Archaeologists in Türkiye (Turkey) have unearthed several ancient statues, including a life-size statue of a wild boar, at Göbekli Tepe, a Neolithic site known for its megalithic architecture with characteristic T-shaped pillars.
Göbekli Tepe (‘Potbelly Hill’ in Turkish) is one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in recent decades.
The site is located in Upper Mesopotamia, a region which saw the emergence of the most ancient farming communities in the world.
Göbekli Tepe sits at the summit of a limestone mountain ridge in the Şanlıurfa Province, southeast Türkiye. It is a 15 m high artificial hill (tell) covering an area of about 9 ha.
Its impressive monumental architecture was built by groups of hunter-gatherers in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, between 9,600 and 8,200 BCE.
It features large monolithic T-shaped pillars carved from limestone, numbers among the earliest known examples of man-made megalithic buildings constructed specifically for the ritual requirements of their prehistoric builders.
Two centrally positioned monolithic limestone pillars (up to 5.5 m high) are common to all monumental buildings at Göbekli Tepe.
Three of the megalithic buildings were erected directly upon the natural limestone plateau, which had been carefully smoothed, and the two central monolithic T-shaped pillars were found at the site, that is, slotted into platforms painstakingly carved from the natural plateau.
The two central pillars are surrounded by one or multiple stone walls. The enclosing walls, which can be attributed to different phases of the buildings, were interrupted at regular intervals by inserted T-shaped limestone pillars, although these did not reach the same heights as the two central monoliths.
In addition, Göbekli Tepe is unique because of its rich and distinct collection of artistic representations, primarily images of animals.
The T-shaped pillars themselves are anthropomorphic, as testified in some cases by carvings…
Read the full article here