The Fox and Göbekli Tepe: The House of Fire

Enclosure B is another of Göbekli Tepe’s oldest enclosures. Several of its pillars have so far been excavated, and this enclosure’s artwork is predominantly of foxes.

The two central pillars both have foxes on their inside faces, which leap towards the viewer as they enter the enclosure. A boar with three hunting dogs on the outer side of the left-hand pillar may not be original. One of the outer pillars is also decorated with a fox. No other artwork has so far been found, with the exception of a carving of a creature on the back of the head of Pillar 6, where it would not have been seen. This creature, depicted from above so it seems to be creeping out of the stone, is probably a leopard or panther. The pillar may have been reused from an earlier version of the enclosure, explaining why this artform was hidden.  

The fox is known for its cunning and guile, and has a long identification as a trickster. Like the serpent, it lives underground which links it to the chthonic realms. In ancient times comet’s tails were often likened to a fox’s brush, which again links to its identification as a trickster or troublemaker.

Comet Hale-Bopp (Philipp Salzgeber, Wikicommons).

The people of Göbekli Tepe would have had stories and folk memories of the fox-tailed comet which had devasted their world long before the enclosures were built. The blast waves, debris, toxic fallout, chemical-laced rain and bitter chill which followed devasted all living things across the world. The fox, living underground, would have had a better chance than most of survival. And its ability to hunt, scavenge and eat almost anything including the carrion which was now in plentiful supply would have given it another advantage.

The fox pelts of Enclosure D

In Broken Skies, the fox alone thrived during the Thousand Year Winter, and the powerful shamans of that time adopted its gifts to help the people survive. The two centralpillars of Enclosure D, which I’ve named The Enduring, are human-like figures who wear a fox skin complete with tail and hind paws. This represents the gifts of survival the fox taught humankind.

I have named Enclosure B as the House of Fire. It contains the spirit of the fox which in its comet-guise tore the world apart and then allowed it to be reformed, and its ultimate gift is that of remembrance.