number of cup marks merging them into one and then continuing the process downwards this doesn't mean that every cut mark we see was related to water some circular holes in the bedrock could have been for the placement of wood therefore having a structural purpose some of them may have also been for planting a specific crop i imagine that some of the cup marks were also prospective simply dug to check whether or not the bedrock was suitable for a basin maybe in the process of making cut marks workers did come across defects in the bedrock and that's why we find these bizarre accumulations today they could well be unfinished simply because there was no need to finish them because the ground was unusable maybe that is why we often find finnish basins close to an accumulation of cut marks because the workers were selecting the best location with the least chance of defective bedrock and hence no chance of leakage this may well be the case at carahan tepe because the entire bedrock outcrop that's next to the main enclosure is covered with cut marks no doubt testing the rock to help select the best place to build the largest important basins as well as the smaller basins we also see at carahan tepe i would recommend watching back my video with the drone footage from carahan tepe because it shows the bedrock cut marks very well i've linked this below in the description those with a good knowledge of gobekli tepe may well ask why then do some of the t-shaped pillars also have cup marks on the top well it is a good question and there is no clear and obvious answer it is thought by some that these cut marks on the pillars were actually done at a much later date after the circular enclosures were buried and decommissioned it's believed the enclosures were covered with soil rubble and boulders right up to the tops of the pillars meaning the top of each pillar was at the level of the new ground surface the same people that covered the enclosures may well have added the cut marks to the pillars to mark their positions so they could easily be found in the future such an idea isn't actually as strange as it sounds after analyzing the pillared basin at carahan tepe archaeologists noted that filling the enclosure was a careful process as it was filled large stones were placed on top of the bedrock pillars so they could be located easily at the surface and also to stop possible damage if the site was re-excavated in the future when the fill was close to completion large flat slabs of rock were placed on top precisely outlining the enclosure so again it could be located in the future at gobekli tepe if ancient people were going to recommission a site to uncover a field enclosure they would have found a mass of limestone rocks boulders and rubble but the rocks that contained cup marks would stand out and people would know they'd come across the pillars of the enclosure alternatively maybe the people that made the cup marks on the pillars had maybe seen the older cup marks on the hillside and believed it was some kind of art or ritualistic act by their ancestors and so they did the same thing on the tops of pillars i actually think the answer is far more straightforward and i think many of the strange anomalies we see at these sites do become clearer when we accept that each enclosure once had a
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