Çatal Huyuk The Prelude

CATAL HUYUK: A PRELUDE TO CIVILIZATION
A Thesis
Presented
to the Faculty of
California State University Dominguez Hills
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
in
Humanities
by
Pamela J. Vafi
Fall 2005
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Vafi, Pamela J.
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THESIS: CATALHUYUK: A PRELUDE TO CIVILIZATION
AUTHOR: PAMELA VAFI
APPROVED:
Bryan Feuer, Ph.D.
Thesis Committee Chair
Jahres S. Jeffers, PiVD
Committee Member
Louise H. Ivers, Ph.D.
Committee Member
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
COPYRIGHT PAGE..................... ii
APPROVAL PAGE.....................................................................................................................iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................iv
LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................................... vi
ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................................. vii
CHAPTER
1. CATAL HUYUK: A PRELUDE TO CIVILIZATION........................................................ 1
Introduction....................................................................................................................... 1
2. MATERIAL, METHODOLOGY, AND THEORIES......................................................... 7
Literature Review............................................................................................................. 7
Methodology................................................................................................................... 11
Theories on the Development of Civilization............................................................ 13
3 THE NEOLITHIC POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT..........................................20
The Geography, Climate, and Ecology of the Anatolian Plateau........................... 20
Chronology of Neolithic Period................................................................................... 23
4. THE SUBSYSTEMS OF CATAL HUYUK.................................................................... 31
The Architectural Design of atal Huyiik as a Monumental Public Work........... 37
Population Density in atal Hiiytik............................................................................ 46
Population Diversity and Non-Kinship Residency................................................... 48
A Scientific Revolution in Agriculture.......................................................................48
Surplus and Storage.......................................................................................................51
Labor Specialization......................................................................................................52
Trade and Raw Materials.............................................................................................. 59
Symbolism in Art, Burial Practices, and Abstract Concepts................................... 61
Ranking and Social Stratification................................................................................70
iv
CHAPTER PAGE
5. A SYSTEMS-ECOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE OF CATAL
HUYUK.................................................................................................................................... 76
The Environment and Creativity.................................................................................. 78
Positive-Feedback Relationships................................................................................. 80
Negative-Feedback Relationships................................................................................ 97
6. A SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH ON CATAL HUyUKS SUBSYSTEMS 99
WORKS CITED....................................................................................................................... I l l
APPENDIX: COPYRIGHT HOLDER PERMISSION STATEMENT...........................118
v
LIST OF FIGURES
PAGE
1. Neolithic Sites Represented in Grey.................................................................................. 27
2. Neolithic Sites in Southern Anatolia and Sources of Raw Materials............................32
3. Schematic Reconstruction of a Section of Level VI........................................................39
4. Diagrammatic View of Construction Technique at atal Huyiik.................................. 39
5. Building Plan - Level VI A................................................................................................. 40
6. Building Plan - Level V IB ................................................................................................. 40
7. Restoration of Eastern and Southern Walls of Shrine VI. 14......................................... 43
8. Decoration of Northern and Eastern Walls of Shrine VI A.8........................................ 43
9. Ceremonial Flint Dagger with Carved Bone Handle.......................................................53
10. Black Limestone and Lead Beaded Necklace................................................................... 53
11. Examples of atal Hiiyiik Pottery...................................................................................... 54
12. Spouted Dish of Red Sandstone from Shrine VIA.8.......................................................54
13. Characteristic Wooden Vessels from Levels VI A and VIB.........................................55
14. Clay Statuettes of Female Forms, Possibly Goddesses.................................................. 55
15. Textile Found in Burial Site in Shrine VI. 1...................................................................... 57
16. Cloth Tapes Used for Ties and in Burial Practices.......................................................... 57
17. Baked Clay Seals Excavated from Level VIB to Level II............................................. 68
18. Feedback Relationships Between Subsystems, the Environment, and the Group 81
vi
ABSTRACT
Neolithic atal Hiiyiik challenges prevailing theories that attribute the origins of
civilization to the third millennium B .C .E. To gain a comprehensive portrait of this
prehistoric proto-city, I categorize the cultural inventory according to V. Gordon Childes
still relevant 1951 subsystem criteria. This study employs systems-ecological and social
models to analyze these subsystems and their interactions with the environment through
positive and negative feedback mechanisms. Based upon criteria including population
density, population founded on residence and not kinship, monumental public works,
technological knowledge, long-distance trade, and symbolic expression, I attempt to
demonstrate that atal Hiiyiik represents a proto-civilization. Although full-time labor
specialization and surplus product seem likely, research cannot definitively prove either,
and while this study demonstrates ranking, stratification seems improbable. Although
Catal Hiiyiik lacked the maturity of Sumerian civilization, it contained the seeds of all
that the Mesopotamian civilizations were to become.
1
CHAPTER 1
QATAL HUYUK: A PRELUDE TO CIVILIZATION
Introduction
An enigmatic city lies on the Anatolian plateau of central Turkey north of the
Taurus Mountains and, though little known, holds potential to impact the interpretation of
history and our understanding of the progress of ancient man. Archeologist James
Mellaart estimated that this once-thriving community, where life transcended issues of
basic survival, had a minimum population of five to six thousand (Wason 186; Heskel
362). Artisans painted elaborate murals, built fantastic shrines, engaged in civil
engineering projects, exploited resources both far and near, and undertook not only
practical and creative activities, but engaged in symbolic expression as well. But what
makes this urban center all the more intriguing is that it is not the contemporary of a
thousand-year-old Mesoamerican city, nor even a more ancient Mesopotamian one, but is
instead a nine-thousand-year-old city that rivaled the complexities of those of a later age.
While scholars continue to posit the emergence of civilization in fourth millennium B C E
Sumeria, the hallmarks of a proto-civilization were present in the city of atal Hiiyiik three
millennia before the ascendancy of Uruk and other contemporaneous cities.
Neither village nor town, Qatal Hiiyiik was an exercise in urban complexity that
was the product of a fertile ecological niche and the creativity of an ancient people.
Although a primary characteristic of any urban center is a population in excess of five
thousand, size alone does not differentiate the city from other community forms (Redman
2
215). What defines the city as an urban center is not only size, but complexity and
integration. A citys population must be diverse; it must host nonagricultural activities and
provide assorted services for residents and those living in smaller communities in the
geographical vicinity. Likewise, urban centers must have some form of governing
organization to maintain the orderly coexistence of their dense populations (Redman 216).
Most early cities, however, began as villages that were a coalescence, organization,
and maturation of scattered activities that were focused principally on nutrition,
reproduction, and simple religious ritual (Mumford 31). It was within the confines of the
village that these activities were exploited and became the creative forces that stimulated
the diversification and growth of these basic village components into the various divisions
that define a city. Defining civilization, however, proves more challenging and this study
in complexity remains the subject of much controversy. In a broad sense, it is this
complexity that defines civilization as dynamic, as a process of constant, interdependent
change of its various components. A civilized society is productive, creative, and
possesses sufficient surplus to stimulate that creativity (Quigley 142).
The Latin root of the word city is civitas or community and is closely associated
with civilization, citizen, and civilian, all of which are a product of city life (City,
def. 415-416; Civitas, def. 1). Anthropologists, according to Fairservis, generally
adhere to the Latin meaning, characterizing civilization as either urbanization or a cultural
phenomenon of which cities are a symptom (4). The classical meaning of civitas,
however, has nothing to do with the concept of large and dense population centers. This
would be better defined as the Latin urbanus. Civitas, instead, can be defined as a society
3
whereby mans true nature can emerge through the guidance of family, a fair economic
market, friendship among craftsmen, and just governance (Civitas, def. 1). Civitas is
reminiscent of the ideology of the autonomous Greek polis where the grandeur of the city
(excluding the Acropolis) was more a state of mind than fact. A civilized society is more
than interactions between its various parts; it is first a social phenomenon that is about
relationships that bind a people together and create a unique milieu for institutional
growth. It was within this context that atal Hiiyiik has emerged as the worlds earliest
proto-urban environment.
That Catal Hiiyiik was a complex community is manifest in its archeological
remains. Archeological evidence indicates that it comprised a large and diverse population
with a shared ideology that engaged in long-distance trade and appeared to be a well-
nourished and stable society where order and organization prevailed. It was within atal
Hiiyiik that dispersed functions coalesced and were organized into a state of dynamic
tension and interaction that produced a proto-urban setting that was to thrive for sixteen
hundred years. But determining whether atal Hiiyiik can be defined as a proto
civilization marked by social, political, and cultural complexity proves more daunting. It
is the goal of this research to demonstrate that this ancient community does, in fact, meet
those criteria. To achieve this end, this study will examine the archeological record of
Catal Hiiyiik and offer evidence and analysis of its complexity through an eclectic blend of
systems-ecological and social theories.
Such analysis requires, however, that the dynamic complexity that was atal
Hiiyuk be parsed into characteristic traits such as those defined in 1951 by archeologist and
theoretician V. Gordon Childe, which allow for an organized and systematic approach to
the study of civilization. While Childes theories are no longer relevant, the components
of his trait or subsystem list continue to serve as markers of civilization and remain useful
guides when attempting to define complex urban societies (Redman 218-19). In writing
Man Makes Himself, Childe selected ten criteria that researchers can apply to ancient sites
as a measure of their complexity and represent a means to recognize early models of
civilization. Although not causal factors in the development of civilizations, Childes
traits represent subsystems that complex, urban centers seem to possess in common and
which are necessary markers to determine that cause. This list includes population density;
population based on residence, not kinship; labor specialization; surplus product;
monumental public works; social stratification; scientific and technological knowledge;
symbolic expression; long-distance trade; and a system of writing (Childe, Man Makes
Himself 116-35).
Childes traits, however, are somewhat vague and arbitrary and although they are
indicative of urban complexity and civilization, each is not necessarily an essential
component when various combinations of others are present. Although writing ushered in
the historical period and was a prerequisite for all that was to follow in Mesopotamia and
later Egypt, this trait was not requisite for civilization to flourish. In fact, various markers
attributed to civilizations in general may be lacking in some, but they remain civilizations
nonetheless. The Incas, for example, had a thriving civilization, but lacked a written
language, and yet were able to build an empire that was vast and remarkable by any
standard (Riley 178). Although civilizations are typically associated with cities, that of the
Old Kingdom of Egypt (2660-2180 B.C.E.) throve within a network of village
communities and lacked large urban centers altogether (Riley 36). Although
interpretations of civilization vary, what they recognize in common is population density
and the ability of society to function as a creative, producing unit, with a level of
organization that glues the individual fibers into a unified, self-sustaining whole. While
Childes traits delineate the components of a civilization, their greatest function is as an
organizational guide to aid analysis of the underlying dynamics of large and productive
societies.
While there is general consensus regarding the advent of civilization, there are
conflicting views on the status of Catal Hiiyiik. While James Mellaart, archeologist and
original excavator of the site in the early 1960s, claimed that atal Hiiyuk contained all the
traits of civilization save a written language, others disagree (Excavations 19; Wason 155).
Anthropologist Walter Fairservis refers to the sodalities within atal Hiiyuk which are
indicative of a tribal or simple chiefdom level of organization and served as the unifying
force in society, precluding any form of labor specialization other than a sexual division of
labor (187). Researcher Paul Wason argues that atal Hiiyiik was a ranked society and not
stratified and was probably, therefore, not a civilization, but he acknowledges in his 1994
work that it approaches civilization and that further excavation and research will continue
to shed light on emerging subsystems (179). Archeologists Christopher Scarre and Brian
Fagan refer to Catal Hiiyiik as a large village or town with the obvious implication that
Catal Hiiyiik lacked the characteristics of either a city or a civilization (62).
6
In light, however, of recent excavations at the atal Hiiyiik site, evidence has
emerged that signifies greater complexity than Mellaarts work indicated, upon which
many of the above studies were based. While various researchers have focused on
individual aspects of atal Hiiyiiks culture, a global perspective can provide insight into
the overall complexity of this proto-urban environment. Based upon artifacts and
architecture revealed in archeologist Ian Hodders current excavations and Mellaarts work
during the 1960s, this research will assess the various subsystems, the interactions between
them, and the social environment that fostered those interactions through the systems-
ecological and social theoretical perspectives.
Testing the hypothesis that atal Hiiyiik does meet the criteria to be defined a
proto-civilization and evaluating the artifacts and architecture from this perspective offers
an alternate viewpoint to prevailing theories. Studies in prehistory are challenged by the
lack of a written record, yet the cultural material of Catal Huyuk is so rich in texture that
this obstacle is partly overcome. Unlike Neolithic villages, Qatal Hiiyuk offers an
extensive record of symbolic artwork, burials, artifacts, skeletal remains, and architecture,
all of which can be interpreted through the framework of an eclectic theoretical approach.
7
CHAPTER 2
MATERIALS, METHODOLOGY, AND THEORIES
Literature Review
James Mellaart amassed an astounding array of artifacts as he excavated a complex
and symbolically embellished architecture (De La Haba 42). His work and interpretations
remain dominant themes in the modern arena despite the current excavations conducted by
Ian Hodder and other international teams (Hodder, On the Surface 1993-2004). While
much archeological work has occurred, only a fraction of the overall site has been
excavated, leaving much to inference and the error-prone imagination. Because atal
Hiiyiik represents to date an archeological anomaly, interpretive assessments vary widely.
While much work has been done on the Neolithic milieu, little has been written on
the archeological exceptions to prevailing theory. Early twentieth-century scholars such as
V. Gordon Childe in Man Makes Himself and Lewis Mumford in The City in History
provide in-depth but generalized perspectives on the development and markers of
prehistoric man and while their theories are no longer relevant, their historical accounts
are. It is the exceptions to the general, however, that are not only the means by which to
challenge existing models but which become the tools through which knowledge is gained,
modified, or rendered obsolete. That the Neolithic cultures were the first agriculturists
remains a fact, but with the emergence of prehistoric cities, the need to expand ones
ideological perspective becomes a necessity. Although excavation of Neolithic sites is
ongoing, more so in Europe and Britain than in the Near East, Neolithic tells remain
8
largely untapped. Both Jericho (an advanced Near Eastern Neolithic site) and atal
Huyuk, while exceptions to date, may indicate increased patterns of emerging complexity
as archeological investigations expand in the region of the Near East. At present, however,
evidence from atal Hiiyiik and Jericho is altering the theoretical positions of scholars
regarding the relationship of Neolithic cultures to their Near Eastern environment.
As a result of this changing perspective, the theoretical approach to understanding
these cultures is changing as well. Trait-system models which were popular in the 1950s
deemed subsystems as representational of civilization and not its symptoms and were used
to delineate one civilization from another and from simpler social structures (Redman
219). Today, researchers have shifted their focus to relational aspects and adaptational
responses within society and to the environment, searching for an understanding of that
which promoted growth, decline, homeostasis, and regulation of urban complexes.
Within this framework most modern researchers interpret civilization as the
relationship between humans and their social organization, technology, and the
environment. Cultural traits within a community, therefore, are analyzed according to their
adaptive capacity. Anthropologist Charles Redman takes this perspective in The Rise of
Civilization as he defines ancient mans move from rural to urban environments. Walter
Fairservis, too, follows this theoretical format in The Threshold of Civilization and
addresses the cultural development of atal Hiiyiik in particular. Most researchers,
including those whose focus is on social and behavioral factors, do not deny the
importance of the relationships of man to technology and his environment and it is from
this base that they construct their theories. Social theorists, such as Julian Thomas in
Understanding the Neolithic, rely on material culture as an interpretive base, but do so in a
social and systems-ecological context. While much of this text is based on the historical
practices of Neolithic societies, Thomass interpretation of Neolithic mores is the product
of prehistoric mans relationship with his community, his material culture, and the
environment in which he lived. This same theme is present in Ian Kuijts Life in Neolithic
Farming Communities and Paul Wasons The Archaeology of Rank. These texts address
the complexities of Neolithic communities in Britain, Europe, and the Near East, following
an eclectic blend of systems-ecological and social theoretical models.
While much archeological theory during the early 1980s followed a natural science
protocol (processual archeology) with an emphasis on systems-ecological perspectives, the
mid-1980s brought a change in focus. Archeologists began drawing on the field of social
anthropology and the view that the context and meaning of behavior must be taken into
account when assessing ancient cultures. While this new social paradigm with proponents
such as Ian Hodder (Reading the Past and Archaeological Theory Today) has become the
trend for archeologists, this theory remains inextricably tied to the material culture and
environment and thereby relies heavily on systems-ecological theories. Ian Hodder is a
post-processual theoretician, but his perspective, too, is an eclectic mix of social,
behavioral, and systems-ecological models. Ian Hodders annual Archive Reports do not,
however, offer interpretive analysis, but chronicle his excavations at atal Hiiyuk,
cataloguing each seasons work and the architectural and cultural materials that his team
reveals.
10
Yet, among the research that does analyze the cultural development of Qatal
Hiiyiik, there is little consensus. While some of this research posits that Qatal Hiiyiik was
an inchoate civilization, Fairservis suggests it was a simple chiefdom (187). The problem
is one of defining civilization and while Fairservis implies that civilization itself seems to
defy definition and approaches the subject tentatively, others are less reluctant and rise to
the challenge (3-9). Authors such as Carroll Riley in The Origins of Civilization and
Carroll Quigley in The Evolution of Civilization stress that any definition demands an
assessment beyond the confines of the natural sciences. According to Quigley, the
formation of a civilization is a fluid and irrational process between mutually dependent
social instruments (416). Although any definition of civilization falls short of its reality,
this thesis will attempt to define a working model (based, in part, on the works of
Fairservis, Riley, and Quigley) that will account for the development of Qatal Hiiyiik and
serve as the foundation for assessment of its culture and material artifacts.
Additional references provide documentation of Qatal Hiiyiiks artifacts,
architecture, and symbolic materials and address the geographical zone and ecological
niche from which Qatal Hiiyiik emerged. These include Ian Hodders, Roger Matthews,
and Mirjana Stevanovics Archive Reports. Catalhovuk News, and internet sources, all of
which are essential for the processing of systems-ecological and social models.
Periodicals, texts, and journal articles specific to Qatal Hiiyuk include Louis De La Habas
Roots of the City: Jericho and Qatal Huvuk. Dora Jane Hamblins The First Cities: The
Shrines of Qatal Hiiyiik. and James Mellaarts Catal Hiiyiik: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia.
