Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 17, No 2, (2017), pp. 57-74 Copyright © 2017 MAA Open Access. Printed in Greece. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.581724 MATTERS ARISING DECODING GÖBEKLI TEPE WITH ARCHAEOASTRONOMY: WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?” by Sweatman, M.B. and D. Tsikritsis MORE THAN A VULTURE: A RESPONSE TO SWEATMAN AND TSIKRITSIS By Jens Notroff, Oliver Dietrich, Laura Dietrich, Cecilie Lelek Tvetmarken, Moritz Kinzel, Jonas Schlindwein, Devrim Sönmez, Lee Clare CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE PAPER BY SWEATMAN, M. B. AND D. TSIKRITSIS, “DECODING GÖBEKLI TEPE WITH ARCHAEOASTRONOMY: WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?” by Paul D. Burley MORE THAN A VULTURE: A RESPONSE TO SWEATMAN AND TSIKRITSIS Jens Notroff1, Oliver Dietrich1, Laura Dietrich1, Cecilie Lelek Tvetmarken1, Moritz Kinzel2, Jonas Schlindwein1, Devrim Sönmez3, Lee Clare1 1Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Podbielskiallee 69–71, D-14195 Berlin, Germany 2Carsten Niebuhr Centre for Multicultural Heritage Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies – ToRS University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixen Plads 8, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark 3Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Abteilung Istanbul, Inönü Caddesi 10 TR-34437 Gümüssuyu-Istanbul, Turkey Received: 28/04/2017 Accepted: 01/05/2017 Corresponding author: Jens Notroff (
[email protected]) ABSTRACT In a paper recently published in this journal, Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Tsikritsis from the Universi- ty of Edinburgh (School of Engineering) have suggested an interpretation for the early Neolithic monumen- tal enclosures at Göbekli Tepe as space observatories and the site's complex iconography the commemora- tion of a catastrophic astronomical event ('Younger Dryas Comet Impact'). As the archaeologists excavating this site, we would like to comment on a few points that we feel require consideration in this discussion.