Gobekli Tepe is now a UNESCO World Heritage site; Source

A recent archaeological dig in Turkey has turned the mainstream archaeological community on it’s head. Gobekli Tepe was excavated by Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute. What has caused such disbelief among mainstream archaeological community is that this megalith is dated to be around 10,000 B.C, when human beings were still in the hunter gatherer phase [1]. Gobekli Tepe is approximately 12,000 years old and to give you some context, it is 7,000 years older than the Stone Henge!

Gobekli Tepe consists of T-shaped pillars constructed in a circle; Source

Gobekli Tepe consists of large T-shaped pillars constructed in a circle. Each pillar is about 20 ft in height, weighs over 10 tons and has pictorial depictions of certain animals on them. Such as birds, snakes, foxes etc. There is no mainstream explanation of what these sculptures represent but I will provide my explanation of what these pictorials might depict.

Being brought up in the Hindu faith, I am quite familiar with some of the Vedic myths and legends. As I was looking and contemplating on some of the pictorials, I could not help but think how closely similar some of these pictures are to the Vedic stories.

In this blog, I will offer my perspective on the depictions on few of these pillars. I would like to remind you that I am not a Historian or an Archaeologist by profession. I simply offer my views as a curious person with an interest and passion for understanding our human history. I would also like to remind you that the mainstream explanation is non-existent still.

Image of a wild boar (left, Gobekli Tepe, Pillar 12) with a circular hole right above its snout and five bird-like animals right above it. The Vedic deity Varaha (right) lifting and resucing the earth/land from a cataclysm/deluge. Five elemental deities of creation paying homage to Varaha (from the sky) after he saved the earth and all its lifeforms from anhilation.

Take for example pillar 12, it consists of a wild boar with a circular hole right above its snout. When I first looked at this image, I immediately thought of the story of Varaha. A Vedic deity who is half man — half boar. The story goes as such, The Earth was submerged by the primordial ocean and Vishnu (The Supreme Lord) took on a half man — half boar form to lift the earth with his snout and between his tusks. When Varaha returned the earth/land to its original place, he ushered in a new era for humanity after the cataclysm/deluge [2].

If you take a closer look at the picture, you can also see five bird-like animals, which could represent the five Devas (lesser gods/angels) in the adjacent picture. These five Devas are called “Pancha Bhootas” (Five elements of creation), such as Sky, Air, Water, Fire and Earth. In the above symbolism, the Devas are paying homage to the Supreme after he saved the Earth and all life forms from the cataclysm.

Anthropomorphic representation of T-shaped pillars; Source

This half man — half beast form also fits the pictorials on the pillar quite well because archaeologists think that the T-shaped structure of the pillar is anthropomorphic. The top T-pillar represents the head and the bottom T-pillar represents everything below the head. There are depictions of arms, fingers and loin cloth on the sides to represent a human-like being of some sort in a T-shaped form [3]. I interpret this, along with the animal carvings on the sides as a half man — half beast like deity which gives credence for it representing Vedic deities such as Varaha.

Another such example is pillar 43 in Gobekli Tepe, which depicts a bird-like deity and right below it (with a arrow head, left of the scorpion) is a snake. These characteristics are very similar with another popular Vedic deity named Garuda. Garuda is a half man-half bird deity who often acts as a vehicle mount of The Supreme being. He is also the enemy of the serpents and carries/wears a snake in Hindu iconography [4]. Garuda also cures people of snake bites and venom.