Small portable image bearing objects from Göbekli Tepe

The iconography found on the T-shaped pillars can also be seen on numerous small portable objects commonly referred to as shaft-straighteners or plaques. Shaft straighteners are small portable objects that may have been used for straightening the organic shafts of stone (lithic) tools. The depictions applied to these pieces suggest that these objects might also have had a symbolic function. In the Neolithic, shaft-straighteners and plaques may have been exchanged between different hunter gatherer groups. The depictions could have served to highlight the common or shared narratives of these communities.