Gobekli Tepe Read online

  Figure 7.1. The main enclosures at Göbekli Tepe showing the mean alignments of their central pillars.

  ALIGNED TO SIRIUS?

  Giulio Magli, a professor of mathematical physics at the Politecnico of Milan, also dismisses Orion’s role in the alignment of the twin pillars at Göbekli Tepe. To accept such a hypothesis, he says, would mean reducing the age of the mountaintop sanctuaries by as much as a thousand years, something that goes against all dating evidence emerging from the site at this time.2

  Instead, Magli proposes that the mean azimuths of the twin pillars in Enclosures B, C, and D were aligned to the rising of the star Sirius, which made its reappearance in the night skies from the latitude of Göbekli Tepe sometime around 9500 BC.3 For a period of around fifty-five hundred years prior to this time it had been missing from the skies due to the effects of precession. Magli surmises that the hunter-gatherers of the region might have created the temples at Göbekli Tepe to honor the appearance of this new “guest” star in the night sky.

  Magli’s theory was put to the test by Rodney Hale. He calculated, by recognized methods, that in the epoch of Göbekli Tepe’s construction, ca. 9500–8900 BC, Sirius, which only just rose above the southern horizon at this time, would have been so dim due to the effects of atmospheric absorption and aerosol pollution that it is unlikely to have impressed the region’s hunter-gatherers.4 Moreover, the meager arc the star made as it crossed the southern horizon was so brief that in just twenty minutes it would have shifted its horizontal position a full 3 degrees, making it a difficult and highly unrealistic stellar target to use for such a purpose.5

  In conclusion, it seems totally improbable that the Paleolithic peoples of southeast Anatolia gave up their free lives as hunters to worship such an insignificant star. Clearly, if astronomical phenomena really did inspire these people’s building motivations, then it did not involve either the stars of Orion or the lone star Sirius.

  NORTH OR SOUTH?

  In fact, there is a fundamental problem in even assuming that the main enclosures at Göbekli Tepe are oriented south, for although the humanlike features of the central monoliths are all turned this direction, there is no reason to conclude that their gaze is fixed toward the southern skyline. More likely, they greet the entrant approaching from the south in the same manner that statues in churches face the worshipper approaching the high altar. Church altars are located in the east, as this is the direction of heaven in Christian tradition, and also because churches were often aligned toward the position where the sun rises on the feast day of its patron saint. Just because Jesus, Saint Michael, or the Virgin Mary faces away from the high altar does not mean their gaze is fixed toward the western skyline.

  In Göbekli Tepe’s case, if its enclosures did have a high altar or holy of holies, then it would have been in the north, the direction of darkness, where the sun never rises. It is also the direction of the celestial pole, the turning point of the heavens. In southeast and eastern Anatolia, northerly orientations of early Neolithic cult buildings have been noted at Çayönü, Nevalı Çori, and Hallan Çemi in the eastern Taurus Mountains (see chapter 23). It thus seems likely that Göbekli Tepe’s enclosures are oriented toward the north, and not the south.

  Concluding that Göbekli Tepe’s central pillars face south without taking into account the significance that the north plays in Anatolia’s early Neolithic tradition would be very foolish indeed. What is more, the Sabaeans, the pagan star worshippers of the ancient city of Harran—the ruins of which are overlooked by Göbekli Tepe—each year celebrated the Mystery of the North, since this was deemed the direction of the primal cause and the source of life itself.6 As we saw in the prologue, the earliest inhabitants of the city, who thrived a full ten thousand years ago, were very likely the direct descendants of the Göbekli builders.

  Similar beliefs of the north being the original qibla, or direction of prayer, were held by other ethno-religious groups of the region, including the angel-worshipping Yezidi, the Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, and an Ismaili sect known as the Brethren of Purity.7 All of them most likely inherited aspects of their beliefs and practices from much earlier cultures with roots in the Neolithic age. With these thoughts in mind, Hale now turned his attention to the northern sky to identify any possible stellar targets there.

