The presence of these features indicates that the natural water availability of the hilltop location was insufficient for the populations gathering there, requiring deliberate engineering to supplement it.

This is consistent with the site’s hilltop position, which would not have had the natural springs or perennial streams of valley locations.

The large quantities of animal bones from the site represent the hunting pressure exerted on the regional fauna by the gatherings.

If thousands of animals were killed and processed at the site over decades or centuries, that hunting pressure would have reduced local game populations and may have contributed to the documented shifts in faunal composition visible in the archaeological record of the region over this period.

The relationship between intensive hunting at aggregation sites like Göbekli Tepe and the eventual domestication of some prey species is an intriguing possibility that some researchers have explored.