the work on this idea, Matt. Really interesting.
Always a stimulating set of informations! Thank you for it!
Your presentations never cease to fascinate and intrigue me.
Thanks again.
Fascinating! Excellent work, as usual, Matt. Thanks!
Thank you!
Very fascinating. Thanks for your videos. They are always a must watch
It will be trained observers & their research , that cracks this ancient code of observation & depiction by the ancients !!! BRAVO SIR !!! Old Europe , what a wonderful thing !!!
I like this idea.. it really makes a lot of sense ..ive been watching you for years and really enjoy your channel..looking forward to the next ..cheers
Riveting stuff! Excellently presented as always. Thank you!
The theory makes the ancient peoples into brilliant scientists and even into zoologists. It reflects more our culture of science today than how irratonal religion usually works. It's like they are trying to know the text of the Bible by studying the Church interior. Is really EVERYTHING in ancient archaeology we don't know about really supposed to be a calendar?
This "rationality assumption" that leads people to so many "calendar theories" is too much of a bias for many, which is why we always must remain skeptical about it.
I think this theory is actually stretching itself too much to make this "rationality assumption" be valid. Why portray a snake if you want to portray the sun? Why make an ox if you want to show rain? etcera. These people were clearly skilled at art so why wouldn't they make a sun symbol or a rain symbol instead?
The supposed dates seems complicated and a bit arbitrary, someone clearly put in much imaginative work to make everything fit the theory too neatly. It also presupposes present day zoological knowledge. I think the animals are just that - animals, in mythological stories. Like in Australian Aboriginal rock paintings. It's still the most simple explanation.
The different fantastic irrational fictional stories of religion is what has made religion sucessful. It creates very tight knit communities where outsiders who don't believe or know these tales are excluded. I believe early religions functioned like this too. It's the REAL glory of the Gods.
fascinating & credible interpretation of animal symbols as seasonal markers...wonderful to see open-mindedness applied to good scholarship...please continue along this pathway. of discovery with ur sharp eye & healthy imagination...bravo.
Thanks once again Matt. Very refreshing to see a new (new to me) concept brought to attention.
🤯🤯🤯... I am truly intrigued, waiting for more...😊
This was very interesting! Thank you for sharing these thoughts! 😃👏
Thanks for watching
Thanks for sharing, Matt. Interesting as usual.
Thank you
there are many early cultures which celebrated the return of the cranish birds as a sign for the beginning of the wet season.
Thanks for bringing us new interpretations. Certainly helps to bring forward something that would otherwise be lost with the noise of the internet.
Thank you
I resent your willingness to be open to different interpretations of ancient archeology. 🗺
Best video on this site. I love the ideas.
Your site shows how good humanity and the internet can be! Outstanding real time worldwide research and science! Love it.
This is one of my favorite parts of Gobeklitepe. I believe Pillar 43 is showing a date, with the 3 other important days of the year (equinoxes and solstices) at the top. I first saw this on a lecture (unfortunately I don't remember by whom) The so-called handbags have little animals next to them, supporting the theory on that lecture that they are actually showing the sun rising with the corresponding constellation. On the right is a scorpion. The middle is a heavy land animal such as a bull etc and the one on the left is the ibis bird- looking creature. Since there could have been a lunar calendar based on observation back then suggesting 13 months in a year, one of the animal figures (such as the bird or fox) could be representing that constellation. The snake represents electric (or electromagnetic) energy in my opinion. btw I will happily help you with translations from Turkish. I have a lot of respect for the effort you put into the pyramids and Tas Tepeler. You've widened my perception. Thank you. Have a great day.
I was on the calendar trail independently. Just very basic. (always start with the basics before expanding) This is hugely, huge more elaborate but I'm on the same page with the underlying assumption. Seasons. We might just decode it. Thanks Matt. Much love.
Ancient Architects is alway out front with new thought and suggested hypothesis, that are well thought out.
Thanks for the new concept and possable direction of thought. Its cool when that happons.
