Göbekli Tepe Object Profile

The Porthole Slab at Enclosure C

This porthole slab helps show how Enclosure C controlled movement, passage, and viewing before interpretation is added.

Quick Facts

Site: Göbekli Tepe
Structure: Enclosure C
Type: entrance / porthole-stone object

What We Know

The Enclosure C dromos porthole slab is a vertical limestone entrance slab south of Enclosure C, with a porthole and a flat wild-boar relief below it, while its original use and meaning remain uncertain.

Main Details

The Enclosure C dromos porthole slab is a vertical limestone entrance slab south of Enclosure C, with a porthole and a flat wild-boar relief below it, while its original use and meaning remain uncertain.
South of Enclosure C, at the entrance to a corridor-like dromos, a fragmented porthole slab carried a boar relief below the opening. The boar is shown upside down or on its back. This is a powerful threshold object, but it should not be presented as a settled death passage or merged with the boars on Pillars 12, 27, or the Pillar 35 cache.
Schmidt 2010 describes the dromos as a structure south of Enclosure C that had not been completely excavated at the time.
At the so-called lions gate entrance to the dromos, a second type of porthole stone without a collar around the hole was discovered.
The limestone slab was placed vertically at the entrance.
The slab had a flat relief of a wild boar below the porthole.
The boar is described as upside down, lying on its back with legs stretched away from the body.
Fig. 26 describes a fragmented porthole stone with boar relief defining the entrance into the dromos south of Enclosure C.
Schmidt explicitly notes doubts about whether the stone was originally made for this purpose or used in its current position secondarily.
Schmidt suggests a death-sphere interpretation as probable, but says further investigations and new finds will clarify the question; this remains attributed and unsettled.
This object is separate from Pillar 27, Pillar 12, Pillar 35, and Pillar 36 evidence.
The dromos is south of Enclosure C.

Parent Context

dromos south of Enclosure C

Public Reading Path

The Enclosure C dromos porthole slab is a vertical limestone entrance slab south of Enclosure C, with a porthole and a flat wild-boar relief below it, while its original use and meaning remain uncertain.
South of Enclosure C, at the entrance to a corridor-like dromos, a fragmented porthole slab carried a boar relief below the opening. The boar is shown upside down or on its back. This is a powerful threshold object, but it should not be presented as a settled death passage or merged with the boars on Pillars 12, 27, or the Pillar 35 cache.
Schmidt 2010 describes the dromos as a structure south of Enclosure C that had not been completely excavated at the time.
At the so-called lions gate entrance to the dromos, a second type of porthole stone without a collar around the hole was discovered.
The limestone slab was placed vertically at the entrance.
The slab had a flat relief of a wild boar below the porthole.

Physical Evidence

Schmidt 2010 describes the dromos as a structure south of Enclosure C that had not been completely excavated at the time.
At the so-called lions gate entrance to the dromos, a second type of porthole stone without a collar around the hole was discovered.
The limestone slab was placed vertically at the entrance.
The slab had a flat relief of a wild boar below the porthole.
The boar is described as upside down, lying on its back with legs stretched away from the body.
Fig. 26 describes a fragmented porthole stone with boar relief defining the entrance into the dromos south of Enclosure C.
Schmidt explicitly notes doubts about whether the stone was originally made for this purpose or used in its current position secondarily.
Schmidt suggests a death-sphere interpretation as probable, but says further investigations and new finds will clarify the question; this remains attributed and unsettled.
This object is separate from Pillar 27, Pillar 12, Pillar 35, and Pillar 36 evidence.
The dromos is south of Enclosure C.

Motifs And Feature Groups

The slab had a porthole.
A flat wild-boar relief was below the porthole.
The boar was depicted upside down / on its back.

What To Be Careful About

Use reported wording where exact locus, phase, function, species, image rights, or restoration details remain open.
Keep object description, placement, motif identification, and interpretation separate unless the source explicitly joins them.
Pillar 27 low-relief boar and high-relief predator/leopard
Pillar 12 boar relief and 48.5 cm sculpture
Pillar 35 boar sculpture / plates / bowl cache
Pillar 36 predator slab / possible porthole-stone fragment
general Enclosure C boar corpus
settled death passage
death passage
death sphere as settled meaning

Source Trail

GT-ENC-C-SRC-002
GT-ENC-C-PILLAR-INVENTORY-001
GT-IMG-0149

Open Questions

Build GT-ENC-C-CHILD-RING-WALL-SEQUENCE-001 to separate Enclosure C's three/possibly four ring walls, inner stepped peripheral wall, built pockets, and phase/rebuilding review claims.
Secondary use uncertain: Do not state the slab was originally made for this exact entrance position.
Keep separate from pillar boar imagery: The slab is separate from Pillar 27, Pillar 12, and Pillar 35 boar contexts.
Dromos excavation state: Schmidt 2010 says the dromos had not been completely excavated at that time.
Images not public-ready: Fig. 26 and related source images require image identity and rights review before public display.
Which exact source image or excavation figure should be used when public image rights are cleared?

Evidence Review

source refs
lineage
secondary-use debate
dromos excavation-state caveat
movement/threshold interpretation
image-rights status
Secondary use uncertain: Do not state the slab was originally made for this exact entrance position.
Keep separate from pillar boar imagery: The slab is separate from Pillar 27, Pillar 12, and Pillar 35 boar contexts.

Object Evidence

What Is Secure

The Enclosure C dromos porthole slab is a vertical limestone entrance slab south of Enclosure C, with a porthole and a flat wild-boar relief below it, while its original use and meaning remain uncertain.
This porthole slab helps show how Enclosure C controlled movement, passage, and viewing before interpretation is added.
South of Enclosure C, at the entrance to a corridor-like dromos, a fragmented porthole slab carried a boar relief below the opening. The boar is shown upside down or on its back. This is a powerful threshold object, but it should not be presented as a settled death passage or merged with the boars on Pillars 12, 27, or the Pillar 35 cache.
Schmidt 2010 describes the dromos as a structure south of Enclosure C that had not been completely excavated at the time.

Source Trail

GT-ENC-C-SRC-002
GT-ENC-C-PILLAR-INVENTORY-001
GT-IMG-0149
Site evidence notes

Boundaries

Use reported wording where exact locus, phase, function, species, image rights, or restoration details remain open.
Keep object description, placement, motif identification, and interpretation separate unless the source explicitly joins them.
Pillar 27 low-relief boar and high-relief predator/leopard
Pillar 12 boar relief and 48.5 cm sculpture

Next Evidence Needed

Build GT-ENC-C-CHILD-RING-WALL-SEQUENCE-001 to separate Enclosure C's three/possibly four ring walls, inner stepped peripheral wall, built pockets, and phase/rebuilding review claims.
Secondary use uncertain: Do not state the slab was originally made for this exact entrance position.
Keep separate from pillar boar imagery: The slab is separate from Pillar 27, Pillar 12, and Pillar 35 boar contexts.
Dromos excavation state: Schmidt 2010 says the dromos had not been completely excavated at that time.

Open the parent structure

Sources

GT-ENC-C-SRC-002
GT-ENC-C-PILLAR-INVENTORY-001
GT-IMG-0149

Back to Enclosure C