LINE OF WOODEN POLES – EARLY 3RD MILLENNIUM BCE

The first vertical structure to appear in the area consisted of a line of wooden poles, which is not rare in places of sacred and religious importance. In the northeastern corner of the site a line of 24 poles was found running along the north-east/south-west axis, whose holes remain today. At the bottom of these holes, which are very close together, there were the remains of burnt wood and, in some cases, fragments of horns and burnt bovine skulls. It it likely that such formations indicated precise ritual paths and that these same poles, substituted over time, bore marks or sculptures related to worship. Moreover, this sort of prehistoric “colonnade” brought with it a new development: humans had started to pray, and these prayers were addressed to physical simulacrums which occupied an important physical space.