  TARGET REVEALED

  Just one star emerged as a potential candidate, and this was Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation of Cygnus, the celestial bird. Before 9500 BC Deneb was circumpolar, in that it never set, although after this time, through the effects of precession, it started to set each night on the north-northwestern horizon. As the centuries rolled by, the star’s point of extinction moved ever westward in a manner that, as we see below, not only makes sense of the mean azimuths of the various sets of twin pillars at Göbekli Tepe but also offers realistic construction dates for the enclosures in question.

  Enclosure D @ 353° = 9400 BC*4

  Enclosure E @ 350° = 9290 BC

  Enclosure C @ 345° = 8980 BC

  Enclosure B @ 337° = 8235 BC

  These dates should not be seen as absolute, as we have no idea as to what level of accuracy the Göbekli builders employed in their building construction. Even a small error in the positioning of the central pillars could alter the proposed alignment toward a stellar object by as much as a hundred years. Having said this, the construction dates of the various pairs of central pillars—suggested by their alignment to Deneb—correlate pretty well with available radiocarbon dates obtained from key enclosures.

  ENCLOSURE DATES

  For instance, loam taken from wall plaster found in Göbekli Tepe’s Enclosure D has provided a radiocarbon age of 9745–9314 BC,8 which corresponds perfectly with a date of ca. 9400 BC defined by the alignment of its twin pillars toward Deneb at this time. Interestingly, bone samples taken from Enclosure B have provided a radiocarbon age of 8306–8236 BC,9 which coincides with a suggested construction date of ca. 8235 BC implied by its twin pillars’ alignment toward Deneb. Having said this, radiocarbon specialist Oliver Dietrich of the German Archaeological Institute believes these burials could have been made long after the construction of the enclosure, so no more can be said on the matter until better dating evidence becomes available.10 Other radiocarbon dates have been obtained from organic materials found within the fill used to cover the major enclosures, and these range from the late tenth to the late ninth millennium BC, the time of the site’s final abandonment.11

  Clearly, the possibility that the central pillars in Göbekli Tepe’s main enclosures were aligned to reflect the precessional shift of a single astronomical target across an extended period of time is borne out by the astronomical data presented by Rodney Hale. What is more, there is evidence that cult buildings at other Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in southeast Anatolia might also have reflected an interest in the star Deneb. For instance, the Flagstone Building, Skull Building, and Terrazzo Building at Çayönü are also aligned north-northwest with entrances in their southern walls (see figure 7.2 on p. 84). Hale checked their orientations, based on available plans, and established that they reflect alignments toward the setting of Deneb between ca. 8825 BC and 7950 BC—shown in the following table12—dates that accord well with recent revisions of Çayönü’s age based on radiocarbon evidence obtained during the 1960s.13

  Structure Azimuth Deneb Setting Date

  Flagstone Building 345.35° 8810 BC

  Skull Building 345.86° 8825 BC

  Terrazzo Building 336.20° 7950 BC

  CELESTIAL MARKERS

  Coming to Göbekli Tepe’s Enclosure E, the Felsentempel, where all the pillars have been removed and only the slots within the stone pedestals remain, we find that the orientation of its twin pillars targeted the setting of Deneb at a date of ca. 9290 BC, some 110 years later than those of Enclosure D (see figure 7.3 on p. 84). This said, the fact that Enclosure E’s standing pillars have been removed makes it impossible to verify whether it really was aligned north t
oward Deneb. We are, however, on much firmer ground with Enclosure C.

