The Anatolians were Indo-European-speaking peoples of the Anatolian Peninsula in present-day Turkey, identified by their use of the Anatolian languages.

The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is located on the south side of Ankara Castle in Ankara, Turkey.

Within this Ottoman building, the museum has a number of exhibits of Anatolian archeology. They start with the Paleolithic era, and continue chronologically through the Neolithic, Early Bronze, Assyrian trading colonies, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuq and Ottoman periods.[1]

Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, which ran through the historic Silk Road trading route. Century after century, the area was raided and invaded by a who's who of European empire builders. The Hittites, the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Ottomans all laid claim to the land at one time or another.

Various animal depictions can be seen on the replicas of T-shaped obelisks that are on the display in the museum.  Along with  animal figures such as wild ducks, a strong male wild boars, foxes, cranes, vultures, bald ibis birds, scorpions, snakes, lions, there are headless human figures as well as geometric patterns and network motifs reliefs on the obelisks. Only male animals are  depicted on the obelisks.  The richness of animal figures indicates the important role held by animals in the spiritual world of Gobekli Tepe society.

The female figurine, which has been associated with both agricultural and human fertility because of her huge breasts and wide hips, is depicted sitting between two leopards, suggesting a strong social persona.  

1. Turkey’s ‘Fairy Chimneys’ Were Millions of Years in the Making