I am at a disadvantage discussing Greco-Roman, Egyptian, etc because all of my research has been focused on the Americas. It is only recently that I noticed the similarity between the American and the ancient pre-Christian cultures. The animists here also make sacrifices of animals to the spirits. I agree with your statement about the cosmological whole. On the other hand most of the cultures you mentioned are not as old as Tepe. It may be a mistake to correlate them with later civilizations in terms of their cosmological beliefs. I tend to think that many of the cosmological concepts among the Native Americans were part of the sign language tradition –in other words brought with them to the Americas over 12,000 years ago. Of course, it would be a mammoth undertaking to attempt to trace the actual roots of sign language.

As far as the Aztecs and even Maya were concerned I have found no sign language reference to gods, only nature spirits and the spirits of their deceased. The Aztec and Maya “temples” were not like Greek temples but rather artificial mountains that replicated earlier natural mountain sites in the lowlands and plains where the larger populations were centered. Also much of the information we have about these cultures has been filtered through the Spanish conquering groups that had a vested interest in portraying a negative image of the Native American. There really was not much interest in Native American cosmology but more an interest in destroying it whatever it was. Perhaps some of this also happened in Europe as the Christians toppled the pagan cultures.

The Mayans, Aztecs and others did bury their “temples” at certain times to begin a new time cycle over the earlier temples. I don’t know if this applies to Tepe and if so there may have been some event that prevented them from rebuilding.

I am not sure I understand your comments about the Taulas. I did a search and did not find any that were not “T” shaped. I did find a few where the top slabs were beveled. In sign language the bevel would relate to a compounding of signs (such bevels are found in the Native American signs also). The rectangle would indicate a horizontal-place and the bevels, on-its-sides. This was usually a reference to the edges or sides of the earth. To me it is significant that the one image of arms and hands that I have seen had the arm diagonally across the flat surface of the lower stone while the hand was on the edge or corner of the stone. The meaning would be, the warrior-priest (his spirit) on the side of the earth. This was usually a reference to the warrior-star, Venus. I am not saying here that the Tepe “T” stones were based in sign language but just that there are many similarities that need further investigation. Sign language does offer some hope of obtaining a greater understanding of prehistoric thought.

Regarding the hands and arms, I have a paper on the meaning of the severed legs and feet found in Moche pottery depictions. In this paper I also show ceramic models of severed legs and feet as well as arms and hands. This tends to demonstrate that such depictions were actually words and phrases and not just a morbid interest in severed body parts.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/92308710/Moche-Depictions-of-Severed-Limbs

We know that ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans, Celts, Germanics, Sumerians, non-Jewish Semites… had gods within specific albeit eclectic mythological frames to whom they built temples, made sacrifices of animals or even some times even people, prayed to or asked for oracular advice, and who constituted as a whole a cosmological frame that generally gave imaginary meaning to their lives and societies.

You can’t deny that.

Even in America, many native peoples like the Aztecs had gods, temples, priests and sacrifices.

“If an arm was attached to the hand this would indicate a warrior-priest.”

Not sure if it means what you claim but the hands have carved arms for what I have seen and that’s about all the anthropomorphic they get.

“There were several forms of crosses in Native American signs. Whether one saw a cross as vertical or horizontal would have depended on other related signs that served as topographical cues”.

This I take as interesting because it might be the case also in the West (although I can’t be sure). Early religions, specially those with apparent roots in West Asia, were often chthonic or had retained a major role for chthonic deities (although in general I get the impression that sky, “heavenly”, deities were replacing them overall by historical times, as you can for example perceive in the Kronos-Zeus change, ).

It could also make good sense burying a temple (as happened with the various avatars of GT) as offering to the chthonic gods.

“In regard to the similarity of the table you describe would it not depend on how they were viewed? If the flat table design was viewed from the side a “T” shape would still be in evidence. If viewed from the top it would be either a square or a rectangle”.

The taulas? Make an image search (enough online images to satisfy your curiosity) and let the facts answer your doubt (you always see it from the sides, or the bottom because they are quite tall, never the top). The concept is the most similar I’ve ever seen to GT designs however they are separated by many many thousand years and the whole length of the Mediterranean with nothing in between, so it may be a conceptual resurfacing or a mere coincidence (or a mix of both).

There were several forms of crosses in Native American signs. Whether one saw a cross as vertical or horizontal would have depended on other related signs that served as topographical cues. Sign language was very sophisticated and based on a different spatial assumptions as opposed to today’s linear alphabets. Because many groups had utilized sign language both in terms of gesture signs and drawn signs many different cultures understood its principles. Therefore the appearance of the same or similar signs across widely separated geographic regions does not mean direct contact between their cultures. There were thousands of years available to the different cultures to communicate with each other and stabilize the meaning of the signs. If this were not the case sign language would have become useless as a means of communication and trade for those cultures speaking different languages.

In regard to the similarity of the table you describe would it not depend on how they were viewed? If the flat table design was viewed from the side a “T” shape would still be in evidence. If viewed from the top it would be either a square or a rectangle.

Could you conciliate your view with this one?

Also I recognize in your T meaning underground theory a very Native American interpretation of the symbol of the cross, which is perceived as vertical (the horizontal bar is the soil and the vertical bar the rain, right?). However in West Eurasian pre-Christian conception, the cross, I understand rather tends to mean the four cardinal points and is perceived as horizontal and representing Earth and matter, so maybe both meanings can’t be conciliated.

…

As an apart I’d like to mention, as I don’t believe anybody has mentioned, that the other place where similar T shaped pillars exist is in the two main Balearic islands in the Iron Age period. They are known nowadays as “taulas” (tables) and the main difference is that the horizontal pillar is placed flat (hence the similitude with a gigantic table of sorts). No apparent connection exists across so many millennia and kilometers but I find the similitude intriguing in any case.

A famous one is the Taula of Torralba, which has an uncanny resemblance to other megalithic sites like GT itself, with smaller pillars around and what not:

http://www.turismohispania.com/islas-baleares/menorca-una-cultura-megalitica-unica/