First burials give insights into mortuary rites at Göbeklitepe, Early Neolithic Türkiye

Since the beginning of excavations at Göbeklitepe, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) site in southeastern Türkiye, fragmented human bones have been recovered from the fill of the special (monumental) buildings. These fragments derive from males and females of all age categories and exhibit various taphonomic alterations. Compared with contemporaneous Anatolian burial customs, certain parallels exist; however, the seemingly random distribution of human bone fragments at Göbeklitepe remains enigmatic. Recently, the first two intact burials were discovered in Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8,700-8,000 BCE) contexts. The taphonomic evidence from these burials could explain the presence of the dispersed human bone fragments. It appears that lower-lying parts of the site became inundated by slope deposits from higher areas of the mound, which contained human remains from originally intact burials. Nonetheless, this explanation does not rule out the possibility of additional mortuary practices, thereby underscoring the considerable diversity of burial rituals in Neolithic Anatolia.