Relationality, Immanence, Hierarchy: The Nature and Culture of Being(s) at Göbekli Tepe

This paper deals with symbolic and ontological human–animal relationships at the Early Neolithic (PPNA) site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. Here a series of megalithic round stone buildings, built by hunter-gatherers, were embellished by large stone pillars with depictions of animals, particularly predators. On the basis of an analysis of the pillar iconography and of recent anthropological and archaeological insights about alterity and perceptions of nature and culture, it will be argued that human–animal relationships at Göbekli Tepe were part of an ontology marked by both immanence and hierarchy. Imagistic ritualization in evocative architectural contexts, probably directed by shamans, served to express such relations. The internal logic of this is exemplified in a model of the world of Göbekli Tepe, based on a novel approach with so-called referential relations and compositional hierarchy as ways to explore and interpret relations between beings and things.