Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T11:04:38.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 9 - Abandoning Çatalhöyük

Re-shuffling, Re-location and Migration as the Means of Mitigating Social Unease in the Late Neolithic

from Part II - Anatolia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2022

By
Lech Czerniak  and
Arkadiusz Marciniak
Edited by
Peter F. Biehl  and
Eva Rosenstock
Peter F. Biehl
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Eva Rosenstock
Affiliation:
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Get access

Summary

Recent excavations of upper strata of the Neolithic Çatalhöyük East Mound conducted by the Polish team revealed a sequence characterized by a considerable departure from previous arrangements in terms of settlement layout, house architecture, burial practices, human-animal relations, lithics procurement and technology, and the like. In this chapter we intend to scrutinize a spatial dimension of these developments by comparing the Team Poznań (TP) stratigraphic sequence with the 4040 Area on the north eminence of the East Mound. Furthermore, we aim to redefine relations of the TP sequence with structures revealed by Mellaart in the 1960s in the uppermost levels of his excavations. On this basis, the chapter shall provide an in-depth overview of the changes that occurred at Çatalhöyük toward the end of the 7th millennium cal BC.

Keywords

Neighborhood communitySodalityMigrationPaleodemography
Type
Chapter
Information
6000 BC
Transformation and Change in the Near East and Europe
 , pp. 136 - 157
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akkermans, P. M. M. G. 2012 Living Space, Temporality and Community Segmentation: Interpreting Late Neolithic Settlement in Northern Syria. In Interpreting the Late Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia, edited by Nieuwenhuyse, O. P., Bernbeck, R., Akkermans, P. M. M. G. and Rogasch, J., pp. 63–76, Brepols, Turnhout.Google Scholar
Arbuckle, B. S., and Makarewicz, C. A 2009. The Early Management of Cattle (Bos taurus) in Neolithic Central Anatolia. Antiquity 83:669–686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arbuckle, B. S., Whitcher Kansa, S., Kansa, E., et al. 2014 Data Sharing Reveals Complexity in the Westward Spread of Domestic Animals across Neolithic Turkey. PLoS ONE 9/6:e99845. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099845.Google Scholar
Atalay, S., and Hastorf, C. 2006. Food, Meals, and Daily Activities: Food Habitus at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. American Antiquity 71/2:283–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayala, G., Wainwright, J., Walker, J., et al. 2017 Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction of the Alluvial Landscape of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Central Southern Turkey: The Implications for Early Agriculture and Responses to Environmental Change. Journal of Archaeological Science 87: 30–43. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2017.09.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baird, D. 2005. The History of Settlement and Social Landscapes in the Early Holocene in the Çatalhöyük Area. In Çatalhöyük Perspectives: Themes from the 1995–1999 Seasons, edited by Hodder, I., pp. 55–74. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research/British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Monograph.Google Scholar
Baird, D. 2007. Pınarbaşı: From Epipalaeolithic Camp Site to Sedentarising Village in Central Anatolia. In The Neolithic in Turkey: New Excavations and New Discoveries, edited by Özdoğan, M. and Başgelen, N., pp. 285–311. Arkeoloji ve Snatat Yayinlari, Istanbul.Google Scholar
Baird, D., Carruthers, D., Fairbairn, A. and Pearson, J. 2011 Ritual in the Landscape: Evidence from Pınarbaşı in the Seventh-Millennium cal BC Konya Plain. Antiquity 85/328:380–394. doi:10.1017/S0003598X0006782XGoogle Scholar