Ozdogans Neolithic in Turkey provides a wealth of data on Neolithic settlements and
11
metallurgy throughout the Anatolian Plateau and includes additional historical data on
Catal Hiiyiik.
Material on Mesopotamian culture is obtained from the works of Norman Yoffee
and Jeffery Clark in the Early Stages in the Evolution of Mesopotamian Civilization.
Christopher Scarres and Brian Fagans Ancient Civilization provides a fund of data on the
Mesopotamian Neolithic cultures and subsequent civilizations, as does Charles Redmans
The Rise of Civilization, which also addresses the paleobotanical environment of the
ancient Near East.
Other references offer supplementary data, such as Joe Baumans Dry Farmers in
Desperate Trouble and Marla Malletts A Weavers View of the atal Hiiyiik
Controversy, et al., and both corroborate and challenge the views of this research and
further establish the complexity of Qatal Hiiyuk.
Methodology
The present investigation into patterns of complexity and the dynamic qualities of
interdependent flux examines the productivity, creativity, and cultural growth that were
Catal Hiiyuk. While Catal Hiiyiiks traits, as proposed by V. Gordon Childe, represent
subsystems of a proto-civilization, they must be addressed in the context of modern theory.
Thus, this research applies systems-ecological and social models to determine what
enabled these subsystems to develop and propel atal Hiiyiik on its path to inchoate
civilization.
While multiple theories have evolved over the past one hundred years that attempt
to define civilization, the twenty-first century trend is toward social perspectives that place
12
human endeavor at the center of urban progress. This study addresses the pertinent
theories as they apply to atal Hiiyuk and assumes an eclectic theoretical perspective, as
any study of prehistoric man precludes a strictly social point of view due to prehistorys
lack of a written record. Qatal Hiiyiik compounds this problem, as archeological
excavation is still in its early stages with little more than several acres excavated to date.
Therefore, a systems-ecological-social model is employed, as this multifaceted approach is
more responsive and revealing than viewing atal Hiiyiiks history through the confines of
a single theory. The attempt to define civilization, its development, and the traits that
compose it is integral to the understanding of Catal Hiiyiik and is the basis for the
successful application of the systems-ecological and social paradigms.
Following the assessment of the theoretical models that are employed throughout
this research, a short history of Near Eastern Neolithic cultures provides background for
the scope of this study, while a description of the geography and climate of the prehistoric
Anatolian Plateau establishes setting. The succeeding section addresses the environment
and ecological niche in which Qatal Hiiyiik throve, which was critical to its cultural
development and to the successes and failures of this community. atal Hiiyiik cannot be
separated from its environment, for it formed an inseparable union with its surroundings
and all that it was was owed to this relationship with the land and its many resources.
Catal Hiiyiiks ability to interact with and exploit its environment rendered a precocious
culture and as a result, the environmental theme remains dominant throughout the
analytical discourse of this thesis.
13
The city itself is the next topic in this work and is introduced through the
excavations, upon which this research is based, of James Mellaart and Ian Hodder. While
their archeological techniques and theoretical approaches are widely divergent, the
amalgamation of their efforts has rendered a fund of cultural materials that is in the earliest
stages of combined analysis. To gain a comprehensive portrait of atal Hiiyiik from the
excavations of Mellaart and Hodder and one from which theoretical analysis is possible,
the architecture and artifacts are categorized according to Childes ten subsystems.
Following this descriptive detail, Qatal Hiiyiiks subsystems and their interactions
with the environment are analyzed through the systems-ecological model, with the
ecological perspective based upon positive feedback mechanisms. This analysis is
presented in a social theoretical context and concludes with negative feedback
relationships that may have contributed to the abandonment of atal Hiiyuk. The final
section of this thesis addresses the results of the research and a discussion regarding those
results and closes with a summary analyzing the significance of the study, its limitations
and implications, and recommendations for future research.
Theories on the Development of Civilizations
V. Gordon Childe was a product of the unilinear cultural evolution paradigm that
was the prevailing tenet of Victorian anthropology. Although Childe refined the
anthropological concepts of savagery, barbarism, and civilization in his studies of
prehistoric and Bronze Age societies, he too assumed a linear progression and believed that
social change was simply the product of opportunity (Scarre and Fagan 6). Childe focused
on the results of human behavior, not its cause, and in Marxist fashion believed it was the
14
social group that determined the behavior of its members, minimizing ecological factors
and the influence of the individual on group dynamics (Hodder, Archaeological Theory
144). His theories objectified society and posited that human potential was fostered
through technological progress, with the product defining the producer (Childe, Man
Makes Himself 13V Finally, in a self-limiting fashion, Childe believed the observer of the
past had more insight into ancient civilizations functions than did its participants.
While Childes views were revolutionary for the early twentieth century and
advanced the cause of scholars and in a limited capacity continue to do so through his trait
list, his theories are now gauged as outmoded and over-generalized. Childe, for example,
emphasized the significance of technology and craft specialization by full-time artisans as
a causal factor in the emergence of civilization (Scarre and Fagan 31). Since most
researchers now view craft specialization as an indicator of social complexity, scholars
have challenged Childes theory positing that artisan specialization was often part of
egalitarian societies, as ruling chiefs also employed specialists for the production of
prestige goods (Scarre and Fagan 31). It can be argued, however, that products in
chiefdoms were produced for the ruling class in modest quantities, which likely did not
require full-time specialization. Craft specialization for mass production and consumption,
however, remains a critical and defining element of civilization, for it implies rank, surplus
and wealth, trade, and technological knowledge. Although Childes theories propelled the
study of civilization toward its present course and his traits remain the core components of
civilized society, his theories do not account for the development of the traits themselves
or the impact that each trait had upon the other.
15
While Childe advanced the cause and scholarship of archeology, his theories have
not kept pace with an ever-changing field. Although he believed material patterns
reflected human behavior and that behavior was socially determined, the pattern is far
more complex. Subsequent theories have focused on materials as a product of human
behavior resulting from various components within that society in which interrelationships
helped to define the social organization as a whole. It was the sum of its parts that defined
its true meaning, despite Childes earlier claims that culture was a recurring set of
associated artifacts or traits held to represent a people or a society (Hodder,
Archaeological Theory 285). While Childes trait list remains a useful guide to determine
urban complexity, its basic tenets provide no insight into the behavioral and ecological
factors that engendered those traits. Although his cultural-historical interpretation is
academically discredited, Childes influence remains in the field and many archeologists
and researchers continue to classify prehistoric archaeology according to regions or
artifacts (Hodder, Archaeological Theory 286).
This perspective is changing, however. Theoretical archeology has moved beyond
a mere cataloging of artifacts and the assumption that these artifacts represent the past in
its entirety. Childes Marxist view of social relations of production implied an economic
and deterministic view of history whereby technology and the worker (craft specialists)
were paramount in the course of progress (Thomas 12). Archeologists and historians,
however, have expanded this thesis, emphasizing that humans can manipulate resources in
a multiplicity of ways; therefore, what is produced is less significant than how it is
produced. It is the internal dynamics of a society that engender resource exploitation in
16
unique combinations, producing complex and distinct cultures and as a result, the
mechanisms by which resource management occur vary widely within prehistoric
societies. In each event, there are varied correlations between the interrelationships of the
various traits and the mechanisms by which they occur.
Although traits remain a guide for determining complexity, they provide little
insight into the complexity itself. These traits or subsystems, however, are the springboard
for addressing the interrelatedness of these components in a systems framework. Unlike
Childes theoretical view that culture is a shared experience, systems theory posits that
culture is comprised of individual stories that can be resurrected from material remains
(Redman 12-13). It is this variation among members of a society and their social and
resource interactions that defines a culture, giving it its characteristic signature and
allowing for its understanding. Systems theorists emphasize interrelationships, many of
which, they believe, are basic to every cultural form (Redman 11). Ancient societies
responses, however, to varied ecological zones and the unique interrelationships that
emerged, produced unique cultural forms within the confines of environmental demands.
Childes explanation of events that propelled man from the Neolithic to Bronze
Age, in which one factor produced change in another in linear fashion, is viewed quite
differently by systems theorists. Increasing complexity, they posit, is a succession of
interacting and multiple incremental processes occurring through positive feedback (which
promotes change) that is triggered by favorable ecological and cultural conditions and
increased in a series of mutually reinforcing interactions (Redman 13). Systems theorists
view the cultural condition as a product of a larger and ever-changing ecological system
17
within which people adapted to their environment or attempted to do so. The societal
controls through which individuals and the larger subsystems interacted created the
foundation upon which systems analysts construct their theories. Social control, according
to systems theorists, created homeostasis between subsistence needs and ideological values
through a hierarchy of regulation that became increasingly organized as society became
more complex. Societal pressures, however, such as warfare, population growth, and
environmental events emerged as threats to this homeostasis, stimulating adaptational
mechanisms that created either the positive feedback of cultural change or the homeostatic
inaction of negative feedback (Scarre and Fagan 39). The fundamental task of systems
theorists, therefore, is to distinguish between the processes of change that produced
increasing complexity, the mechanisms by which that change occurred, and the socio-
environmental factors that triggered these mechanisms (Scarre and Fagan 39).
Although civilization is a cultural process, it cannot be separated from the
environment from which it emerged. Akin to systems ideologies, ecological theories stress
the impact of environmental change on developing societies through an understanding of
process and mechanism (Redman 13-14). This relationship of man to his environment and
the process of adaptation are the cornerstones of systems-ecological theories. The bridge
between man and his habitat is culture and in its organizational, technical, and ideational
forms interacting with the environment and each other (Redman 13). The ecological
approach focuses on the interdependence of topography, flora, fauna, and natural resources
and their relationship to the development of human culture, creating a variety of challenges
to which regional groups responded in varied ways, thus producing distinct cultural forms.
18
Although similar environments produced general adaptational responses among groups,
societies within a region occupied ecological niches where each focused on resources and
challenges unique to their needs, thus producing subtle cultural variety (Redman 14).
Consequently, cultures are expressed by the specific range of resources deemed essential
for that communitys survival, their manipulation of those resources, and the oppositional
challenges that they face.
The more recent trend, however, advocates a social perspective whereby societies
are viewed as comprised of individuals and interactive groups pursuing personal agendas
of power, ideology, and factionalism (Scarre and Fagan 41-42). Although the goal of
social theorists is to understand past societies in a behavioral context, they must do so
within the framework of modern culture (Wason 15). One must be vigilant, therefore, to
avoid projecting modern cultural content into archeological data and be mindful of
ethnocentricity and all that it implies. It is essential, particularly regarding prehistoric
societies, that systems-ecological theories be coupled with social models as partial defense
against specious interpretations. Society, expressed in a social context, blends well with
systems-ecological models, as both address mans relationship to the material world
through processes and mechanisms. While the systems-ecological model is enhanced by
social theories inferences, systems-ecological theories can temper the extravagances
toward which a purely social perspective may stray.
The evolutionary process of culture, whether occurring by imperceptible degrees or
as a rapid reaction to crises (but most likely both), demands a multi-theoretical
interpretation for any degree of accuracy and logical social deduction. Social inference,
19
therefore, must be based on relationships of more than chance regularity if it is to prove
irrefutable and this remains particularly challenging in the absence of a written language
(Clarke 485). Although social inference is always biased, it can shed light on the behavior
and motivations of ancient man when applied in conjunction with systems-ecological
theories.
20
CHAPTER 3
THE NEOLITHIC POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT
The Geography, Climate, and Ecology
of the Anatolian Plateau
The geographic environment in which Qatal Huyiik emerged is a rugged land mass
surrounded on three sides by water with its eastern border protected by an imposing
mountain range. The varied landscape of Turkey is the product of earthquakes and
volcanic activity and is part of the enormous Alpine belt that extends from the Himalaya
Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. Formed during the Tertiary period (sixty-five million to
1.6 million B.C.E.), the Arabian, African, and Indian continental plates began their
collision with the Eurasian plate and the sedimentary layers deposited by the prehistoric
Tethyan Sea bucked, folded, and uplifted (Turkey: External Sec. 1). This process,
accompanied by strong volcanic activity and intrusions of igneous rock material, was
followed by extensive faulting during the Quaternary period, beginning approximately 1.6
million B.C.E. (Turkey: External Sec. 1). Lying between two folded mountain ranges,
the earthquake-prone and structurally complex Anatolian Plateau consists of uplifted
blocks and down-folded troughs, covered by ancient deposits. In Asiatic Turkey, however,
few areas are flat, save the coastal plains of Antalya and Adana, the deltas of the
Kizilirmak River, the valley floors of the Gediz and Buyukmenderes Rivers and several
regions in the high plains of Anatolia, namely around Tuz Golu and the Konya Basin,
home to Qatal Hiiyiik (Turkey: External Sec. 1).
21
Lying north of atal Hiiyuk and parallel to the Black Sea are the Pontus
Mountains, increasing in stature as they traverse the coast from west to east, reaching
heights of nearly ten thousand feet (Turkey: Pontus Sec. 1). Mountain rivers flow
toward the Black Sea and while the northern slopes are home to dense growths of
evergreen and deciduous trees, the southern and inland slopes remain treeless. Along the
Mediterranean coast rise the Taurus Mountains, a folded chain that trends easterly to the
Arabian Platform, then arcs northward until the Taurus and Pontus ranges converge. A
more rugged chain than the Pontus Mountains and with fewer rivers, the Taurus Mountains
were an ancient barrier except for passes such as the Cilician Gates in south-central
Turkey. Lying between the two mountain ranges in the central region of Turkey, however,
are the semiarid highlands of Anatolia, ranging in elevation from west to east, two
thousand to four thousand feet. Throughout the folded mountains and the Anatolian
Plateau lie well-defined basins, some narrow, others, such as the Konya Plain, large basins
of inland drainage, resulting in generally saline lakes throughout the region.
As the massive Pleistocene lakes that formed these basins began to recede in
earnest around the eighth millennium B .C .E., the lower portion of the Konya Plain began
to emerge. The exposed land was fertile and well-watered and offered a hospitable
environment for flora and fauna. The ecological conditions were ripe for organic variety,
fecundity, and the adaptation of a wide range of plant and animal species. Fairservis noted,
At least three forms of deer, the ibex, wild ass, pig, auroch, wild ox, gazelle, leopard, lion,
fox, weasel, wolf, sheep, goat, bear, rabbit, wild cat, marten, jackal, marsh birds, and the
land tortoise were found in abundance (160). Fish-filled lakes and streams and mollusks
22
were plentiful as well. As a result of the warming trend that occurred at the end of the
Pleistocene epoch, trees, grasses and wild grains spread into the Near East, promoting
hybridization of wild plant species, some of which were amenable to domestication and
cultivation (Ozdogan and Basgelen 14).
This prehistoric plateau and surrounding areas offered diverse ecological and
climatic zones, from forested mountains, to semiarid highlands, to coastal plains, offering a
wide range of organic and inorganic resources. The abundance of products on the Konya
Plain, however, promoted and supported sedentary living and offered the best of both
worlds during the transition from hunting and gathering to the domestication of plants and
animals. This rich environment and all that it nourished drew the hunters and gatherers of
the Anatolian Plateau, for the Konya Plain possessed what other areas lacked: the alluvial
soils of the (ârsamba ay.
With the advent of the Holocene epoch, climatic conditions have changed little on
the Konya Plain and if they remain challenging to village life today, they were all the more
so to the Neolithic population. This semiarid region receives an historic precipitation of
twelve inches per year, but rainfall is unpredictable and during frequent droughts, fewer
than eight inches of annual precipitation may occur (Turkey: Pontus Sec. 1). The aridity
creates frequent dust storms in the summer, blowing fine yellow dust across the plateau,
making the Konya Plain one of the driest and dustiest regions in Turkey (Turkey: Pontus
Sec. 1). The cold and snows of winter, however, are equally challenging and while
summer temperatures are often in excess of one hundred degrees, winters can plunge
below zero (Turkey: Climate Sec. 1).
23
As the Paleolithic epoch gave way to modern climates, hunting and gathering
bands began their transition from seasonal base-camps, often located in caves, to the
occupation of regions which lay in open areas more favorable to agricultural
experimentation and the domestication of animals (Redman 98). It was within the fertile
but challenging environment of the Konya Plain that the transition from hunting and
gathering to the sowing of seed occurred and it was a move that revolutionized the world
and propelled humans on their course toward civilization.
Chronology of Neolithic History
Anthropologist Charles Redman writes that for ninety-nine percent of the 500,000-
year-history of man, men and women subsisted by hunting and gathering (89). From this
Pleistocene history emerged the twelve-thousand-year-old Neolithic culture where the
physiologically modern and sedentary human produced exponential growth in technology,
which enabled progress to occur at a sharply accelerated pace. What brought man to the
portals of civilization, however, remains an enigma in the arena of scientific debate. One
precipitating event may well have been the climatic changes that produced concentrations
of organic resources. During the transition to the interglacial period, roving bands of Near
Eastern hunters and gatherers sustained themselves with forced movement amongst a
dispersed food and timber supply. As the climate warmed, however, and plant species and
riparian environments proliferated along with the animals they supported, human density
increased in richly concentrated resource zones, reducing migratory patterns.
As population increased in newly prime habitats, so, too, did competition for
resources, thereby increasing human vulnerability to privation and necessitating large-scale
24
herding as the means for successful resource acquisition and its protection. Mans herding
behavior represents an innate self-protective mechanism expressed through the guise of
solidarity, as the individual overcomes his vulnerability en masse. As early humans
banded together in the hunt, their cunning for survival exceeded their vulnerabilities, due
in large part to united and coordinated effort.
As bands became sedentary tribes and settled into the rigors of village life,
experimentation with domestication began in earnest. By 7000 B.C.E., morphological
changes in sheep appeared in the Near East, producing the hornless female species that is
indicative of domestication. Dogs, too, appear to have been domesticated in this region
during the same period, although the earliest domesticated canine excavated in the Near
East dates to 11,000 B.C.E. (Redman 135). Around 6000 B.C.E., domesticated cattle were
a significant part of atal Huyiiks economy, but domesticated cattle were evident in
southeastern Europe a millennium earlier (Redman 139-40).
