Çatalhöyük -- Urban Life in Neolithic Anatolia

[shaarona]

http://archaeology.about.com/cs/religionandmagic/a/catalhoyuk.htm

On the yellow plains of central Anatolia lie the remains of one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Called Çatalhöyük (which has been spelled Catal Hoyuk, Catal Huyuk, and many other ways), the site ruins represent a village of 300 mud brick and plaster residences, one of the earliest villages found to date. The site was occupied from about 6300-5500 BC, and its most striking and famous feature are the shrines, shrines dedicated to what has been called the "Mother Goddess."

Excavations at Çatalhöyük
Excavations at the site were first carried out in the 1960s, by James Mellaart (http://archaeology.about.com/library/glossary/bldef_mellaartj.htm). Mellaart described a closely packed urban settlement, lacking streets.

The residences were accessed through the roof, into main rooms, each about 20x13 ft (6x4 m). The floors of the rooms were lime-plastered, and covered with reed mats. The walls of the main rooms were painted with red-colored panels, touched up over time. Built-in benches and platforms lined the walls; small niches and ovens were carved into them.

Indoor grain bins were associated with some of the residences. Figurines were recovered from several of these seemingly utilitarian rooms. Non-utilitarian rooms were also present; they are apparently shrines. Elaborate wall paintings, and displays of objects including decorated animal skulls were found in these rooms.

continued.

These ancient people seem to have been on the cusp of the move from hunter gatherers and agriculture.... and considered "pre pottery" neolithic.

Their burial customs are interesting.

[shaarona]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Catal_H%C3%BCy%C3%BCk_Restauration_B.JPG/200px-Catal_H%C3%BCy%C3%BCk_Restauration_B.JPG Underground home.


Burial CustomsBurial customs for the peoples of Çatalhöyükwere clearly secondary; that is, the bodies were left in the open for a time, and then the bones were bundled and placed beneath the floors of the sleeping chambers. Only rarely were personal items interred with the individuals, yellow ochre stains and personal jewelry were in evidence, but little more.
Stone tools at Çatalhöyük include delicately chipped arrow points, spearheads, and daggers; ground stone tools included mortars, pestles, querns, axes, adzes (http://archaeology.about.com/od/aterms/g/adze.htm) and the like. Bone tools have been recovered from the site as well, including awls, needles, hairpins, knife handles; wooden bowls and woven baskets have also been recovered. Ceramic vessels have been recovered from all levels.

Most remarkable of all are the figurines from Çatalhöyük. Women predominate as the subjects of the art, but cattle, goats and other animal figurines are not uncommon.

[truthmatters]

thanks, a cool read

[Peter1469]

http://atlasobscura.com/place/gobekli-tepe

This place is almost twice as old.

[shaarona]

thanks, a cool read

The roof tops of their houses served as sidewalk and "patios".. I think it very clever... as they would have been cool in summer and relatively safe from intruders or animals.

[truthmatters]

and not veiwed from a distance

[shaarona]

http://atlasobscura.com/place/gobekli-tepe

This place is almost twice as old.

Yes.. at 11,000 years old.. It really is closer to the hunter-gatherer transition... and the dates line up with the ancient storage granaries discovered near the Dead Sea.

"The site dates back 11,500 years, to the tail end of the Stone Age. The predominant understanding was that during this time, hunter-gatherers roamed the Earth, never settling, living as each day came. The huge Gobekli Tepe complex, however, brings this view into question. It consists of large, T-shaped pillars with animal carvings, huge stone rings, and a vast amount of rectangular rooms, many believed to have religious importance.

One theory is that this site was not used for domestic purposes, but for rituals and sacrifices and the site at Gobekli Tepe is believed by some to be the oldest religious complex known to modern man. For this reason, the site has often invited breathless comparisons to the Garden of Eden, or the "origin of religion," which has long been associated with the Fertile Crescent and the ancient Sumerians, who invented written language."

[shaarona]

This much is clear: the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük (http://archaeology.about.com/library/glossary/bldef_catalhoyuk.htm) is about community. About 9,500 years ago, a group of between 3500 and 8000 people decided to live together on the Konya plains of Turkey. They chose a place which wasn't close to arable land, or suitable forest, or suitable land for grazing, but near a wetland, perhaps a lake. They dry-farmed crops (emmer wheat, lentils, barley) from at least 7 miles away; they used animal dung for fuel. They domesticated and took care of goats, sheep, and cattle.

The families at Çatalhöyük apparently built and maintained their own separate rooms within the 32-acre complex built of mud brick and wood. But the community shared several basic rituals along with adjoining walls: they buried their dead beneath the floors, they plastered walls and floors repeatedly, they decorated their walls with geometric paintings and the horns of bulls. They made clay and stone figurines in the shapes of fat ladies and unidentifiable animals. But mostly, they lived together for nearly 1,000 years, building new when the population grew; burning old when conditions warranted.

http://atlasobscura.com/place/gobekli-tepe

[DonGlock26]

Gobekli Tepe's creation by hunter gatherers doesn't make sense to me. First, how did the H/G's get the population to do all of that work for all of that time? Secondly, how did they build up the necessary food surplus, organize its distribution, and store it? Are there any other examples on the planet of H/G's doing anything like this? Has horticulture been considered? It could have been the transition to agriculture and supplied the needed surplus to support non-food finding labor.

[shaarona]

Gobekli Tepe's creation by hunter gatherers doesn't make sense to me. First, how did the H/G's get the population to do all of that work for all of that time? Secondly, how did they build up the necessary food surplus, organize its distribution, and store it? Are there any other examples on the planet of H/G's doing anything like this? Has horticulture been considered? It could have been the transition to agriculture and supplied the needed surplus to support non-food finding labor.

What if it wasn't where they lived, but a place where they gathered once or twice a year?