Baird, D., Fairbairn, A., Jenkins, E., et al. 2018 Agricultural Origins on the Anatolian Plateau. PNAS 115/14:E3077–E3086.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barański, M. Z., Czerniak, L., García-Suárez, A., et al. 2020 Integrating Records of Mellaart and Hodder Research Projects at Çatalhöyük: The GDN Area. In Excavation Volume, edited by Hodder, I.. London, British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A., Farid, S., Higham, T. 2014 Time Will Tell: Practicing Bayesian Chronological Modeling on the East Mound. In Çatalhöyük Excavations: The 2000–2008 Seasons, edited by Hodder, I., pp. 35–51. British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, London / Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A., Chivall, D., Farid, S., Goslar, T. and Tung, B. 2022 Punctuated Histories for the North Area of Çatalhöyük East. In Çatalhöyük Excavations: The 2009–2017 Seasons, edited by Hodder, I.. British Institute at Ankara, London.Google Scholar
Benz, M., Gresky, J., Štefanisko, D., et al. 2019 Burying Power: New Insights into Incipient Leadership in the Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic from an Outstanding Burial at Ba’ja, Southern Jordan. PLoS ONE 14/8:e0221171. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221171.Google Scholar
Bıçakçı, E., Godon, M. and Çakan, Y. G. 2012 Tepecik-Çiftlik. In The Neolithic in Turkey. New Excavations and New Research, edited by Özdoğan, M., Başgelen, N. and Kuniholm, P., pp. 89–134. Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, Istanbul.Google Scholar
Biehl, P. F., Franz, I., Orton, D. C., et al. 2012 One Community and Two Tells: The Phenomenon of Relocating Tell Settlements at the Turn of the 7th and the 6th Millennia in Central Anatolia. In Tells: Social and Environmental Space, edited by Hofmann, R., Moetz, F.-K. and Müller, J., pp. 53–65. Habelt, Bonn.Google Scholar
Bogaard, A., Charles, M., Twiss, K. C., et al. 2009 Private Pantries and Celebrated Surplus: Storing and Sharing Food at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia. Antiquity 83:649–668.Google Scholar
Bordaz, J. 1965 Suberde Excavations 1964. Anatolian Studies 15:31–33.Google Scholar
Bordaz, J. 1973 Current Research in the Neolithic of South Central Turkey: Süberde, Erbaba and Their Chronological Implications. American Journal of Archaeology 77:282–288.Google Scholar
Bordaz, J., and Bordaz, L. 1976 Erbaba Excavations, 1974. Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi 23/2:39–43.Google Scholar
Bordaz, J., and Bordaz, L. 1982 Erbaba: The 1977 and 1978 Seasons in Perspective. Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi 26/1:85–92.Google Scholar
Brami, M., and Heyd, V. 2011 The Origins of Europe’s First Farmers: The Role of Hacılar and Western Anatolia, Fifty Years On. Praehistorische Zeitschrift 86:165–206.Google Scholar
Brandt, E. 1994 Egalitarianism, Hierarchy, and Centralization in the Pueblos. In The Ancient Southwestern Community, edited by Wills, W. and Leonard, R., pp. 9–23. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Cessford, C. 2005 Estimating the Neolithic Population at Çatalhöyük. In Inhabiting Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995–99 Seasons, edited by Hodder, I., pp. 323–326. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Cambridge/British Institute at Ankara, London.Google Scholar
Chyleński, M., Ehler, E., Somel, M., et al. 2019 Ancient Mitochondrial Genomes Reveal the Absence of Maternal Kinship in the Burials of Çatalhöyük People and Their Genetic Affinities, Genes 10/3. doi:10.3390/genes10030207.Google Scholar
Crumley, C., 1995 Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies. In Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies, edited by Ehrenreich, R. M., Crumley, C. L. and Levy, J. E., pp. 1–6. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 6. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Demirergi, G. A., Twiss, K. C., Bogaard, A., et al. 2014 Of Bins, Basins and Banquets: Storing, Handling and Sharing at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. In Integrating Çatalhöyük: Themes from the 2000–2008 Seasons, edited by Hodder, I., pp. 91–108. Cotsen Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Düring, B. 2007 Reconsidering the Çatalhöyük Community: From Households to Settlement Systems. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 20/2:155–182. doi:10.1558/jmea.v20i2.155.Google Scholar
Düring, B. 2013 The Anatomy of a Prehistoric Community. Reconsidering Çatalhöyük. In From Prehistoric Villages to Cities. Settlement Aggregation and Community Transformation, edited by Birch, J., pp. 23–43., Routledge Studies in Archaeology, New York and London.Google Scholar
Düring, B., and Marciniak, A. 2006 Households and Communities in the Central Anatolian Neolithic. Archaeological Dialogues 12/2:165–187. doi:10.1017/S138020380600170X.Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, R. M., Crumley, C. L. and Levy, J. E. (eds.) 1995 Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 6. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Filipowicz, P. 2017 Semiotics in Action. Neolithic Imagery on the Move. In Framing Archaeology in the Near East. The Application of Social Theory to Fieldwork, edited by Milevski, I. and Levy, T. E., pp. 51–62. Equinox Publishing.Google Scholar
Filipowicz, P. 2019 The Transformative Character of Imagery of South-Central Anatolian Communities in the Period 6500–5500 BC. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Poznań.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. 2002 The Origins of the Village Revisited: From Nuclear to Extended Households. American Antiquity 67/3:417–433.Google Scholar
French, D. H. 1998 Canhasan Sites 1: Canhasan I, Stratigraphy and Structures. British Institute of Archaeology at Ankar, Ankara.Google Scholar
Forte, M., Danelon, N. and Marciniak, A. 2019 Drones at Çatalhöyük. A New Survey for Landscape Interpretation. In The Archaeology of Anatolia. Recent Discoveries (2017–2018), Volume 3, edited by Steadman, S. R. and McMahon, G., pp. 163–174. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne.Google Scholar
Gebel, H. G. K. 2004 Central to What? The Centrality Issue of the LPPNB Mega-Site Phenomenon in Jordan. In Central Settlements in Neolithic Jordan, edited by Gebel, H. G. K., Bienert, H.-D. and Neef, R., pp. 1–20. ex oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Gebel, H. G. K. 2017 Neolithic corporate identities in the Near East. In Neolithic Corporate Identities. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment, edited by Benz, M., Gebel, H. G. K. and Watkins, T., pp. 57–80. ex oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Gündüz, R. 2016 Neolitikten Kalkolitik döneme kadar Bozkır çevresindeki yerleşmeler. In Uluslararasi Sempozyum. Geçmişten Günümüze Bozkır, edited by Bahar, H., Kuyumcu, H., Benhür, C., et al., pp. 33–48. Selcuk Universitesi, Konya.Google Scholar
Hahn, H. P. 2012 Segmentary Societies as Alternatives to Hierarchical Order: Sustainable Social Structures or Organisation of Predatory Violence? In Beyond Elites. Alternatives to Hierarchical Systems in Modelling Social Formations, edited by Kienlin, T. L. and Zimmermann, A., pp. 33–40. Verlag Dr Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1995 Pathways to Power: Principles for Creating Socioeconomic Inequalities. In Foundation of Social Inequality, edited by Price, T. D. and Feinman, G., pp. 15–85. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 2009 The Proof Is in the Pudding: Feasting and the Origins of Domestication. Current Anthropology 50:597–601.Google Scholar
Hayden, B., and Villeneuve, S. 2011 A Century of Feasting Studies. Annual Review of Anthropology 40:433–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodder, I. (ed.) 2007 Excavating Çatalhöyük: South, North and KOPAL Area Reports from the 1995–99 Seasons. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research / British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Monograph.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. 2014 Çatalhöyük: The Leopard Changes Its Spots. A Summary of Recent Work. Anatolian Studies 64:1–22. doi:10.1017/S0066154614000027.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. 2016 More on History Houses at Çatalhöyük: A Response to Carleton et al. Journal of Archaeological Science 67:1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodder, I. 2020 Changing Çatalhöyük Worlds. In Çatalhöyük Research Project, Volume 13, edited by Hodder., I. British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, London.Google Scholar