Wow, so much to unpack here, thank you.😁👍❤
Great video. Thank you for bringing this intriguing theory to our attention.
This is so simple & logical! Very intuitive if you know nature's creatures & their seasons. Wow! Please explore this more!
Intriguing. Looking forward to more.
Cheers
Thank you very much for presenting this fascinating doc.
Keep up the good work, logic and critical thought helps and any new ideas in keeping with those ideas is worth looking into.
Cheers!
Thanks as always Matt. When I first visited this place my first reaction was that there were so many different animals - as if they were recording/ celebrating the fact that the animals "we're returning or in abundance". This is post ice age, post possible floods and close to Mt Ararat, the supposed ending of the Noah story. Could people have represented oral stories handed down of a life where many of these animals were not around and then populations increased again? I live in a country with no historical written language, only oral histories and carvings of people, animals and daily life on wooden "story boards" and many of these carvings depict the animals around them.
I was just thinking about this today about the Native Americans. I don't think they developed a written language either. I might be wrong, tho. But yes. They are all about the stories with people, animals and the elements.
Fascinating!!
I like this interpretational hypothesis. It makes sense to have a large pillar that describes things that happen at a time of year, maybe pillar 43 is the one for fall, when the rains start.
I think the 'handbags' could indeed be structures for either storage or habitation (homes). They are clearly rectilinear, with a large dome with a window or tunnel through it, and a small balcony on top. You could build a home this way in this climate. The dome sheds rain. The window is probably on both sides, so air can breeze through, which is perfect for cooling. And you could have removable covers on it for winter. If you look just above the domes, it could be rain! either that or the same gathered harvest as below. Also there are weird little things next to the windows. My hypothesis is that those are BUGS which will fly into your home when it gets rainy.
It makes sense tat they would be packed tightly together. The animals tend to have open space between them, though it's very interlocking. But homes could share walls or support each other, and together they could shed water in 1 direction, and all get the best wind.
And then outside your home is the harvested fields, and the way the animals change during the season. Makes sense to me!
the bull Relief reminds me of ancient greek and crete mosaics depicting the feast "hophop over the bulls". a celebration symbolizing the defeat over dangerous beasts.
"Zodiac Killer" that had me doing a double take 0:40
Brilliant! I am enjoying your work on the Tepe's immensely. But.... please just read your commentary, that sing-song dialogue is maddening!
Big bravo Matt. How probable. People 12,000 years ago were more intelligent then we imagined.
Very nice, thanks for the wonderful input : )
Thanks
That makes a lot of sense! It grounds the symbols in time and meaning. It also lends meaning to the astronomical interpretations in the great year. 🤔
I think pillar 43 is easy to explain.
It's basically a sky burial. The vulture takes the ancestor's spirit to the sun. But the spirit needs to be protected from the snake and scorpion to arrive safely. The cranes are protectors, as they eat snakes and scorpions. On the upper right a crane protects the spirit world from a snake that tries to enter.
When arrived at the spirit world, they have to cross something, depicted as blocks (the strange form of the "grass" above the blocks signifies it's not just grass/straw bound together). When it's crossed they are in the spirit world. The grass depict the fields the ancestors dwell on. The bags with the animals are the the dwelling places of the spirit of such animal.
Before the sky burial, the head was taken and plastered to be some kind of protective trinket and medium to the spirit world. Your ancestors could mediate with the (animal) spirits for you or your tribe.
When the ancestor spirit gets taken by the scorpion or snake, it is used to do bad things instead. Like bad accidents, or miscarriage or illness. Perhaps even chasing the animals away. That is why it is so important the deceased gets there and the burial rituals have to be done properly.
In ancient times, animals were clan symbol. For example the eagle men carrying pots. It's depicting a mythological story, albeit based on real events. In Atlantis, Gadura/Gadeirus' people, the eagles were subservient to the Snakes even though both were descended from Poseidon/Purushottam. Then they revolted and chased the snakes to four corners of earth and even stole the pot of immortality from the gods. This is the story depicted here.