Experimentation with domestication of cereal grains, and einkorn wheat in
particular, began at approximately the same time as did animal domestication, but which
came first has not to date been proved. Domestication of wild grains, as with animals,
produces morphological changes (Redman 142). Whereas the axis is brittle in wild species
of einkorn wheat, allowing for disarticulation and dispersal of seeds, in domesticated
einkorn, the axis breaks only with threshing and the seeds stay intact (Redman 123). This
domesticated product produced a symbiotic relationship whereby the plants survival
depended upon humans for the acts of reaping and sowing, which increased mans
dependency upon sedentariness. By 6800 B.C.E., the climate had warmed to an optimal
25
temperature zone for agricultural development in Anatolia and southwestern Asia and
radical advances in domestication began under the aegis of the newly-emerged Ceramic
Neolithic cultures.
It is probable, however, that experimentation with domestication began long before
the fact, but attributing a specific time-frame would be mere speculation. This is true of
both animal and plant domestication and while the earliest villages indicate mixed
economies, they trended through time toward a predominant dependence upon
domesticated food sources. Such was the case in Catal Hiiyuk, which exhibited this
primary dependence upon domesticated products by the seventh millennium B.C.E.
(Redman 183).
While tool construction during the Epi-Paleolithic period throughout the Near East
continued as microlithic and included blades of chipped stone, the emergence of local
differentiation regarding material usage and technology had begun (Ozdogan and Basgelen
14-15). Although sporadic attempts at primitive pottery began prior to 7200 BCE. , the
Near Eastern Ceramic Neolithic population emerged in earnest between 7200 and 5000
B C E , along with halting experimentation in metallurgy (Yoffee and Clark 241-48).
Symbolic expression developed within art and architecture, as indicated by recurring
designs and color themes, and trade in obsidian and luxury materials began as well,
perhaps suggesting inchoate labor specialization (Redman 184-85). Within five millennia,
the move from the Natufian settlements of the Levant (10,000-8000 B.C.E.) to the late
Neolithic cultures of Mesopotamia executed the transition to complexity, whereby
26
technological growth exploded and mans accelerated progress catapulted him into the
glory of Uruk and beyond.
This explosive growth in Neolithic technology has received intense archeological
and theoretical focus in the region of northern Mesopotamia, and about these Neolithic
societies much is known. This research has increased our understanding of Neolithic
cultures, particularly as precursors to the Sumerian civilization of southern Mesopotamia.
Although the significance of the archeological and anthropological studies cannot be
minimized, from these has emerged a stereotypic chronology of the development of
Neolithic cultures and subsequent Sumerian civilization. This chronology is significant to
this study, as it is one that this research has opted to challenge, claiming instead that urban
complexity was demonstrated in atal Huyiik three thousand years before the rise of Uruk.
As the Neolithic population gained firm footing in the region of northern
Mesopotamia, they set the course that defined the development of Sumerian civilization.
From the Hassuna period of the sixth millennium B.C.E., characterized by crude pottery,
incipient agriculture, and domestication of animals, emerged the Halafian period (5500-
4800 B.C.E.) that made marked cultural advances in this region (Riley 29-31). Symbolic
expression and religious beliefs became increasingly sophisticated and although the
Halafian culture created beautifully-designed pottery and engaged in metallurgy and
extensive trade, of greater importance was the standardization of products and architecture
over a region of nearly two hundred fifty square miles (Redman 199). Most significant,
however, were the organizational changes that propelled the late Neolithic cultures of
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Southern Mesopotamia
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Choga
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Fig. 1. Neolithic Sites Represented in Grey.
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28
northern Mesopotamia on a course from chiefdom governance toward state organization
(Redman 202). Between the Neolithic cultures of northern Mesopotamia and those of the
arid southern region was the Neolithic Samarran society, located on the northern boundary
of the Mesopotamian alluvium.
Contemporary with the middle to late Hassunan and Halafian cultures, the
Samarrans settled south of the dependable dry farming zone, with botanical evidence
suggesting that by 5500 B.C.E. they were employing some form of simple irrigation
(Redman 195). Their communities had both technological and organizational skills that
are reflected in the fifteen-acre Samarran town of Choga Mami, which had a population in
excess of one thousand people. Archeological investigation has revealed that this
Neolithic town possessed surplus wealth, used stamp seals, and produced sculpture that
resembled later Ubaid art. The Samarrans were also the first in Mesopotamia to build
buttressed structures with sun-dried brick. Excavations have produced several hammered
copper pieces (the earliest metal works found in Mesopotamia), suggesting trade with the
distant regions of Iran and Turkey, as this region of Mesopotamia is resource-poor and
lacks deposits of copper. Because of the presence of Samarran pottery at Hassunan and
Halafian sites, archeologists suggest that there was contact between these cultures and that
diffusion occurred. Due to their southerly occupation, historians believe the Samarrans
were likely among the early colonizers of the first civilizations of southern Mesopotamia
(Redman 194-98).
As the Ubaid period emerged on virgin soil around 5300 B.C.E., likely influenced
by Samarran and possibly Halafian cultures, a period of intense and rapid specialization
29
occurred, with an accrual of surplus wealth that enabled monumental temples to be erected
to capricious gods (Riley 31). Historians and archeologists assert that the traits identified
by Childe emerged and coalesced in the region of southern Mesopotamia during the fourth
millennium B.C.E. (Postgate 24; Redman 245). By the Uruk period (3600-3100 B.C.E ),
explosive developments occurred in technology, ranked society became stratified, and
skilled artisans became specialized, culminating in the Jemdet Nasr period (3100-2900
B .C.E.) with the advent of cuneiform script (3100 B .C.E.). By 2900 B .C.E., the major
cities of southern Mesopotamia had achieved sufficient complexity to be deemed a
civilization (Redman 245).
Yet seven hundred miles to the west and an even more distant three thousand years
in ancient Mesopotamias past, an anomalous community emerged on the Konya Plain that
possessed the very qualities attributed to the Mesopotamian Ubaid period. Despite atal
Hiiyiiks incomparable development, however, Neolithic settlements were numerous on the
Anatolian Plateau, most of which had mixed subsistence economies (Ozdogan and
Basgelen 15). Seventh-millennium Suberde, which lies to the west of atal Huyiik, was
typical of the Neolithic Anatolian village. While small numbers of sickle blades and
grinding stones suggest a cereal component to their diet, great numbers of animal bones
have been excavated (principally sheep and goats) whose skeletal remains declined in
Suberdes upper levels as wild populations declined in Anatolia, suggesting that these
animals were not domesticated (Fairservis 160). This village was an example of how
sedentary lifestyles were possible while maintaining hunting and gathering practices in a
habitat that supported both. The environment was so richly diverse within a concentrated
30
radius that generations gradually evolved from roving bands to sedentary tribes without
sharp demarcations in lifestyles.
What many of these Anatolian settlements like Suberde lacked, however, were the
rich alluvial soils that supported large-scale experimentation with plant domestication;
hence, village populations remained small with a heavy reliance upon feral meat and wild
grains. In contrast, the ecological niche of atal Hiiyiik had soils that the flooding
Qarsamba River frequently renewed and was, therefore, amenable to large-scale
cultivation. The river and alluvial parklands likely attracted large numbers of animals and
the branching river may have formed natural enclosures that could have enhanced the
domestication of cattle and other potential livestock. While Suberde was typical of early
village life in the fruitful Anatolian region, the hunters and gatherers who settled on the
Konya Plain had descended upon a veritable Eden. While many of the Anatolian villagers
were experimenting with simple plant and animal domestication as an adjunct to hunting
and gathering practices, atal Hiiyiik was supporting six thousand people on a diet
consisting predominantly of domesticated food products.
Although researchers have generally regarded the Near Eastern Neolithic
population as ancillary to what they view as the main event, atal Hiiyiik surpassed
Hassunan, Halafian, and even Samarran achievements. This precocious development and
early challenge to ancient Mesopotamian cultures will be the focus of this thesis and the
means by which to determine whether atal Hiiyiik stands as a proto-civilization. Far from
being a mere pastoral and agricultural antecedent, the Neolithic city of atal Hiiyiik stands
as testament to the potential of Stone Age man.
31
CHAPTER 4
THE SUBSYSTEMS OF CATAL HUYUK
Within this resource-rich and fertile region of the Anatolian Plateau, Catal Huyuk
rises as a great oval mound on the Konya Plain, rising fifty-seven feet above the
surrounding landscape. This thirty-two acre site slopes sharply on its long eastern and
western flanks, declines gently toward the south and descends into a lower secondary
hump at its northern end. Along the base of the eastern side of the mound is an extended
area of low-lying Neolithic occupation correlating to Catal Huyuks later phases of
habitation (Mellaart, Catal Huyiik 31 -32), While the ancient Neolithic site of Jericho has a
depositional depth of forty-five feet, Catal Hiiyiik extends to depths of sixty-five feet, but
archeologists have not yet excavated to virgin soil (Ozdogan and Basgelen 158).
Australian James Mellaart was the first to excavate this mound in 1961. Over the
course of four years, he opened a one-acre excavation on the western slope and proved that
even in early strata, Catal Huyiik was a city of substantial size. Mellaart labeled these
emerging levels, from the surface to the bottom, as Levels 0 through XII, with two
different building levels in VI: VI A and VIB fCatal Hiiyiik 49). Although Mellaarts
excavations of Catal Huyiik produced astonishing results, political intrigue between
Mellaart and the Turkish government subsequently stopped excavation for twenty-seven
years. By 1993, however, archeologist Ian Hodder and an international team initiated
collaboration with the British Institute of Archeology at Ankara and the McDonald
Institute for Archeology and resumed excavation of this large and intriguing Neolithic site.
Fig. 2. Neolithic Sites in Southern Anatolia and Sources of Raw Materials. Courtesy of Janies Mellaart, Catal Huvuk: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia
(London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 28-29.
33
Ian Hodder and Janies Mellaart, however, differ from one another scientifically and
philosophically, which is reflected in both their writing and their work at atal Hiiyiik. A
postprocessualist concerned with issues of inference, sampling, and research design,
Hodder emphasizes the importance of art and artifacts as clues to the cognition of early
man (Hodder, Reading the Past 156). His interpretations are multivocal (or multicultural)
and like the physicist, stress that the researcher cannot separate from the experiment and,
therefore, influences the interpretation.
Hodders multivocal perspectives are, in fact, in direct contrast to Mellaarts
Eurocentric interpretations. The postprocessualist world denies that there is one reality
(Hodder, Archaeological Theory 3-8). Hodder claims that undetached objectivity remain
an impossibility and that no single reality can be gleaned from the excavation of atal
Hiiyiik, but instead the site offers many realities (Reading 159-61; Kunzig 1-2). Because
of this, Hodder relies on the scientific observation by multivocal teams of archeologists as
they dig because, he believes, interpretation of cultural materials remains subjective, based
upon the context in which they are found and the social context of the excavator (Hodder,
Reading the Past 168).
Hodders perspective as the scientific researcher and theoretician is opposed to
Mellaarts expansive exploratory approach (Hodder, Archaeological Theory 1-5). While
Mellaart excavated the obvious artifacts and skeletal remains and assessed architectural
structures from a global perspective, Hodder focuses on minutia and often on that which
cannot be seen, but are visible through the lens of a microscope. Whereas Mellaart
excavated two hundred buildings in four seasons and Hodder only three in seven years,
34
Hodder believes his approach will yield a richer and deeper interpretation of atal Huyuks
complex social structure (Kunzig 2).
Although the focus on scientific analysis has revealed significant data that build on
Mellaarts work, Hodder has since stated that the preoccupation with the details of specific
houses should return to the bigger picture . . . and work on how the site as a whole was
organized (Matthews and Hodder, Câtalhovuk 1994 2). As Kenzig states, however, The
great risk [Hodder] runs is that the lack of quantity in his work will translate into lack of
quality: that he will never find enough evidence to say much of anything (4). In
Hodders opinion, however, analysis of archeological methodology is as important as the
excavation and discussion of the artifacts themselvesa viewpoint that renders his
archeology a protracted process (Hodder, Reading the Past 182-83).
The postprocessualist Hodder also assumes a more abstract theoretical stance than
did Mellaart, whose pragmatic theories were focused on interpreting the cultural materials
and inferring the social structure of atal Hiiyiik from these remains. Hodder, in contrast,
formulates social theories that he hopes can be proved by cultural materials. An example
is Hodders theory that before domestication of plants and animals occurred, humans had
to tame the brute within and the dangers associated with death, reproduction, and female
sexuality, all of which represented a cultural and psychological transition to sedentary
lifestyles (Kunzig 5). Hodder hopes to verify this theory through the evidence found
within the art of atal Huyiik (Kunzig 5). Some may argue, however, that Hodder loses
himself in expressionistic interpretation much as did abstract artist Jackson Pollock, whose
paintings say little, but are busy nonetheless.
35
That the general (Mellaarts work) has been followed by the specific (Hodders
archeology) has provided an insightful assessment of the cultural milieu of atal Hiiyiik.
Hodders work has shown exceptions to the general, thereby challenging the conception of
absolute uniformity characteristic of earlier research. Hodders archeological techniques,
while not as expansive as Mellaarts, are certainly more intensive and while the overall
plan of the city remains an enigma, much cultural material has emerged within the last
decade that is relevant to this thesis and is addressed in detail throughout the study.
Hodders theories, however, challenge Mellaarts interpretations of atal Hiiyiiks
material inventory; whereas Mellaart asserted the maximum potential of this Neolithic
population, Hodder denies atal Hiiyiiks complexity and compares it to the simple social
structure of primitive African tribes (Kunzig 4-5). Hodder believes, for example, that the
residents of atal Hiiyiik relied on hunting and gathering as much as they did farming,
based upon analysis of bone fragments of feral goats and the emergence of wild plant
remains discovered through the process of floatation. Domesticated food products,
however, were abundant throughout the site and visible to the naked eye and while atal
Hiiyiik probably had a mixed economy, it decidedly favored domesticated grains and
animals, as these products were present in greater quantities than were wild-crafted or feral
products. Large storage bins were a feature common to the homes throughout the site and
residents typically used them to store domesticated grains and legumes, which were
obviously a staple in the diet of this population. Ian Todd concurs with Mellaarts view as
well, stating that residents relied on domesticated cattle for meat, which comprised
approximately ninety percent of their animal protein intake (120).
36
Hodder also argues that there are no temples or palaces in Catal Hiiyiik and,
therefore, central leadership was unlikely, contrasting Mellaarts belief that the orderly
structure of Catal Hiiyiik demanded some form of central control. Instead, Hodder
believes that residents may have been ruled by clan leaders or their lives may have been
the product of simple ritual and taboo (Kunzig 5). Given the minimal areas of excavation
to date (less than five percent), this research concurs with Mehmet Ozdogan, who argues
that central administration and ceremonial centers cannot be definitively proved (or
refuted) based upon existing evidence (158). What challenges the imagination, however, is
how a densely-quartered population of six thousand could have co-existed without some
form of central management.
Hodder also posits that Mellaarts shrines were merely elaborate houses (which
could speak for stratification, which Hodder refutes) and, therefore, denies that there was a
priestly caste or organized religion (Kunzig 5). Thus, he disagrees with Mellaarts
conception that Catal Hiiyiik was a goddess community, arguing instead that the female
statuettes and elaborate reliefs represented not the divine, but domesticity (Kunzig 5).
Christopher Scarre and Brian Fagan, too, question whether Mellaarts shrines were truly
that or instead, richly decorated houses (62-63). Paul Wason also remains uncertain
whether Catal Hiiyiik engaged in goddess-centered worship (179).
Yet, despite challenges to Mellaarts interpretations of the artifacts, art, and
architecture of Catal Hiiyiik, his work remains integral to most scholarly critiques of Catal
Hiiyiiks culture because of the vast array of cultural materials his horizontal excavation
techniques revealed. Theoretical conflict, however, will continue until larger sections of
37
the mound are excavated and the overall design of the site begins to emerge, but with the
current techniques of Ian Hodder this is likely years away. In the interim, through the
diligent effort and theoretical challenges of scientists and archeologists, the archeological
inventory continues to grow and with it, insight into the cultural past that was Catal Huyiik.
It is the goal of this study to investigate the cultural materials excavated by
Mellaart and Hodder in an attempt to unite past and present research and gain partial
understanding of the social structure of Catal Hiiyiik. To achieve this goal, this chapter
topically categorizes Mellaarts and Hodders material inventories according to Childes
trait list, establishing a foundation for subsequent analysis through the systems-ecological
and social models in Chapters 5 and 6.
The Architectural Design of Catal Huyiik
as a Monumental Public Work
This prehistoric site lies along an ancient branch of the Carsamba River on the
northern frontiers of the Konya Plain, three thousand feet above sea level on the southern
boundary of the great salt depression at Tuz Golu. Although Mellaarts radiocarbon dates
indicate Catal Hiiyiiks settlement began between 6500 and 5400 B.C.E., American
dendrochronologist Maryanne Newton has deemed its founding closer to 7200 B.C.E.,
based upon analysis of juniper charcoal fragments removed from the base of the
excavation site (Pre-Sumerian Cultures 4-5). Scarre and Fagan concur (63), while
Ozdogan suggests initial occupation may predate this, as approximately 16.4 feet of earlier
settlement lies beneath Mellaarts lowest level (158). From this ancient foundation, Catal
Hiiyiik was to thrive for nearly sixteen hundred years and following its mysterious decline
38
by 5600 B.C.E., a smaller Chalcolithic mound grew to its west on the opposite bank of the
Carsamba River and throve for another seven hundred years (Matthews and Hodder,
Catalhovuk 1994 1-6).
Within the more ancient eastern mound, however, lies a honeycomb of contiguous,
rectangular structures constructed of sun-dried mud-brick that resemble the pueblos of the
American Southwest. New buildings were erected upon the carefully leveled foundations
of the old, were generally uniform in design (some had a smaller second story), and were
constructed around courtyards of varying sizes (Hamblin 49). The courtyards served as
community waste disposal sites that locals carefully sterilized with neutralizing ash to
minimize odor and prevent disease (Stevanovic 3).
Although it has been emphasized that residents gained access to their living
quarters through openings in flat roofs, 2003 excavations have revealed evidence of
ground-level entrances as well (Hodder, Catalhoviik News 6-7). Excavated roof surfaces,
however, smudged, scorched, and discolored, appeared to have been the main arena of
domestic activity during the summer season (Stevanovic 3). These well-made structures,
with foundations sunk significantly below floor level, had a series of small ventilating
windows cut into the upper walls and were constructed of local mud-brick and timber
from the Taurus Mountains, lying approximately seventy-five miles to the southeast
(Mellaart, Catal Huviik 55).