Hodder, I., and Cessford, C. 2004 Daily Practice and Social Memory at Çatalhöyük. American Antiquity 69/1:17–40.Google Scholar
Hodder, I., and Pels, P. 2010 History Houses: A New Interpretation of Architectural Elaboration at Çatalhöyük. In Religion in the Emergence of Civilization: Çatalhöyük as a Case Study, edited by Hodder, I., pp. 163–186. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Karul, N. 2019 The First Farmers in NW Anatolia during the 7th Millennium BC. In Closing the Neolithic: The Near East in the Second Half of the Seventh Millennium BC, edited by Marciniak, A., pp. 269–286. Lockwood Press, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Kılınç, G. M., Koptekin, D., Atakuman, Ç, et al. 2017. Archaeogenomic Analysis of the First Steps of Neolithization in Anatolia and the Aegean. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284/1867. doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.2064.Google Scholar
Kuijt, I. 2018 Material Geographies of House Societies: Reconsidering Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 28/4:565–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, C. S., Knüsel, C. J, Haddow, S. D., et al. 2019 Bioarchaeology of Neolithic Çatalhöyük Reveals Fundamental Transitions in Health, Mobility, and Lifestyle in Early Farmers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116/2612615–12623. doi:10.1073/pnas.1904345116.Google Scholar
Levi-Strauss, C. 1979 Nobles sauvages. In Culture, science et développement: contribution à une histoire de l’homme: mélanges en l’honneur de Charles Morazé, edited by Aron, R., pp. 41–55. Edouard Privat, Toulouse.Google Scholar
Marciniak, A. 2019 A History of the House at Late Neolithic Çatalhöyük. In Concluding the Neolithic. The Near East in the Second Half of the Seventh Millennium BC, edited by Marciniak, A., pp. 137–162. Lockwood Press, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Marciniak, A. 2021 The Neolithic Çatalhöyük and the outer world. The origin, rise and demise of the settlement in its regional context. In The Matter of Çatalhöyük. Reports from the 2009–2017 Seasons, edited by I. Hodder, pp. 31–44. Çatalhöyük Research Project Series Volume 14. British Institute at Ankara, London.Google Scholar
Marciniak, A., and Czerniak, L. 2012 Çatalhöyük Unknown. The Late Sequence on the East Mound. In Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Volume 1: Mega Cities and Mega Sites. The Archaeology of Consumption and Disposal, Landscape, Transport and Communication, edited by Matthews, R. and Curtis, J., pp. 3–16. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Marciniak, A., Barański, M. Z., Bayliss, A., et al. 2015. Fragmenting Times: Interpreting a Bayesian Chronology for the Late Neolithic Occupation of Çatalhöyük East, Turkey. Antiquity, 89/343:154–176.Google Scholar
Marciniak, A., Dembowiak, M., Filipowicz, P., Harabasz, K. and Hordecki, J. 2018 The Excavations of the East Area in the 2018 Season (2018 Kazı Mevsiminde Doğu Alanındaki Kazılar). Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Marciniak, A., Filipowicz, P. and Harabasz, K. 2019a The Late Neolithic at Çatalhöyük in the TPC Area. In The Archaeology of Anatolia. Recent Discoveries (2017–2018), Volume 3, edited by Steadman, S. R. and McMahon, G., pp. 4–14. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne.Google Scholar
Marciniak, A., Dembowiak, M., Harabasz, K. and Hordecki, J. 2019b The excavations of the East Area in the 2019 season (2019 Kazı Mevsiminde Doğu Alanındaki Kazılar). Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Mazzucato, C. 2019 Socio-material Archaeological Networks at Çatalhöyük a Community Detection Approach. Frontiers in Digital Humanities 6/8:1–25. doi:10.3389/fdigh.2019.00008.Google Scholar
