A new study has unveiled striking parallels between the carved symbolism of Göbekli Tepe’s famous Vulture Stone and the ritual imagery of the Trypillia culture in Eastern Europe. The research suggests that these early farming societies, despite being separated by millennia and vast distances, may have shared a profound cosmological language concerning time, death, sacred space, and the celestial movements. This intriguing connection highlights the possibility that foundational religious and astronomical concepts spread alongside the dawn of agriculture from the Near East into Europe.
At the heart of the debate is Göbekli Tepe’s Pillar 43, widely known as the Vulture Stone. Located in southeastern Turkey and dating back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (around 9600 to 8200 BC), the site is recognized as one of the world's oldest monumental ritual landscapes. The Vulture Stone features complex carvings of birds, a scorpion, a snake, abstract signs, and a headless human figure. While previous interpretations have ranged from depictions of death rituals to astronomical codes, the new study published in the International Journal of Culture and History by Oleksandr Zavalii proposes a broader view. Zavalii argues that the pillar is part of a structured sacred language that integrates solar cycles, lunar rhythms, and geometry.
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A Sacred Language of Time and Cosmos
Rather than viewing the carvings as mere decoration or a precise scientific record of a comet strike, the study reads them as components of a visual grammar. On the Vulture Stone, the upper section with bird figures and arch-like forms may represent celestial imagery, while the lower section, featuring a scorpion and a headless human, could symbolize the earthly realm or the underworld. This division reflects a two-level cosmos, a concept central to many ancient belief systems.
Illustration and photograph of Column 43 from Building D at Göbekli Tepe (photo by K. Schmidt). The H-shaped symbols are highlighted in red. (Zavalii, O., 2025/International Journal of Culture & History)
Furthermore, the study highlights the repeated appearance of numerical patterns across the site. For instance, the Vulture Stone contains eleven rectangular elements, and certain enclosures at Göbekli Tepe feature eleven T-shaped pillars. Another pillar, Stele 33, incorporates the numbers two, three, eleven, and thirteen, which Zavalii suggests may encode duality, solar structure, and lunar cycles. These elements work together to form a sacred cosmological diagram, organizing the relationship between the sky, seasons, and community rituals.
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Trypillia culture female figurines, illustrating the symbolic world of the Neolithic society. (Public Domain)
Bridging Anatolia and Eastern Europe
The most groundbreaking aspect of the research is its comparison of Göbekli Tepe's symbolism with that of the Trypillia culture, which flourished much later (around 5500 to 2750 BC) in modern-day Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. The study identifies striking parallels in ritual objects, temple layouts, and ceramic motifs. For example, the H-shaped signs found at Göbekli Tepe are compared to Trypillian "binocular-shaped" ritual objects, both potentially expressing ideas of duality or the division of sacred time.
Trypillian ritual ceramics showing complex symbolic motifs. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
While the chronological gap between the two cultures is vast, making direct transmission difficult to prove, the findings suggest a shared heritage of symbolic solutions. As early agricultural societies developed, they may have relied on a common religious language to structure their world. The transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to farming in the Fertile Crescent brought about profound changes in human society, and it appears that these foundational cosmological concepts traveled alongside agricultural practices into Europe.
The Enduring Mystery of the First Temple
Göbekli Tepe continues to resist a single, simple explanation. Its monumental enclosures and intricately carved pillars likely carried multiple layers of meaning—social, ritual, mortuary, astronomical, and mythological. For the prehistoric communities that built it, these categories were deeply intertwined. The site may have served as a center for ancestor veneration, as evidenced by theories of a skull cult, while simultaneously functioning as a celestial observatory marking the turning of the seasons.
Panoramic view of the Göbekli Tepe excavation site in Turkey. (Rolfcosar / CC BY-SA 3.0)
The new study by Zavalii enriches our understanding of this enigmatic site by placing it within a broader conversation about how early societies visualized time and the cosmos. The builders of Göbekli Tepe were not merely creating art; they were constructing a dense symbolic environment where architecture, memory, and the movement of the heavens belonged to the same sacred order. As research continues, the connections between the ancient Near East and the early cultures of Europe may reveal even more about the shared spiritual heritage of humanity.
Top image: Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe, known as the Vulture Stone. Source: Sue Fleckney / CC BY-SA 2.0
By Gary Manners
References
Arkeonews. 2025. New study links Göbekli Tepe’s Vulture Stone to Europe’s Trypillia culture. Available at: https://arkeonews.net/new-study-links-gobekli-tepes-vulture-stone-to-europes-trypillia-culture/
Zavalii, O. 2025. Cosmological Aspects of the Stelae of Göbekli Tepe and Their Parallels with the Religious Symbolism of the Trypillia Culture. International Journal of Culture and History. Macrothink Institute. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5296/ijch.v12i1.22688
