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The role of cult and feasting in the
emergence of Neolithic communities.
New evidence from G
¨
obekli Tepe,
south-eastern Turkey
Oliver Dietrich
1
, Manfred Heun
2
, Jens Notroff
1,
∗
, Klaus Schmidt
1
&
Martin Zarnkow
3
G
¨
obekli Tepe is one of the most important
archaeological discoveries of modern times,
pushing back the origins of monumentality
beyond the emergence of agriculture. We are
pleased to present a summary of work in
progress by the excavators of this remarkable
site and their latest thoughts about its role
and meaning. At the dawn of the Neolithic,
hunter-gatherers congregating at G
¨
obekli Tepe
created social and ideological cohesion through
the carving of decorated pillars, dancing,
feasting—and, almost certainly, the drinking
of beer made from fermented wild crops.
Keywords: Turkey, Epipalaeolithic, Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B, monumentality,
congregation, dancing, feasting, drinking, beer, alcohol
Introduction
Fe w fields of research have undergone such dramatic changes over a relatively short time
span as the advent of the Neolithic in the Near East. Since the seminal work of Kenyon at
Jericho, the roots of food-producing were sought in the southern Levant (Kenyon 1981).
With the influential research of the Braidwoods at Jarmo, the focus shifted to the north-east
1
Deutsches Arch
¨
aologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Podbielskiallee 69–71, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
(Email: odi@orient.dainst.de; jn@orient.dainst.de; kls@orient.dainst.de)
2
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Aas, Norway (Email: manfred.heun@umb.no)
3
Technische Universit
¨
at M
¨
unchen, Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan, Weihenstephaner Steig 20, D-85354
Freising, Germany (Email: Martin.Zarnkow@wzw.tum.de)
∗
Author for correspondence
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of the Fertile Crescent, or, as Braidwood put it, to its ‘hilly flanks’ (Braidwood & Braidwood
1953; Braidwood 1974, 1981). In recent years it has become clear that the region between
the middle and upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris and the foothills of the Taurus
Mountains, Upper Mesopotamia, has the potential to be the cradle of the new way of
life. Aurenche and Kozłowski (2001) termed this region, where wild forms of several early
domesticated plant species concentrate, the ‘Golden Triangle’ and Lev-Yadun et al. (2000)
refer to it as the ‘cradle of agriculture’ (Figure 1). The distribution areas of the wild forms of
einkorn and emmer wheat, barley and the other Neolithic founder crops overlap here, and
the transition of the two species of wheat to domesticated crops has been pinpointed to this
area (Harlan & Zohary 1966; Nesbitt & Samuel 1996; Heun et al. 1997, 2008; Lev-Yadun
et al. 2000;
¨
Ozkan et al. 2002, 2011; Luo et al. 2007).
At the same time, this region has yielded evidence for a degree of social complexity
that was hitherto quite unsuspected. Nearly every site excavated at the appropriate scale
shows a spatial division of residential and specialised workshop areas, and special buildings
or open courtyards for communal and ritual purposes, as well as evidence for extensive
feasting (Hauptmann 1993; Cauvin 1994;
¨
Ozdo
˘
gan &
¨
Ozdo
˘
gan 1998: 583–88; Stordeur
2000; Watkins 2004; Schmidt 2006). C¸ay
¨
on
¨
u (Schirmer 1990: 378–85), Nevalı C¸ori
(Hauptmann 1993, 1999: 70–78), Hallan C¸ emi (Rosenberg & Redding 2000), Nemrik
(Kozłowski 2002: 41–47) and Qermez Dere (Watkins et al. 1995: 3–9; Watkins 2004: 7),
as well as Mureybet, Jerf el Ahmar (Stordeur et al. 2001), Tell ‘Abr 3 (Yartah 2004) and Tell
Qaramel (Mazurowski 2003, 2004), are well-known examples. They date to the PPNA/early
PPNB, the second half of the tenth and ninth millennia cal BC.
