GOBEKLITEPE: PRIMO MAN
This little character, which stands about two feet tall, was the first discovery at Gobeklitepe. I call him Primo Man. Farmer Şafak Yildiz found it in his field in 1986. He took it home, where his wife threw it out of the house. Farmer Yildiz hitched up his donkey cart, loaded up the statue and others he’d found, and hauled them to the Museum at Şanliurfa ten miles away. He thought they might be important. But since previous archeologists had seen the tops of the now-famous monoliths and dismissed the site as “a Byzantine cemetery,” the museum director trivialized and refused the statues. Farmer Yildiz insisted on leaving them. So Primo Man was tossed into storage and forgotten. Nine years later, archeologist Klaus Schmidt was lunching with the museum director. He saw the statue, still in storage, immediately recognized it for what it was, found the farm and began to dig, and that is why we have Gobeklitepe today. I posted this picture on Instagram, and a grandson of Farmer Yildiz contacted me. According to him, this incredibly important statue– which led to the biggest archeological find perhaps ever, changing not only archeology but anthropology– is still in a warehouse today.
PEP BOYS PRIMO MAN
—Manny – Moe – Jack — Primo Pep Boys! —Arm? – Is this a hand? – Is this a serpent? — First statue found at Gobeklitepe in 1986 by Safak Yildiz. His wife wouldn’t have it in the house! —- Eyes of Primo Man – I can see great big staring Sumerian eyes. I wonder was he painted? — Midnight [New Year’s Eve] 21 / 22—— I got Covid over the Christmas holiday, so Primo Man here was my New Year’s Eve date. Pep Boys is a famous chain of auto parts stores in the USA. Here are Manny, Moe and Jack. I imagine Primo Man’s eyes were painted much the same.
PIGS IN SPACE
—Pigs in Space: Neolithis boars from Gobeklitepe / 9,600-8000 BCE — Bas-relief boar behind U-shaped stone in Enclosure C — Hole Stone Boar — Babypig below Hole Boar — GobekliTepe Boars —
— Desiccated but still audible — An ear that is really a scream — c8500 BCE — The best boar at Gobeklitepe – About 2 1/2 feet tall—— Winter 2021: drawing from photos I took in the Şanliurfa Muzeum, I noticed the ear on this boar looked odd. I zoomed in to discover this screaming skull face. I felt like I’d discovered America! Why? With flint tools an artist thousands of years ago made this face. Now I must go back and look at the other ear!
DESSICATED DELIGHTS IN URFA
– Owl Woman? — More treats from the Archeological Museum at Şanliurfa.
—Dessicated delights at the Urfa Museum.— Bas-relief battered but still beautiful—— Also a weird lion with a cross ’n’ balls, and Man Love. I finally ran out of Megalithic photos and started drawing more recent antiquities.
GODDESSES & THE MOON
— Goddesses as old as time drawn during the full moon & the Call to Prayer – July 2022 999 Lecture JJ Ainsworth Megalithomania — Hohle Fels – Germany – Mammoth Ivory – 40-35,000 [years old] Oldest human depiction – Actual size 6 CM — Stone – Belgrade – c9000 [years old] — Limestone – Gobeklitepe – c11,500 [lyears old] — Cloy – Malta – Tarxien Temple – 3800-2600 [years old] — Call to Prayer — Ivory – Aurignacian – Gravettian – c24,800 [years old] — Laussel – France – Limestone – 18-20,000 [years old]—– A hot night and the moon flooding in…