I think we’re all going to find out that their culture was different but every bit as complex as our own. Similar needs but a very different relationship with nature. I’ve said it many times; we have gotten entirely too civilized for our own good. That’s dangerous when we consider the possibility of empire ending comets.
All these zigzags called by us arms of the pillars are lightenings. Besides it looks that some carvings had been done before pillars were shaped into t-forms because carvings overesize pillars in some cases.
Each pillar tells a story, but what is that story? The hardest part is understanding what the 'author' wrote and meant. We must get into the 'author's' head many thousands of years ago. It sounds easy, until we can barely understand the thinking of 100 years ago.
great work , good theory . the best one yet that explains the site in a late meso early neo context
Fascinating theory and it makes logical sense for them to observe their surroundings to try and perceive cycles and stability from chaos.
The picture at 11:02 has just blown my mind, I had no idea they were that big!
The central pillars are HUGE!
This is probably the first library of ancient man, before written language. Water was on site as an incentive to come and share knowledge and have time to study.
It makes sense that art would depict people s relationships to the natural world. I saw the handbags in the profile of the big hills in previous video, the arched handles tracks of the sun?
Pillars belong to each clan commemorating lives of our ancestors !
Thank you for sharing the research I feel that this Ockham like idea could definitely be something worth thinking about🤗👍
I like the idea of the animals being an indicator of season or the time to do stuff. Without TV, tech and Google seeing certain animals in abundance, declining or even just moulting would be an easy way to know if you were getting close to planting season. Although when you were talking about pillar 43 and the rainy season, I did think that perhaps the wavy lines were rain indicators before you mentioned sheaves of grass/crops. Pillars with more line art = heavier rain periods or something. Will be interesting to see how this theory goes along with more study.
Thanks Matt for another quality video keep up the standards! 🤔
I see parallels between Choco canyon and Gobekli Tepe. The ancient Pueblo also created a spanning series of structures. Note the square holes most likely for timber present in both places. Also note the FIVE story structure of (small)brick and lumber construction at choco canyon… also is a calendar. Both abandoned… both with nearby rock protected dwellings etc…
excellent vid - the hypothesis sounds plausible, and possible - and I like it because it does NOT involve space aliens ... it also does not contradict anything I've learned about calendars - which ain't much, but far more than most folks know. ... One point to remember - animals could be used for multiple meanings.
If these carvings are a type of functional calendar, then a reference indicator such as a sun shadow or a priest manually marking the daily march of time, could be possible evidence. It's all about predicting the next few weeks or months to a reasonable accuracy. This maybe the first attempt to show understanding of the predictability of nature in the coming months. Excellent theory worth pondering. Good stuff.
This is so freaking interesting! Thanks.
Using this hypothesis, it almost makes me feel like this site may be a prehistoric "university" in which people would travel to, and feast, while learning to master their surroundings.
At Göbekli Tepe they chiseled their collective knowledge onto stone pillars to educate. On one stone, the Vulture Stone, they chiseled a cartoon map of their country, the Levant. The Vulture is the Golan Heights (which is shaped like a bird). The straight legs of the Big Bird on the right is the Euphrates River beneath Harran. etc, etc. From the Dead Sea mountains (the square faced dog…the mountains are shaped like a dog) to Karaca Dag in Turkey. New discovery. Easy to see everything on the pillar on Google maps on your phone right now. Everything!
I had an Indiana Jones moment recently and discovered all the weird animals and shapes on pillar 43 resemble the same mountainous areas of “the cradle of civilization “. Note: You can’t draw water unless you show it moving…thus the waves. The mountains chiseled at the very top of the pillar are the mountains of the island of Cyprus which can be seen from the coast. It’s amazing and there is much more. I made a video to help guide you. Cheers!