  According to Hale’s calculations, Enclosure C’s central pillars targeted the setting of Deneb around 8980 BC, suggesting that this was the time frame of their construction (no radiocarbon dates are available at present for this structure).*5 Yet the rectangular slots cut out of the bedrock pedestals to support Enclosure C’s twin monoliths are aligned slightly more toward north than the pillars themselves. They are askew only by about a degree, although the difference between the stones and their slots is noticeable. This might indicate that the pillars target Deneb at a date slightly later than the construction of the slots, which could reflect the position of the star at an earlier date. If so, then quite possibly the enclosure is older than the 8980 BC date suggested by the proposed astronomical alignment of its twin pillars, perhaps by as much as a century or so. It is even possible that the monoliths were repositioned when it was realized they no longer synched with the setting of Deneb. So around 8980 BC they were turned very slightly to reflect the star’s new setting position. If this theory is correct, then it is possible that the Göbekli builders were familiar with the effects of precession, which shifts a star against the local horizon at a rate of around one degree every seventy-two years.

  Figure 7.2. The three cult buildings at Çayönü—the Terrazzo Building, Skull Building, and Flagstone Building. All are oriented north-northwest with entrances in the south.

  Figure 7.3. The alignment of Enclosure D’s central pillars toward the star Deneb in Cygnus and the opening of the Milky Way’s Great Rift, ca. 9400 BC.

  SIGHTING STONE DISCOVERY

  Further evidence of Göbekli Tepe’s proposed astronomical alignments comes from Enclosure D. A stone pillar standing around 5 feet (1.5 meters) in height has recently been found in its north-northwestern perimeter wall, exactly behind and in line with its central pillars (see figure 10.3 on p. 109). The stone is rectangular, and unlike the rings of radially oriented pillars found in the main enclosures, it has one of its wider faces turned toward the center of the structure. The significance of this stone is that it has a hole some 9 to 10 inches (23–25 centimeters) in diameter bored through it horizontally at a height of around 3 feet (1 meter) off the ground. Covering the stone is a series of curved lines, which flow in pairs and converge just beneath the hole before trailing off toward the stone’s right-hand corner. Very likely they are a naïve representation of the human torso complete with legs bent at the knees (see chapter 10).

  If the enclosure’s twin pillars were indeed oriented toward Deneb, then a person, a shaman perhaps, would have been able to look through the stone’s sighting hole to see Deneb setting on the north-northwestern horizon, a quite magnificent sight that cannot have happened by chance alone. Clearly, this is powerful evidence that the enclosure really was directed toward this star during the epoch of its construction.

  A similar holed stone exists in Enclosure C, which is also located within the north-northwest section of the temenos wall (see figure 10.1 on p. 106). Designated Pillar 59, it has been turned over onto its eastern side and is fractured across its hole, with the top section now missing. The diameter of the hole is very slightly larger than the one in the corresponding stone in Enclosure D, measuring 11 to 12 inches (28–30.5 centimeters). This is also the approximate width of the stone through which the hole has been bored.

  The holed stone in Enclosure C remains only partly exposed. It leans forward so that no indication of whether it bears any carved relief, like its partner in Enclosure D, can yet be determined. What does seem clear is that when in its original position, Pillar 59 would have stood exactly behind and in line with Enclosure C’s twin central pillars. This means that it too could have been used to observe the setting of Deneb when standing between the twin pillars during the epoch of its construction (bearing in mind that a second, inner ring of stones was added after the original construction of the outer circle, according to Klaus Schmidt.14 Its construction would quite possibly have obscured the line of vision from the twin central pillars to the holed stone).

  SOUL HOLES

  So what exactly are these holed stones that once stood in the same positions in Enclosures C and D? The answer almost certainly is that they are seelenloch, a German word meaning “soul hole” (seelenlocher, “soul holes,” in plural). Across Europe*6 and also in southwest Asia†7 megalithic structures, such as dolmens, passage graves, and chambered tombs, often incorporate upright entrance stones into which circular holes have been bored. These holes are usually between 10 and 16 inches (25–41 centimeters) in diameter, which makes them too small for an adult to pass through. This has led to speculation that they must have served some kind of symbolic function.