G
¨
obekli Tepe: a PPN cultic centre
The tell of G
¨
obekli Tepe on the Germus¸ range has an outstanding role, not as a settlement,
but as a hill sanctuary (Schmidt 2001, 2006, 2010). G
¨
obekli Tepe is characterised by an
early layer (III) dating to the PPNA (for
14
C data compare Dietrich & Schmidt 2010;
Dietrich 2011), which produced monumental architecture with huge, T-shaped pillars
arranged in circle-like enclosures around two even taller central pillars (Figure 2). The
pillars are interconnected by walls and stone benches and are decorated with varied animal
motifs, including foxes, snakes, scorpions, boars, aurochs, gazelle, wild ass and birds, as well
as, in some cases, arms and hands, showing that they are sculptures representing stylised
human-like individuals. A later phase (layer II, early and middle PPNB) consists of smaller,
rectangular buildings containing often only two small central pillars or none at all. A
geophysical survey showed that the older, round megalithic enclosures were not restricted
to a specific part of the mound but existed all over the site, and it seems very probable that
at least 20 enclosures existed in total (Figure 3). The mound is the result of the rapid and
intentional backfilling of these circles after some time of use.
The excavated enclosures A–H have been named in their order of discovery. Two of them
(C and D) were excavated to floor level in the recent campaigns and can serve to give an
impression of the architecture discovered at G
¨
obekli. The central pillars of Enclosure C
(Figure 4) were destroyed in ancient times, the smashed pieces being found in the lower
part of a large pit dug to carry out the destruction work. By laser-scanning these pieces,
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
Figure 1. Map of Upper Mesopotamia showing the spatial overlapping of wild variants of the earliest domesticated cereals with key elements of the materialcultureoftheritual
community of G
¨
obekli Tepe (graphics: T. G
¨
otzelt,
c
DAI).
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Figure 2. G
¨
obekli Tepe: overhead view of the main excavation area (photograph: N. Becker,
c
DAI).
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
Figure 3. Plan of excavations and geophysical surveys at G
¨
obekli Tepe (graphics: T. G
¨
otzelt,
c
DAI).
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Figure 4. Enclosure C seen from above (photograph: K. Schmidt,
c
DAI).
a virtual reconstruction was achieved, showing an original height of 5m. The floor was
natural bedrock, carefully smoothed. Two pedestals for the central pillars had been cut out
of the bedrock. In Enclosure C, there were three (possibly four) concentric rings of walls
and pillars. On pillar 27, besides the low relief carving of a boar, there is a spectacular figure
of a predator carved in high relief (Figure 5). Animals and pillar are carved from a single
piece of stone. The images here are dominated by depictions of wild boars: of the wild
boar sculptures found so far at the site, the majority have been discovered in Enclosure C
(Figure 6).
Enclosure D (Figure 2, foreground) is the largest and is well preserved apart from some
damage dating from ancient times that had been more or less successfully repaired. There
are two huge central pillars and pillars in the surrounding walls, probably numbering 12
in all; 11 are visible so far, and the remaining one is thought to be hidden in the northern
baulk. Among the animals on the pillars of Enclosure D, depictions of foxes and snakes
are dominant, but in this enclosure a very wide range of creatures is depicted. When the
floor level was finally reached in 2009, both central pillars were revealed as complete, with a
breathtaking height of about 5.5m. The forms of hands and fingers were soon visible, carved
on both pillars, and just below the hands were decorated belts and a loincloth hanging down
(Figures 7 & 8). These abstracted, impersonal, but clearly anthropomorphic, T-shaped
beings clearly belong to another, transcendent sphere.
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
Figure 5. Pillar 27 in Enclosure C with the sculpture of a predator in high relief (photograph: D. Johannes,
c
DAI).
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Figure 6. Sculpture of a boar and stone plates discovered near one of the central pillars of Enclosure C (photograph: K.
Schmidt,
c
DAI).
