Thought some people here might be interested in this. The reconstruction here shows a current understanding of the site with roofed enclosures, later construction inside earlier enclosures, a settlement on the hill above, and the transition from round to rectangular residential buildings. A number of the reconstructions I’ve seen going around are old enough not to show the site with the context of the larger settlement – it was far from the isolated sanctuary as often depicted.
This is from the visitor center at the site.^1
The placement of buildings on slopes above the enclosures resulted in damage from slope slides but also preserved evidence for roofs in the rubble.
> there is growing evidence of the unintentional inundation of the special buildings by slope slides issuing from adjacent and higher-lying slopes, where continuous building activities had led to tell formation. This model contradicts earlier proposed scenarios that envisaged an intentional (ritual) backfilling of the buildings in the frame of large-scale celebrations and feasts. The destructive slope slide(s), perhaps triggered by periods of heavy rainfall, possibly combined with seismic activity, inundated the lower-lying special buildings with rubble from the superstructures of buildings located on the slopes, and mixed PPNA and EPPNB deposits, including middens and sub-floor burials…
> Observations made in Special Building D in 2023 support the slope slide hypothesis; these include damage to its architectural structure, air pockets in the rubble, the discovery of negatives of wooden beams from its collapsed roof, and preserved areas of roof plaster in the rubble matrix.^2
2. Clare, Lee. “Inspired Individuals and Charismatic Leaders: Hunter-Gatherer Crisis and the Rise and Fall of Invisible Decision-Makers at Göbeklitepe.” *Documenta Praehistorica* 51 (August 2024): 12-13. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.51.16.
rkelleyj on
It’s a very odd design to me… of all the ways we’ve seen ancient civilizations building these structures, why the hatchet-like Stone pillars? It just seems so strange.
2 Comments
Thought some people here might be interested in this. The reconstruction here shows a current understanding of the site with roofed enclosures, later construction inside earlier enclosures, a settlement on the hill above, and the transition from round to rectangular residential buildings. A number of the reconstructions I’ve seen going around are old enough not to show the site with the context of the larger settlement – it was far from the isolated sanctuary as often depicted.
This is from the visitor center at the site.^1
The placement of buildings on slopes above the enclosures resulted in damage from slope slides but also preserved evidence for roofs in the rubble.
> there is growing evidence of the unintentional inundation of the special buildings by slope slides issuing from adjacent and higher-lying slopes, where continuous building activities had led to tell formation. This model contradicts earlier proposed scenarios that envisaged an intentional (ritual) backfilling of the buildings in the frame of large-scale celebrations and feasts. The destructive slope slide(s), perhaps triggered by periods of heavy rainfall, possibly combined with seismic activity, inundated the lower-lying special buildings with rubble from the superstructures of buildings located on the slopes, and mixed PPNA and EPPNB deposits, including middens and sub-floor burials…
> Observations made in Special Building D in 2023 support the slope slide hypothesis; these include damage to its architectural structure, air pockets in the rubble, the discovery of negatives of wooden beams from its collapsed roof, and preserved areas of roof plaster in the rubble matrix.^2
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1. https://x.com/drleeclare/status/2003200762466406463
2. Clare, Lee. “Inspired Individuals and Charismatic Leaders: Hunter-Gatherer Crisis and the Rise and Fall of Invisible Decision-Makers at Göbeklitepe.” *Documenta Praehistorica* 51 (August 2024): 12-13. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.51.16.
It’s a very odd design to me… of all the ways we’ve seen ancient civilizations building these structures, why the hatchet-like Stone pillars? It just seems so strange.