The statistics of pattern matching The whole basis of our interpretation of Gobekli Tepe rests on the interpretation of Pillar 43, and our interpretation of Pillar 43 rests entirely on our statistical analysis. So, this is the most important aspect of our work. However, the statistical analysis of the patterns on Pillar 43 is a little complicated. Unless you are familiar with handling the statistics of configurations of objects, as I am, and with pattern matching, you might not understand the justification we provided in our Fox paper. Therefore, rather than rushing straight into the statistical analysis of Pillar 43, it will probably be useful to set out some key ideas. To do this I’ll take you through a series of examples that contain the core ideas, gradually increasing their complexity until we reach a level sufficient to analyse Pillar 43. You might want to think of this as a training exercise. But hopefully you’ll find it interesting and not too cumbersome. Training