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
Figure 7. Arms, hands and elements of clothing reveal the anthropomorphic character of the pillars (pillar 31 in the centre
of Enclosure D; photograph: N. Becker,
c
DAI).
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Figure 8. The second central pillar of Enclosure D shows elements of clothing as well. Its socket is decorated with a row of
ducks in high relief (photograph: N. Becker,
c
DAI).
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
Emerging new concepts: the ritual community of G
¨
obekli Tepe
Since neither domesticated plants nor animals are known from the site, it is clear that the
people who erected this monumental sanctuary were still hunter-gatherers, but far more
organised than researchers dared to think 20 years ago. The first time a cult building with
T-shaped pillars, comparable to those of layer II of G
¨
obekli Tepe, was uncovered was at
Nevalı C¸ ori, a settlement site now flooded due to the construction of the Atat
¨
urk barrage
(Hauptmann 1993). In its immediate vicinity there are three more sites with T-shaped stones
visible on the surface (Sefer Tepe, Karahan Tepe and Hamzan Tepe), but no excavations
have been carried out there so far. These places form a group of sites belonging to one cult,
but their community was not confined to these sites.
Observations in the field of iconography are the main argument for the existence of
such a cultic community (cf. Figure 9). Shaft-straighteners often bear incised decorations
of animals and symbols. Several examples from Jerf el Ahmar (Stordeur & Abb
`
es 2002:
fig. 16/1–3) and Tell Qaramel (Mazurowski & Jamous 2000: 341, figs 7–8; Mazurowski
& Yartah 2001: 304, fig. 10; Mazurowski 2003: fig. 12, 2004: fig. 10) feature snakes and
scorpions, quadrupeds and birds strongly reminiscent of the iconography of G
¨
obekli Tepe
(Figure 10). Similar motifs were incised into the so-called plaquettes of Jerf el Ahmar type
(Stordeur & Abb
`
es 2002: 586–91, fig. 16/1–3) discovered in significant numbers at Tell
Qaramel (Mazurowski & Jamous 2000: 341, fig. 8; Mazurowski & Yartah 2001: 304, fig.
11; Mazurowski 2004: 509, fig. 10), Tell ‘Abr 3 (Yartah 2004: 155, fig. 18/3) and K
¨
ortik
Tepe (
¨
Ozkaya & San 2007: fig. 19); several examples have been found so far at G
¨
obekli
Tepe.
These motifs also occur on thin-walled stone cups and bowls of the Hallan C¸ emi type
(Rosenberg & Redding 2000: 50, fig. 5). Complete vessels of this group have recently
been discovered at K
¨
ortik Tepe (
¨
Ozkaya & San 2007: fig. 6, 15–18) as part of rich grave
inventories. Fragments of such vessels have been found at G
¨
obekli, C¸ay
¨
on
¨
u(
¨
Ozdo
˘
gan
1999: 59), Nevalı C¸ ori, Jerf el Ahmar (Stordeur & Abb
`
es 2002: 583, fig. 12/1–4), Tell
´
Abr 3 (Yartah 2004: 155, fig. 18/2, 4–5) and Tell Qaramel (Mazurowski 2003: 369, fig.
11/1–2). Another connection is suggested by the zoomorphic sceptres of the Nemrik type.
Their distribution coincides exactly with the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’: they are present at
Hallan C¸emi,Nevalı C¸ori,C¸ay
¨
on
¨
u, G
¨
obekli Tepe, Abu Hureyra, Mureybet, Jerf el Ahmar
and Dja’de (Kozłowski 2002: 77–80).
This explosion of images, with few forerunners in Palaeolithic art, offers a view of a
symbolic world, which had commonalities shared among the residents of PPN sites in
Upper Mesopotamia. They are part of a system of symbolic communication that preceded
writing as an essential method of storing cultural knowledge (Watkins 2004, 2010; Morenz
& Schmidt 2009). These people must have had a highly complicated mythology, including
a capacity for abstraction. Following these ideas, we now have more evidence that Cauvin
(1994) was right in his belief that the social systems changed before, not as a result of, the
shift to farming.