The interiors of the buildings contained built-in mud-brick sleeping platforms and
benches, and included sunken pit stoves and hearths for cooking and heating (Wason 176).
Residents plastered their interior walls with white or cream-colored clay, smoothed them
39
Fig. 3. Schematic Reconstruction of a Section of Level VI. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal Htiytlk:
A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 62.
Fig. 4. Diagrammatic View of Construction Technique at Catal Huyuk. Courtesy of James Mellaart,
Catal Htivuk: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 61.
Fig. 5. Building Plan - Level VI A. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal HUvtik: A Neolithic Town In
Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 58.
Fig. 6. Building Plan - Level VI B. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal Huvilk: A Neolithic
Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 59.
41
with polishers, and frequently painted them with naturalistic subjects and designs (Wason
176). Floors had plastered surfaces and occasionally supported a bucranium, which was a
small pillar of brick with horn cores and the facial features of a wild bull placed on top
(Mellaart, Catal Huvuk 65). Most buildings had a storeroom, some with dried-clay grain
bins approximately three feet high that were filled from the top and emptied through a
small opening at the base, so that the oldest grains and those most likely exposed to
dampness would be used first (Mellaart, Catal Huyiik 62).
Throughout Catal Hiiyiik, residents kept buildings meticulously clean and
renovated them inside and out on what appears to have been an annual basis, with locals
obviously taking civic pride in their orderly and well-planned city (Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik
54-65). Some buildings had as many as one hundred layers of plaster on their walls,
indicating frequent and possibly seasonal re-plastering (Fairservis 153). Mellaart, in fact,
reported that annual re-plastering during summer months of the high-maintenance sun-
dried brick dwellings continued in the Anatolian region of Turkey even as he excavated
Catal Hiiyiik (Catal Hiiyiik 49). Mehmet Ozdogan supports Mellaarts claims of annual re
plastering based upon dendrochronological sequence studies completed by Kuniholm and
Newton in 1996 (159-60).
Residents built these once-meticulous structures of near identical design with
standardized sun-dried bricks and squared timber framing that was eventually replaced
with internal buttresses in Level II (Mellaart, Catal Hiiviik 64). The interiors are uniform
as well, with kitchen and hearth on southern walls and flat-topped ovens set partly into the
wall (Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 56). Kitchen spaces occupy one-third of the domestic space
42
and a small square platform was placed in the northeastern corner; a large platform with a
bench on its southern end was constructed on the eastern wall and flanked by two wooden
posts that were often painted red (Mellaart, Catal Huyiik 56-58). An additional platform
was located in the southwestern corner close to the oven. This was the arrangement of
buildings constructed on a northern to southerly axis. Those with an east-west orientation
have a somewhat different, but uniform design, but the large platform and bench remain
against eastern walls (Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 58-60).
Adjacent to obvious residences, Mellaart excavated forty buildings in his one-acre
site that appear to be religious shrines, not because of structural differences, but because of
the elaborate and extensive art that adorns the walls and floor spaces of these ornate and
mysterious enclaves. This research concurs with Mellaarts interpretation that these
buildings were indeed shrines (Catal Hiivuk 77-130). Some have speculated that they were
elaborate homes; if homes, however, they would have been hazardous and inconvenient for
activities of daily living, particularly if small children were present. One could easily have
become impaled with a misstep on the numerous, centrally-placed bucrania and massive
horn cores lining platforms. Bulls heads complete with horns protruding at floor level
from walls would have impeded ambulation and these elaborate homes, if that is what they
were, would not have been conducive to family life.
43
Fig. 7. Restoration of the Eastern and Southern Walls of Shrine VI. 14. Courtesy of James Mellaart,
Catal Hilytlk: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 121.
Fig. 8. Decoration of Northern and Eastern Walls of Shrine VI A.8 Courtesy of James Mellaart,
Catal Hitvuk: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 28-29.
44
Although it has been long reported that little variation existed in the architectural
design of the city, evidence is emerging to the contrary. In Level II, Mellaart and his team
excavated a tower-like structure that is filled with enormous quantities of burnt mud-brick
that also extend externally from the structure, indicating this tower was taller than the
surrounding complex fâtal Hiivuk 69-70).
Lying north of what appears to be two shrines separated by an open passage, this
tower-like structure obstructs entry into Catal Huyiik. To its immediate left lies a crooked
cul-de-sac that leads to a series of storerooms that are neither extensions of homes nor
shrines.
Additional anomalies occur in a forty-by-forty meter surface excavation (hence
labeled the 4040 site) that was begun in 2003 which revealed open linear areas of varying
widths that appear as possible streets or alleys (Lyon and Taylor 2). Whether these linear
spaces end abruptly or change course beyond the boundaries of the 4040 site is uncertain,
but the first street runs in a north-south direction with two separate linear spaces
intersecting at right angles from the southern section. These open linear spaces range in
width from twenty feet to a mere twelve inches, although the narrow sections may have
been the result of later building encroachment. The overall plan in the 4040 area suggests
buildings formed distinct sectors separated by streets.
Wall thickness varies between these sectors as well, possibly as a means to control
internal temperatures in a region of climatic extremes or as an indicator of social
inequality. Wall thickness, however, remains uniform within the sector and the consistent
orientation of buildings within each sector differs from those of other sectors and suggests
45
definite planning (Matthews and Hodder, Catalhoviik 1994 3-6). There is nothing
haphazard or random regarding building placement; it appears that construction and the
linear spaces were organized into uniform sectors and a functional whole. Planning would
also have been essential to construct buildings so that their outer surfaces created a
contiguous, unbroken wall around the periphery of the site. Whether this was for defense
against an unknown enemy or protection against predatory animals is unclear, but it was
certainly not without purpose. It is significant that such architectural anomalies exist
within the general uniformity of the site given that archeologists have excavated such a
small portion of the overall mound, and suggests that the anomalies may not be so
anomalous after all.
Catal Hiiyiiks enormous size by ancient standards, the continuity of its
construction, and the obvious planning, skill, and organization suggest some form of
central organization for this collective enterprise of such massive proportions. atal
Hiiyiiks architecture was not a conglomeration of individual wills, but represented an
organized whole with a unified theme. Where variation did exist, as it typically does in
large urban centers, it was skillfully woven into the fabric of the city with a general trend
that seemed to take a global perspective. The architecture of atal Hiiyuk represents a
public work of monumental proportions, as the mass and continuity of its construction
would have likely required central organization, wealth, and large-scale community effort
over an extended period. The determination to judge a structure monumental, however,
can be subjective, but it is the interpretation of this research that the cohesive architectural
design of atal Hiiyiik meets that criterion.
46
Population Density of atal Hiiyiik
While scholars do not dispute that atal Hiiyiik was a complex community, there
remains a variance in population estimates, differing significantly according to the
analytical assessment used by researchers. As one of the markers for urbanization is a
concentrated population in excess of five thousand, it is significant to this study and its
conclusions that atal Hiiyiik meets this criterion (Redman 215). It is critical, therefore,
for the argument that atal Hiiyiik is a proto-civilization that an attempt be made to
determine its maximum population.
Most estimates of atal Hiiyiiks population are based upon the work of James
Mellaart, who postulated a head count of approximately six thousand in Levels VI A and
VIB and possibly others, but emphasized that this may be a conservative figure, with the
population nearer, in fact, to ten thousand (The Neolithic 99; Fairservis 158). Archeologist
Ian Hodder concurs with Mellaarts estimation, claiming that the site likely supported a
population of five to ten thousand residents (Kunzig 4). Both Mellaart and Hodder base
their population estimates on the size and number of sleeping platforms found throughout
excavated areas of the mound, as well as Mellaarts assumption of three to eight persons
per household (Fairservis 157). This per-household range, however, is significant and
results in wide disparity between population estimates.
Walter Fairservis, for example, assumed a per-household count of five people and
by multiplying the one-acre estimates of Mellaarts site by the overall acreage of the
mound, concluded that the population was forty-five hundred for Levels VI A and VIB
(157). Fairserviss estimates, however, appear low according to physical anthropologist J.
47
Lawrence Angel, who proposed a population in excess of five thousand people (Angel 88).
Based upon Angels analysis of the skeletal remains found within atal Hiiyiik, he
concluded that the birthrate steadily grew to 4.2 births as female longevity increased to
29.8 years, thereby inferring six people per family unit (77-80). Others, however, such as
Dora Hamblin (43) and The Middle East and Inner Asia World Wide Web Research
Institute, report a population of six thousand (Pre-Sumerian Cultures 5). Louis De La
Haba estimates at least five thousand residents (38), while Colin Renfrew argues that the
population was nearer to four thousand (Approaches 90).
This study, however, assumes a mid-range population figure. Given the consistent
contour of the thirty-two acre mound and the architectural density within the excavated
areas, it is likely that the overall density is relatively consistent with the excavated regions.
It seems, therefore, that a population of ten thousand would have been more probable than
Colin Renfrews conservative projection. This high estimate, however, does not take into
account the possibility of a commercial center. Nor does it address whether Mellaarts
area was a religious district or shrines are located throughout the mound, but unless they
were inhabited as homes, population estimates could assume a more conservative figure. It
is the contention of this study that shrines were not inhabited as households, as they were
of an architectural complexity not conducive to domestic activities. Considering these
factors, it seems a population of ten thousand would have been too high and that a mid
range projection and not the extremes represent the most probable approximation.
48
Population Diversity and Non-Kinship
Residency
That the social organization of Catal Hiiyiik was based upon residence and not
kinship is evident, not just deduced by population size, but by the human remains that
include two distinct racial strains: the dolichocephalic Proto-Mediterranean and the taller
brachycephalic (Wason 157). It is likely that the dolichocephalic type in which the breadth
of the skull is typically seventy-five percent or less of its length, dominated the Anatolian
plateau and the Mediterranean basin where the dolichocephalic may have had Paleolithic
roots (The Mediterranean Ch. 2).
Research has shown through examination of ancient Anatolian skulls from the third
millennium B.C.E. that they were predominately dolichocephalic with an admixture of
brachycephalic skulls, trending toward increased brachycephalic types with the passage of
time (The Mediterranean Ch. 2). Brachycephalic populations, with skulls generally
wider than eighty percent of their length, were likely later arrivals to the region of
Anatolia, migrating from possible origins within the western Asian plateau (Stinson 1;
The Mediterranean Ch. 2). atal Hiiyiiks mixed racial types suggest movement of
unrelated people over extended distances and coupled with trade, produced the diffusion
and syncretism that were precursors to Catal Hiiyiiks technological and artistic
advancement over that of its village neighbors.
A Scientific Revolution in Agriculture
It was, in fact, this heterogeneous population that accounted, in part, for Catal
Hiiyiiks inventiveness and enhanced their engagement and success in one of the greatest
49
technological feats of historythe genetic manipulation and selective breeding of plants
and animals. This was scientifically revolutionary for the Neolithic population and Catal
Hiiyiik in particular, for they were not feeding a village of two hundred, but a city at least
six thousand strong. The successful husbandry required to meet the needs of a community
as large as Catal Hiiyiik demanded an in-depth knowledge of crop management based upon
sound, scientific principles.
Catal Hiiyiiks farmers, in fact, cultivated over fourteen food plants, including
emmer and einkorn wheat, bitter vetch and peas, and a variety of other domesticated plants
that throve on the fertile alluvial belts and fan plains of the Carsamba River (Mellaart,
Catal Hiiyiik 164). Few other sites, Mellart notes, have preserved such an abundance
and variety of foodstuffs (221). In order to produce the enormous quantities of
domesticated plant foods needed by Catal Hiiyiik, these early farmers may have developed
a man-drawn plow or plow adze given the evidence for hoes and highly skilled
woodworkers (Fairservis 164).
Catal Hiiyiiks agricultural successes, however, were continually challenged and
tempered by the fertile, yet harsh climate of the Konya Basin. The annual rainfall in this
semiarid region is the lowest in Turkey, with an average of twelve inches per year falling
in May and then November in the form of frozen precipitation (Mellaart, Catal Htivtik 49).
Charles Redman has suggested that Catal Hiiyiiks population may have engaged in simple
irrigation to ensure a predictable harvest of domesticated bread-wheat and naked six-row
barley, both of which have somewhat high water requirements (183). Barley, in particular,
is a difficult crop to grow even under optimum conditions. A heavy rain can destroy a
50
crop on the best-tended land and harvesting is challenging and time-consuming, as the
grain adheres tightly to the straw and is difficult to separate. Domesticated barley requires
well-plowed soil and a hospitable climate, all of which makes it a labor-intensive and
precarious crop, particularly so for prehistoric man. In dry climates where the crop is not
irrigated, an imperfect grain develops and although barley is an adaptable crop, it does best
in temperate and tropical climates (Barley 2). The oldest form of barley is two-row
hulled, which has a lower protein content than naked six-row, which serves well as animal
feed or malt (Barley 2). While barley was known to Jericho, it was the two-row variety
that was predominant during the Pre-Pottery (PPN) and Pottery Neolithic eras and Proto-
Urban phases. The six-row variety, which was grown in Catal Hiiyiik, became widely
cultivated during the early Bronze Age when irrigation practices had become widespread
(Kenyon and Holland 2).
The evidence for irrigation technology in Catal Hiiyiik is inconclusive, however,
and opinion varies as to whether residents actually engaged in this practice (Redman 183;
Fairservis 164). By 8000 B.C.E., modern climatic conditions prevailed in the Anatolian
region and while the land was certainly fertile and subject to seasonal flooding during the
summer growing season, conditions were semiarid and unless bread wheat and naked six-
row barley were grown at waters edge, some form of irrigation was probable. At the least,
hand-carried watering would have been necessary and while this may have sufficed for a
small village, it would have proved impractical for a community the size of Catal Hiiyiik.
As this proto-city had skilled engineers, plentiful food supplies that included water-hungry
51
grains, and farmers who possessed the acumen for innovation, this research assumes the
likelihood of simple irrigation practices.
Surplus and Storage
Although climactic conditions are unpredictable on the Konya Plain, no evidence
of malnutrition has surfaced in Catal Hiiyiiks lengthy history, suggesting some means of
surplus management in the form of centralized storage and distribution. Since Jericho, an
advanced but smaller Neolithic community than Catal Hiiyiik, had large communal bins for
food and water storage, it seems probable that Catal Hiiyiik had developed the cognitive
wherewithal at least to provide for its population during climatic extremes (De La Haba
32-44). In fact, as Mellaart excavated near what appears an entrance into Catal Hiiyiik, he
notes the numbers of emergent shrines and homes, but fails to indicate the number of
multiple storerooms he located that were separate from these other buildings (Mellaart,
Catal Hiiyiik 70-71). It may be that these distinct spaces of undetermined number were
centralized storage facilities and distribution sites and may be present in unexcavated
regions of the mound as well. In fact, it would seem critical for survival of a community
this size to have at least reserves for feeding its population. Alternate drought and flooding
certainly occurred which would have affected annual crop yields, but it appears that
residents or possibly a managerial elite had provisions to protect Catal Hiiyiik from food
shortages. Resource management of crop yields would likely have demanded some form
of centralized authority to have effectively stored and distributed food products to a large
population that seemed characterized by order, stability, and efficiency.
52
Labor Specialization
In a proto-urban environment the size of Catal Hiiyiik, the technological and
artistic skills that are often a byproduct of large population centers propelled Catal Hiiyiik
beyond the realm of mere agricultural society. It is unlikely that all residents could have
been all things, that they would have been skilled carpenters, miners, brick-makers, potters
and traders, as well as farmers and hunters. In fact, had each family been responsible for
their own crop production, there would likely have been little time for the maintenance and
construction of architecture, for hunting, animal husbandry, or the production of products
required by such a large community. Excavation has revealed delicate wooden artifacts,
symmetrical pottery, symbolic art of varied media, exquisite obsidian and flint weapons, as
well as copper and lead jewelry. Residents manufactured obsidian mirrors with perfectly
polished surfaces and beads (including obsidian) with core openings so small a modern
needle cannot pass through that defy explanation of Neolithic technology (Hamblin 59-60;
Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 211). The quality and quantities of the cultural inventory are such
that production was likely not home-based or part-time and although craft quarters have
yet to be located, this is not surprising given the limited excavation that has occurred to
date. In this large population center, a haphazard array of individuals with varied skill
levels could not have created the consistent and highly skilled artifacts produced by this
community for sixteen hundred years. Instead, Catal Hiiyiik appears to have been not only
an agricultural community, but a wealthy manufacturing center with adequate surplus and
talented and imaginative artisans.
Even more intriguing, however, was the development of the art of metallurgy and
53
Fig. 9. Ceremonial Flint Dagger with Carved Bone Flandle. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal FlUviik:
A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) XIV.
Fig. 10. Black Limestone and Lead Beaded Necklace. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal HiiyUk: A
Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 104.
54
Fig. 12. Spouted Dish of Red Sandstone from Shrine VI A.8
Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal Httviik: A Neolithic Town In
Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 109-112.
Fig. 11. Examples of Catal Hiiyiik Pottery. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal Htiviik: A Neolithic Town In
Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 109-112.
55
Fig. 13. Characteristic Wooden Vessels from Levels VI A and VI B. Courtesy of James Mellaart,
Catal Huvuk: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 215.
Fig. 14. Clay Statuettes of Female Forms, Possibly Goddesses. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal
Huvttk: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 184.
56
smelting in Catal Hiiyiik by the late seventh millennium B.C.E. (YofFee and Clark 241).
This process was not to be replicated on a grand scale following the abandonment of Catal
Hiiyuk for another two thousand years and in the interim what little that was produced was
simple jewelry of hammered native copper (Heskel 362). In Catal Hiiyiik, from Level IX
(ca 6400 B.C.E.) and each subsequent level, metal objects have been found predominantly
in burial sites and include copper and lead beads, tubes, rings, and what appear to be small
tools (Heskel 362). The production of such objects requires knowledge and skill, is labor
and resource-intensive, and was probably not the domain of the farmer or brick-maker. It
appears, given that metal objects were not traded to the extent of obsidian products and that
most metal objects were ornamental, that they were likely prestige items and important,
therefore, for status and not product value (Heskel 365). Catal Hiiyiik, however, was not
unique in early metal use, as Neolithic Anatolian Hacilar, Suberde, and Cayonu also
produced hammered copper products (YofFee and Clark 241-42). Catal Hiiyiik was
unique, however, in the early smelting of ores.
