This. Is. So. #Mesmerizing.
A carved #story from 11,000 years ago.
Of #man, #tiger, #bull and #snake.
A #relief in a communal #building.
#Wow.

"The earliest known depiction of a narrative ‘scene’, and reflects the complex relationship between #humans, the #natural world and the #animal #life that surrounded them during the transition to a sedentary lifestyle."

To #travel back in #time and contemplate the images in better detail:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/sayburc-reliefs-a-narrative-scene-from-the-neolithic/3A35B54B3265C7224CB225FE70EBDD02

#archeology #neolithic #turkey #sayburc

This. Is. So. #Mesmerizing.
A carved #story from 11,000 years ago.
Of #man, #tiger, #bull and #snake.
A #relief in a communal #building.
#Wow.

"The earliest known depiction of a narrative ‘scene’, and reflects the complex relationship between #humans, the #natural world and the #animal #life that surrounded them during the transition to a sedentary lifestyle."

To #travel back in #time and contemplate the images in better detail:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/sayburc-reliefs-a-narrative-scene-from-the-neolithic/3A35B54B3265C7224CB225FE70EBDD02

#archeology #neolithic #turkey #sayburc

This #Sayburc relief caused some headlines last week and that phallus-flashing guy got all the attention.

But there's more than a #Neolithic dick pic! The overlooked second scene offering a great starting point to think about Neolithic #hunting weapons:

https://jens2go.medium.com/weapons-of-choice-a-pe-pottery-neolithic-hunting-scene-814cd3c878ae

RT @jens2go@twitter.com

How ongoing research is increasing the available corpus (and our understanding) of Pre-Pottery #Neolithic #iconography.

Just a little #archaeology 🧵 on why this is really fascinating. 😉

@DrKillgrove@twitter.com reporting on new finds from #Sayburc in SE Turkey for @LiveScience@twitter.com: https://twitter.com/LiveScience/status/1600641994539278336

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/jens2go/status/1600929900671926274

Finally, and this convinces me that we might read at least the left part of this #Sayburc depiction as #hunting scene, there are these interesting things called #ThrowingSticks.

With quite similar depictions again coming from #Catalhöyük.

http://revedeboomerang.free.fr/Master%20thesis%20-%20Throwing%20sticks%20-Luc%20Bordes2014.pdf

Admittedly, it's a bit challenging to really recognise a bow here in this #Sayburc scene. So, could it be something else then?

This offers a great chance to think about other possible #hunting tools and weapons which have played a role in #Neoltihic hunting, #aurochs and beyond.

But at #Sayburc we see a still living animal, a still dangerous #aurochs (just imagine such an 1,600 pound heavy beast accelerating towards you 😱).

At #Sayburc we see a confrontation.

Again, the #Sayburc #aurochs absolutely corresponds to what we'd expect considering the known #Neolithic iconographic programme:

The animal's depicted in sideview, but the head is turned, seen from the front, emphasising the horns as if attacking (again signalling danger).

Yet while Phallus-Guy™ gets all the press, that other scene also reported from #Sayburc is equally fascinating - offering additional insight into the world, and worldview, of those #Neolithic #hunters in SE #Anatolia.

Interesting sidenote: Of the #Sayburc #leopards one is also clearly denoted as male individual, the other (intentionally?) not.

The strong notion of danger and threat emanating from these feline predators - snarling, teeth bared, apparently leaping - however remains ...

By the way: For these #leopards themselves we do also find clear analogies within the region's and period's #iconography. Namely, again, at #GobekliTepe.

(And the wonderful fur pattern here at #Sayburc also convince me to maybe finally give up our earlier #lion interpretation.)

Interesting's also the combination of #Sayburc man & those #leopards by his sides.

With bared teeth they seem to evoke danger. Such juxtaposition of virility & threat however finds parallels e.g. in the headless phallus-guy on #GobekliTepe's Pillar 43:

https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/2016/10/14/of-animals-and-a-headless-man-gobekli-tepe-pillar-43

The #Sayburc image finds further parallels in the region's archaeological record:

The Urfa-Yeni Mahalle sculpture (a.k.a. #UrfaMan) for instance seems to wear similar clothing or a "collar" of sorts. And the cavity in his crotch area could well have fitted a separate phallus.

Original report ("The #Sayburç reliefs: a narrative scene from the #Neolithic") by E. Özdoğan in @AntiquityJ@twitter.com 96(390), 2022:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/sayburc-reliefs-a-narrative-scene-from-the-neolithic/3A35B54B3265C7224CB225FE70EBDD02