Göbleki Tepe ‘decoded’ — Pillar 33, the advent of summer

the astronomy of GT’s Pillar 2, Pillar 33 and Pillar 43

[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.]

The Pillars at Göbleki Tepe can be interpreted as sky maps. The past few weeks I have demonstrated how Pillar 43 (Enclosure D) and Pillar 2 (Enclosure A) resemble the midnight sky during the winter and summer solstice respectively. This week I will take a closer look at Pillar 33 (Enclosure D).

Figure set 1 Pillar 43 (The Vulture Stone), Pillar 2 and Pillar 33.

Pillar 33 is located at the south western wall in Enclosure D. Carbon dating results points to early 10th millennium BCE. We know from researching the vulture stone that the star Vega (Lyra) crossed the equinoctial colure in 9853 BCE. I will continue to use this year for mapping pillars from Enclosure D.

Carbon dating results for Enclosure D are shown in the figure set below. They were taken from the blogpost “How old is it? Dating Göbekli Tepe” (2016).

Figure set 2 Carbon dating results for Enclosure D.

The following photograph shows a top-level view of Enclosure D. The diagram to the right details the orientation of enclosures A, B, C and D.

Figure set 3 Close up on Pillar 33 on the left and a map with specified orientation on the right.

Figure 1 Lower panel of Pillar 33, Enclosure D.

Looking at Pillar 33 the following details emerge. On the left side we see two cranes and an ‘I’ symbol (this can also be interpreted as a rotated ‘H’), of course this about the appearance symbols and not the meaning of letters.

On the side of the pillar from top to bottom we first see some kind of a circle with a hole, then an ‘H’ followed by snakes leading up to another ‘H’ and closing with a spider.

From the side panel snakes move into the picture and going down leading to another spider however this spider seems to hove another animal above him as can be seen in the figure to the left.

Pillar 43 has shown a bird to be linked to the constellation Cygnus with the round object close to it as Vega or an approximation of the North Celestial Pole (NCP).

The crane on Pillar 33 with the ’I’ next to it seems similar and therefore we try to find a resemblance in the sky with Cygnus as our orientation point for the year 9853 BCE.

As we cycle through the months we notice the scene play itself out as we approach the summer time. On August 16th (Julian) calendar or June 1st (Gregorian), 9853 BCE , about three weeks before the summer solstice or alternatively 90 min past midnight on the summer solstice, Cassiopeia aligns to the midnight meridian.

Figure 2 Sky map early summer 9853 BCE, viewed towards the north from the zenith.

The meridian from top to bottom shows the NCP, a point through which the solstitial and equinoctial colures cross. This crossing could perhaps be linked to the ‘H’, while the additional circle/hole marks the NCP.

Another set of snakes are shown for the meridian as it moves south until it finds the sky’s Zenith, where the meridian crosses the prime vertical, therefor we link the Zenith with another ‘H’. Directly below the Zenith is again Cassiopeia, the spider. This vertical alignment of Cassiopeia to the Zenith and the NCP was the determinant for this scene.

Note that I have used Cassiopeia twice, once for both spiders, and I have omitted the animal above the lower spider. I have no direct explanation for them. Perhaps ‘Little Cassiopeia’, the constellation Lacerta is depicted as one of the spiders, Lacerta sits just below Cygnus on the prime vertical (the red line in the image). This idea could provide some room to the constellation Cepheus (right above Cassiopeia) for example to explain the small animal above the spider. Of course this is all guess work but I hope it intrigues the reader.

In order to refresh a bit on Pillar 43 I have updated the previous images in order to represent them in the same style as Pillar 33.

Read more | Göbleki Tepe ‘decoded’ — the Nabta Playa, Giza Plateau connection.

Figure 3. Pillar 43, the Vulture Stone as a photograph and a drawn image.

Figure 4 Sky map top section Pillar 43.

Figure 5 Sky map Bottom section Pillar 43.

Figure 6 Pillar 2, Enclosure D.

Also revisiting Pillar 2 in Enclosure A, the sky map below shows the summer solstice as seen in 9853 BCE. Notice the elevated position of the bull in the sky map…

The bull is a composite asterism made out of stars from the constellations including but not limited to: Andromeda, Aries, Triangulum, Pegasus, Perseus and Pisces.

The bull will ‘stomp down’ on the fox, the constellation of Taurus, as precession takes place over the course of a millennium. This fits the hypothesis that Enclosure A is about a thousand years younger than Enclosure B, C or D.

Read more | Göbleki Tepe ‘decoded’ — Comparing the bull relief.

Figure 7 Summer solstice midnight as seen in 9853 BCE.

Figure 8 Top segment Pillar 33, enclosure D.

As summer approaches the constellation or Orion rises above the horizon. The Milky Way runs from Aquila (NNW) to Cassiopeia at the Zenith and from Cassiopeia to Orion’s belt (SSE) during summer.

Orion’s belt (mintak, alnitak, alnilam) and Eta Orionis would have been clearly visible for a month or so during the summer midnights.

Together this group of four stars could have formed an asterism as depicted on the top of Pillar 33, a group of four birds.

By Orestes_3113

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