The Buried Man of Göbekli Tepe: Amazing Finds in Enclosure F

Many of you will already know a lot about the 11,600-year-old site of Göbekli Tepe, with its oval enclosures, its ornately-carved T-shaped pillars, and the fact we have an incredibly sophisticated settlement at the very beginning of the Holocene.

But many of you will not have heard about Enclosure F. It's something not often discussed, and that’s because until recently, it seems there wasn’t a lot published.

But in 2023, Oliver Dietrich and Julia Wagner published a paper, titled “Early Neolithic imagery in flux. A case study on the reliefs of Building F at Gobekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey.”

So far, two-thirds of this enclosure have been excavated and eight pillars have been identified. Not only do these pillars tell us a great deal about the history of Göbekli Tepe, but one pillar in particular stands out.

It's known as Pillar 74, and on it is portrayed a man, whom I've called 'The Buried Man of Göbekli Tepe' - the only full-bodied human to be depicted on a T-shaped Pillar.

Watch this video to learn more about it, to learn about the importance of this enclosure and how it fits within the timeline of events in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic.

All images and footage are taken from either the sources listed below, were sent to me to with permission, are from Google Earth or Google Images. Please subscribe to Ancient Architects, Like the video, and please leave a comment below. Thank you.

Content:
0:00 Introduction
1:14 Göbekli Tepe
1:47 Göbekli Tepe Enclosure F
6:45 Pillars 70 - 73
8:16 Pillar 74: The Human Stone
10:39 Pillars 75 - 77
13:02 The Importance of Enclosure F
13:41 Where Did the Pillars Come From?
14:38 The Later Phase of Göbekli Tepe
15:56 The Meaning of the Imagery
16:59 Who is the Person on the Pillar?
18:16 Concluding Remarks

Sources:
Extra video footage supplied by James Fielding

#göbeklitepe #gobeklitepe #ancientarchitects

[fullmetaljackalope]

Matt I just want to compliment your patience with people in the comments. When I was exploring the “Graham Hancock” stuff years ago, you are what got me through it and interested in real archeology. You didn’t make us feel stupid, you just stated the facts and let us find our own way. Thank you for another great video!❤

[Fallout]

My favourite part of history is imagining people’s daily lives during these times. Insane

[MrMenefrego]

Sadly, the historic site of Göbekli Tepe will not be excavated any further as the Turkish government has planted groves of trees (~3:22) and built concrete roads covering the site for tourists to view the excavated area. The government stated that it would leave the remainder of Göbekli Tepefor for later generations to dig. What are they trying to hide?!

[daddyg]

Reuse and changes don't surprise me. I live in a 150 year old home that I'm slowly renovating. You can see the original design choices and then the changes over time as others used different technology and made aesthetic changes. BTW the changes in the 70's were the worst ones so far. You have to move slow because someone back in time made some change and didn't understand how it weakened the structure. I had a whole upper floor sagging because someone decided to put a wall on the first floor and removed a main support joist in the process. That was fun to repair. Anyway...If I've experienced these changes in a 150 year old house...a 13000+ year old site might have a few changes and reuses of its own.

[htb]

It's awful that excavations have stopped, amazing site!

[mospeada]

10:15 - 'The broadside shows chisel marks'... I wasn't aware they had chisels that could do this 11, 000 years ago, especially as the Egyptians only had bronze tools 4, 000 years ago!

[ganmerlad]

If the pillars were reused, that doesn't mean they weren't sacred, just that they weren't sacred to the people who reused them. They may have taken them and then made them sacred for themselves. It's akin to saying "a church being built on top of a pagan temple proves the pagan temple wasn't sacred". Not to the Christians it wasn't, but it certainly was to the pagans. Even ancient Egyptians would do something like that from time to time "I want that, it's mine now. Scratch the other guy's name off and put mine on instead. Now the gods will smile on ME." or "I'm building a wall, go get some stone from the old pyramid over there." I'm not saying tepe t-pillars were sacred, just that reuse doesn't prove they weren't/never were.

[barrywalser]

Always enjoy these Gobekli Tepe videos. Great stuff! Thanks Matt!

[sluggoubeotch]

I've been drawing that guy for 55 years.

[melissamack]

When Gtepé was first discovered, I'm pretty sure there were no orchards within miles of the site. Why would anyone plant orchards right on top of such an important site? What are they trying to hide from us?

[carriekelly]

The truly amazing issue about the site being pre-pottery neolithic is that so much work has been put into of animals and humans, yet no vessels to store foodstuffs or eat off of? That's just wild to me because in art school we were taught so much about functional pieces vs art. Its just mind-blowing how much work was being put into recording the animals they interacted/saw/ate or expressing them as symbols or story telling when they couldve been creating more utilitarian objects...just amazing😮😅❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you so much for the program, really great one here yes I immediately recognized the v shaped collar/necklace of Urfa man on the pillar drawing. I have often wondered if the same artist was going around to all the sites creating art for the community of the leopards and foxes and the human figures are all detailed so very similarly it is just uncanny. There is definitely a relationship to much of the art in many tas tepeler sites. Your aerial views and this figure have really made me want to see Gobekli Tepe myself even more now!!!! THANK YOU😊😊😊

[troz]

Thousands of years from now people will wonder why a grove of trees were planted in this area. For that matter I have no idea why that was done even now.

[greatoak]

@AncientArchitects - question - Why are there trees planted on areas that have more structures related to the entire area? I am not happy they did this. Plus why don't they go deeper?

[TheQuietcount]

When i got intrested in ancient sites, older less known and controversial places were never talked about, it angers me that a lot of the most interesting places are seen more on ancient aliens videos witha massive miss interpretation but with little other information about them.
This site always covers them in a perceived unbiased way and i love this about the channel.

[pittuk]

These pillars are massive, hard to see it without people next to them for reference.

[jefferyholcombe]

To bad the WEF funded footpaths and structures that might have been built on top of ground that hasn't been dug up at all yet! What might be under the ground that is under the new footpaths?

[gigilesnac]

I've been there(Gobleki Tepe and Karahan Tepe) by myself in april. You can hire a driver to go to see that, or drive yourself, or get a bus from Sanliurfa to Gobleki Tepe which is very cheap, 20 Turkish lira.
Looking forward to visiting many other places soon!

[history_rev]

Incredible video Matt 💪🏻. Many thanks 🙏🏻.

[ajkaajka]

Thank you. Again an amazing video. I hope they will excavate the rest of this and other enclosures in my lifetime.

[AlbertPOost]

Matt, if we hypothesize that static living on a hill top opens the need for water and food storage for let's say one year (assuming the need to survive a bad year) than 1 adult person would need some 0.2 m^3 on dried or smoked food and 1 m^3 of water. If we assume 100 adults, this would imply a storage of 20 m^3 for food and 100 m^3 for water. Could the 'benches' be storage room away from rodents and bugs and could the massive pillars have carried atticks for food storage? Could terrazzo floors be used to make them bug thight and the massive walls hinder animals to enter the buildings? In other words: to what extent might these buildings been used a part of the year to store food? Your architect friend already made a reconstruction for a wooden structure, but would an attick on top of the pillars be possible?