judging by the cheers and jeers of the customers. Maybe Galatasaray versus the local team, Dyarbakir. Turks versus Kurds. Like the rivalry of Real Madrid and Barcelona, but way more venomous.
Derya provided them with more baklava straight from the patisserie’s silver cardboard box. Rob wondered if he might expire through over-eating. Franz was gesticulating at his juniors. ‘But if it isn’t a funerary shrine or complex then. what is it? Ja? There is no settlement, no signs of domestication, nothing. It has to be a temple, we all agree on that. But a templeto what, if not ancestors? Surely it honours the dead huntsmen? No?’
The other two experts shrugged.
Franz added, ‘And what are the niches, if not for bones?’
‘I agree with Franz,’ said Christine, coming over. ’I think the corpses of the hunters were brought there and excarnated…’
Rob burped very politely. ‘Sorry. Excarnated?’
Franz explained, ‘It means picked clean. The Zoroastrians still do it. And some think Zoroastrianism came from here.’
‘Practically all religions came from around here,’ said Christine. ‘Excarnation is a funeral process whereby you take the body to a special place then leave it to be eaten by wild animals, or vultures and raptors. As Franz says, you can still see this in Zoroastrian faiths, in India. They call them sky burials-the corpses are left to the sky gods. In fact, a lot of the early Mesopotamian religions worshipped gods, shaped like these buzzards and eagles. Like the Assyrian demon we saw in the museum.’
‘It’s very hygienic. As a form of burial. Excarnation.’ The interruption came from Ivan, the youngest expert, the paleobotanist.
Franz nodded, briskly, and said: ‘Anyway-who knows-maybe the bones were moved, afterwards. Or maybe they got shifted when Gobekli was buried itself. That could explain the lack of skeletons on site.’
Rob was confused. ‘What do you mean? “Gobekli was buried itself”?’
Franz put his empty plate down on the polished parquet floor. When he looked up he wore the satisfied smile of someone about to reveal a delicious piece of gossip. ‘This, my friend, is the biggest mystery of all! And they did not mention it in the article you read!’
Christine laughed. ‘You got your exclusive, Rob!’
‘In or around 8000 BC …’ Franz paused for effect, ‘the whole of Gobekli Tepe was buried. Entombed. Completely covered in earth. ’
‘But…how do you know?’
‘The hillocks are artificial. The soil is not a random accretion. The whole temple complex was deliberately concealed with tons of earth and mud in around 8000 BC . It was hidden.’
‘Wow. That’s wild.’
‘What makes it even more amazing is how much labour this must have taken. And therefore how pointless it was.’
‘Because…?’
‘Think of the effort to put it all up in the first place! Erecting the stone circles of Gobekli, and covering them with carvings, friezes and sculptures, must have been a process that took decades, maybe even centuries. And this at a time when life expectancy was twenty years.’ Franz wiped his mouth with a napkin. ‘We imagine the hunter-gatherers must have lived in the area in tents,leather tents, as they constructed the site. Living off the local game for sustenance. Generation after generation. And all of it without pottery or agriculture, or any tools but flints…’
Christine stepped a little nearer. ‘I think maybe I’ve already bored Rob with this?’
Rob raised a hand. ‘No, really, it’s not boring. Really!’ He meant it: his article was expanding by the day. ‘Go on Franz, please?’
‘ Jawohl. Well then you see we have the mystery, the deep deep mystery. If it took these barely human people hundreds of years to construct a temple, a shrine to the dead, a funerary complex, why the hell did they then go and hide it under tons of earth two thousand years later? Moving all that soil must have been almost as daunting as building Gobekli in
Derya provided them with more baklava straight from the patisserie’s silver cardboard box. Rob wondered if he might expire through over-eating. Franz was gesticulating at his juniors. ‘But if it isn’t a funerary shrine or complex then. what is it? Ja? There is no settlement, no signs of domestication, nothing. It has to be a temple, we all agree on that. But a templeto what, if not ancestors? Surely it honours the dead huntsmen? No?’
The other two experts shrugged.
Franz added, ‘And what are the niches, if not for bones?’
‘I agree with Franz,’ said Christine, coming over. ’I think the corpses of the hunters were brought there and excarnated…’
Rob burped very politely. ‘Sorry. Excarnated?’
Franz explained, ‘It means picked clean. The Zoroastrians still do it. And some think Zoroastrianism came from here.’
‘Practically all religions came from around here,’ said Christine. ‘Excarnation is a funeral process whereby you take the body to a special place then leave it to be eaten by wild animals, or vultures and raptors. As Franz says, you can still see this in Zoroastrian faiths, in India. They call them sky burials-the corpses are left to the sky gods. In fact, a lot of the early Mesopotamian religions worshipped gods, shaped like these buzzards and eagles. Like the Assyrian demon we saw in the museum.’
‘It’s very hygienic. As a form of burial. Excarnation.’ The interruption came from Ivan, the youngest expert, the paleobotanist.
Franz nodded, briskly, and said: ‘Anyway-who knows-maybe the bones were moved, afterwards. Or maybe they got shifted when Gobekli was buried itself. That could explain the lack of skeletons on site.’
Rob was confused. ‘What do you mean? “Gobekli was buried itself”?’
Franz put his empty plate down on the polished parquet floor. When he looked up he wore the satisfied smile of someone about to reveal a delicious piece of gossip. ‘This, my friend, is the biggest mystery of all! And they did not mention it in the article you read!’
Christine laughed. ‘You got your exclusive, Rob!’
‘In or around 8000 BC …’ Franz paused for effect, ‘the whole of Gobekli Tepe was buried. Entombed. Completely covered in earth. ’
‘But…how do you know?’
‘The hillocks are artificial. The soil is not a random accretion. The whole temple complex was deliberately concealed with tons of earth and mud in around 8000 BC . It was hidden.’
‘Wow. That’s wild.’
‘What makes it even more amazing is how much labour this must have taken. And therefore how pointless it was.’
‘Because…?’
‘Think of the effort to put it all up in the first place! Erecting the stone circles of Gobekli, and covering them with carvings, friezes and sculptures, must have been a process that took decades, maybe even centuries. And this at a time when life expectancy was twenty years.’ Franz wiped his mouth with a napkin. ‘We imagine the hunter-gatherers must have lived in the area in tents,leather tents, as they constructed the site. Living off the local game for sustenance. Generation after generation. And all of it without pottery or agriculture, or any tools but flints…’
Christine stepped a little nearer. ‘I think maybe I’ve already bored Rob with this?’
Rob raised a hand. ‘No, really, it’s not boring. Really!’ He meant it: his article was expanding by the day. ‘Go on Franz, please?’
‘ Jawohl. Well then you see we have the mystery, the deep deep mystery. If it took these barely human people hundreds of years to construct a temple, a shrine to the dead, a funerary complex, why the hell did they then go and hide it under tons of earth two thousand years later? Moving all that soil must have been almost as daunting as building Gobekli in
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