gobekli tepe - genesis of the gods (21 page)
That the twin central pillars of Göbekli Tepe’s Enclosure D both display fox tails, while the eastern example additionally possesses a belt buckle that might well show the symbol of a comet, begs the question of whether the Göbekli builders might in some way have been concerned by the influence and presence of comets in our skies. Moreover, because the comet symbolism only appears in full on one of the central pillars, was this particular figure seen to have a special dominion over comets, an ability connected with the proposed message or doctrine introduced to the hunter-gatherers of southeast Anatolia in the epoch immediately prior to the construction of the first stone enclosures at Göbekli Tepe?
I PREDICT A COMET
Is it possible that this imposing stone figure at the center of Enclosure D, whoever or whatever it represents, was seen to have delivered the means by which the Epipaleolithic peoples of southeast Anatolia, with the help of his shamanicbased elite, could combat the baleful influence of comets? That the hunter-gatherers of southeast Anatolia so readily gave up their nomadic lifestyles to build monumental architecture in an unprecedented manner argues persuasively that this incoming elite must have had some kind of hold or influence over the people. Perhaps they claimed they had direct contact with the supernatural creature behind the manifestation of comets. If so, then such claims would have needed to be backed up with some convincing displays of proof for the hunter-gatherers to have so readily abandoned their old ways. So what might this have been?
One realistic answer is that, like the ancient Chinese astrologers behind the creation of the Mawangdui atlas ca. 300–200 BC, the incoming elite had a very real knowledge of comets, which might have included information on periodic comets, those that make their return within one to two human generations. A perfect example is Halley’s Comet, which makes its return every seventy-five to seventy-six years (its last appearances were in 1910 and 1986). Indeed, even though the gravitational influence of the solar system’s larger planets, such as Saturn and Jupiter, means that the orbit of a short-period comet can fluctuate somewhat, it
is
possible that its reappearance might have been calculated to some degree of accuracy in just a few centuries of observation.
It is not known whether Halley’s Comet graced our skies in the tenth or eleventh millennium BC, although some sources do suggest that it has been in its current orbit for between sixteen thousand and two hundred thousand years.
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So the likelihood of Göbekli Tepe’s founding elite being able to calculate the return of a short-period comet was therefore pretty high. If they
were
able to do this, then using this valuable information to their advantage might have been enough to convince the hunter-gathering communities that they had real influence over these fearful celestial objects.
Such ideas might help explain why Enclosure D’s twin central monoliths wear fox-pelt loincloths, why leaping foxes are present on the inner faces of key central pillars at Göbekli Tepe, and why Joris Peters and Klaus Schmidt considered that “a specific worship of foxes may be reflected here.” These thoughts also perhaps have some bearing on why the large enclosures seem to incorporate symbolism of a clearly celestial and cyclic nature.
Is it possible that the enclosures embody a belief, offered by the Hooded Ones and, through them, their lineal descendants (responsible perhaps for the continued construction and management of Göbekli Tepe), that by synchronizing the enclosures with cosmic time cycles it would help provide the builders with enough information to control the influence of comets on a supernatural level? Was it these communities’ absolute fear and loathing of comets that motivated them to abandon their old lifestyles to build monumental architecture on such a dramatic scale? More pertinently, how did any of this relate to the apparent alignment of the main enclosures at Göbekli Tepe toward the Milky Way’s Great Rift, marked out in the heavens by the star Deneb? These are matters that must be addressed next.
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COSMIC TRICKSTER
I
t was the Greek Neoplatonist and celebrated philosopher Proclus of Athens (412–485 AD) who warned that “the fox star nibbles continuously at the thong of the yoke which holds together heaven and Earth,”
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with German folklore adding that when the fox succeeds, the world will come to an end.
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Proclus was referring here to the faint binary star Alcor, which in Babylonian star lore was known as
MUL
KA.A, the Fox Star.
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In astronomical terms Alcor is located next to a much brighter quadruple system of binary stars, collectively known under the name Mizar. Together Alcor and Mizar make up the kink in the “handle” of the Plough, or Big Dipper, which forms part of the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear (see figure 13.1).
Some semblance of Alcor’s mythical origin is revealed in Greek star lore, which tells how the star was once part of the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, the cluster of seven stars located in the proximity of Taurus, the Bull. According to the Greek writer Hyginus (or one of his pupils writing under his name), a Pleiade named Elektra was so distraught at seeing the death of her descendant, King Dardanus, during the fall of Troy, that she withdrew her light and took flight as a “hair star,” a comet, and became Alopex, the Fox, called by the Arabs Al Suha (the “forgotten” or “neglected one”), all names for Alcor.
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Figure 13.1. The stars of Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper, as the ancient asterism known as the Wain, with Alcor in its role as the Fox Star (after Gavin White).
TURNING THE HEAVENS
Even though there are no astronomical explanations behind these puzzling myths featuring the star Alcor, they do reinforce the connection between the fox, as a symbol of the cosmic trickster, and the destruction of the world caused by the intrusion of a comet, or comets in plural. Why should this have been so? The answer seems to lie in the fact that the seven main stars of Ursa Major, which includes the Alcor/Mizar combination, were once universally seen as the plow, yoke, mill, handle, wain, or mechanism that quite literally turned the sky pole or world pillar holding up the heavens. This belief came about because the stars of Ursa Major are seen to revolve around the celestial pole in an unerring fashion, a role played by the constellation in every human age, despite the fact that none of its stars ever occupy the position of Pole Star.
