Building Göbekli Tepe

Temple Entryway

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

A sunken U-shaped block formed the entry pillars of the temple, capped by sculptures of dead animals. The inner ring had no such gate or doorway and may have been accessed with ladders.

How much of a view people had of the inner circle is unclear. Earthen embankments may have given pilgrims a view of ceremonies inside the rings, or the temple may have been roofed and closed off from view.

Göbekli Tepe Family Helps Out

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

The stream nearest to Göbekli Tepe at the time was about three miles away, raising the question of how the many workers quenched their thirst. Children may have helped by using leather pouches to haul rainwater collected in cisterns.

T-Shaped Pillars

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

Real animal pelts may have hung on the pillars as offerings. The bones of a fox, for example, were found near one of the central pillars.

Throughout the complex, different enclosures emphasize different animals. Enclosure C (shown above) depicts mostly wild boar. Another features a predominance of snakes, another of lions.

Pillar Carving Details

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

The pillars were big—the tallest are 18 feet in height and weigh 16 tons, yet they were set only 15 inches into the ground, where they were fixed with clay and stone.

The T-shaped pillars seem to be stylized human beings, an idea bolstered by the carved arms that angle from the "shoulders" of some pillars, hands reaching toward their loincloth-draped bellies.

Animal Carvings

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

Animals carved on pillars at the site are mostly deadly creatures native to the area, including wild boars, cranes, foxes, scorpions, and snakes. They may then serve as protectors of the human figures represented by the pillars, or they may be in attendance to receive sacrifices. Additionally they may serve as totems for families or other groups.

Interestingly, as in the Paleolithic cave art of Europe, the animals depicted most often are not the most common prey species.

Working the Stone

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

The massive pillars were quarried from limestone using flintballs that could be held in one hand and large stones that required two hands to wield. These stones were used to crush and pulverize the surrounding material until the outline of the pillar was clear. Levers were then inserted and used to apply pressure that broke the rock along natural fracture lines, freeing the pillar from its surroundings.

People may have then used a wooden sledge to move pillars from the quarry to the construction site.

Wooden hammers and stone chisels were used for detail carving before the pillar was finally erected.

Villagers Moving Limestone

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

Human muscle moved the limestone pillars, weighing up to 16 tons, from quarries as far as a quarter mile away.

Villagers Propping Up Pillars

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

During construction, villagers use wooden posts to prop up pillars. Because each pillar is only set shallowly into the ground, until the surrounding walls were constructed, they would have likely required some form of additional support.

In the background, builders use clay as mortar between the many stones that form the structures' walls.

Rise of Villages: Stacked-Stone Huts

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

From about 13,000-10,000 B.C., hunter-gatherers in the area built stacked-stone huts, probably roofed with animal hides. During warmer earlier periods, these Natufian settlements (named for a site where they were first excavated) may have included hundreds of individuals. As the climate cooled again around 11,000 B.C., they may have shrunk to include as few as 18 people.

Rise of Villages: Mud-Brick Huts

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

During the period from 10,000 to 9,600 B.C., referred to as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, villages of mud-brick huts included community food storage. Evidence of plant domestication is debated, but wild grains were cultivated.

Rise of Villages: Joined Houses

Illustration by Fernando Baptista

About 9600 B.C. temperatures rose and villages rebounded, with people still foraging for most of their food and sharing it. As farming took hold and village populations increased, individual families fed themselves.

During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, thousands lived in farming villages of linked, multiroom homes. Interior walls displayed ritual symbols such as bull horns and skulls of ancestors.

By 6000 B.C. the transformation from hunter-gatherers to farmers was largely complete in this area.

Learn more about Göbekli Tepe in the June 2011 National Geographic magazine.

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