Göbekli
Tepe in southern Turkey is a temple that has been dated to more than
11,000 years ago, making it the oldest known temple in the world. Recent
findings there include human skull fragments from three individuals
that were intentionally carved, painted, and even had holes drilled into
them. What was the purpose? Could this be evidence of a skull cult?
Paleopathologist Julia Gresky gives us some insight.
Microscopic
analysis of the bone revealed that the markings were created by stone
tools, probably a short time after the skulls' owners died. Gresky and
her colleagues suggest two possible explanations for the modifications:
Ancestor veneration, or "branding" of perceived enemies for display. The
grooves may have acted as "a track for a cord" to mount the skull, she
said, and the drilled hole on the top of the cranium may have been used
to suspend the skull like a mobile.
"Maybe they put feathers on
the skull to make it more impressive and then presented it somewhere in
the structures," Gresky said. "It's all speculation at the moment, but
hopefully we'll find some more fragments or maybe also primary burials,
so it will be more clear what happened in these monumental buildings."
Though
this is the first evidence for skull cults at Göbekli Tepe etched in
bone, the structure is filled with artistic representations of headless
people, so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine these folks may
have been cranially obsessed.
Read more about
Göbekli Tepe and the skulls found there at Motherboard.
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