This complex symbolic system continued for millennia. A prerequisite for its long life
must have been an extensive network of supra-regional contacts sustained on a regular basis
(Watkins 2008, 2010). For the large amount of quarrying, stone-carving and construction
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Oliver Dietrich et al.
Figure 9. Symbolic objects defining the ritual community of G
¨
obekli Tepe: 1–4) shaft straighteners; 5–7) plaquettes of Jerf
el Ahmar type; 8, 9, 11) bowls of Hallan C¸ emi type; 10, 12) sceptres of Nemrik type. 1, 4) Tell Qaramel (after Mazurowski
& Yartah 2001: fig. 10/636, 638); 2, 3, 7) Jerf el Ahmar (after Cauvin 1994: fig. 19/1, 2, 4); 5) Tell ‘Abr 3 (after Yartah
2005: fig. 7/3); 6, 8, 10a–b) G
¨
obekli Tepe; 9, 12) Hallan C¸ emi (after Rosenberg & Redding 2000: fig. 5, 6/1); 11) K
¨
ortik
Tepe (after
¨
Ozkaya & San 2007: fig. 18). Not to scale.
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
Figure 10. Snakes and scorpions are important elements of G
¨
obekli Tepe’s iconography (photographs: C. Gerber, D. Johannes,
I. Wagner,
c
DAI).
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work required to build a monumental sanctuary like G
¨
obekli Tepe, there had to be a means
of bringing together groups from different areas and organising communal work. An answer
on how this was achieved lies in the widespread evidence for extensive feasting, including
the consumption of—most likely alcoholic—beverages, in the PPN archaeological record.
Production and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the Near
Eastern PPN
Until recently it was widely accepted that beer brewing and wine production started with
the civilisations of Mesopotamia and Egypt (Sherratt 1995: 24–26), documented by literary
and iconographical evidence (R
¨
ollig 1970; Samuel 1996: 3–4). But in recent years, the
starting point for the production of alcoholic beverages has been pushed ever further into
the past. Not only could the residues of alcoholic beverages be pinned down chemically
in early dynastic Egypt at Hierakonpolis (Maksoud et al. 1994) or the late Uruk period
site of Godin Tepe, Iran (Michel et al. 1993), and fifth-millennium BC Neolithic Greece
(Valamoti et al. 2007), but wine has been detected even earlier in a Neolithic (mid sixth-
millennium BC) jar from Hajji Firuz Tepe in northern Iran (McGovern et al. 1996) and
in stone bowls from the PPN burial site of K
¨
ortik Tepe, south-eastern Turkey (McGovern
2009). It can be safely stated t hat people’s first interest in wild grapes in western Asia was
for alcohol production, evidence for domestication only following in the fourth millennium
BC (Miller 2008: 944). From G
¨
obekli Tepe now comes further chemical evidence this time
for beer brewing, although it is not fully conclusive as yet.
There are two principal approaches to the identification of alcoholic beverages in the
archaeological record. The first includes looking for material evidence of brewing and has
been followed by Dineley (2004) in her work on Neolithic beer making. She concentrates
on suitable vessels and especially on so-called ‘malting floors’ that could have been used for
germinating and drying grain. The second and more direct approach is the examination
of organic residues adhering to pottery or stone vessels; for example, residues on two stone
bowlsfromK
¨
ortik Tepe gave preliminary evidence of tartaric acid, hinting at the production
of grape wine (McGovern 2009: 81). Chemical analysis was recently conducted also on a
group of large limestone basins from G
¨
obekli Tepe. Six barrel- and trough-like vessels have
been found in PPNB contexts. Due to their size and capacities of up to 160 litres they are
static, integral parts of particular rooms (Figure 11), but fragments of such vessels appear
in all strata. Some of them show grayish-black residues adhering to the lower parts of the
vessels.