McGuire, R. H., and Saitta, D. J. 1996 Although They Have Petty Captains, They Obey Them Badly: The Dialectics of Prehispanic Western Pueblo Social Organization. American Antiquity 61/2:197–216.Google Scholar
Mellaart, J. 1967 Catal Höyük. A Neolithic Town in Anatolia. Thames & Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Mills, B. 2014 Relational Networks and Religious Sodalities at Çatalhöyük. In Religion at Work in a Neolithic Society: Vital Matters, edited by Hodder, I., pp. 159–186. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Nanoglu, S. 2001 Social and Monumental Space in Neolithic Thessaly, Greece. European Journal of Archaeology 4/3:303–322.Google Scholar
Orton, D., Anvari, J., Gibson, C., et al. 2018 A Tale of Two Tells: Dating the Çatalhöyük West Mound. Antiquity 92/363:620–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Özbal, R., and Gerritsen, F. 2019 Barcın Höyük in Interregional Perspective. A First Assessment. In Closing the Neolithic: The Near East in the Second Half of the Seventh Millennium BC, edited by Marciniak, A., pp. 287–306. Lockwood Press, Atlanta.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Özbaşaran, M., and Duru, G. 2008 IST Area. Çatalhöyük 2008 Archive Report, 83–89.Google Scholar
Özdöl, S. 2012 The Development and Traditions of Pottery in the Neolithic of the Anatolian Plateau. Oxford, BAR.Google Scholar
Öztan, A. 2012. Köşk Höyük – A Neolithic settlement in Niğde-Bor Plateau. In The Neolithic in Turkey. New Excavations & New Research. Central Anatolia, edited by Özdoğan, M., Başgelen, N. and Kuniholm, P., pp. 31–70. Arkeoloji v Sanat Yayinlari, Istanbul.Google Scholar
Özdöl Kutlu, S., Carter, T., Czerniak, L. and Marciniak, A. 2015. The End of the Neolithic settlement. In Assembling Çatalhöyük, edited by Hodder, I. & Marciniak, A., pp. 179–195. Maney Publishing, Leeds.Google Scholar
Pilloud, M. A., and Larsen, C. S. 2011 “Official” and “Practical” Kin: Inferring Social and Community Structure from Dental Phenotype at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 145/4:519–530.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, N., Black, S., Boyer, P., et al. 1999 Chronology and Stratigraphy of Late Quaternary Sediments in the Konya Basin, Turkey: Results from the KOPAL Project. Quaternary Science Reviews 18:611–630.Google Scholar
Roffet-Salque, M., Marciniak, A., Valdes, P. J., et al. 2018 Evidence for the Impact of the 8.2-kyBP Climate Event on Near Eastern Early Farmers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115/35:8705–8709.Google Scholar
Rollefson, G. O. 2004 The Character of LPPNB Social Organization. In Central Settlements in Neolithic Jordan, edited by Gebel, H. G. K., Bienert, H.-D. and Neef, R., pp. 145–156. ex oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Rollefson, G. O. 2017 “I Am We”: The Display of Socioeconomic Politics of Neolithic Commodification. In Neolithic Corporate Identities. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment, edited by Benz, M., Gebel, H. G. K. and Watkins, T., pp. 107–116. ex oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, M., and Rocek, T. R. 2019 Socio-political Organization in the Aceramic Neolithic of Southwestern Asia: The Complex Evolution of Socio-political Complexity. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 54:17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souvatzi, S. 2017. Kinship and Social Archaeology. Cross-Cultural Research 51/2:172–195.Google Scholar
Twiss, K., Russell, N. and Martin, L., 2009. Taking the Bulls by the Horn. Ideology, Masculinity, and Cattle Horns at Çatalhöyük (Turkey). Paleorient 35/2:19–32.Google Scholar
Twiss, K., Bogaard, A., Busacca, G., et al. 2019. Assessing Inequality at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Poster presented at the SAA Annual Meeting, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wright, K. 2014 Domestication and Inequality? Households, Corporate Groups and Food Processing Tools at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 33:1–33.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×