Limestone boar statue from Gobekli Tepe.Courtesy DAI-IST, Lee Clare.
Posted on 10/25/2023 10:08:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Excavators at the site of Gobekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey have uncovered the life-size statue of a wild boar, carved out of limestone. According to a statement by the German Archaeological Institute, the statue dates to the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (c. 8700–8200 BCE)... Described as Turkey's Stonehenge, Gobekli Tepe predates that site, as well as the Egyptian pyramids and even the invention of writing, by more than 5,000 years.
The boar statue was discovered within the remains of one of the site's buildings, dubbed Special Building D. Placed on top of a long and decorated bench between two pillars, the boar occupied a central position within the building. The decorations of the bench include depictions of snakes, human faces, and geometric designs. Roughly the size of an actual boar, the statue is 4.5 feet long and a little over 2 feet tall...
While there is plentiful evidence of Neolithic religion around the ancient Near East, almost all of this evidence postdates Gobekli Tepe by thousands of years, although the tower of Jericho, which some believe to have also been a cultic installation, possibly dates to only a few hundred years later.
Gobekli Tepe includes a number of circular enclosers, consisting of massive T-shaped pillars, some as tall as 16 feet and weighing 50 tons. Many of the pillars are ornately decorated with elaborate carvings, including depictions of vultures, scorpions, lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, donkeys, snakes, human figures, and more. Some of the anthropomorphic figures even include details such as arms, legs, and clothes...
Given that human bones were also found, others believe the Göbekli Tepe ruins may have been a Neolithic burial ground where funerary rituals and perhaps even excarnations were practiced.
(Excerpt) Read more at biblicalarchaeology.org ...
Limestone boar statue from Gobekli Tepe.Courtesy DAI-IST, Lee Clare.
Fascinating. You’d think that everybody living in the Neolithic Period would be spending 100% of every waking hour obtaining food. I’m amazed that people had the time needed to make all these ornate carvings. There was no currency or coinage in that era. How did the sculptures get paid? Did other people just provide them food and clothing?
Makes you wonder how their society was organized and how people had time for a “profession” such as sculpture.
And along with the SOME PIG you have the building itself: “...consisting of massive T-shaped pillars, some as tall as 16 feet and weighing 50 tons.”
There was no currency or coinage in that era. How did the sculptures get paid? Did other people just provide them food and clothing?
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
How could their government collect taxes?
So... they liked bacon.
See the Graham Handcock series on Netflix. He deals with Gobekli Tepe quite a lot.
His ideas my be completely bogus (Or not) but they are really interesting
They didn’t have cards or monopoly...”Me know what do...make boar”...
“Makes you wonder how their society was organized and how people had time for a “profession” such as sculpture.”
I’m pretty sure the chief and the shaman (or priest) identified people with talents that were important to all. For their labors they were paid in whatever was available; a hunk of boar meat, perhaps some goat, maybe some fish.
Food was probably the first currency.
Salt was sometimes worth it’s weight in silver or gold to those without access to it.
vultures, scorpions, lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, donkeys, snakes, human figures, and more.
And no veggies or grains...
It sounds like they had a Congress, too.
...and with that amount of detail, it surely wasn’t their first carving...
BBQ restaurant......
It may not be a really good analogy, but in the Age of Sail many sailors created nice art. Scrimshaw (carvings on bone or ivory) was popular with whalers. Others made wooden models of ships. When they weren’t working, they had time on their hands, so they got creative. Back to the Neolithic Period — I believe there have been studies showing that a lot of hunter gatherer societies had a great deal of free time. It was often quite easy to hunt and to gather. So ... tell stories or make art. Not many other options.
The idea of ‘sacrifices’ in ancient religions can easily be spun into ‘barbecue to feed the priests’.
Imagine the difficulty of chiseling rock with rock. The sculpture is made of limestone, a soft rock. But chiseling limestone with a chunk of granite was tough work.
>>There was no currency or coinage in that era.
There is a theory that credit was developed before money.
In these small cities people knew very well who had done what and was owed how much by whom.
The very first written records in clay tablets were account records. But his statue predates that period by a few,thuousand years.
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