Residents, too, were unparalleled in their production of textiles. Prior to
excavation of Catal Hiiyiik, archeologists believed a swatch of seven-thousand-year-old
linen found in El Faiyum, Egypt to be the oldest example of woven cloth (Hamblin 71-72).
The historical time-line rent when archeologists found small squares of carbonized fabric
in Catal Hiiyiik in Levels VI A and VIB, dated to 6000 B.C.E. This fabric was not crude
or rough in texture, but instead was as fine as modern lightweight wool, with a thread
count of thirty to thirty-eight per inch (Hamblin 72). Catal Hiiyiik fabric, although
originally thought to be wool, has since been identified as comprised of bast fibers through
Fig. 15. Textile Found in Burial Site in Shrine VI.1. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal
Hiiviik: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 94.
Fig. 16. Cloth Tapes Used for Ties and in Burial Practices. Courtesy of James Mellaart, Catal
Httviik: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 116.
58
electron microscopic technology and, therefore, likely linen (Mallett 4). Although flax
does not grow well in soils subject to drought or those high in soluble salts, archeologists
have excavated flax seeds in Neolithic sites in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia, carbon
dated from 8000-6000 B.C.E. (Padraic 1). Whether atal Huyiiks soils were conducive to
its cultivation or they traded this product is not known, but they did have access to this
fiber and may have possessed the technology to convert it to fabric. From the fabrics that
have been found, they appear to have been woven on either a primitive vertical warp-
weighted loom or a horizontal ground loom, although none has been excavated and only
one spindle whorl has been found to date (Hamblin 60).
It is likely that some atal Hiiyiik residents did weave their own fabric and,
therefore, would have possessed the knowledge and technological skills to produce kilims,
the small colorfully woven rugs that Turkish locals continue to make in modern Anatolia.
While Mellaart described many of the geometric wall paintings as copies of kilim patterns
and, therefore, indicative of their production, some researchers have taken issue with this
interpretation, claiming these wall designs are not replicable on the weavers loom (Mallett
8-9). Ignoring the artistic controversy that challenges Mellaarts view and instead focusing
on technological capability, from the smooth and tightly-spun fabric that has been
excavated, it would have been but a small, innovational step toward the weaving of the
kilim.
Although females may have prepared cloth and kilims for their familys use, it is
significant that no evidence for such effort has been found, save one spindle whorl.
Multiple wooden artifacts have been excavated, particularly those carbonized by the
59
periodic fires that raged in atal Hiiyiik. It seems likely, therefore, that had weaving been
a generalized practice among households, some evidence would have survived. Whether
textile production was a specialized industry is uncertain, but there is no indication that
locals produced the fabrics in the homes in which they were found.
The only concrete evidence suggesting labor specialization, however, is the large
outdoor ovens excavated by Mellaart in building Levels IV and V with diameters of 4.8 to
5.9 feet and built of mud-bricks set on edge (Catal Htivuk 63). Their great size suggests a
commercial purpose, as they were too large for single family use, too large to have been
placed indoors, and heat generation too intense for a closed environment. Although
researchers cannot prove that labor was specialized at this time, indicators suggest that it
was possible. atal Hiiyiik was a large community with a large appetite for product, as
indicated by the great array of artifacts found in homes throughout the site, yet
archeologists have found no evidence for home-based manufacturing within any
of the excavated buildings.
Trade and Raw Materials
Labor specialization may also have been a product of the trading economy that
flourished within Catal Hiiyiik. Archeologists have found surpluses of raw obsidian and
obsidian artifacts throughout excavated areas, with large deposits of used and unused tools
and weapons cached beneath floors of shrines and houses, although there is no evidence of
the manufacturing process. Their placement suggests they may have been in bags and
were intended for retrieval. While unfinished materials lie alongside finished products and
include blanks and cores, none of these finished tools is of the quality of those excavated
60
from burial sites (Wason 166). Quarried in large quantities from the Anatolian Plateau,
obsidian likely supplemented the economy of Qatal Hiiyiik, as there is evidence of
Anatolian obsidian found at many Near Eastern Neolithic sites and as far away as Jericho
(De La Haba 41-42). Archeologists suspect that raw materials were mined by Qatal
Hiiyiik residents, but that even greater quantities were imported from distant sources which
were likely traded for finished products (Hamblin 59).
Qatal Hiiyiik was obviously a city of wealth and aside from quantities of grains,
tubers, and legumes, plaster, wood, reeds, and mud-brick, all other commodities were at
least a days journey from Qatal Hiiyuk proper (Fairservis 168). Obsidian and flint,
materials for beads, statuettes, paints, and metals had to be imported from distances great
for a peripatetic people (Mellaart, The Neolithic 105). Paleobotanical evidence also
indicates that well-nourished Qatal Hiiyiik residents used almonds, acorns, pistachios,
apples, juniper, and hackberry, most of which were native to the Taurus mountains and
may have been imported for trade from neighboring villages that had ready access to these
products (Mellaart, Qatal Hiiyiik 224). Whether locals traded with traveling merchants or
procured products via pack animals is uncertain, but most of the abundant raw materials
that archeologists have found in Qatal Hiiyuk were not indigenous to the Konya Basin
(Wason 167-68).
Contemporaneous Neolithic sites on the southern Anatolian Plateau were
numerous, although with the exception of Qatal Hiiyuk, all were at best little more than
villages. With Qatal Hiiyiik centrally located amongst them, there was likely frequent
contact, attested by minerals that were native to various village sites, yet found in
61
abundance in Catal Hiiyuk. Copper came from a lake region approximately eighty miles to
the west, which was populated by at least ten Neolithic villages (Mellaart, Catal Hiivtik 28-
29). Flint was located on the eastern flank of the Taurus Mountains in settled regions of
northern Syria; alabaster came from Erciyes Dag, nearly one hundred fifty miles to the
northeast (Mellaart, Catal Hiiyuk 28-29). Galena and other ores were available to
contemporary Neolithic communities in a radius of eighty miles surrounding Catal Hiiyiik
(Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 28-29). It can be inferred, therefore, that these Neolithic village
dwellers had contact with Catal Hiiyiik and that trading was an integral part of the
Anatolian economy, with Catal Hiiyiik representing a likely trading base.
Symbolism in Art, Burial Practices,
and Abstract Concepts
As significant as was trade to Catal Hiiyiiks economy, so too was their religious
symbolic expression, manifested in artistic media throughout the opened portions of the
mound. Whether the forty shrines excavated by Mellaart represent a religious center and
territorial spiritual authority or were simply for local benefit is unknown; however, there
are striking similarities between the small clay figurines found in Catal Hiiyuk and those of
Neolithic Gritille (Kuijt 277). Catal Hiiyiiks goddess reliefs, too, are similar to those of
Gobekli Tepe and Nevali Cori, with upright arms and legs and swollen bodies (Kuijt 274).
These Anatolian sites appeared to share certain types of symbolic expression that had
diffused throughout this region.
Catal Hiiyiik, however, was unique among Neolithic cultures in its quantity and
variety of symbolic media. Most artistic expression, however, appears to be of a spiritual
62
context, centered on a female deity associated with fertility and agriculture (Hamblin 54-
55). Female statuettes, carved from stalactites from distant caves or modeled in clay, some
of which are centered between leopard motifs, appear to represent a powerful earth mother
and all things fertile. In Levels VI A and VIB, artisans engraved full-figured animal
reliefs into thickly-plastered walls, but symbolism that is more ancient exists as well
(Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 101-05). Archeologists excavated wall paintings and plaster reliefs
of animal heads in Level X; by Level IX, intaglios of animal heads began to adorn the
walls of shrines and in Level VII, the all-important goddess and bucrania first appeared as
components of Catal Hiiyuks symbolic art (Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 84, 101).
Whatever the medium, however, Catal Hiiyiiks artistic expression conveyed
abstruse symbolic meaning, particularly in its contrasting symbols of life and death, a
theme found in shrines throughout Mellaarts excavations. The forty shrines of Mellaarts
area exhibited combinations of elaborate and symbolic wall paintings that included such
examples as life-sized vultures with outspread wings feasting on headless corpses. The
symbolism of the headless corpses is unknown, but the overall theme suggests death and
may illustrate the preliminary burial ritual of excarnation (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 166-68).
In all vulture scenes, human figures are disproportionately small in comparison to vultures,
suggesting perhaps the power of death over life. While this size variance may project an
essence of fearfulness in the face of death, these paintings surely inspired awe in the
residents of Catal Hiiyiik.
As important as were themes of death, residents likewise celebrated the living,
fertility, and possibly unknown goddesses. Human females are often depicted with legs
63
parted, suggesting the act of childbirth, with bulls heads located alongside or beneath the
childbearing females, signifying perhaps, male and female fertility, a goddess, or a position
of leadership. It seems that the shrines were used for ritualistic purposes, likely during
ceremonies, as paintings and reliefs rarely survived a year without being replastered and
then repainted (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 132; Redman 185). Reliefs, however, while
repainted, maintained their original form throughout the life of the building.
Walls were decorated with unusual designs similar to the kilim patterns of modern
Turkey; others had repeating series of handprints alternating in red and black, reminiscent
of Upper Paleolithic cave art and symbolic perhaps of creation, the harvest, and the
community. The most significant symbolic wall paintings in Catal Hiiyuk, however, are
the hunting scene murals and what is perhaps the worlds oldest landscape painting.
(Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 132-149). Artists created these paintings freehand with very fine
brushes and their work reflects a degree of cognitive sophistication not seen elsewhere in
the Neolithic milieu (Hamblin 50).
Mellaart excavated naturalistic hunting scene murals that included various
combinations of human figures, stags, and bulls in four shrines, present only in Levels IV
and III ((âtal Hiiyiik 149). These joyous and lively works of art incorporated action
scenes of hunters, acrobats, and dancers, some clothed in leopard and other animal skins
and others bare (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 172-175). Included among these participants of the
hunt are headless hunters, reflecting perhaps, the importance of dead ancestors who may
have been viewed as active participants in the life cycle of the residents of Catal Hiiyiik.
64
Perhaps the most intriguing of Catal Hiiyuks wall paintings is that excavated by
Mellaarts team in Level VII, shrine VII. 14 (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 176). An unknown
artist created a series of rectangular, terraced buildings at the base of a wall panel, with a
twin-peaked volcanic mountain directly above the honeycombed buildings. Archeologists
speculate that the mountain may be that of twin-peaked Hasan Dag, eighty miles to the
north of Catal Hiiyiik and extinct since the second millennium B.C.E. (Mellaart, Catal
Hiivuk 176-177). This prehistoric painting reflects a primitive sense of perspective in that
it creates an illusion of foreground objects that are disproportionately larger than the
distant mountain. Ian Hodder challenges Mellaarts interpretation of this painting as a
landscape, however, claiming instead that the mountain may be representational of a
stretched animal hide (Kunzig 5). In any event, Hodder concludes that the outpouring of
creativity expressed through artistic media was nothing short of astounding and reflects
perhaps, Catal Hiiyiiks greatest achievement (Kunzig 5).
In contrast to wall paintings, artistic reliefs of deities and animals are ubiquitous
throughout the shrines. There is also an abundance, but to a lesser degree, of bucrania,
benches set with horn cores of bulls, cult statues, and human skulls found resting on
interior platforms and not in their customary burial locations beneath them. Although
families exposed the majority of the deceased to the elements and vultures for excarnation
(probably on elevated platforms), recent excavations have revealed fleshed burials as well,
perhaps indicating cultural diversity or status (Mellaart, Catal Huvtik 204; Hodder, On the
Surface 1). Family members often wrapped the deceased in cloth or animal skins, interring
65
adult males against northeastern walls and women and children under the main platform
along the eastern walls of houses and shrines (Fairservis 155).
Residents typically buried the dead on their left sides in contracted positions, with
most burials accompanied by containers of food, appearing to express symbolic belief in
an afterlife (Fairservis 155). Not all were buried in this position, however. Some were
buried extended or sitting upright, which was likely a sign of status due to the intensive
energy requirements associated with these burials (Wason 159). Most burials, however,
were devoid of gifts except for food offerings, but when gifts were placed, female burials
were more elaborate than male and included varied combinations of cosmetics, obsidian
mirrors, large amounts of jewelry, and tools such as cooking implements or sewing needles
(Fairservis 155-56). Men, in contrast, had few items of jewelry, but grave gifts included
weapons, sickle blades, and hooks and eyes for closure of clothing (Fairservis 156). In the
Hunting Shrine, so called because male-dominated hunting scene murals adorn the walls,
residents buried only women and children beneath the shrines platforms (Fairservis 187).
This provocative symbolism defies interpretation, but there was decided planning in this
burial format.
Obsidian mirrors also appear to have symbolic content, for they are found only in
shrines and with female burials, while polished-bone belt fasteners that probably closed
ceremonial leopard skins have been located with male burials beneath shrine platforms
(carbonized skin and fur has been found on male shrine skeletons) (Fairservis 156,
Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 79). It is unlikely that the Anatolian leopard population could have
dressed the entire community; therefore, there was likely a powerful symbolic connotation
66
to these skins, possibly worn by an elite, priestly caste. Ochre burials, where skulls or
entire skeletons were painted with red ochre or mercury oxide, were also confined to shrine
burials, with only 2.75 percent of the population thus interred, conveying, perhaps, some
form of status, possibly that of priestly lineage (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 207).
Given the number of burials that have been found to date, the skeletal remains are
few when compared to the overall population. While exact totals are not given for current
excavations, within Mellaarts one acre of densely clustered buildings, covering a span in
excess of one thousand years, only four hundred skeletal remains have been found
(Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 207). Of these, infant burials were infrequent and significantly
more female than male burials have been excavated. This suggests the possibility of
cemeteries on the outskirts of the community and if so, may imply status to those buried
within buildings, particularly the symbolically laden shrines.
While the decorations are in themselves emblematic, so too is their placement
within these buildings. Murals occurred on all walls except southerly ones, which
typically edged a utilitarian space. Death scenes of preying vultures were painted on
northern and eastern walls, below which and under platforms, the dead were buried. Birth
scenes occurred on western walls and bulls on northern walls facing the Taurus Mountains
(Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 104). Animal heads and goddesses occurred on any wall, but
animal heads associated with red painted niches were placed on eastern walls (Fairservice
151). As shrines were mysteriously abandoned, however, wall paintings were obliterated
with layers of whitewash and plaster reliefs were consistently rendered symbolically
innocuous with the destruction of faces, hands, and feet (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 82).
67
Animal heads and bucrania were defaced or obliterated from the wall or flooronly when
a shrine was destroyed by sudden fire was the artwork left intact (Mellaart, Catal Hiiviik
83).
The residents of Catal Hiiyiik used color in palettes of bold and subtle shades,
many of which may have had symbolic content. Locals not only applied paint to walls in
stylized art, but to reliefs, skeletons, statuettes, wood, baskets, and finally pottery and the
color red played a significant role in each of these. Symbolic perhaps of blood and life, it
appears to have had a protective function through an ability to ward off evil. Red paint
was applied throughout the city to architectural structures such as panels, posts, niches,
doorways, and sometimes to benches, platforms, and reliefsa tradition that has survived
in the region to the present day (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 149). This same symbolism is
likely regarding red ochre burials and there is evidence of red thread stains in broken beads
in a non-ochre burial, suggesting the use of red fabric (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 150). Black
wall panels, in contrast, have been found beneath a vulture painting in a shrine in Level VII
and imply an association with death. Artists frequently alternated their work and designs
in colors of red and black, possibly representing a symbolic cycle of life and death.
There were other forms of symbolic expression in prehistoric Catal Hiiyiik,
however, that were not of a spiritual nature. While a known precursor to the written form
in later cultures, the baked clay seals found in Catal Hiiyiik and their symbolic designs may
have been used as dye patterns for fabric or skin. Although their significance is uncertain,
in later civilizations they marked documents, personal property, and correspondence,
indicating a form of signature or ownership. What is certain, however, is that no excavated
Fig. 17. Baked Clay Seals Excavated from Level VI B to Level II. Courtesy of James Mellaart,
Catal Huvuk: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1967) 121.
69
seals in atal Hviyiik are duplicates and no house contained more than one seal design,
suggesting their use may have had a symbolic function, not a decorative one, and possibly
denoted private ownership or family name (Wason 170). It may well be that their
symbolic function was not so unlike seal use in the succeeding Mesopotamian civilization.
It also appears that atal Huyiiks residents had a rudimentary concept of
mathematical abstraction, as Fairservis writes there is a direct correlation between
complexity of weaving and sophistication of arithmetic understanding (147-48).
Likewise, laborers appeared not to have manufactured more bricks than necessary for any
given project, thus displaying abilities for not only addition and subtraction, but possibly
multiplication as well (Fairservis 147-48).
Research suggests evidence of mathematical ability surmised from the numerous
sheep astragali (anklebones) that archeologists have found throughout the excavated
regions of atal Hiiyuk (De La Haba 44). This is the only animal bone strewn about the
site; all others were meticulously disposed of in courtyards or midden; thus, it can be
surmised that astragali were not waste, but served a specific Sanction. A childs game that
is played in modern Turkey with sheep astragali, based upon an accumulating point system
according to which side of the tossed bones land upright, may have a long history, indeed.
One can infer that if the children of atal Hiiyiik had the capacity and training to score or
count, the adult population certainly possessed a more complex system that would have
been employed in the management of a large economic center. Hence, there was likely
some symbolic concept of numbers and possibly some form for their representation.
70
Ranking and Social Stratification
That atal Hiiyiiks culture was ripe with symbolic expression is a matter of
record. Social stratification, however, is not, and while at this point researchers cannot
prove its presence, indicators may suggest it. Although atal Hiiyuk was a stable society,
it was not an egalitarian one. Egalitarian societies are almost exclusively hunting and
gathering bands with little, if any, specialization and subsistence resource management
remains a household matter, with an economy based upon reciprocity (Redman 201).
atal Hiiyiik, in contrast, appears to have had a highly productive economy based upon
specialized labor and trade, while food and material products were diverse and abundant.
atal Hiiyiiks importation of exotic materials for ritual use appear to have been unequally
distributed, given their disproportionate or exclusive placement in shrine burials and
suggests access denied to large segments of the population (Lamberg-Karlovsky and
Sabloff 89). It appears that those in shrine interments were better provided for than those
of domestic burials, most of whom had no grave gifts at all (Mellaart, atal Huviik 207).
