Arther & Ayse’s Gobeklitepe Adventure 043/048

Text p.043 Image p.044

Graham Hancock has referred to the handbags as man bags. The man bag motifs are particularly fascinating because similar designs appear in other parts of the world such as at La Venta, a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. “Do you like a spot of Tabasco?” The word made Arther think to ask. “Oh yes, in the right moment with the appropriate consumable,” replied Ayşe, “a T-steak perhaps. Ho ho, that’s a T-joke… or, how about tomato juice, lemon juice, dashes of Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce, a pinch of Celtic Sea Salt, pinch of black pepper, some cubed ice and vodka? A Bloody Mary!” Anyway, back to man bags and Fish Gods…

Text p.045 Image p.046

… so, another example of the man bag motif in another part of the world is the Babylonian Fish God. A random search result: Dagon was the chief deity of the Philistines. According to ancient mythology, Dagon was the father of Baal. He was the fish god (dag from dag-on, in Hebrew, apparently means ‘fish’), and he was represented as half-man, half-fish. There is a belief that both men and fish had evolved together from the primal waters. Dagon may also have been the provider of grain and personified natural forces that had supposedly produced all things. Grain and wheat is another element in the theories surrounding Göbeklitepe. For the record, dağ, with a silent ‘g’ and which sounds like dah in English, means mountain in Turkish. Should fish god be spelt with an F and a G? Goodness knows. Is it a handbag, a basket, a man bag or some kind of other bag? Or not a bag at all? But, these similar looking items do come from different continents and infer a common link or theme. I don’t fancy wearing a fish skin suit, though I suppose it’s not much different to wearing leather, so long as the material is properly treated, and hey, whatever floats yer boat!

Text p.047 Image p.048

Arther was amused. “The Göbeklitepe Man Bag! Vakko could sell them!” he declared, “they could use the H symbol to denote the Göbeklitepe Handbag brand.” Vakko is a posh Turkish retail outlet specialising in fashion and accessories. We’ll look at the Göbeklitepe H motif later. With her tongue in her cheek, Ayşe wondered, “Are you supposed to say man bag on social media? It’s a bit non gender fluid isn’t it? Not very non-binary.” “Bollix to all that gender and identity political correctness,” responded Arther pointedly. Ayşe raised her eyebrows, “You can’t say bollix on social media!” “I just did. Anyway, I bet Roddy Doyle can say bollix on social media. He says it all the time in his bollix trilogy.” “You mean his Barrytown Trilogy? You could try a little tenderness… Take me to the river…” and Ayşe almost began to break into song, “… and wash me down… Won’t you cleanse my soul, put my feet on the ground…” Ayşe paused for thought. “Audio phonetics are peculiar; in that a person might complain of being offended by one or more words. It is bemusing how often people relinquish their energy to someone else’s thoughts and words. If you take offense at a word, you are merely taking the choice to become a victim, it would seem to me at least. Stick and stones may break thy bones, but words will never hurt…” Arther was still thinking man bags. Ayşe continued her philosophical train of thought, “So few people have any understanding or awareness or concept of Natural Law; not a written law, but a pure, simple innate knowing of correct or incorrect, right or wrong, love over fear.” Arther looked back at her. “All I said was bollix…, but I agree, gender and identity politics are Tavistock Institute constructs infesting our communities, so bollix to all that tosh and nonsense.”

To be continued….
Arther & Ayse’s Gobeklitepe Adventure on Tap Blog. A spontaneous social media story experiment originally tested on FakeBook 19 November 2017. Gobeklitepe is an ancient megalith site on the Turkish-Syrian border said to be at least 11,600 years old. Is it just a bunch of old stones stood in Turkish soil or a game changer for a myriad of reasons? This story aims to explore the possible implications and touch upon issues and subject matter posted about on Tap Blog.