Anthony Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Allan Shumaker Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------

> > I also seem to remember that Gobekli Tepe
> was
> > completely covered over with earth when it
> was
> > abandoned. That would have been a tremendous
> > amount of work but it does seem to indicate
> the
> > location had sacred significance.
>
>
> I read that in the article. I don't know if
> sacred is the word I would use... sounds more like
> they thought it was cursed.

The people of Gobekli Tepe might have viewed things differently, though, Ant. They might not have known the difference between "sacred" and "cursed". They might have used the same word for both concepts.

Some things are so sacred that they can actually become taboo – or cursed, if you like. (From memory, Frazer discusses this in “Golden Bough”, and possibly Huizinga). IIRC, there are numerous examples in antiquity of temples or sacred places being destroyed and/or buried, and another temple built over the old one (I’m afraid I can’t think of any precise examples just at this moment, although I’m sure that someone else might); this could possibly have had something to do with the substitution of one deity or pantheon by another.

However, I confess that I don’t know what might have happened in the particular case of Gobekli Tepe.

Hermione
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