The comparison of non-shrine burials suggests a more pervasive inequality, however, as
some domestic burials were, in fact, quite well provided. Burials have been found in
domestic quarters with the necks of skeletons painted bright azurite or wearing blue and
green apatite beads and are accompanied by a rich assortment of grave goods, suggesting
that status was not only associated with shrine burials, but throughout the general
population as well and may indicate economic stratification (Mellaart, (âtal Hiiyuk 208).
The role of hereditary status is also implicit in the infrequent artifact-rich burials of
newborns. As the ratio of newborns to the general burial population is exceedingly low, it
71
suggests that newborn burials were for those of special status with ties to families of
importance (Wason 161). Whether deceased infants were buried in cemeteries or possibly
exposed to the elements and animals is not known, as extensive surveys of atal Hiiyuks
surrounding terrain have not been done. Early status implications are also reflected in an
ochre shrine burial excavated in Level VIII of a young female interred in a basket and
accompanied by large quantities of jewelry (Wason 161). Near her was a young male,
approximately twenty-one years old, sitting in an upright position (several upright burials
have been found elsewhere) and wrapped in fiber with necklaces, bone jewelry, and an
intricate and finely-made white-veined blue limestone mace-head. The skulls and long
bones of many mice and a shrew, some of which appear to have been purposely encased
within the fiber, also surrounded him (Wason 161). It seems this architecturally unique
shrine was erected over these young people following their deaths and their graves appear
marked by a painted platform and orange panel complete with libation hole directly above
them (Wason 161-62). This privileged burial of possibly a priestess and priest or members
of a ruling family suggests a certain social inequality, reflecting wealth, authority, or
positions of respect.
It is lack of evidence, however, that may also indicate stratification, as nowhere in
Mellaarts priestly quarters has any evidence emerged of farming implements or craft
manufacturing tools despite the abundance of high quality artifacts found within these
shrines (211). Thus, there may have been a segment of the population that was divorced
from the mundane function of economic affairs and was, therefore, supported in some
fashion by the city, suggesting elevated status and central authority. While the absence of
72
labor devices might indicate status in shrines for a small segment of the population, the
architectural design may provide visible and concrete evidence of stratification for the
population at large. Despite the general uniformity of construction throughout the
excavated regions of atal Hiiyuk, discrepancies in building sizes occurred. Although
Mellaart indicated the average house was approximately three hundred square feet, others,
although not in great numbers, range from 125 square feet to 534 square feet (Mellaart,
Catal Hiivuk 67). Whether this is indicative of wealth and poverty at the extremes of a bell
curve or merely reflects need based on family size is unknown, but it is a significant range
and may suggest economic stratification (Wason 174-75).
Political specialization and stratification were also likely in the non-egalitarian
governing structure of atal Huyuk. It has been observed that increased polity size
correlates with increasing political complexity; therefore, it is unlikely that this
community of six thousand could have functioned cohesively over a period of sixteen
hundred years without some form of complex governing body that at the minimum would
have had to have managed information flow (Earle 288). Some historians posit that atal
Huyiik consisted of a regional hierarchy in the context of a hereditary chiefdom, possibly
governed by a priestly chief and lesser chieftains with little true authority (Scarre and
Fagan 28). In many respects, however, atal Huyuk does qualify for this level of
organization, yet reflects constructs outside the parameters of a theocratic chiefdom with
little authority. While a high status familial network may have governed atal Htiyiik,
there was also diversity in its mixed racial types and although there may have been
hereditary chiefs, the kin-based link would have had narrow parameters. It is just as
73
feasible, however, that the ruling hierarchy was non-kin-based given atal Huyiiks size
and population diversity.
While chiefdoms represent the bridge between acephalous societies and city-states
and organize populations through a centralized hierarchy of elite kin-based leadership, they
remain, nonetheless, quite variable, reflecting theocratic, militaristic, group and
individualized, and simple and complex tendencies, in both stratified and non-ranked
societies (Earle 280-98). Such leadership typically consists of nobles and commoners and
is subject to intense rivalry between the nobility, producing social chaos on the edge of
rebellion, flux, and disintegration (Scarre and Fagan 28).
Qatal Huyiik, however, exemplified orderliness, continuity, and longevity manifest
in its architecture, ritualistic and artistic consistency, in surplus wealth, and in the good
nutritional status of its residents. In the broad scope, atal Hiiyuk was a stable society;
ancient chiefdoms often were not. Chiefdoms lacked bureaucratic support, a standing
army, and a means to enforce control of goods on a long-term basis (Scarre and Fagan 28).
Whether atal Hiiyiik possessed these institutions is uncertain, yet they were able to
achieve what many complex chiefdoms could notlong-term stability. atal Hiiyiik
appears to have been a closed chiefdom that had a concentrated population under a united
ideology of community. The governed population was not widely dispersed and there
appears to have been no competition between the numerous small villages of the Konya
Plain and the immense (by prehistoric standards) proto-city of Catal Huyiik. Because of
these demographics, a balance of interests emerged and a common ideology developed,
based upon symbolic themes and community cohesiveness which were critical for stability
74
and lacking in more widely dispersed chiefdoms. In this capacity, a standing army would
not have been essential and many of the factors that produced the chaos of chiefdoms in
dispersed populations were not present.
atal Huyiik, however, was not without conflict. There is speculation that if not
engaged in active warfare, atal Hiiyuks residents certainly fought among themselves.
No single group of persons, Hamblin writes, until the bellicose days of the Roman
Empire suffered so many head wounds (59). Approximately twenty-five percent of adult
males exhibit strike marks to their skulls and seven percent had ulnar fractures suggesting
parry wounds, which may be indicative of militia activity, fanatical sporting events, social
inequality, or the policing of an unruly population by a centralized authority (Wason 158).
Yet, whatever the source, it did not impair the overall stability and function of this
complex city. Whatever discord emerged was obviously contained and controlled by some
form of bureaucracy with enough specialized and stratified authority to maintain consistent
order.
atal Huyuk was larger and more complex than any community until that of Warka
(Uruk) of the Jemdet Nasr period and likely required the authority and organization of a
complex chiefdom to maintain social order. Norman Yoffee argues that the explosive
population growth that took place shortly before 3000 B.C.E. was the positive feedback
mechanism for profound changes in the division of labor, agriculture, and ranking, and it
likely created a similar milieu in atal Hiiyiik three thousand years earlier (Scarre and
Fagan 29). He also suggests that non-kin-based leadership was the departure point for
state formation, which enabled enforcing authority and long-term stability (Scarre and
Fagan 29). Unlike most Neolithic villages that were tribally based, atal Hiiyiik was not
wholly kin-based and this, in part, propelled the city on its precocious development.
Although it cannot be ascertained with certainty due to the prehistoric context of atal
Hiiyuk, indicators suggest that this ancient proto-city governed at the upper margins of a
complex chiefdom and if not fully stratified, represented a maturely ranked society. This
does not suggest that atal Hiiyiik possessed the maturity of fourth-millennium
Mesopotamian civilization, but just as the infant differs from the adolescent and finally the
adult, one cannot contest that each is fully human.
76
CHAPTER 5
A SYSTEMS-ECOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL
PERSPECTIVE OF ATAL HUYUK
Although the culture of a t a l Huyuk was one of continuity, subtle change was an
integral part of its long history as the citys residents adapted to the semiarid conditions of
the Konya Plain. Change, in fact, was at the heart of atal Huyiik as people from a very
distant past migrated from their native soils and then settled on this fertile plain. It is at the
lowest levels of this ancient mound that researchers can glimpse atal Hiiyiiks connection
to its own ancient past and glean modest information on the migratory patterns of its first
inhabitants. Despite limited archeological evidence, researchers can infer the native
environment from early material inventories that include skillfully made wooden artifacts
and squared-timber framing that comprised a large portion of atal Hiiyiiks architecture
(Mellaart, Uatal Htiviik 63). This early framing, according to Mellaart, was substantial and
gave one the impression of a wooden building with brick fill-in that did not contribute to
the strength of its structure (Uatal Hiiyiik 64). By the upper levels of the mound, however,
residents had begun to rely on local materials and although they continued to use lumber,
mud-brick replaced wood for the structural integrity of buildings.
This heavy reliance on timber and locals precision and artistic ability with
woodcarving suggest an initial migration from heavily timbered regions into the sparsely
wooded parkland of the ancient Konya Plain (Mellaart, Qatal Hiivuk Plate I; Fairservis
163, 168). Although substantial timber was available from the western Anatolian Plateau,
this region of rocky crags, high plains, and pine forests had a climate more hospitable than
77
that of eastern Anatolia and rendered an eastward migration of four hundred miles
unlikely. As the Konya Plain was a parkland environment and the southern slopes of the
Pontus Mountains were treeless, it suggests a likely migration from the forested foothills of
the Taurus Mountains lying along the southeastern periphery of the Anatolian Plateau.
Research also infers native territory by tracing the sources of two of Qatal Hiiyuks
important domesticated cereal crops: emmer and einkorn wheat. While both originated in
regions other than the Konya Plain, paleobotanical evidence indicates that wild einkorn
emerged in two distinct geographic zones, first, a one-seeded variety from western
Anatolia and second, a larger two-seeded species found in southern Turkey, the Taurus-
Zagros arc, Iraq, and Iran. The two-seeded variety is better suited to arid highlands, as
each of the two seeds germinates at different periods of its growing season (Redman 123).
Wild emmer, however, has a narrower distribution zone and its point of origin is more
easily defined, as it is less tolerant of climatic extremes and prefers a well-drained and stiff
clay loam (Redman 123-24). As with einkorn, there are two varieties: a fragile, small-
seeded plant that grows sporadically in the lower woodland-oak belt of the Taurus-Zagros
Mountains and another hardier stock found in the upper Jordon Rift Valley from eastern
Galilee to Mount Hermon and the Golan Plateau (Redman 123-24). In fact, modern stands
of emmer grow in the Galilee Basin as thickly as does cultivated wheat and likely reflect
conditions of the hardy prehistoric variety as well.
atal Hiiyuks original population, therefore, may have migrated from the
woodland-oak belt of the Taurus Mountains given their architectural dependence upon
timber, woodworking skills, and the presence in this area of both wild emmer and einkorn
78
wheat. Given the proximity of the Konya Plain to the Taurus range, a working knowledge
of the emerging Konya Basin was probable, as flora and fauna proliferated in this fertile
region of receding waters. Certainly the winter climate would have proved more
hospitable than that of the Taurus foothills, with mountain snowfalls and temperatures that
can reach twenty below zero (Turkey: Climate Sec. 1). The fertile region of the
Carsamba River would have likely been within the hunting ranges of Paleolithic bands and
as this fertile region dried and marshy areas receded, it offered the promise of year-round
sustenance in the comfort and security of sedentary lifestyles.
It was likely that the abundant wildlife that lured mobile hunters to this newly-
emergent region triggered tales of rich vegetation and water sources around home fires and
made the Konya Basin attractive to those ranging on the southwestern slopes of the Taurus
Mountains. Although Catal Huyuk1s original Paleolithic stock may have migrated from
regions as distant as Iran, Iraq, or the Levant, it seems certain that its founders had more
than a generational acquaintance with the wooded foothills and mountains lying southeast
of the Anatolian Plateau.
The Environment and Creativity
As roving highland tribes began to settle in the watered alluvium of the Konya
Basin, they were centrally positioned for exploitation of a wide range of resources. Within
a hundred-mile radius of the early settlement, residents had access to ores, salt, obsidian,
timber, and a variety of flora and fauna (Mellaart, Catal Huvuk 212-13). The Konya Basin
was a prolific region with substantial agricultural potential, which translated into cultural
expansion and population growth. The relationship of Catal Huyiik to its environment
79
proved innovative and secure for an uninterrupted sixteen hundred years, which was the
result of human reaction to and exploitation of the biophysical habitat. This abundance of
resources unleashed creativity in atal Huyiiks population that was unequaled in regions
that lacked a riverine niche.
This creativity and the technological advances it produced were a product, in part,
of the general sense of security and comfort that was present throughout atal Hiiyiiks
long history. Although Maslows Hierarchy o f Needs was intended for individual
assessment, it applies to the collective as well and helps to clarify the stability that
characterized atal Hiiyiik (Gwynne 1-3). When physiological needs or security issues of
safety, order, and stability have been denied, self-actualization and the creativity it
unleashes are not possible. Although Maslows theory is not without flaws, his hierarchy
regarding these base attributes is witnessed anecdotally through the media whenever one
views tragedies of war, natural disasters, or famine. Issues of survival and security
transcend all others and until met by a majority of a population, societies cannot flourish.
This was not the case, however, in atal Hiiyiik. They were a well-nourished people and
evidence of order and stability are present throughout the excavated portions of the site
(Wason 158). The ecological niche of atal Hiiyiik provided an optimum environment for
the support of life and for the actualization of a large and diversified population.
It was this initial relationship of man to a riverine environment and the abundance
of that environment that served as catalysts for atal Hiiyiiks success and longevity. In a
region that could support a dense population, the move from village-based kinship
organization to that of a complex community of mixed racial types was possible, as this
80
fertile zone offered to others what their native soils could not. As population increased, so
too did the knowledge base as diverse cultures shared a proximity that promoted idea
exchange. Syncretism produced an intellectual renaissance within Catal Huyiik that was
not possible among the small kin-based tribes.
Positive Feedback Relationships
Researchers are uncertain whether migration to the Konya Basin began due to its
fecundity, peoples desire to live at lower elevations or territorial conflict, but what is
certain is that those who settled within this ecological niche triggered crucial feedback
mechanisms. The interaction of man with this fertile environment and the interdependency
that followed triggered the meteoric development of the subsystems that propelled Catal
Huyiik toward proto-urbanization and ultimately to its own mysterious demise. Colonized
by those who possessed the knowledge and developed the technology to exploit this
riverine niche, they established a village that attracted others due to its fertile environment,
which precipitated the need for increased food production and resource exploitation. This
produced a feedback loop between a growing population and an increasing food supply,
with each dependent upon the other for evolution.
Catal Hiiyuks size, however, dominated the contemporary Neolithic villages that
surrounded it and appeared to have done so to its earliest excavated levels. Mellaart notes
that by the seventh millennium B C E the settlement was of very substantial size and
represented not a village, but a town (Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 9). Contact between Catal
Hiiyiik and neighboring villages was obvious due to cultural materials that were common
to both, with the disparate size of Catal Huyiik suggesting cultural dominance within the
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82
region. Whether this shared ethos was the result of reciprocal diffusion or village sites
were colonies is unknown, but similar stone tools and pottery styles spread out in a circular
pattern around the proto-city of Catal Huyiik. The villages of Nigde, Ilicapinar, Kerhane,
and even those outside of the Konya Basin in the Beysehir-Seydisehir, Karaman, and
central Anatolian volcanic regions, all exhibited cultural material similarities (Mellaart,
The Neolithic 106; Wason 171).
Whether Catal Hiiyuk was at the top of a regional hierarchy and able to exert
dominance within the region is unknown, but Catal Huyuks intense population growth
reinforced its position on the Konya Plain as a proto-urban center amongst village
communities. Its role in this region is uncertain, but it was undoubtedly the beneficiary of
a wide range of cultural and technological exchange. Just as the urban attracted the rural in
the early twentieth century and as it has throughout the ages, so too did this occur in Catal
Hiiyiik. The population size and its diversity spawned and nourished what lesser
communities could not, and that was marked advances in technological knowledge. Catal
Hiiyiik probably attracted not only those looking for urban adventure, but the brightest
amongst a rural population that sought opportunity and an outlet for expression. This large
and diverse population had the advantages of mass and genetic variety that were
unavailable to small village communities. As population grew, the amalgamation of
cultural diversity stimulated an inverted pyramid of technological growth and this positive
feedback cycle enabled Catal Hiiyiik to become what lesser communities could not. It was
this technological base that empowered the populations exploitation of the resources in
this ecological niche, chief among them the soils of the fertile riverine basin. The
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relationship between population and technological growth initiated a feedback loop that
spread concentrically throughout the community, enabling the evolution and maturation of
subsystems and reinforcing atal Hiiyiiks singular accomplishmentagricultural
dominance throughout the Konya Plain.
Despite the fertility of the Konya Plain, however, the variable climate presents a
continual challenge to local farmers and while this region supports dry farming, it has a
long history of unpredictable precipitation, producing critical fluctuations in crop yield
(Turkey: Irrigation Sec. 1). While this is not catastrophic in modern Turkey with the
benefit of broad communication, shipping, and purchasing power, the isolation of the
ancient communities of prehistoric Anatolia rendered them vulnerable to famine and
disease in the advent of long-term drought. Self-sufficiency and creativity were survival
mechanisms essential for ancient humans that are no longer as critical for those in modern
urbanized societies. It was atal Hiiyiiks technological and social response to this
challenge that influenced their development and although their response must be inferred,
the devolutionary impact of drought does not.
A modern example of the impact of drought and the challenges it imposes parallel
the climatic conditions and likely responses of residents of atal Huyiik. Eight thousand
miles and many centuries removed, Monticello, Utah, lies in the high desert Four Corners
region of the United States and receives an average of sixteen inches annual precipitation.
Drought, however, is an ever-present threat in southeastern Utah (and on the Konya Plain)
due, in part, to the surrounding mountain ranges that produce sharp variations in annual
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rainfall. Therefore, the dry farming techniques of this analogous region may provide
insight into the farming practices and crop yields of drought-prone Catal Huyuk.
With average moisture, the dry wheat farms surrounding Monticello, Utah produce
a yield of twenty to twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre, with one bushel of wheat
producing forty-two pounds of flour, yielding approximately seventy-three one-pound
loaves of bread. According to writer T. Kelly Rossiter in Vegetarian Times, the average
American consumes 77.6 pounds of bread per year, so to feed a city the size of Catal
Huyuk, based upon sixteen inches of annual precipitation, two hundred forty to three
hundred acres of wheat would have to be sown annually (1).
