by Tom Knox
‘OK.’ He took a gulp of tea. ‘Let’s go through it again. We know that agriculture began here. The first place in the world. In the area immediately surrounding Gobekli. Sometime around 8000 BC, yup?’
‘Yes. And we know roughly when and where farming began…’
‘Because of the archaeological evidence: “domestication is a shock to the system”. I read that in the book in your flat. The skeletons of people change, they grow smaller and less healthy…’
‘Yyyyes,’ Christine agreed, hesitantly. ‘As the human body adapts to a protein-poorer diet, and a more arduous lifestyle there is certainly a change in skeletal size, in the robustness of the physique. I have seen that in many sites.’
‘So. Early domestication is a trial. Likewise, newly-domesticated animals get scrawnier.’
‘Yes.’
‘But…’ Rob leaned forward. ‘When this domestication happened, in 8000 BC, that was also the time when the local landscape began to alter. Around here. Right?’
‘Yes, the trees were chopped down and the soil leached away and the area became very arid. As it is now. Whereas before, it was…paradisiacal.’ She smiled meditatively. ‘I remember Franz talking about Gobekli as it must have been. He said it was once a prachtvolle Schafferegion-a glorious pastoral region. It was a region of forests and meadows, rich with game, and wild grasses. And then the climate changed, as agriculture took over. And then it became a weary place-that had to be worked ever harder.’
Rob took out his notebook and recited, ‘As God says to Adam: “cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life”. Genesis Chapter 3, verse 17. Three seventeen.’
Christine rubbed her temples with her fingertips. She looked tired, which was unusual for her. But then she shook herself, and pressed on. ‘I have heard this theory before: that the story of Eden is a folk-memory, and an allegory.’
‘You mean, like, a metaphor?’
‘According to some, yes. If you look at it one way the Eden story describes our hunter-gatherer past, when we had time to wander through the trees and pick fruit and gather wild grasses…like Adam and Eve, naked in paradise. And then we fell into farming and life got harder. And so we were expelled from Eden.’
Rob looked at two men holding hands, crossing the bridge over the little rivulet; the bridge that led to the teahouse. ‘But why did we really start farming?’
Christine shrugged. ‘No one knows. It is one of the great mysteries. But it certainly started here. In this corner of Anatolia. The very first pigs were domesticated at Cayonu, that’s just seventy miles away. Cattle were domesticated at Catalhoyuk, to the west.’
‘But how does Gobekli fit in precisely?’
‘That’s a difficult one. It’s a miracle that hunters created such a site. Yet it shows that the life before farming was very leisured. These men, those hunters, they had time to learn the arts, to sculpt, to make exquisite carvings. It was a huge leap forward. Yet they didn’t know how to make pots.’ Christine’s silver crucifix glinted in the sunshine as she spoke. ‘It’s bizarre. And of course sexuality developed, too. There are many erotic images in Gobekli. Animals and men with enlarged phalluses. Carvings of women, splayed and naked women…’
‘Maybe they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge’? said Rob.
Christine smiled politely. ‘Maybe.’
They were quiet for a moment. Christine turned nervously to her left, as a swarthy policeman patrolled with his radio buzzing. Rob wondered why they were both so paranoid. Neither of them had done anything wrong. But Officer Kiribali had been so sinister. And what about the men staring up at the flat. What was that all about? He dismissed his fears. There was still ground to cover. ’Then there’s the geography?’
‘Yes.’ Christine nodded. ‘The topography. That’s also important.’
‘There aren’t four rivers near Gobekli.’
‘No. Just one. But it’s the Euphrates.’
Rob remembered what he had read in the net café. ‘And scholars have always reckoned that Eden, if it lay anywhere, must have been somewhere between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The fertile crescent. The earliest site of civilization. And the Euphrates is actually mentioned in Genesis, as rising in Eden.’
‘It is. And also we have the mountains on the map.’
‘The Taurus.’
‘Source of the Euphrates, East of Eden,’ Christine affirmed. ‘There are strong legends that Eden is sheltered by mountains to the East. Gobekli has the Taurus to the east.’
Christine took out her own notebook: and read out some of her notes. ‘OK, there’s more. In ancient Assyrian texts, there is mention of a Beth Eden, a so-called House of Eden.’
‘Which is?
‘It is or rather it was a small Aramean statelet. Located on the bend of the Euphrates, just south of Charchemish. Which is fifty miles from Sanliurfa.’
Rob nodded, impressed. Christine’s research had been better than his. ‘Did you find anything else?’
‘We know about Adam and Eve in Haran. But Eden isn’t just described in Genesis, it is also mentioned in the Book of Kings.’ She flicked a page in her notebook, and read the citation: ‘“Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezaph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar.”’
‘Haran again?’
‘Yes. Haran.’ She shrugged. ‘And Thelasar is possibly a town called Rusafah in Northern Syria.’
‘How far is that?’
‘Two hundred miles south-west.’
Rob nodded, enthused. ‘Making Gobekli just east. Eastward in Eden. And what about the name? The word Eden itself? It means delight in Hebrew…’
‘But the Sumerian root is in fact “eddin”. A steppe or plateau, or plain.’
‘Like…the Plain of Haran?’
‘Quite so. Like the Plain of Haran. In which we find…’
‘Gobekli Tepe.’ Rob felt the tingle of sweat on his back. It was a very hot morning, even in the cool of the teahouse gardens. ‘OK then, the last thread is the actual Bible connection.’
‘Abraham was meant to have lived here. He is certainly linked to Haran, in the Book of Genesis. Most Muslims believe Urfa is the Ur of the Chaldees. And that is also mentioned in Genesis. This small region has more links to Genesis than anywhere else in the Middle East.’
‘So that’s it.’ Rob smiled, feeling satisfied. ’Taking into account the Biblical links, the history and legends, plus the topography of the region and the evidence of early domestication-and of course the data from the site itself-we have the solution. Right? At least we have Franz’s solution…’ Rob lifted his hands, like a magician about to do a trick: ‘Gobekli Tepe is the Garden of Eden!’
Christine smiled. ‘Metaphorically.’
‘Metaphorically. But still, it is persuasive. This is where the Fall of Man took place. From the freedom of hunting, to the toil of agriculture. And that’s the story recorded in Genesis.’
They were silent for a moment. Then Christine said, ‘Though a better way of putting it is that Gobekli Tepe is…a temple in an Edenic landscape. Rather than the actual Garden of Eden.’
‘Sure.’ Rob grinned. ‘Don’t worry, Christine, I don’t actually think Adam and Eve were wandering around Gobekli eating peaches. But I do think Franz reckoned he had found it. Allegorically.’
He gazed across the glittering pools, feeling a lot happier. Talking it through was helping; and he was also very excited about the journalistic possibilities. Even if it was a bizarre story it was astonishing, and surely very readable. A scientist who thought he was digging up Eden, even metaphorically and allegorically? It could be a double page headline. Easy.
Christine did not seem so happy about the success of their hypothesis. Her eyes misted for a second: a phase of emotion that swiftly passed. ‘Yyessss…Let’s say you are right. You probably are. It certainly explains the numbers. And his mysterious behaviour at the end, digging for things
at night. Taking them away. He must have been very excited. He was very jumpy just before…just before it happened.’
Her mood touched Rob; he chided himself. Here he was thinking about his work and yet there was still a murder unsolved.
Christine was frowning. ‘There’s still many questions left.’
‘Why did they kill him?’
‘Exactly.’
Rob wondered aloud. ‘Well, heck. Maybe…maybe some American evangelists found out what he was up to. Digging up Eden, I mean.’
Christine laughed. ‘And they hired a hitman? Right. Those Methodists can be so touchy.’
There was nothing left in her tea glass. She picked it up and put it down, then said, ‘Another problem is this: why did the hunters bury Gobekli? That’s not explained by the Eden theory. It must have taken them decades to inter an entire temple. Why do that?’
Rob looked up at the blue Urfan sky for inspiration. ‘Because it was the site of the Fall? Maybe it symbolized even at that early stage the error of mankind. Falling into farming. The beginning of wage slavery. So they hid it out of shame or anger or resentment or…’
Christine made a rather unimpressed pout.
‘OK.’ Rob smiled. ‘It’s a crap theory. But why did they do it?’
A shrug. ‘C’est un mystère.’
Another silence fell across their little table. A few yards away, through the rose bushes, little children were pointing excitedly at the fish in the pond. Rob looked at one girl: she was about eleven, with bright golden curls of hair. But her mother was shrouded in black veils and robes: a full chador. He felt a sadness: that soon this lovely girl would be concealed like her mother. Shrouded for ever in black.
And then a flash of real guilt crossed his mind. A flash of guilt about his daughter. On the one hand he was revelling in this mystery-and yet, inside, he still wanted to go home. He yearned to go home. To see Lizzie.
Christine was opening Breitner’s notebook, and laying it on the table alongside her own notes. Shadows of sunlight, spangled by the teahouse lime trees, flickered across their little table. ‘One final point. There is something I didn’t tell you before. Remember the last line in his notebook?’ She pointed to a line of handwriting, turning the notebook so that Rob could see.
It was the line about the skull. It said, Cayonu skulls, cf Orra Keller.
‘I didn’t mention it before because it was so confusing. It didn’t seem relevant. But now…Well, take a look. I have an idea…’
He bent to read: but the line remained incomprehensible. ‘But who is Orra Keller?’
‘It’s not a name!’ said Christine. ‘We just presumed it was a name because it’s in capitals. But I think Franz was just mixing languages.’
‘I still don’t get it.’
‘He’s mixing English and German. And…’
Rob looked over Christine’s shoulder suddenly. ’Jesus.’
Christine stiffened. ‘What?’
‘Don’t look now. It’s Officer Kiribali. He’s seen us, and he’s coming over.’
23
Kiribali appeared to be alone, though Rob could still see the parked police car, silent and waiting, at the edge of the Golbasi Gardens.
The Turkish detective was in another smart suit; this time of cream linen. He was wearing a very British tie, striped green and blue. As he crossed the little bridge and approached their table, his smile was wide and saurian. ‘Good morning. My constables told me you were here.’ He leaned and kissed Christine’s hand, pulled up a chair. Then he turned to a hovering waiter and his demeanour changed: from obsequious to domineering. ‘Lokoum!’ The waiter winced, fearfully, and nodded. Kiribali smiled across the table. ‘I have ordered some Turkish delight! You must try it here in Golbasi. The best in Sanliurfa. Real Turkish delight is quite something. You know of course the story of its invention?’
Rob said no. This seemed to please Kiribali: who sat forward, pressing his manicured hands flat on the tablecloth. ‘The story is that an Ottoman sheikh was tired of his arguing wives. His harem was in disorder. So the sheikh asked the court confectioner to come up with a sweetmeat so pleasing it would silence the women.’ Kiribali sat back as the waiter set a plate of the sugar-floured sweets on the table. ‘It worked. The wives were placated by the Turkish delight and serenity returned to the harem. However the concubines became so fat on these calorific delights that the sheikh was rendered impotent in their company. So…the sheikh had the confectioner castrated.’ Kiribali laughed loudly at his own story, picked up the plate and offered it to Christine.
Rob felt, not for the first time, a strange ambivalence about Kiribali. The policeman was charming, but there was a very menacing element to him, too. His shirt was just too clean; the tie just too British, the eloquence too studied, and deft. Yet he was obviously very clever. Rob wondered if Kiribali was close to any solution: to Breitner’s murder.
The Turkish delight was delicious. Kiribali was regaling them again: ‘You have read the Narnia books.’
Christine nodded; Kiribali continued:
‘Surely the most famous literary reference to Turkish delight. When the Snow Queen offers the sweetmeats…’
‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?’
‘Indeed!’ Kiribali chortled, then sipped piously at his glass thimble of tea. ‘I often wonder why the British are so adept at children’s literature. It is a peculiar gift of the island race.’
‘Compared to Americans you mean?’
‘Compared to anyone, Mr Luttrell. Consider. The most famous stories for children. Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter, Roald Dahl. Tolkien. Even the vile Harry Potter. All British.’
