Göbekli Tepe Pillar 43 read as a three-worlds shamanic diagram

November 04, 2026TürkiyeArchaeoastronomyShare

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Key facts

• Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe carries reliefs including a vulture, a scorpion, a flamingo-like bird, a feline and a toad, with the handles offset to one side.
• The vulture and the scorpion were identified as Cygnus and Scorpius by separate scholars as early as 2010.
• Collins' overlays a sky map for about 9600 BC, the date he gives for the creation of Pillar 43.
• The relief is read as showing three worlds - sky, middle world and underworld - set within the 'cosmic ocean', with the V-motifs representing water and a bridge linking the levels.
• Klaus Schmidt, who discovered Göbekli Tepe, said the founders of its culture were the Anunna (the original Sumerian term later rendered Anunnaki), represented by the anthropomorphic pillars.
• H-shaped glyphs appear on Pillar 43 and on Pillar 18 in Enclosure D; Collins' reads them as twins and as a link between two worlds.
• Water standing in the enclosures was used to reflect the T-shaped pillars, an 'as above, so below' device he ties to the cosmic ocean concept.

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