  Prehistorians have suggested that the holes in dolmens might have allowed offerings of food to be made to the dead following their initial interment. This is at least possible. Yet more often than not, holed entrances to megalithic structures are interpreted as seelenloch, holes that are believed to allow the spirit or soul of the deceased to exit the tomb. (Even Klaus Schmidt has suggested that fragmented stone rings found at Göbekli Tepe during the earliest surveys of the site might have functioned as seelenloch.15 This, however, was long before the discovery of the aforementioned holed stones in Enclosures C and D.)

  Holes were also bored into the shoulders or sides of cremation urns in Roman Europe,16 and also in the Ararat Valley of eastern Anatolia during the Bronze Age,17 apparently with similar purposes in mind. In places such as the Austrian Tyrol the concept of the seelenloch persisted until the twentieth century. Here, circular “doors” were built into the walls of houses, which were opened only when a person died in the house, the purpose being to allow the soul of the deceased to leave its earthly surroundings and depart for the afterlife.18

  CAUCASIAN DOLMENS

  By far the greatest concentration of dolmens with façades or entrance stones, into which holes have been bored, are to be found in the Caucasus region of Abkhazia and southern Russia, on the northeast coast of the Black Sea. Here as many as three thousand structures of this kind have been noted, many of which have never been properly recorded. Those that have been investigated produce radiocarbon dates and artifacts suggesting a construction date during the Bronze Age, ca. 3000–2000 BC.19

  Many of the dolmens have paved-stone enclosures with tememos walls that incorporate the porthole stone. The similarity in design between these megalithic enclosures in the Caucasus and Göbekli Tepe’s Enclosures C and D, with their own holed stones forming part of the temenos wall, is uncanny and must surely form part of a similar tradition.

  Many of the Caucasian dolmens have carved reliefs around their portholes. Often this shows twin pillars or supports capped with a trilithon (like those at Stonehenge), creating the image of a gateway or doorway, similar to the torii entrance gates to Japanese Shinto shrines. These carved gateways are curiously reminiscent of the twin pillars standing at the center of the enclosures at Göbekli Tepe.

  It thus seems likely that the holed stones in Göbekli Tepe’s Enclosures C and D functioned as seelenloch. If correct, then whether this rite of passage through the stone’s bored hole related to souls of the deceased leaving the enclosure or unborn souls entering this world is a matter of debate discussed in chapter 10. More obviously, the seelenloch enabled the soul or spirit of the shaman to exit the structure.

  PASSAGE OF THE SOUL

  While in an ecstatic or altered state of consciousness a shaman imagines him-or herself entering a hole or tunnel that allows access to otherworldly environments, either in the lower world (underworld) or upper world (sky world). Often these holes, particularly those leading to the lower world, are reached through the visualization of physical holes such as water holes, holes in tree trunks, circular depressions in rocks, entrances to caves, or holes carved in polished circular stones, similar to the jade bi or pi disks of Chinese folk tradition.20 These are thought to symbolize the starry vault, with the hole in the center rep
resenting the access point to heaven.21 Siberian shamans often wear on their coats disks with holes, which are usually made of iron. They bear names such as künjeta (“sun”) and oibon künga (“hole-in-the-ice sun”) and correspond with invisible holes (oibone) in the shaman’s body used in spirit communication.22

  This then is what the porthole stones in Göbekli Tepe’s Enclosures C and D most likely signified—points of exit for the shaman’s soul on journeys to the sky world, accessed via the star Deneb in Cygnus. Yet why was this particular area of the sky of such interest to the shamans of the early Neolithic? The answer seems to lie in the fact that Deneb cannot take all the credit for causing the Göbekli builders to align the various sets of twin pillars toward the north-northwest. For Deneb’s role as a stellar marker is in fact secondary to the Milky Way’s Great Rift, which, as we find out next, was once seen as an entrance to the sky world.

  8

  THE PATH OF SOULS;

  The orientation of the central pillars in Göbekli Tepe’s main enclosures toward both Deneb and the Milky Way’s Great Rift is by no means unique. All around the globe ancient cultures and societies saw this area of the heavens as an entrance to the sky world. It was considered a place of the gods, a land of the ancestors, and the source of creation in the universe.