Category موضوعي
Evidence and research methods
Reading evidence, comparing interpretations and assessing the limits of inference.
Advanced search →Artifact 9 Entity 197 Period 2 Person 52 Site 17 Study 82 Ancient text 10
-
Original photograph
Concept
Anthropomorphism
Representing a thing or being with human features, such as arms, hands and dress. The term describes a form, without establishing an ordinary human or divine identity.
Hands, belt and dress on a pillar in Building D at Göbekli Tepe, photographed in 2019. These visible features underpin the anthropomorphic reading; they do not identify a name or gender
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Study
Göbekli Tepe: Temple or Social Centre?
How have domestic and food-processing evidence changed our understanding of Göbekli Tepe? Buildings, pillars, feasting and social networks reveal the possibilities and limits of interpreting ritual before writing.
Building D at Göbekli Tepe, photographed in 2019. Central and perimeter pillars show the building’s arrangement. The visible shelter and support braces are modern conservation measures, not a reconstructed ancient roof
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Work feasting
An interpretive model connecting collective labour and hospitality: food accompanies participation in a project. Proposed for some Göbekli Tepe evidence, it does not establish the details of a particular feast.
Modern conceptual diagram of work feasting: people around shared food and participation links. It does not portray specific ancient people, equipment or rites, or reconstruct an event at Göbekli Tepe
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Study
Before We Knew the Names of Gods
What can burials, skulls, figurines and buildings tell us about early beliefs? A study of archaeological evidence and the boundary between observation and interpretation, from Jericho to Göbekli Tepe and Çatalhöyük.
Building C at Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey, photographed in 2019. T-shaped pillars and communal architecture in a settlement with a ritual component; any proposed divine identities remain unknown. Some pillars have been restored
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Concept
Ritual
An organised or distinguished practice meaningful to a community; it may leave traces, but its form alone does not reveal an associated doctrine.
A plastered human skull from Jericho, around 7000 BCE, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Plaster remodels the face and shells mark the eyes; this treatment alone does not identify the beliefs of its makers
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Negative evidence
Failure to find an expected trace can test a hypothesis when preservation and investigation make discovery expectable; not every absence is evidence.
Modern explanatory diagram: an absent mark in an examined area differs from an unexamined area. The grid and magnifier illustrate investigation, not an actual excavation plan
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Ritualization
The acquisition of special qualities by familiar practices or places; an analytical concept that need not separate ritual from everyday life.
Modern diagram of ritualization: a house surrounded by circles suggesting accumulated practices and relationships. A conceptual illustration, not a reconstruction of an ancient house or rite
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Linguistic relatedness
A relationship through shared linguistic ancestry, distinct from direct borrowing or identical beliefs.
Modern educational diagram: branching from a common origin on the left, transfer between two parties on the right. It distinguishes kinship from borrowing; it does not map a proven historical route for divine vocabulary
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Linguistic reconstruction
A comparative method for inferring forms in an older language from related languages.
Modern educational diagram of systematic correspondences across comparative rows. The symbols a, b, and c are schematic teaching examples, not data transcribed from an ancient language
Read the record →