Göbekli Tepe and the Taş Tepeler Network: Functional Analysis of the World's Oldest Known Institutional Symbolic System

This document establishes priority over the functional decipherment of the symbolic system encoded at Göbekli Tepe and its sister sites in the Taş Tepeler network of southeastern Turkey (9,600–8,000 BCE). Nine principal findings are presented: the identification of a portable four-component institutional grammar operating across the central pillar pairs of all confirmed Taş Tepeler sites; a two-component symbolic system comprising a locked grammar layer and a free lexical layer; the per-enclosure dominant animal pattern identifying different enclosures as records of different participating communities; the fox as the probable unit of account supported by matched symbolic and zooarchaeological frequency; the symbolic/faunal mismatch as structural evidence for a commercial ledger interpretation; cross-site portability of the formula confirmed at Nevali Çori, Karahan Tepe, Harbetsuvan Tepesi, and Sayburç; variable identity parameter across sites with invariant frame; the Sayburç bench narrative as a format bridge between the compressed Göbekli Tepe notation and its explicit functional content; and Layer II simplification as procedural refinement. The Taş Tepeler enclosure network is proposed as the world's earliest documented system of inter-community institutional authority over animal-based commerce and exchange, predating Mesopotamian administrative writing by more than four thousand years. Full methodology withheld pending peer-reviewed publication. SHA-256 hash of the complete private technical record: 0da7ca6432568bef4b1d03c3708b1bed625654ba14dbf5fbee726e1c77664cf3. This work extends Molina (2026a–f), structural analyses of Mycenaean Linear B, the Phaistos Disc, Proto-Elamite, Neo-Assyrian administrative tablets, the Indus Valley script, Meroitic, and the Voynich Manuscript, all produced using the Molina Methodology.