# Were These Skulls Used to Memorialize the Dead? | NOVA | PBS

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** NOVA PBS Official
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBYOzjhWTno
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/34125

## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 04:00) []

- [Narrator] The Göbekli Tepe was a settlement where people lived across 1500 years. Where are their remains? During over 30 years of excavation, only fragments of human bones had been discovered. But more recently, that has changed. Now, in one of the walled structures beyond the special buildings... - Yeah, this is quite exciting to see. - [Narrator] The researchers have found a burial site with human remains. - [Lee] So, what we've got here, obviously a bit of skull, and a few long bones. - So, it's a burial. It's really, really exciting to have. - So, another individual from Göbekli Tepe- - That can tell a story. - [Narrator] It's only the third burial to be discovered at the site. - Human remains are special. I mean, these are the people that built the site. lived here. - [Narrator] And Lee sees something right away that could make these remains even more special. - The bones, they're not fused. The skull is quite small. At the moment, we're thinking that it's probably the remains of a child. - [Narrator] For Lee and Moritz, the placement of the body within a decorated niche inside a domestic space gives clues about the belief systems of the people that lived here. - By bringing somebody's bones back into the house, it's somehow claiming ownership. So, the dead and the living are living together, They're part of the same cosmos. - [Narrator] This new discovery adds to previous analysis of skull fragments found across the site. - These pictures are from the first skull I found in Göbekli Tepe. - [Narrator] 1600 miles from the dig, in her lab in Berlin, paleopathologist Julia Gresky has been examining the skull fragments. - Here, we have a lot of wild cut marks. - [Narrator] At high magnification, she has identified unnatural markings on the bone fragments. - This is something you would expect when de-fleshing a skull. If you want to cut away the soft tissue, then you would just scrape on the surface. These incisions were done while the bone was still fresh. But you can't say that they were done during life because there are no signs of healing on this incision. - [Narrator] The evidence suggests these skulls were stripped of flesh after death. And there are more markings. - This skull has three main carvings on the frontal part. It is several repeated scratches in this big line. - [Narrator] Julia believes these and other marks found on the skull were made intentionally. The reason is a mystery, but another clue has led her to a theory of how the skulls may have been used. - We found that one of these skulls had a drilling hole. - [Narrator] The hole was bored through the cranium, right at the top of the skull. - Maybe they were trying to fix things on the skulls, or they wanted to hang them with a cord. - [Narrator] Red marks found on some bone fragments suggest the skulls could have been decorated and put on display. - The markings on these skulls, they point to some ritual tradition. So, a special focus on the skull of these people. - [Narrator] It's possible a so-called skull cult was practiced by the people of Göbekli Tepe. - A skull cult is a practice of venerating dead people or memorizing important people of their own family, of the community in general. - [Narrator] The skull from the burial shows no signs of decoration, but the practice of burying bones within living spaces here and at later neolithic sites is telling about how human societies were changing. Perhaps tradition began at Göbekli Tepe.