Proclus’s warning about the Fox Star nibbling “continuously at the thong of the yoke which holds together heaven and Earth” is an allusion to the fox attempting to sabotage the universe’s turning mechanism, which, of course, was seen to have its terrestrial point of origin wherever an axis mundi was established on the ground. The fox, if allowed to carry out its mischievous deeds, would eventually bring about the collapse of the imagined sky pole, and with it would follow the end, not just of the world but also of time itself. The fact that Alcor, or Alopex, the Fox Star, was additionally seen as a comet inbound from the Pleiades is revealing indeed and conjures the idea that as a “hair star” it might have been seen as responsible for this perceived cosmic catastrophe.
Fox, star, comet, pole, destruction.
These are the key elements in this puzzling enigma of ancient Greek star lore, which might easily have had its origins in ancient Mesopotamia, among one of the great civilizations that rose up on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers around 3000 BC. Indeed, it is just possible that certain aspects of this seemingly naïve vision of the cosmos might reflect something of the proposed strategy adopted by the Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers of southeast Anatolia prior to the construction of Göbekli Tepe. Interestingly, Professor Klaus Schmidt compares the leaping foxes carved on the twin central pillars in the various enclosures at Göbekli Tepe with Reynard the Fox, a trickster of French folklore,
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as well as with the Mesopotamian Fox Star Alcor, which he says belonged to Enlil, the highest god of the Sumerian pantheon, who was patron also of the ancient city of Nipper in Lower Iraq.
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MAN VERSUS DEVIL
So if the Fox Star Alcor appears on the inner faces of key central pillars Göbekli Tepe, why are they aligned toward Cygnus, and not Ursa Major? The answer seems to lie in the fact that there was once a close interrelationship between the Fox Star and the power and influence of Cygnus in its role as guardian of the celestial pole.
It is a relationship brought out in a complex Romanian sky myth that begins with the formation of the earth and heavens and leads into a search by humankind to find the creator. For the journey “the Man” gathers together various tools, objects, and creatures, which are identified with different constellations of the night sky. Among the items taken on the journey are “the Great Cross of the church” and “the Fountain of the Crossroads,” identified, respectively, as Cygnus and the constellation’s bright star Deneb,
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the crossroads being a metaphor for both the axis mundi and the corresponding cosmic axis in the sky.
Thereafter, the Man sets off on his voyage and eventually reaches “the middle of the Sky’s road,” with the “Sky’s road” being the Milky Way.
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Here the Man encounters “He Who Will Be Killed By The Cross.” This is the Devil, identified as the Fox Star, Alcor, whom the Man fights and eventually defeats.
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The story implies that in Christian times the mischievous sky fox was transformed into the Devil himself.
RESTORING COSMIC ORDER
What takes place during the cosmic battle between the Man, as the bearer of the Cross, and the Devil, as the Fox Star, seems to relate to the former regaining control of “the cosmic world axis or world tree of other myths,”
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after the Devil sends the heavens spinning out of control. Thus the story implies that the Devil, that is, Alcor, is “killed” or stopped by the Man wielding the Cross, which is Cygnus in its role as guardian of the “cosmic world axis.”
This restoration of cosmic order is achieved, however, only after chaos and mayhem have taken place, for we are told that once the “brave Man” began fighting with the Devil, their battle “created a great storm beneath the Sky, called by us on Earth ‘the rabid wind.’”
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There are no indications of what this “great storm” or “rabid wind” might have been, although it clearly implies some sort of mass upheaval in the heavens, which either affected the earth or was witnessed from the ground.
It seems feasible that this Romanian sky myth reflects the role played at Göbekli Tepe by Cygnus, and Deneb in particular. The leaping foxes on the pillars, along with the fox-pelt loincloths on the central monoliths of Enclosure D, certainly suggest there was some connection between the Fox Star Alcor as the cosmic trickster and the area of sky toward which the pillars were directed, in other words the Cygnus star Deneb. These precision alignments toward the perceived opening to the upper world enabled the shaman or astral traveler immediate access to the sky realms. Beyond here, in otherworldly terms, would have been a world inhabited by a whole host of strange creatures. They would have been seen to roam freely within this sky world and could thus be encountered during vision quests or shamanic journeys made during altered states of consciousness. Many of these sky creatures, denoted by stars and star groups spread out along the Milky Way, are almost certainly represented in carved relief on the T-shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe.
Yet for these people living in southeast Anatolia during the tenth millennium BC one of the greatest considered threats to the stability of the sky pole or cosmic axis was, it seems, the fox, who as the cosmic trickster had the ability to create chaos and mayhem—activities that could lead to the collapse of the sky pole and the destruction of the world. It is almost certainly for this reason that the fox appears on the inner faces of the pillars at Göbekli Tepe, which Schmidt was probably correct to identify with the Fox Star Alcor. Very likely the foxes shown within the bent arms of the anthropomorphic figures represented by the twin pillars—particularly those in Enclosure D, who wear the fox felt loincloths—are displaying absolute control over the trickster influence of the sky fox, whose astronomical form is the Fox Star, Alcor.
In the Romanian sky myth quoted above, the shaking of the heavens is all that results from the Man battling against the Fox Star Alcor in its form as the Christian Devil. However, this perceived threat from the heavens multiplies exponentially when we realize that it is not just the fox that can cause comets to bring about world destruction but also the wolf, a much more dangerous creature by far.