First results show probable evidence of oxalate for some samples, but the applied Feigl test
was not sensitive enough to give reproducible results. Oxalate develops during the steeping,
mashing and fermentation of cereals (barley, but also einkorn wheat and others, see Zarnkow
et al. 2006: tab. 2) and can indicate the production of malt and beer. A complete scapula
of an onager was found at the bottom of one vessel at G
¨
obekli Tepe (Figure 11). A very
similar find is known from Tell ‘Abr 3 in Syria, where five large limestone vessels stood on
the floor of a structure described as a “communal building”, and a large bone lay within
one of the vessels (Yartah 2005: 6). These bones could well have been used to stir up the
contents of the vessels or to skim parts of it. At Jerf el Ahmar, Syria, three limestone basins
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
Figure 11. A barrel- (upper right) and a trough-like (lower right) limestone vessel from G
¨
obekli Tepe (photographs: K.
Schmidt, N. Becker,
c
DAI). Six vessels with capacities up to 160 litres have been so far discovered in situ (left).
of similar size stood in a domestic building with different activity zones, yielding evidence
for food processing in the form of grinding stones, saddle querns, plates and two charred
seed cakes, containing primarily Brassica/Sinapis seeds (Willcox 2002: 55–56). This and
the presence of a hearth encouraged the excavators to interpret the room as a kitchen area.
Since the simplest brewing process would need, in addition to cereal processing equipment,
only large containers for malting and mashing, t his ‘kitchen’ could have produced beer as
well. In G
¨
obekli Tepe, the occurrence of beer making is not yet certain, but as signs of
habitation are also absent, it is a possibility that not every step of production was carried out
there. The grain may have been malted at nearby settlements and been brought there only
on special occasions. Genetic analyses have shown that the domestication of single-grained
einkorn and emmer wheat took place around the Karacada
˘
g(Heunet al. 1997; Luo et al.
2007) in close vicinity to G
¨
obekli Tepe. It is an intriguing thought that brewing a nd the
domestication of wheat might be interrelated.
The idea of alcoholic beverages at such an early date is not new. Since the so-called
‘Braidwood Symposium’ in 1953 there has been ongoing discourse on this topic. Based on
finds of several kinds of cereals at Qalat Jarmo in eastern Iraq and encouraged by a remark by
paleobotanist Sauer, Braidwood questioned the common assumption that the appearance
of domesticated cereals in the Near East was linked with bread making. He and Sauer asked
whether the discovery of fermentation (barley for example ferments naturally under certain
conditions: Katz & Maytag 1991: 26–27) might have operated as the initial step towards
experimental selection and domestication of cereals (Braidwood et al. 1953). However, the
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symposium was rather inconclusive, leaving no more than the awareness that the collection
of wild grain as a basic food supply was not an option, due to small har vests resulting
from its brittleness; early cereals were acknowledged as better suited to making gruel or beer
than bread because of the glume adhering to the grain, although beer production was then
seen as rather improbable. Katz and Voigt (1986) revisited this question stating that a diet
containing beer was much more nourishing than one just based on gruel or bread. The
discovery of fermentation and the use of beer in social and religious life could thus have
led to the domestication of cereals. A similar approach was recently followed by Reichholf
(2008). McGovern (2009) added the possibility of supply of alcohol through grape wine to
the discussion.
Seen from the point of view of nutritional science, there are some advantages in favour
of beer. Its lack of oxygen and its low pH value make it less perishable than other cereal
products (Back 1994: 16). There is an ongoing discussion about the question of whether
most cereals would have been toxic before mankind adapted to them, adverse reactions to
gluten proteins (coeliac disease) being the result of a missing evolutionary adaption (Greco
1997). Malting and fermentation could have been a method to weaken these toxic effects
as gluten is debranched, agglomerated and filtered to a high extent through malting and
brewing. Interestingly, there seems to be a natural lack of toxicity in einkorn (Pizzuti et al.