Marvellous insights
thank you 4 sharing:)
Has anyone noticed that all the animals depicted are crepuscular or nocturnal? Matt, a Macrovipera snake entering its burrow in the morning hours will have it's head depicted down. The Macrovipera viper snake is a “highly defensive” if not aggressive snake, especially at night, and known for a distinctive loud hiss used to frighten potential predators.
N.B. Animals like the Aurochs (i.e. the Bulls) is only often diurnal. Once pressured by human presence, they will switch to a nocturnal cycle of activity.
It makes total sense to use animals to mark events on a calendar. Animals repeat their behavior year to year and what better way to 'observe' animal behavior and attach a meaning to it. What were they going to use as an alternative? What else could be so precise on things as important as planting crops at the right time so they survived and provided food...Remember, Food and Shelter were paramount to all creatures, why not ancient humans? Sometimes the meaning of ancient symbols escapes us because we try to attach too complicated a meaning to them...ancients needed simple depictions so everyone understood the meanings...
oh, sure. just when i think i might have a handle on this, another, plausible hypothesis with merit. oh, well, more to think about. keeps my brain young, or so i'm told.
thanks for bringing this to my attention. i'll be sure to check out their postulations. can't seem to get enough of these sites.
Makes sense. We still today give names to the full moons according to the environmental signals: the full worm moon, the strawberry moon, the full buck moon, the full sturgeon moon. If we didn't have print we might still be using appropriate symbols for time. Old Slavic and other early languages had names of seasons and months corresponding to the flora or fauna prominent at the same time.
But what does it mean at the site?
So okay, we accept that the animals depicted actually represent some periods of the year. Still, what did it mean for those at GT?
Were the upright stones a calendar? What was the purpose of that calendar? Certainly, if it was springtime and the snakes were appearing, the residents already knew that. Did they need a carving in stone? Did a snake on a pillar mean, "Gather here in springtime"? Or did it mean "If you were born in springtime, stand here"?
You do a great job, please keep up the excellent work.
Matt, check out the 12000 yr old sistine chapel petroglyphs in Columbia. Chuck from cfapps did a video on it before he passed. There are 4 bird drawings in the middle of five square boxes. The Birds look very similar to the GTepe pillars. Maybe an exchange of ideas between cultures?
I’ll have a look! Thank you.
Right on. Thanks for sharing Matt. I like this hypostasis more than the celestial. It makes a lot more sense. What we have to keep in mind is the amount of excavation done. It is only like 20% or close to that. They have a whole lot more to dig not to mention the other sites they have going now.
Definitely an interesting and attractive hypothesis.
According to an old saying, the progress of spring and the arrival of summer can be observed by watching the return of migratory birds. In arctic / nordic region Summer is one month away from Eurasian skylark, half month from Chaffinch, a little from White Wagtail and not a day from Swallow.
Gobekli Tepe the gift that keeps on giving.
The mythology is fascinatring but more importantly is what facts they knew at that time.
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Plays off of Dr. Swetman's hypothesis that the animals represent zodiac symbols, and that each "bag" represents a equinox or a solstice. (Divide the year into 1/4) he did a video series on his CZcams.
Interesting. But I think the calendar idea is much too broad. Yes, I can see how some animals could represent changing seasons. Even modernly, I note the Canadian Geese flying over my home, and as a child I use to look for wooley worms to know about the coming winter. But given all the animal motifs, I can't believe they are all about marking the time of season.
I heard that the bags actually represent fertilization. As in bags of water.. in the old days the priests would sprinkle water during ceremonies to represent fertilization. Obviously idk if that’s true or not.. but it defiantly kinda fits. Food for thought.
agri/astro-theology; the symbols could be related to time,season, archtype and/or spiritual aspects, you don't need to restrict the interpretations to fitting only one 'purpose' :)
I was wondering if the carvings were at one time painted. I know you were just highlighting the figure, but it made me think of that.
Would make sense if they were painted. But I don’t think any pigment has been discovered
Nice video,in Norway the snakes come together to keep warm through the winter,in late Autumn.
Younger dryas the climate changed. I think it documents those changes. Wow what a treasure.