Göbleki Tepe ‘decoded’ — Comparing the bull relief
[Disclaimer: The contents of this post are merely the reflections of the author’s opinions an beliefs, the subject matter holds no scientific weight. The aim is to explore alternative views on history.]
This post continues where I left in my previous post: Göbleki Tepe ‘decoded’ — the Nabta Playa, Giza Plateau connection.
Göbekli Tepe, or “Potbelly Hill”, is an archaeological site in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey dating back to the 10th–8th millennium BCE. Massive ‘T’-shaped stone pillars were erected, the world’s oldest known megaliths. More than 200 pillars in about 20 circles are known (as of May 2020) through geophysical surveys. Each pillar has a height of up to 6 m (20 ft) and weighs up to 10 tons.
Many of the pillars are decorated with abstract, enigmatic pictograms and carved animal reliefs. The pictograms may represent commonly understood sacred symbols, as known from Neolithic cave paintings elsewhere. The reliefs depict mammals such as lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, and donkeys; snakes and other reptiles; arthropods such as insects and arachnids; and birds, particularly vultures.[1]
In this post I will solely focus on pillar 2. Pillar 2 is interesting as it displays a bull, the bull has been a symbol used by different cultures throughout history. Therefore if we can rightly associate the bull then perhaps we can make other strong connections as well.
Based on Figure set 1 Pillar 2 is situated in enclosure A which has been dated to late 10th or early 9th millennium BCE, the pillar is is facing south-west.[2]
Figure set 2 shows Pillar 2 on the left and a skymap on the right. The skymap depicts the sky in the southwest direction on the summer solstice nights. I have surrounded the reliefs and the constellations that I think are connected.
If this is a correct explanation of the orientations then this would have been the earliest date, to our knowledge, that humanity has understood the concept of precession of the fixed stars.
Besides these three reliefs something else is noticeable. The galactic equator runs from NNW to SSE, this is significant as it aligns with the main pillars in enclosure D as you can see in the image on the left.
The proposed skymap dates to 9000 BCE, setting the clock further back pushes the galactic equator more in line to north south. Therefore instead of aligning to true north the builders at Göbleki Tepe might have aligned the site to the Milky Way on the summer solstice.
The Milky Way would have aligned to north-south in 11430 BCE, to north west-south east in 8010 BCE and passing north north west — south south east in in 9720 BCE. This corroborates the hypothesis that enclosure A is younger than enclosure B, C and D. If this is a correct explanation of the orientations then this would have been the earliest date, to our knowledge, that humanity has understood the concept of precession of the fixed stars.
The constellation that we know as Taurus is depicted as a fox. During the active years of Göbleki Tepe the solstitial colure transits this constellation, this means that during the summer solstice the “fox” would appear in the south on the midnight meridian. Of course the constellation Taurus is not a direct conversion, the fox must have been a different kind of asterism that is unspecified to us.
The bottom relief is that of a crane which I have equated to the constellation Cetus. Again no direct conversion is possible we intuitively try to make sense of the relief by comparing constellations to possible asterisms.
The bull this is a bit harder to accept at first but it is also the most recognizable and very interesting to say the least. The bull is composed out of several constellations and takes a large portion of the sky The beast comes from the west while charging to the east. Depending how cultures envisioned the animal it could have been dashing or standing still.
Let’s compare Pillar 2 to separate cultural artefacts that have survived until the present day.
At the bottom of the Narmer Palette (c. 3100 BCE) a bovine image is seen knocking down the walls of a city while trampling on a fallen foe.[3]
The Minoan Bull-Leaping Fresco, as it has come to be called, is the most completely restored of several stucco panels originally sited on the upper-story portion of the east wall of the palace at Knossos in Crete (c. 1400 BCE).[4]
Thirdly the Book of Daniel 8:5–6 (c. 150 BCE):
5 And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.
6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.[5]
Notice how the characteristics of the described animal fit the constellations in the sky map. Note also that the Ram (Taurus-Auriga combination) is standing before the river (the Milky Way). Considering the context of the Bible in which great beasts wreck havoc against society, parallels can be drawn with the Narmer Palette.
In early first millennium CE there lived a culture in Scotland called the Picts (until c. 600 AD). The Picts did not leave a written account of their culture so we can only guess what they stone work actually meant. The below sets of images are a frivolous attempt to connect them to the skies.
The Pictish Beast seems to jump above and dive below the horizon during the course of the year up north in Scotland. I noticed how the V-Rod closely resembles the constellation of Pisces. Up north in Scotland Pisces would be partially below the horizon during the summer solstice, together with the skies as a whole this could be interpreted as a crescent and V-Rod.
The constellation Draco up north resembles the snake that is coiled around the Z-Rod. During the vernal and autumnal equinox the north ecliptic pole tilts to the east and the west respectively as figure set 8 show below. Combined this can be taken as the Double Disc Z-Rod.
Granted the reliefs are very loosely connected to the stars, but the frequent depiction of similar animals and the way in which the are portrayed and the context thereof is intriguing. A closer look at the Picts might be warranted at some point in the future.
All images considered, a pattern seems to emerge, if you feel the same please share and don’t forget to clap!
By Orestes_3113
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High resolution sky maps
Pillar 2, Narmer Palette, Bull leaping, Daniel, Picts summer solstice A, Picts summer solstice B, Picts vernal equinox, Picts autumnal equinox.
References
[1] Göbleki Tepe — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobekli_Tepe
[2] How old is it? Dating Göbekli Tepe. — https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/2016/06/22/how-old-ist-it-dating-gobekli-tepe/
[3] Narmer Palette — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narmer
[4] Bull Leaping — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull-leaping
[5] Daniel 8 — https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+8&version=KJV
