The libidinous/parturient woman in the Göbekli Tepe engraving has a phallic body-shape

The mushroom-shaped head of the only female depiction discovered at Göbekli Tepe (G.T 00.11; PPNB, 9th mill. BCE) imparts a phallic body-shape to the sexually excited or birth-giving woman, endowing her with the attributes of both sexes. This raises the well-known phallocentrism of Göbekli Tepe to an even higher level. Later embodiments of the "phallic female" paradigm from Anatolia include a stone figurine from Çatalhöyük (Chalcolithic, 6th mill. BCE), a terracotta one from Canhasan (5th mill. BCE) and the alabaster idols from Kültepe (EBA II-III, 3rd mill. BCE); from slightly further east one can include the terracotta Amlash figurines from northwestern Iran (Iron Age, 1st mill. BCE). The dual-gendered "visual pun" enjoys a global distribution; independent embodiments of the concept are known from five continents, some from as early as the 26th millennium BCE. As an aside, the ancient and widespread belief in the maleness of bones could transform the Çatalhöyük "Life and Death" figurine (12401.X7) into another procreation-focused amalgam of maleness and femaleness. The male/bone equivalence could also explain the partial skeletonisation of male human and animal representations at Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe.