http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/10/13...c=fb&cc=fp
I also agree that archaeologists, as a general rule, are far too quick to ascribe to "ritual" any evidence which they cannot instantly fit into another category.
Quote:Writing in the October issue of the journal Current Anthropology, E.B. Banning suggests that the builders of Gobekli Tepe may have been settlers (not hunter-gatherers) at the site, living in spaces best understood as both sacred and domestic. In other words, there was no temple, but symbolic rituals of a sacred nature probably did take place within people's ordinary houses.
Banning charges that anthropologists too often make a cardinal error. They superimpose the modern Western concept of sacred versus profane (some buildings are reserved for religious activities and others for everyday living) incorrectly onto the Near Eastern past.
I also agree that archaeologists, as a general rule, are far too quick to ascribe to "ritual" any evidence which they cannot instantly fit into another category.