2006). Whether one of these aspects was known to PPN people remains unknown, but
prolonged observations could have led to that knowledge.
Although none of the elements discussed above necessarily implies the production of
alcoholic beverages in itself, and chemical evidence is still sparse, all factors taken together
support the idea that the possibility of creating alcoholic intoxicants was already known in
the early PPN. The question remains why this should have happened just then and there.
Discussion and conclusion
At first sight early evidence for alcohol consumption may be surprising, but it fits well into a
model that focuses on social incentives for the transition from hunting and gathering societies
to food-producing early village-farming communities. Feasting has long been acknowledged
as an integral part of Epipaleolithic (Munro & Grosman 2010) and early Neolithic societies.
Evidence is present even at very early PPN sites like Hallan C¸ emi (with a main occupation
between 9660 and 9320 cal BC, comp. Benz 2011). Here the settlement of a small hunter
community was arranged around a central free area with large amounts of animal bones and
fire-cracked stones. As an interpretation of these findings, Rosenberg and Redding (2000:
44) have proposed reciprocal feasting as a means of strengthening a group’s coherence. Benz
(2000, 2006: 440) argued for a similar role of feasting in the whole process of Neolithisation
on the basis of ethnographic analogies. She widens the argument by stating that one basis for
the shift to agriculture and long-term storage must have been the loosening of reciprocity
usually visible in hunter-gatherer societies. In her view, this was achieved through large
feasts, for which food had to be stored.
On the other hand, Hayden (1990) has argued that resources becoming abundant during
the climatic optimum following the Ice Age enabled competitive individuals to accumulate
surplus in order to obtain powerful social positions through lavish feasts. The need to furnish
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
Figure 12. Overhead view of Enclosure F at G
¨
obekli Tepe, showing the circle of pillars with interconnecting benches
(photograph: K. Schmidt,
c
DAI).
food for these feasts is seen as a possible reason for the start of domestication (Hayden 2003).
Regardless which position seems more compelling, ethnographic and archaeological records
are abundant for the holding and managing of feasts. Large amounts of food were needed
for this purpose and, of course, beverages, the latter often being alcoholic (cf. Everett et al.
1976; Douglass 1987; Hayden 1995; Jennings et al. 2005).
G
¨
obekli Tepe adds a new dimension to this discussion. The sediments used to backfill the
monumental enclosures at the end of their use consist of limestone r ubble from the quarries
nearby, flint artefacts and surprisingly large amounts of animal bones smashed to get to
the marrow, clearly the remains of meals. Their amount exceeds everything known from
contemporary settlements, and can be taken as a strong indication of large-scale feasting.
The species represented most frequently are gazelle, aurochs and Asian wild ass, a range of
animals typical for hunters at that date in the region. There is evidence for plant-processing,
too. Grinders, mortars and pestles are abundant, although macro remains are few, and these
are entirely of wild cereals (among them einkorn, wheat/r ye and barley) (Neef 2003).
The character of G
¨
obekli Tepe makes it clear that these feasts had a strong cultic
significance. They can also be attributed to a special category of feast highlighted by Dietler
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Figure 13. A dancing scene on a bowl from Nevalı C¸ ori shows how Neolithic feasts might have appeared. The turtle-like
being dancing between two persons might well hint at the dancers’ altered state of consciousness (after Hauptmann 1999:
fig. 16).
and Herbich (1995): collective work events. To construct the monumental buildings, people
from a wider area had to be drawn together. Records of the erection of megalithic graves on
the island of Nias, Indonesia, dating from the beginning of the twentieth century can give
us an idea on how many people could be attracted to help in construction by the prospect of
a lavish feast. Schr
¨
oder (1917) noted that 525 men hauled a megalith of 4m
3
over a distance
of 3km to its final location in three days using a wooden sledge. At G
¨
obekli Tepe, the
distances between the quarries and the enclosures are smaller, but the megaliths transported
are much larger ( up to 7m long weighing 50 metric tons with a volume of 20m
3
). The role
of beer in such events is known, e.g. from the big building projects of ancient Egypt, where
workers were paid, at least partly, in beer (Helck 1971: 53–65).
