Ahmar on the eastem bank of the Euphrates already on the Syrian side of the modern

border. Moreover, the excavations at Göbekli brought to light a seuipted Image of

A boar carved in stone. Another statue showed a predator with a human head be-

Tween its paws. Nonetheless, it will take more digging and study before it becomes

Clear whether the dead were buried inside these structures.

Stevanovic - Trin.gb.am 1999.

Sfcordeur — Helmer — Wilcox 1997.

••„v, vx.-.'jc-' S’rtrri!«

Neolithic

A building uncovered at Nevah Cor; appears to refer to the same tradition. It

Stood in the same spot during three successive phases of the early farming village.

In the middle phase, a bench ran around the walls of the almost square room whieh

, 2

Eovered an area ot 81 m. The bench, whieh had a topping of stone slabs, was one

Meter wide and had monolithic piers decorated with relief scenes incorporated into

it at regulär intervals. The back wall held a niche whieh was c, 2 m wide and con-

Tained a platform for the statues that were found reused in the walls of the building

From the last phase. The interior of this building was not unlike that from the earlier

Period. Ten stone piers stood alongside the bench whieh ran against the walls of

The ehamber with two additional pillars Standing in the entrance. A limestone statue

Was erected in the niche opposite the door; the body of this statue, some 40 cm high,

Has been preserved along with the nose, eyes and necklace. Other sculptures appear

To have represented a man-bird, vulture (?), bear and predatory cat (leopard?).

A faw stone heads found in this room are to be interpreted in the context of similar

finds from the P.PNB in Syro-Palestine, including ‘Ain Mallaha and the El-Wad cave

45

on Mount Karmel. ' They are presumed to have a Connection with the skull wor-

Ship described above.

There were at least three rectangular stone stelae inside the room. They were

about 3 m tall originally and like the T-shaped monoliths from Göbekli Tepe and

Karahan Tepe, they must have been symbolic Images of either men or gods. The

Best preserved one was decorated with a flat relief depicting arms terminating in

Hands with well marked frngers. According to the excavators, a head of limestone

Had once graced the top of this stela. A similar discovery was made in the so-called

channel house with a terrazzo floor at (Jayönü Tepesi (layer II). One of the two ste

Lae from this structure had a human face carved in it in flat relief. Three big slabs

Were set up as stelae also in the so-called flagstone-building.

Research at Göbekli Tepe, Nevah Qori and Qayönü Tepesi has contributed the

Earliest evidence of stela worship, a form of cult widespread in Palestine, Syria,

Northern Mesopotamia and Asia Minor until the first millennium BC. Finds from

Southeastern Asia Minor have brought new light to bear on the origins of this cult.

The sculptures recovered at Göbekli Tepe, Nevah <Jori and Qayönü Tepesi are part

Cf, Haas 1994a; 52.

1,4

Prehistokic Anatoua

Of a wider cuiiural phenomenon during the PPNB, More limestone statues have now

_,..... 48

Turned up in the Taurus foothills, e.g.. in Kilisik in the vicinity of Adiyaman. and

in Urfa. 4 * Their counterparts in the Levant are the plaster-and-reed large-scale sta

Tues, mostly buats and standing figures (sometimes with two heads), like those from

Jericho 48 and ‘Ain Ghazal, 4 ’’ soiidly dated to the seventh millennium BC. The model-

Ing and mariner of decoration of the heads resemble the skulls with faces model-

Ed in plaster. It is not known whether the cult of stelae was connected with ances-

Tor worship in this early period, as is conunonly assumed: perhaps the stelae and

Statues are a witness to the birth of the gods and early forms of their anthropomor-

Phization reflected in these statues and ralief stelae. ’ 0 The answer to this question