Neolithic Narratives: Prehistoric Carvings in Turkey

Not far from the Syrian border in Turkey, archaeologists have uncovered prehistoric sites with what we could call neolithic narratives. Sadly, I never chose to visit the grandaddy of these sites, Göbekli Tepe, with its monumental carvings. In my defense, I hadn’t heard about this site when I planned my research trips to Turkey. It is so old it makes the Bronze Age Hittites I portray in my fiction look modern.

Missed Opportunities

I first learned about Göbekli Tepe from an Istanbul bookseller. The store is called Homer Books (in English, Homerkitabevi on his card). It carries (or carried, perhaps) lots of fiction and nonfiction pertaining to Turkey’s ancient past. A gorgeous collection. When the owner heard about my journey from one Hittite site to another, he pressed into my hands a pamphlet about Göbekli Tepe. He said I had to go there. I should have. But it wasn’t on the schedule.

Excavating New Neolithic Narratives

Before learning of this place, when I pictured neolithic life, I didn’t think of monumental structures decorated with carved stone artwork. Apparently, I was shortchanging Neolithic narratives by a lot.

Göbekli Tepe, with its towering carved columns and generous size, led archaeologists to assume it was a gathering place shared by many. They conjectured that it was a communally built project with extraordinary importance. Since this site predates farming, they also surmised that it was only occupied for short periods of time because it is hard to imagine how food could be foraged from around the one location for the numbers implied by the site’s size.

Private Homes or Communal Spaces within the Neolithic Narrative

As it turns out, that thinking is no longer holding up. Further excavations in the region have revealed a number of places with similar attributes including many stone buildings more than 10 meters in diameter with extensive carvings. So Göbekli Tepe is not, as supposed, a singular, extraordinary site of unparalleled cooperation among peoples for some mass ritual activity. It might be one of the most dramatic, but not unique.

“It’s becoming more and more obvious that this is just the standard way that villages were built in the early Neolithic in that part of Turkey,” says the University of Toronto’s Edward Banning, an archaeologist…

Science Magazine

Weighing the Implications

So, it seems that the transition to sedentary life that happens with farming may actually precede farming or be a more complicated mix of changes. That’s one neolithic narrative that has undergone a shift.

Telling Stories in Stone?

But this article in Science Magazine also makes the point that the most recently excavated rock carvings show figures interacting. They tell, in essence, neolithic narratives. Stories. Instead of characters not noticing each other, these men and wild beasts interact. That is potentially a big development from the separate figures of Göbekli Tepe and elsewhere. (The photo at the top shows this recently excavated carved scene, photo by B. Köşker on Wiki.)

In one carving, for example, a squatting man shakes something at a wild, horned bull. What he’s shaking has raised many interpretations. Perhaps a snake. Or a rattle. Or a lasso. Another shows a man surrounded by leopards, but ignoring them. Perhaps I’m missing something, but ignoring the leopards sounds similar to the figures who don’t interact. I’m less persuaded this scene is a “story” with two or more participants.

What a man has to do for his Neolithic narrative

On the other hand, the male figure faces the doorway. As is often the case in these carvings, the man is clutching his erect penis. He may be warning or threatening those who enter, say some researchers. That seems plausible. And maybe paying no mind to a couple growling, open-mouthed, man-eating felines tells a dramatic story. Whatever interpretation we give to these sites, they definitely make intriguing neolithic narratives.

For the full article with the details and context, go to Science Magazine, “Prehistoric carvings depicts showdowns between humans and beasts.“

Further Reading

To learn about food preparation at Göbekli Tepe, read my post, Prehistoric Cuisine at Göbekli Tepe. You may also read more about Göbekli Tepe on this website here, here, or here.