Tiny Bone Carving may Upend our Understanding of the Megaliths at Göbekli Tepe

Researcher Andrew Collins has recently published an article outlining the discovery of the link between carvings that appear on a small bone plaque, and the megaliths at the Göbekli Tepe archaeological site where the plaque was found. These carvings may have provided us with a clue that implies that the researchers that have been studying the site may be seeing the site’s orientation entirely backward.

Currently residing in the Sanliurfa Museum, near the archaeological site itself, the 6 centimetre (2.36 inch) bone carving’s link to the site was first noticed by a visiting telecommunications consultant, who informed Collins about what he saw. The carving shows what looks like two of the famous T-shaped pillars that dominate the archaeological site. The pillars in the image are side-by-side, and feature what appear to be perspective lines that depict the rear wall of one of the enclosures, with each line intersecting at a point marked in the upper-middle of the carving. This point appears to correspond with what Professor Klaus Schmidt, the site’s lead archaeologist, referred to as "seelenloch" — German for "soul-holes", found in Enclosures C and D.

The carving also features what may be pock-marks that represent the wing-stars of the constellation Cygnus. This, combined with the carving’s implication that the viewer is facing north toward the enclosure’s soul-hole, implies that the enclosure is meant to be aligned to the north, as opposed to the south, as has been assumed thus far. Up until now, the site has been assumed to have been aligned to the stars in Orion’s belt, implying a southern orientation. Cygnus is also considered to be a link to the Milky Way, considered by many Eurasian traditions to be a roadway or river along which souls might travel, useful to the recently dead, or for shamans in their travels.

According to Collins, the bone plaque’s "…existence dramatically increases our knowledge regarding the function and orientation of this remarkable ancient site. It also provides a valuable insight into the mindset of those who created Göbekli Tepe’s earliest enclosures some 11,500 years ago."