Archaeologists have found a staggering amount of skulls at the Goebekli Tepe site, Turkey
At the Goebekli Tepe site, Turkey, archaeologists have found a staggering amount of human skulls which, they consider based on the factual evidence, were part of a skull cult.
The Goebekli Tepe Site – Staggering Amounts of Skulls
As archaeologists wrote in a paper based on the ongoing archeological research, most of the skulls were in fragments. This makes it difficult to elaborate about their provenience or any type of information. As of this date, there were 408 skull fragments uncovered at the Goebekli Tepe. However, according to data, only a small number of skulls were carved.
The carving of skulls is linked with one form of ancestral worshiping. Or only to wrap strings around them in order to hang the skulls near the temple found at the Goebekli Tepe site.
Lee Clare, one of the archeologists at the site and coauthor of the study published in Science Advances journal, said:
“In a skeleton, the lower jaw tends to fall off. The grooves would have supported a string that could have been wound around the skull and kept it from slipping off”.
Furthermore, symbols found at the site indicate towards the idea that the skulls found at the Goebekli Tepe site played an important role in rites taking place at the temple. This hypothesis leans on evidence found at the temple. A statue, called the Gift Bearer, shows an entity holding a human skull in his hand while a headless human is shown on one of the T-shaped pillars found at the site.
In their study, the authors wrote that out of 691 bone fragments found at the Goebekli Tepe site 408 appertain to skulls. This would indicate that the skulls were selected from the rest of the body.
The compound measures 22 acres of land. And although the archaeological digging has been ongoing for over two decades the archeologists managed to excavate a little under 10% of the total area. Further research will offer more information in the future, as digging at the Goebekli Tepe site continues.
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