The picture that emerges from careful stratigraphic analysis is one of active use, periodic renovation and modification, and eventual covering — not necessarily a single dramatic ritual act but a more gradual process of architectural transformation over time.

The analogy to historical traditions in which older sacred buildings are incorporated into new construction, with the older structures sometimes deliberately preserved beneath or within the new, is instructive even if it cannot be directly confirmed.

What is clearly not supported by the evidence is the more dramatic version of the story, in which all of Göbekli Tepe was deliberately buried in one coordinated act motivated by a specific known religious rationale.

The backfilling was real.