Like the coronavirus, monoliths refuse to be left behind in 2020.
The discovery of a mysterious new metal plate in Turkey on Friday was a setback to a momentary craze from the old days of November and December. At that time, a shiny metal monolith appeared in the Utah desert without explanation, followed by copies from California to Romania.
Perhaps art projects or perhaps the manifestation of boredom induced by a pandemic, the monoliths captured the world’s attention for a fleeting moment. It is not yet known who created many of them, or why they were created, but they largely disappeared from cultural relevance as the world focused on other things, like the presidential transition, a coup in Myanmar or the Netflix show “ Bridgerton ”.
But the last monolith has something that its predecessors did not have: armed guards.
Military police have launched an investigation to identify the people who planted the monolith in the rural area of Sanliurfa, a province in southeastern Turkey, according to DHA, a local news agency. The military police and village guards – government-paid civilians who work with the military police – have been watching the investigation unfold, protecting the monolith from any threats, the DHA said.
Also unlike the previous monoliths, this one has an inscription. In the Gokturk alphabet, an ancient Turkish language, it is written: “Look at the sky, see the moon.”
The monolith, which measures about 3 meters in height and overlooks a field of wheat and olive trees, was discovered on Friday by the owner of the field, the DHA said. The field is not far from Gobekli Tepe, an archaeological excavation site under UNESCO protection. Gobekli Tepe is the setting for “The Gift”, a Turkish television series whose second season started to air on Netflix last year.
Curious citizens flocked to the area to see the monolith; a couple came from Edirne, more than 1,400 kilometers away.
To speculate about the reasons for its creators would be crazy. In the case of at least two previous monoliths, groups came forward to claim responsibility, including a group of four artist-makers who said they created one in California as “a piece of guerrilla art”. Theories abound about the roots of other monoliths, from art to the supernatural.
And they are easy to create so that those with the will and a little bit of expert cunning can make one on their own.