However, during Monticellos drought cycles (which more closely parallel Catal
Huyiiks climate) crop yields are dramatically reduced. Between 1999 and 2004, the
annual precipitation in southeastern Utah fell to eight inches, with the average wheat yield
reduced to six bushels per acre (and often less due to crop failure). In fact, according to
area farmers, they cannot sow winter wheat at all, as there is not sufficient moisture to
germinate seeds (Bauman 2). This level of annual precipitation demands a minimum of
one thousand acres of wheat to provide a community of six thousand with daily bread
(excluding surplus production), with acreage needs increasing in the event of sporadic and
likely crop failure.
Although Catal Huyiik received a maximum average of twelve inches annual
precipitation, this average was highly variable and they frequently received fewer than
eight inches, even outside of drought cycles (Turkey: Pontus Sec. 1). The normal wheat
yield for twelve inches of precipitation falls in the range of eleven to fourteen bushels per
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acre, which would have required planting approximately four hundred twenty-five to five
hundred fifty acres, excluding surplus production. During drought seasons, however, crop
yield would have fallen below that which could sustain a city the size of atal Hiiyiik,
unless at least one thousand acres had been cultivated.
Given the known unpredictability of the climate, it seems farmers would have erred
on the side of caution and cultivated lands toward the high end of the acreage range. In a
normal year, this would have created a surplus, but one that could have been quickly
consumed in a drought. To have prepared only five hundred acres for sowing, when in any
given year precipitation could drop to eight inches or less, would have proved disastrous.
On this basis, surplus production and central storage seems almost certain. If crops failed
or yield was low for a particular year there was no global recourse; therefore, pre-planning
for acquisition and distribution of a surplus seems essential. They were no longer roving
bands scavenging broad territories, but a large and sedentary population that was certainly
astute enough to prepare for the unknown. Like all modern humans of reasonable
intelligence, they had the capacity to act with purpose, to think rationally, and to solve
problems within their environment, evidenced by their sixteen-hundred-year continuous
history.
All aspects of atal Hiiyiik indicate order, efficiency, and organization and this
likely occurred in their farming practices as well. Assuming that atal Hiiyiiks residents
cultivated one thousand acres and that they followed standard farming practices, they
probably cultivated land as close to the river as possible and on both sides of its banks. For
the purposes of this study, an acre is referenced as a square acre measuring 208.71 X
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208.71 feet, with an estimated average inland depth of two acres extending the rivers
length approximately four miles on either side of Catal Hiiyuk. It seems improbable they
would have planted an inland depth of one acre, as this would have extended riverfront
cultivation to sixteen miles, resulting in an impractical eight-mile pedestrian commute for
less fortunate residents. Fields at distances roughly greater than five miles from Catal
Hiiyiik would have involved a daily commute of three to four hours, fields would have
been difficult to protect, and the transport of yield would have been prohibitively time-
consuming and expensive (Fairservis 165). Four miles seems a more realistic distance and
while this is only a rough estimate, it provides a general idea of a workable cultivation
plan. The fact remains, however, the deeper inland they farmed, the more likely the need
for intensive irrigation.
Although irrigation practices cannot currently be proved, naked six-row barley and
bread-wheat throve in the Konya Basin, despite poor growth and yield trends in climatic
extremes, which suggests that an alternate water source was likely (Barley 3; Redman 120-
22, 183). In the high desert environment that was home to Catal Huyuk, drought was
likely a common enemy and one that may have initiated a feedback relationship that
prompted experimentation with simple irrigation techniques. In a community with a
population of six thousand, people needed not only a dependable food source, but surplus
to sustain them during periodic and not uncommon droughts. A famine and the resultant
disease in a city of this size would have produced catastrophic consequences for which
there is no evidence to date. Simple irrigation may have been the means by which
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residents maintained sustenance consistency throughout the extended history of Catal
Hiiyiik.
Whether residents practiced irrigation or not, water was a prime commodity in this
semiarid region and it is possible, therefore, that in this non-egalitarian society, founding
families (and possibly heirs) who possessed tracts closest to atal Hiiyiik and the
Carsamba River would have jealously guarded these lands. As Catal Hiiyuk grew,
cultivation probably expanded farther away from the river or at least farther along the river
and away from the city. In either case, crop production demanded more energy from later
arrivals than for those with land closest to Catal Hiiyiik and near waters edge. Although
flooding was certainly a threat for those with land closest to the river, management was
less unpredictable than for those dependent upon dry farming alone.
Population growth likely forced less desirable lands into cultivation and while this
process probably remained amicable during years of normal precipitation, dry years may
have been a catalyst for water competition. Those closest to river channels during
droughts would have been unwilling to share in an act of self-sacrifice over the long-term,
particularly in a non-kin-based society, which was the developing trend in Catal Hiiyiik.
Whether the evidence of intense fighting among the male population was a product of
internal strife over resource competition or outside agency, such as warfare, is uncertain,
but land issues have often been a source of contention, particularly in densely clustered
populations where access constraints are the result of limited mobility.
Thus, the primary positive feedback relationship in the early phases of Catal
Huyiiks development was expanding cultivation correlated to population growth, thereby
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producing greater product for the sustenance of an ever-growing population. This
population growth brought with it, however, a diversity that was a challenge to kin-based
egalitarianism. This research suggests that private ownership of lands may have asserted
itself as the population transitioned from a kin-based society to one based on residence.
Farming communal lands in a kin-based social order negated any need for private
ownership, as the land was owned, in a sense, by all with common familial interest. Once
population diversity exerted itself, however, the family had to protect itself from the
usurpation of outsiders and the means to do so was through claiming territorial ownership.
Private property was a concept that was not alien to atal Huyuks residents,
evidenced by individual units that housed nuclear families and their subsequent
generations, indicated by the abundant skeletal remains buried beneath home platforms that
far exceeded even a large nuclear family (Fairservis 157). Therefore, private ownership
and inheritance of property may have been a logical transition from the communal
practices of egalitarian, kin-based societies where the population remained relatively small
in relation to available resources. The population of atal Hiiyuk, however, was large and
competition for resources may have been a factor; therefore, those who controlled the best
lands may have been reluctant to pass them on to strangers at the expense of their own
families. As Robert McC. Adams has observed, the intensification of agriculture and the
differential access to resources was a primary event in the development of stratified
society; this probably played a role in atal Huyiik, as well, as population growth
exceeded that of both village and town (Redman 231).
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Thus, land with direct access to water could have had a stratifying influence on the
social structure of a community the size of Catal Huyiik. In a Neolithic village of two
hundred people, all would have had easy access to water sources and egalitarianism would
not have been challenged, but in Catal Hiiyiik, later arrivals would have been forced to
utilize less favorable lands. As early residents of this community were likely kin-based
and would have had access to riparian lands within the immediate vicinity of Catal Huyiik,
they had the capacity to be the most productive with the least effort and the potential,
therefore, to accumulate the greatest number of resources. It is possible that the founding
families, who would have possessed prime agricultural resources, would have wielded
power as well. They who had the most influence and greatest desire to maintain the status
quo probably realized, in self-protective guise, that this growing community demanded
organization and administration of agricultural activities to keep crop production abreast
with population growth.
This interrelationship between agriculture and population growth created other
feedback relationships that were part of the interlocking and ever-changing puzzle that was
Catal Huyiik. As population and cultivation increased, so too did the probable need for
specialized food production, as part-time husbandry was no longer sufficient to feed this
growing proto-urban center. Whether this process began through the division of food
production practices is unknown, but likely, as this was the first and foremost economy of
Catal Hiiyiik. Indications of early specialization have been gleaned from the intensive
management of Catal Huyuks domesticated animal herds. In Levels XI and XII, non
domestic, but what appear to have been roofed areas, were excavated, indicating herbivore
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stabling of probably sheep and goats, evidenced by deep layers of trampled salt, dung
pellets, and organic staining (Hodder, On the Surface 99, 2). The dung pellets contained
digested tubers, leaves, grass stems, and spherulitesthe same pellet composition that was
present in a sample from a winter stable for goats and sheep in a modern village on the
Konya Plain (TAG Project Members 4). As an aside, this also supports the street access
hypothesis, as moving animals across roofs would have proved extremely difficult. It is
probable, therefore, that in the early stages of Catal Huyiiks development a marked split in
labor practices emerged, with a division of farmers and herders. Murals throughout Catal
Hiiyiik include numerous representations of cattle, sheep, and deer and appear to reflect a
human reliance on not only feral animals, but domesticated as well (Fairservis 165).
As agriculture and domestication expanded, hunting decreased proportionately and
residents became increasingly dependent upon domesticated animals (Fairservis 166). As
there were many contemporaneous Neolithic sites on the Konya Plain during Catal
Hiiyiiks existence, large game herds were likely over-hunted, which increased the need for
domesticated food sources. In the most ancient levels of Catal Huyuk, shrines contained
enormous horn cores, but after Level V, these cores are small by comparison; likewise,
spearheads and arrowheads became notably smaller as well (Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 224).
Both of these examples seem to indicate a decline in the size and numbers of wild life on
the Konya Plain (Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 224).
Although malaria was a chronic problem that affected approximately forty percent
of Catal Hiiyiiks population, there is little evidence of degenerative and congenital
disease. Hence, protein intake was likely adequate despite diminishing feral herds,
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suggesting that locals increased the numbers of domestic animals to compensate for the
decline in feral meat (Mellaart, Câtal Hiivuk 225; Wason 158). Given the demands of
large-scale animal management, full-time attendance by a distinct segment of the
population may have developed midway through atal Huyiiks history. In this way,
specialization would have enhanced food production, as specialists would have proved
more effective for successful management than one family attempting to do both.
As specialists tend to enhance the accrual of food surpluses, those in atal Huyiik
likely achieved a sense of security, enabling their focus to turn in earnest toward filling
non-essential needs, including luxury items. As life no longer suffered the material
deprivation inherent in mobile lifestyles and the struggle for sustenance had been largely
resolved, the demand for comfort and prestige objects expanded the market for labor
specialization. This research does not posit that leisure alone accounted for the
development of labor specialization, as many roving Mesolithic bands, too, had free time.
Instead, sedentary living allowed for the accumulation of possessions and agricultural
efficiency stimulated a change of focus on perceived needs, increasing the demand for non-
essential items.
Therefore, as labor specialization may have initially occurred in a split between
agriculture and animal husbandry, the potential for the accrual of surplus plant and on-the-
hoof products increased and a positive feedback loop initiated the evolution of craft
specialization. This opportunity to diversify and specialize allowed individuals to
recognize and then meet the novel needs of a growing community. While many products
could be manufactured within the home, such as simple pottery, figurines, and cooking
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implements, many more demanded rather exceptional skills gained through experience or
possibly technical training. Skill and precision were not the only factors, however, as the
production of many of these products was time-consuming and many were made of non-
regional materials. This includes such items as obsidian mirrors, the aforementioned
obsidian beads with core holes so small a needle cannot pass through, carved wooden
boxes and bowls made with a precision that would challenge those made on a modern
lathe. Residents were also knowledgeable and skilled in the smelting of ores, in the
manufacturing of exquisite limestone dishes and thin-walled white marble vessels, as well
as producing squared lumber and the many thousands of sun-dried bricks used in building
construction (Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 210-17; Wason 164).
The demand for such products stimulated an increasing need for raw materials. As
a result, regional contact broadened to include the Levant, with the ongoing exchange of
resources becoming a primary activity and economy of Catal Hiiyiik (Hamblin 59).
Whether the internal factors described above initiated this action or the migratory
movement of foreigners prompted it is unknown, but as Paul Wason notes, the use of non
local materials [in Catal Huyuk] is impressive (167). Obsidian, located in a range of
thirty to one hundred miles from Catal Hiiyiik toward the Taurus Mountains, was the same
that was used throughout Near Eastern settlements (Fairservis 168). Although Catal
Huyiik was not the closest of the sites to the obsidian sources, they were probably the
means for long distance trade of both raw and finished obsidian products. Most small
villages lacked surplus crop reserves and would have been too preoccupied with the basics
of survival and food acquisition to enable any one person or group to engage in large-scale
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resource acquisition and long-distance trade. It seems instead, that atal Huyuk would
have encouraged regional trade of raw resources in exchange for finished products and
then initiated long-distance trade with areas outside of the Konya Plain.
Catal Huyuk imported many non-regional resources that were in turn manufactured
into staples, luxury items, and trade products. Whether these resources were exchanged
through trade, imported by locals, or both, atal Hiiyuk had a large trading economy with
skillfully crafted and beautifully designed products, suggesting the work of professional
artisans, not farmers and herders creating in their spare time. The hordes of cached
products, the surpluses of non-regional resources, and the quantities of luxury items,
suggest a trading economy and one which not only spawned wealth and prosperity, but
probably labor specialization as well. This evolutionary feedback loop between resource
exploitation and trade may have been the catalyst for emerging craft specialization that was
supported by a surplus crop production administered by a central authority. Resource
exchange benefited not only traders and the community, but produced surpluses that
became a means by which a managerial elite, who may have already controlled surplus
food production and distribution, could have gained even greater wealth and hence more
power.
As a narrowing segment of the population engaged in food production, central
organization may have begun to serve as an intermediary for distribution between food
producers and craft specialists. Although atal Hiiyuk was a wealthy and prosperous
community, whether it supported trading specialists is unknown, yet if itinerant traders of
the Levant traveled the distance to atal Htiyiik to trade for obsidian and other resources, it
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must have had a reputation as a trading center. If this were the case, then their trading
economy was well established and organized and they may have had trade representatives.
If atal Hiiyuk residents also traveled to distant regions, the time consumption of such
travel was probably in terms of months and likely occurred during the summer and fall
growing seasons, which could indicate full-time traders with access to distributed food
surpluses that they did not help grow.
This would suggest surplus food management by a centralized governing body,
which would have created an evolutionary feedback relationship that could have enabled
an increasing number of people to specialize in activities other than agriculture. By
organizing a means for the exchange of services for food, members of society were free to
pursue activities other than food production. This process of collection and distribution by
a central authority likely began tentatively with farmers, herders, and the first non
producers in atal Huyiik: the priestly elite. In time, as food surpluses and central
management increased, labor specialization likely diversified, with the demand for non-
regional materials increasing proportionately. Through resource acquisition and labor
specialization, surplus product developed and translated into trade that flourished in a large
community with an appetite for luxury, where stability prevailed through the consistent
and organized distribution of surplus food products.
Catal Huyiiks large population, in itself, would have likely demanded some form
of centralized coordination, for had there not been a governing authority, devolutionary
circumstances such as severe and extended drought, earthquakes, or other natural disasters
would have reduced six thousand people in dense quarters to anarchy. Instead, with
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centralized organization, an informational exchange for the coordination of community
activities would have likely been realized through the formalization of rules and some
means of enforcement.
While clan leaders could have easily sanctioned rising dissension in Neolithic
villages, this would have proved more difficult in a large and diverse community such as
Catal Hiiyuk. Without some form of external control and punitive repercussions for social
infractions, discord would have likely prevailed. Should internal conflict have arisen,
some adjudicative process was likely in place to resolve crises between rival families or
individuals. If left to personal resolution in a community the size of atal Huyiik, anarchy
would have been the rule of the day and researchers clearly know this not to be the case.
Although to date evidence has not yielded the managerial structure of atal Hiiyiik and the
means of enforcement, logic dictates the presence of some form of central organization by
which this population functioned in long-term stability and prosperity.
A system of government, however, exists in modem Anatolian villages that may
have links to the past and provide some insight into the central management of Catal
Huyuk. As there is continuity from prehistory to the present in architectural style, in kilim
patterns, in the symbolic use of the color red, and in the ancient game that children
continue to play with astragali, it is plausible that some aspects of ancient governance
could have survived into the modern village structure of Anatolian society.
While tangible form substantiates a degree of continuity between atal Huyiik and
the present, the lack of a written record renders an intangible, such as governmental style,
impossible to ascertain with certainty. The present form of village leadership, however,
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provides for efficient function without the complexity of a bureaucratic state and is
consistent with the organization of a complex chiefdom, which this study posits was the
leadership style in Qatal Huyuk. The primary authority in the modern Anatolian village is
the muhtar or headman, selected by an informal assembly of adults, who also elect a
council of elders (ihtiyar meclisi) and an imam, the leader of congregational prayers. The
muhtar oversees the planning and implementation of community projects and services,
receives official agents, maintains public order as head of a policing force, presides at
ceremonies, and collects taxes. The council of elders supervises the village finances and
determines the villagers labor and financial contributions for community building projects
and improvements. They also serve as arbitrators in disputes among villagers and fix fines
on those who evade services they were selected to perform (Turkey: Judiciary Sec. 1).
Such a system could have effectively governed a community the size of atal
Hiiyiik and would have proved adequate for the maintenance of social order and the
informational exchange necessary for the cohesive function that was so apparent in this
proto-city. Although it is impossible to know with certainty what governing process
occurred in atal Hiiyiik, it defies logic to assume they lacked any form of central control.
Their society was too complex and the population too large to have functioned with such
stability throughout the course of their lengthy history. While modern village governance
on the Anatolian Plateau may differ significantly from that of Qatal Huyiik in form, it is
likely that its function does not.
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Negative feedback Relationships
Despite the ability of this prehistoric community to govern itself in relative comfort
and security, it was still subject to the land that was responsible, in part, for its unique
cultural development. Aside from the relationship with its ecological niche that was the
impetus for Qatal Hiiyuks growth and complexity, there were negative feedback
associations that inhibited change as well. The delicate balance between positive and
negative feedback determines the movement or homeostasis of a social entity in a process
that not only influenced ancient societies, but continues to do so in our modern world
(Redman 11-13). No society, however, is influenced exclusively by one or the other, but
instead develops in cycles of dominating evolutionary and devolutionary factors whereby
growth and decline occur, often interspersed with periods of stasis during negative
feedback cycles.
This negative process resulted in a static population through the inverse
relationship of the population to agriculture. As Qatal Huyiik approached its population
maximum during its evolutionary phase, available arable land may have exceeded
distances that were both profitable and practical. In response, farmers may have tried to
increase productivity by over-working existing fields. This positive feedback process may
have been slow in transforming the land, as it was continually renewed in riverine areas
with deposits of alluvial soil, but if locals engaged in any form of irrigation or aggressive
planting, this may have increased salinity, ultimately rendering prime riverine lands
unusable and forcing production into increasingly unprofitable locations (Water Quality
1- 2).