The requirements of collective work events have to be taken into account also for other
sites, especially for the elaborate communal buildings of Tell ‘Abr 3 or Jerf el Ahmar. Outlines
of these buildings and of the enclosures at G
¨
obekli Tepe illustrate their character as meeting
places. They contain benches along the walls ready for gatherings (Figure 12), and at G
¨
obekli
Tepe, the setting of the anthropomorphic pillars seems to represent an assembly of some
sort, with about a dozen stone figures around the perimeter bench, attendant on a pair of
larger figures at the centre.
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The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities
A rich repertoire of PPN dancing scenes (Garfinkel 2003) sheds some light on the nature
of early Neolithic feasts. One of the most remarkable examples is the sherd of a limestone
bowl from Nevalı C¸ ori (Figure 13) depicting two persons with raised arms (Hauptmann
1999: fig. 16). Between them, a turtle-like being is joining the dance, maybe reflecting the
altered state of consciousness of the dancers (McGovern 2009: 80). The cemetery of K
¨
ortik
Tepe, where numerous stone vessels were broken at the gravesite also suggests feasting with
an ecstatic aspect.
In concordance with Hayden’s thoughts, it seems obvious that repetitive feasts of the
amplitude implied at G
¨
obekli Tepe must have placed stress on the economic production of
hunter-gatherer groups. Maybe in response to the demand, new food sources and processing
techniques were explored. In this scenario, religious beliefs and practices may have been
a key factor in the adoption of intensive cultivation and the transition to agriculture.
Archaeological and chemical evidence further suggests that this innovation may have been
fuelled by alcoholic beverages, giving a new response to Braidwood’s question ‘Did man
once live by beer alone?’ Probably not, but beer—and wine—may have played an important
role in one of the most significant turning points in the history of mankind.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the General Directorate of Antiquities of Turkey for kind permission to excavate this important
site. The work at G
¨
obekli Tepe is funded by the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the German Research
Foundation (DFG). Thanks are due to Trevor Watkins for valuable comments on the text; Thomas G
¨
otzelt and
Nico Becker assisted with the illustrations.
Technical note on oxalate evidence in samples from G
¨
obekli Tepe
The Feigl spot test (Feigl 1960) was per formed on samples from two of the vessels. This is a common and
recognised method for detecting the presence of these salts (Michel et al. 1993). Approximately 10g of deposit
from the bottom of a dry, physically cleaned vessel was scraped free. For each analysis, 0.1g of material was used.
The chemicals required for the colour reactions were supplied by Merck/Germany. Naphthalene-2.7-diol (no.
8.20851.0100) and 1.1
-binaphthyl-2.2
-diol (no. 8.41292.0005) and Sigma-Aldrich (Magnesium no. 31458-
1EA) were employed for the oxalate and tartrate analyses. For the first series of tests comprising five vessel
samples (sample nos. 10-115, 10-117, 10-121, 10-122, 10-126), one control sample of distilled water, two
samples from the earth surrounding each vessel (sample nos. 10-17, 10-22) and a water sample inoculated with
oxalate or tartrate were also analysed.
All samples were labelled with codes, which were not known to the laboratory personnel carrying out the
analysis. No positive signal for any of the vessel samples was obtained in the first experiment. In a second
experiment, sample 10-117 was positive for oxalate. In a third experiment, two samples gave a positive signal
for oxalate in one of the replications, but not in the other, whereas sample 10-117 gave no positive signal. As
the detection threshold of that spot test is 1μg and assuming that the occurrence of oxalate crystals is very low,
creating homogeneous samples is impossible. Under light microscope we could not see any oxalate.
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