[Peter1469]

Yes.. at 11,000 years old.. It really is closer to the hunter-gatherer transition... and the dates line up with the ancient storage granaries discovered near the Dead Sea.

"The site dates back 11,500 years, to the tail end of the Stone Age. The predominant understanding was that during this time, hunter-gatherers roamed the Earth, never settling, living as each day came. The huge Gobekli Tepe complex, however, brings this view into question. It consists of large, T-shaped pillars with animal carvings, huge stone rings, and a vast amount of rectangular rooms, many believed to have religious importance.

One theory is that this site was not used for domestic purposes, but for rituals and sacrifices and the site at Gobekli Tepe is believed by some to be the oldest religious complex known to modern man. For this reason, the site has often invited breathless comparisons to the Garden of Eden, or the "origin of religion," which has long been associated with the Fertile Crescent and the ancient Sumerians, who invented written language."





And for some reason people decided to bury it..... That is a lot of work with no clear answer.....

[Peter1469]

What if it wasn't where they lived, but a place where they gathered once or twice a year?

The carvings suggest something other than hunter-gatherers. It is a mystery.

[Peter1469]

Although younger in age, this is the most impressive ancient site that I have visited outside of the Roman Forum:
http://www.ianandwendy.com/OtherTrips/SpainPortugalMorocco/Morocco/Volubilis/slideshow.htm

[shaarona]

The carvings suggest something other than hunter-gatherers. It is a mystery.

Something to consider... What if they were gathering wild grains and chic peas and only beginning to cultivate? I have come around to the idea that spiritual concepts.. like shamans or gods etc ... may have preceded agriculture?

Ancient granaries (11,000 years BC) have been found near the Dead Sea...

What if they were still largely nomadic.. searching for water and pasture most of the year?

[shaarona]

Although younger in age, this is the most impressive ancient site that I have visited outside of the Roman Forum:
http://www.ianandwendy.com/OtherTrips/SpainPortugalMorocco/Morocco/Volubilis/slideshow.htm

Oh my .. How beautiful.. I would LOVE to see those ruins. We don't know very much, do we?

[Mister D]

Something to consider... What if they were gathering wild grains and chic peas and only beginning to cultivate? I have come around to the idea that spiritual concepts.. like shamans or gods etc ... may have preceded agriculture?

Ancient granaries (11,000 years BC) have been found near the Dead Sea...

What if they were still largely nomadic.. searching for water and pasture most of the year?

There is no reason to believe they didn't precede agriculture. Such collective symbolic systems probably originated with language.

[shaarona]

There is no reason to believe they didn't precede agriculture. Such collective symbolic systems probably originated with language.

That's what I think too... The transition from hunter-gathering to keeping livestock and cultivating some sort of beans, grains etc is really interesting. There is also evidence of early cultivation of fig trees. I think our ancient ancestors must have been very clever.. far more clever and embracing of new "technologies" than we think.

I visited a very old apartment house in southern Arabia on the ancient trade route.. and was stunned at the innovations given over to security, cooking and toilets in that harsh environment.

[Mister D]

That's what I think too... The transition from hunter-gathering to keeping livestock and cultivating some sort of beans, grains etc is really interesting. There is also evidence of early cultivation of fig trees. I think our ancient ancestors must have been very clever.. far more clever and embracing of new "technologies" than we think.

I visited a very old apartment house in southern Arabia on the ancient trade route.. and was stunned at the innovations given over to security, cooking and toilets in that harsh environment.

no doubt they were.

environments change. The coast may have been more accommodating to human beings a few thousand years ago but I'm not sure about that area.

[corrocamino]

Hello,

I'm a new member (signed up just now), much interested in both Catalhoyuk (please supply diacriticals) and Gobekli Tepe (ditto).

I have Hodder's semi-popular book "Catalhoyuk: The Leopard's Tale", which is quite interesting. The Turkish name means "fork mound", because there are two mounds, east and west, and a pathway between that forks after exiting the mounds' interface. Excavations have concentrated on the east mound, and have uncovered archaeological materials beginning in the aceramic Neolithic, but most falling within the ceramic Neolithic; excavations on the west mound have revealed Chalcolithic materials.

Various aspects of the material culture are particularly fascinating to me. I find it very interesting that the so-called bucrania at this site are mirrored in Neolithic sites in the Nile Valley, as far south as the Sudan, and even in a tomb associated with First Dynasty pharaoh Djet (at Saqqara). The special regard given by the ancients to obsidian is also noteworthy: caches of preforms always shallowly buried near hearths, use (polished) as mirrors, etc. We have also the famous wall painting seen by Mellaart as the twin-peaked volcano Hasan Dag (visible from the mound, active during the Neolithc) in eruption, combined with what he saw as a town plan generally resembling that observed at the site; but the "volcano" in this painting is spotted and might be viewed as a pelt, so that later authorities have preferred to see it as a leopard skin, based on the variety of stylized leopard representations elsewhere at the site. I have to believe that these people included volcanoes (obvious sources of their obsidian, though not at Hasan Dag) in their cosmology/mythology, perhaps even conflating a mythic leopard with Hasan Dag: there is surviving regional folklore that places a mythic guardian lion in the swale between the twin peaks of the volcano, and it is further interesting that the Hittite lion god is depicted in a pyre (volcanic fires?), and that the Hittite mountain god is shown riding a lion.

Prof. Tristan Carter, one of the principal investigators at Catalhoyuk (and at Gobekli Tepe), has informed me that he considers the volcano wall-painting to be just that: Hasan Dag.

[Peter1469]

Thanks for the interesting info, and welcome to tPF!

[corrocamino]

Thank you, Peter!

[shaarona]

Thank you, Peter!

Glad you are here... I love this sort of stuff and you seem to share that.