A welcome breeze was stealing over the Golbasi rosebushes. Kiribali averred: ‘I think it is because the British are not afraid to scare children. And children love to be scared. Some of the greatest children’s stories are truly macabre, wouldn’t you say? A psychotic hatmaker poisoned by mercury. A reclusive chocolatier who employs miniature negroes.’
Rob raised a hand. ‘Officer Kiribali—’
‘Yes?’
‘Is there any particular reason you have come here to talk to us?’
The policeman wiped his feminine lips with a fresh corner of napkin. ‘I want you to leave. Both of you. Now.’
Christine was defiant. ‘Why?’
‘For your own sake. Because you are getting into things you do not understand. This is…’ Kiribali wafted a hand at the cliffs behind them, a gesture that took in the citadel, the two Corinthian columns at the top, the dark caves underneath. ‘This is such an ancient place. There are too many secrets here. Dark anxieties, which you cannot comprehend. The more you are involved, the more dangerous it will be.’
Christine shook her head. ‘I’m not going to be chased away.’
Kiribali scowled. ‘You are very foolish people. You are used to…to Starbucks and…laptops and…sofabeds. To comfortable lives. This is the ancient east. It is beyond your comprehension.’
‘But you said you may want to question us—’
‘You are not suspects!’ The detective was scowling. ‘I have no need for you.’
Christine was unabashed. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be ordered about. Not by you, not by anyone.’
Kiribali turned to Rob. ‘Then I must appeal to masculine logic. We know how women are…’
Christine sat up. ‘I want to know what’s in the vault. The museum!’
This outburst silenced the Turkish detective. An unusual and confused expression came over his face. Then his frown darkened. He glanced around as if he was expecting a friend to join them. But the café terrace was empty. Just a couple of fat besuited men were left, smoking shishas in a shady corner. They stared languidly at Rob, and smiled.
Kiribali stood up. Abruptly. He took some Turkish lire from a handsome leather wallet, and set the cash very carefully on the tablecloth. ‘I’ll say this quite clearly, so you understand. You were spotted breaking into the site, at Gobekli Tepe. Last w
eek.’
Apprehension shivered through Rob. If Kiribali knew this, then they were in trouble.
The Turk went on. ‘I have friends in the Kurdish villages.’
Christine tried to explain. ‘We were just looking for—’
‘You were just looking for the Devil. A Jewess should know better.’
Kiribali said the word Jewess with such sibilance that Rob got the impression of a snake: hissing.
‘My forbearance…is not infinite. If you do not leave Sanliurfa by tomorrow you will find yourself in a Turkish prison cell. There you may discover that some of my colleagues in the judicial process of the Ataturk Republic do not share my humanitarian attitude to your wellbeing.’ He smiled at them in the most insincere way possible, and then he was gone, brushing past the fat pink roses, which nodded, and shed a few scarlet petals.
For a minute Rob and Christine sat there. Rob felt the imminence of trouble: he could almost hear warning klaxons going off. What were they getting into? It was a good journalistic story, but was it worth real danger? The train of thought led Rob, reflexively, back to Iraq. Now he was remembering the suicide bomber in Baghdad. He could still see the woman’s face. The bomber was a beautiful young woman, with dark long hair; and bright scarlet, lushly lipsticked lips. A suicide bomber in lipstick. And then she’d smiled at him, almost seductively: as she reached for her switch to kill them all.
Rob shuddered at the recollection. Yet this awful memory also gave him a kind of resolve: he’d had enough of being threatened. Of being chased away. Maybe this time he should stay, and get beyond the fears?
Christine was certainly undivided. ‘I’m not leaving.’
‘He will arrest us.’
‘For what? Driving at night?’
‘We broke into the dig.’
‘He can’t sling us in jail for that. It’s a total bluff.’
Rob demurred, ‘I’m really not so sure. I…dunno…’
‘But he’s so effete, surely? It’s just a game—’
‘Effete? Kiribali?’ Rob shook his head, firmly. ’No, he’s not that. I did a little research on him. Asked around. He’s respected, even feared. They say he’s an expert shot. He’s not a good enemy to have.’