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Although salinity becomes problematic in irrigated soils in low-lying river valleys,
agriculturalists can partially overcome this problem by allowing worked land to lie fallow
alternate years or by flushing the soil. While irrigation can increase productivity four to
five-fold, its lack of management can severely damage crops and lower yield. While crop
damage begins when sodium levels exceed seven hundred parts per million (ppm), some
crops such as barley remain relatively salt tolerant up to levels of 5,500 ppm. Wheat,
however, will produce only fifty percent of normal yield when sodium levels exceed 4,300
ppm (Water Quality 2-5). In a negative feedback process, crop yields may have
diminished to levels unsustainable for continued population growth, resulting in Qatal
Huyiiks sustained and maximum population during Levels VI A and VIB. In subsequent
levels, an accelerating positive feedback cycle may have accounted for the abandonment of
the site by 5600 BCE. , due in large part to increased soil salinity.
This complex interaction between positive and negative feedback systems was
responsible for the growth, decline, and lengthy equilibrium of Qatal Hiiyiik. These
systems, however, were not abstract reactions to the environment, but were comprised of
individuals with motives and desires unique to their culture. Driven by the animal needs of
comfort, safety, and security, Qatal Hiiyiiks population united to meet those needs and in
the process, built a monument to the creative excellence of Neolithic man. What they may
have ultimately lacked, however, was the knowledge base to manage the subtleties of
agronomy and as a result, their solution lay in the abandonment of a site that had nourished
generations for sixteen hundred years.
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CHAPTER 6
A SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH OF
CATAL HUYUKS SUBSYSTEMS
While atal Hiiyuk appears an anomaly on the Neolithic time-line, archeology may
yet prove the contrary. Little has been excavated of the prehistoric world of ancient man
and that which lies unseen may hold the potential to alter researchers interpretation of
history. In the interim, however, the enigmatic city of atal Hiiyiik stands as a challenge
to the prevailing theory that places early urbanization at four thousand B.C.E. (Redman 3).
While both the rural and the complex co-exist in the present world, so too do they in the
prehistoric. The complexities that a large population presents did not deter progress in
Catal Hiiyuk; nor did the environmental challenges that locals faced, but instead they
exploited the lands resources not only to sustain life, but also to maximize human
potential. They were a creative, intelligent, and organized people who maintained their
complex culture for sixteen hundred years and did so in comfort, in prosperity, and in
relative harmony.
That they were an advanced society there is no doubt, but does atal Hiiyuk meet
the criteria to be defined a proto-civilization? If this research were based upon Clyde
Kluckhohns definition, the response would be a resounding yes. He defined civilization
as at least two of the following: writing, ceremonial or religious centers, and settlements
with a population greater than five thousand (Renfrew, Trade and Culture 158). In this
study, however, a more rigorous approach has been attempted, based on the application of
V. Gordon Childes trait list.
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While Childe was a proponent of the diffusionist model, believing that each
invention has been made but once, scholars now view this theory as only part of a far
more complex process (Renfrew, Trade and Culture 153). Historians recognize Childes
enormous contributions and explicit methodology and according to Renfrew, his work is a
starting point. . . despite our wish to modify parts of it (Trade and Culture 167). Thus,
Childes trait list as reflective of civilization remains relevant and provides in-depth criteria
that are more demanding than Kluckhohns. Any attempt to define a prehistoric
community as a proto-civilization demands exacting criteria and it is through application
of V. Gordon Childes trait list that this research has attempted to do so. This trait list,
however, merely reflects civilization; it does not define it. Therefore, this study applies
systems-ecological and social models as the interpretive means to assess Childes ten traits
as interactive subsystems of civilization.
The systems-ecological model is an effective means by which to analyze
subsystems and to assess the interactions between these variables that operate in positive or
negative feedback relationships. Subsystems, however, must be studied in isolation in
order to develop a working theory of the whole, but cannot be separated from each other or
the environment from which they emerged and for this reason, systems theory and
ecological factors are inextricably tied.
It is the ecological model that provides the foundation for the interpretation and
interrelationships of the subsystems. Systems-ecological theory, however, is incomplete
without an understanding of individuals and the groups that created the subsystems and the
interplay between them. It is this interaction between members of a community, each
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pursuing personal agendas, that defines the quality and culture of a particular group of
people. By applying an eclectic blend of systems-ecological and social theories, one gains
a more complete perspective of the culture and its interaction with its environment. This is
particularly true when analyzing prehistoric cultures where one is reliant upon cultural
materials without the aid of a written language.
Through the application of these two theoretical models to each subsystem, this
research attempted to demonstrate that atal Huyiik meets the criteria to be deemed a
proto-civilization. Although lacking a written language, this city contained other markers
that prove its complexity. In review, the large population of atal Hiiyiik was based on
residence, not kinship, as evidenced by the distinct racial strains of the dolichocephalic
Proto-Mediterranean and the taller brachycephalic groups (Wason 157). This
heterogeneous population may have accounted, in part, for the creativity and subsequent
successes of Qatal Hiiyiiks agricultural revolution. They mastered a challenging
environment with technological skills that sustained an unprecedented Neolithic population
of six thousand for sixteen hundred years. Whether they engaged in some form of passive
irrigation is to date uncertain, but this research posits it was probable given the challenging
climate, population density, and lack of malnutrition markers over its lengthy history.
While dry farming can be successful in optimal climatic conditions, it is always
unpredictable and subject to the whims of weather changes (Turkey: Irrigation Sec. 1).
Surplus and centralized storage also seem probable for the same reasons, as did irrigation
and the location of what appear to be separate storerooms that were excavated by James
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Mellaart, which seem to have had no function other than non-domicile food storage
(Mellaart, Catal Hiivuk 70-71).
Catal Huyuk, however, was more than a mere agricultural phenomenon.
Excavation has revealed a fund of finely wrought artifacts that are clearly outside the realm
of amateur craft persons. While it may be that a talented population whiled away winter
hours producing jewelry, stone vessels, weapons, lead, and intricate wooden vessels, no
evidence for manufacturing has been found within buildings and winters were too cold to
complete these activities on roof tops. Mass production is also evident in the thousands of
beads which have been excavated, countless obsidian spear and arrowheads, sun-dried
bricks, and squared timbers. Bricks and timber, which were used in mass quantities, could
not have been manufactured out of doors during winter months and it is unlikely that the
demands of the summer growing season would have permitted time for farmers to do all
three in a city the size of Catal Hiiyuk. Although craft quarters have yet to be located, only
a fraction of the mound has been excavated to date and it seems likely, therefore, that
sources of production must lie elsewhere. Labor specialization must be inferred as well,
and from the quality and quantity of the products found, full-time specialization cannot be
ruled out.
Beneath floors of shrines and houses, large surpluses of used and unused tools and
obsidian cores have been found, which were not manufactured at these sites. It seems that
these products, which appear to have been in bags, were similar to, but of poorer quality,
than those found in burial sites, suggesting they may have been mass-produced for trade
(Wason 166). Unlike the self-sufficient Neolithic villages of the Konya Plain, Catal
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Hiiyiik was dependent upon a wide range of non-regional resources. This was a
prosperous city with all the trappings of ancient wealth, from exotic food products, metals,
and an abundance of resources imported from distances outside the range of immediate
access. Due to Catal Hiiyiiks size, it was probably the metropolitan center of a village
economy on the Konya Plain, which can be inferred from the artifact similarities among
Catal Huyuk and surrounding villages between which contact was almost certain (Wason
171) Due to Catal Huyiiks wide array of imported products and the distances at which
Anatolian obsidian have been found, local and distant trade appear to have been central to
the economy of this Neolithic community.
Also central to understanding Catal Hiiyiik, however, is the religious symbolism
residents expressed through an artistic medium that represented common themes of life,
death, and fertility. While there were similarities between Catal Hiiyiiks reliefs and clay
figurines and that of other Neolithic villages, Catal Hiiyiiks symbolic expression was
superior in form and number (Kuijt 274-77). This may suggest a shared ideology, with
Catal Hiiyiik serving as a spiritual nexus for the settlements on the Konya Plain.
While Catal Hiiyiik is rife with religious shrines elaborately decorated with
paintings, reliefs, bucrania, and massive horn cores, religion was not the only symbolic
arena. Multiple baked clay seals have been excavated throughout Catal Huyiik and
although in later cultures they were precursors to the written form, those found in Catal
Hiiyuk are of unknown purpose, yet only one seal design per household has been found
(Wason 170). It may be that these individualized seals signified private ownership or were
symbolic of family name, as the concept of private property and the importance of the
104
nuclear family were evident in their architectural structure. This Neolithic community also
had a working knowledge of mathematics, evidenced by their weaving skills, accurate
brick counts for construction projects, and the dice-like game played with sheep astragali.
Catal Hiiyiiks residents had an abstract understanding of their environment and the
intervention of gods in their universe, expressed through various symbolic media that gave
their world a rich and textured cognitive complexity.
This complexity was expressed, too, through the architecture of Catal Hiiyuk and
speaks to some form of social ranking, as it seems unlikely that an egalitarian society could
have constructed such an architecturally complex city by voluntary and random effort
alone (Dever 163). Aside from anomalous structures such as Catal Hiiyiiks tower, the
peculiar wedge-shaped buildings, and the variance in wall thicknesses, the general
uniformity of architectural design suggests organized planning. Where variation does
exist, it is woven into the overall architectural fabric in a uniform and cohesive whole, not
as a haphazard effort, but as a large-scale and coordinated project.
The overall plan and architectural design of Catal Hiiyiik reflects a monumental
endeavor and represents an astounding leap in technology with its standardization of brick
sizes, congruent use of space, and rigorous alignment of buildings walls over extended
distances (Fairservis 143). Residents constructed adjoining buildings so that a contiguous
blank outer wall was formed that many researchers believe may have been for defense
purposes, which would have been laborsaving by serving a dual function (Wason 173;
Fairservis 145; Mellaart, Catal Hiiyiik 57-59). If monumental public works can be defined
as construction which requires some form of central organization involving the coordinated
105
effort of large numbers of people over extended periods of time, the architectural design of
Catal Hiiyiik meets those criteria.
This inchoate proto-city rose from the high desert as a living monument to urban
man and some form of central management would have been necessary to maintain it. As
Earle stated, Increased polity size correlates with increasing political complexity; thus
any community of six thousand people, by sheer size alone, would demand some form of
complex management (288). atal Hiiyiiks size and organization rules out tribal or
simple chiefdom governance and any form of egalitarian social structure. Its size denotes
political complexity, probably in the form of a complex chiefdom, which in its upper
margins could have co-existed with early city-state formation and social stratification
(Redman 202).
Although Qa.ta.1 Hiiyiik was a proto-urban environment, indicated by its size,
diverse population, and non-agricultural activities, this complex community becomes more
difficult to define as a proto-civilization. While there is strong evidence for long distance
trade, technological knowledge, and symbolic expression, the presence of other subsystems
remains a matter of degree, with the exception of a written language, which is lacking. At
this time, scholars cannot definitively prove that Catal Huyiik engaged in labor
specialization, possessed surplus product, or was socially stratified. This research,
however, interprets the available cultural materials as indicating that these markers were
present, but in an incipient form. Labor specialization did exist, but it is impossible to
assess whether that specialization was full or part-time. Based upon inference from
archeological data, this research concludes that full-time specialization was probable for
106
agriculturists, pastoralists, and for those mass-producing the specialized craft products
displaying a high degree of technology. The level of organization and success of this
sixteen-hundred-year-old city would not have occurred had there been an egalitarian
division of labor. Without central organization and labor specialization, the production
and management of food products would have been haphazard and inconsistent for a
population the size of atal Hiiyiik. As there is no evidence of malnutrition or nutritional
deficiencies throughout this communitys history, it seems certain there was some central
form of food surplus and distribution management, but the only indicator of this at the
present is the separate storage facilities discovered by Mellaart.
There are indicators, however, of hereditary ranking such as rich infant burials and
those that show social inequality, evident in the differential distribution of grave goods.
While shrines contained richer burials and seem to denote that higher statuses were
associated with a religious faction, evidence suggests that achievement-based inequality
may have existed as well. The architectural dwelling variance of 125 to 524 square feet
seems to reflect a society whereby some lived more spaciously than others and while this
size differential may indicate necessity due to family size, Paul Wason argues that this
variance falls within a significant range and may suggest purpose other than necessity
(175). Despite the overall uniformity of buildings, this discrepancy in dwelling size may
suggest unequal access to resources, not merely between a priestly and possibly hereditary
caste and the lay public, but among the general population as well. While this does not
prove broad social inequality, it may imply inchoate, achievement-based disparity during a
transitional phase from simple ranking to stratification.
107
If achievement-based inequality existed, it may explain the great number of head
and parry wounds among the male population, suggesting perhaps not warfare, but
possibly the competition of status rivalry and social inequality. While Paul Wason remains
uncertain regarding economic stratification, he states, We can accept with confidence the
basic conclusion that social relations at atal Hiiyuk were characterized by significant
structural inequality (178). With Hodders recent excavations and the emergent
archeological evidence addressed throughout this study, this research posits that Catal
Hiiyiik was an experiment in the earliest tentative stages of achievement-based inequality.
Yet while Catal Hiiyuk was without doubt a ranked society, well-defined social
stratification cannot be definitively proved.
The extant artwork within Mellaarts shrines does not indicate the presence of a
ruling chief and his or her hierarchy. The artwork does not, in fact, appear to reflect social
stratification at all, but seems instead to focus on issues surrounding life, death, and
fertility. The shrines contained religious contentnot political or economic (although they
did display wealth). It cannot be assumed that the absence of stratification markers in
shrine artwork indicates egalitarianism or simple ranking. In twenty-first century
American churches, few contain pictures of political leaders, but instead display icons of
martyrdom and suffering. It would prove difficult indeed to glean political structure or
determine social stratification of an American urban environment from modern religious
sites. This research posits, therefore, that Qatal Hiiyiik may not have been a theocratic
chiefdom and that while stratification cannot be definitively refuted or supported from the
108
inventories of excavated shrines of the east mound, the evidence does trend toward the
support of social and achievement-based inequality.
While some researchers argue that Catal Hiiyuk was not stratified because grave
gifts do not appear to be prestige items, this research assumes a different view (Wason
161-64, 178-79; Fairservis 201). While grave goods within Catal Hiiyiik may not represent
stratified wealth by Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or modern standards, from a Neolithic
cultural perspective they appear significant. Many prestige burial gifts were manufactured
from resources from distant regions and required not only skill, but great time consumption
in their productionthe same qualities that produced the prestige items indicative of
stratification in burial sites from later cultures. While few burials in ratio to the general
population contained prestige products, whether in Catal Hiiyiik, Ur, or Thebes, simply
because the artifacts of Catal Hiiyiik are less gilded than those of later ages, it cannot be
assumed they have not the same significance.
Although Catal Huyiik may lack the splendor of its later neighboring civilizations,
when placed in the context of its prehistoric time-line, it is no less grand. Catal Huyuk was
truly innovative, for it was the worlds first incipient urban center and lacked the
advantages of wide-scale diffusion from which later cultures benefited. Harnessing
charges in the first electric light bulb is far more profound than all the lights of Paris, and
while this orb did not burn as brightly, within it was the light of the modern world.
Although modest by ancient Sumerian and Egyptian standards, Catal Hiiyiik contained the
seeds of all that they were to become, transcending the tribal and simple chiefdom status
109
typical of seventh millennial Neolithic cultures and entering the realm of proto-civilization
four thousand years before that of its Sumerian neighbors. Mellaart concluded:
It is now abundantly clear that this site was not a village, but a city,
inhabited by a community with a developed economy, social organization, a
rich religious life, specialized crafts and a well-developed art. They were
anything but self-sufficient, but traded far and wide to obtain the raw
materials their economy demanded. But for the absence of writing they
satisfied all the conditions usually demanded for the use of the term
civilization. (Wason 155)
While the study of civilization is complex and all the more so because it is often
reduced to semantics, this research has attempted to apply rigorous criteria with the hope
of achieving some measure of truth. The study of the Neolithic cultures has pigeon-holed
this period of history as the agricultural unfolding of mankind, synonymous with the rural
and rustic life that is associated with village communities. Neolithic societies have been
equated with the primitive, less than their modem counterparts, and it is hoped that through
this study that the potential of this ancient human is seen in the light that was Catal Hiiyiik.
This ancient city represents a proto-civilization, but that such was possible in the seventh
millennium B .C .E. deems Neolithic humans as not only the founders of the Green
Revolution, but an urban one as well. That proto-urbanization had its genesis in the
Neolithic milieu challenges many of the conventional theories on the advent of civilization.
While Catal Hiiyiik clearly lacked the complexities of the literate societies of Sumeria, it
possessed the same characteristics that continue into our twenty-first century civilizations,
110
yet they were the first to grasp these qualities an incomprehensible eight thousand years
into the past.
There is much yet to be done at the site of Catal Hiiyuk. While excavation is
ongoing and intensive, little more than five percent of this ancient mound has been
excavated and fewer of its secrets revealed. If further excavation yields finds as significant
as that which has been found, Catal Hiiyiiks potential is staggering and could well force a
reinterpretation of our understanding of the Neolithic population and the worlds ancient
civilizations. One factor, however, that renders the study of Neolithic cultures particularly
challenging is the lack of written languages. This forces a reliance on inference, which is
always subject to error. While logical conclusions may be assumed, any inference is the
product of a twenty-first century mind and it may well be that our logic was not theirs.
These are limiting factors for any study of Catal Hiiyiik and have the potential to
create inferential flaws despite a researchers best intent. A weakness of any study is the
need to rely upon inductive reasoning and not factual evidence. While careful
interpretation of ancient preliterate societies can advance the cause of our understanding of
history, we cannot lose sight that it represents opinion and not fact. It is this writers hope
that as excavations continue at Catal Huyuk that facts emerge that reduce researchers
reliance upon inference and the glory that was once Catal Hiiyuk can speak for itself.
WORKS CITED
112
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APPENDIX
COPYRIGHT HOLDER PERMISSION STATEMENT
119
February 7, 2005
Dear Pamela Vafi
Thank you for your letter of 6 January.
As far as we are concerned we are pleased for you to use the illustrations you need from
James Mellaart's book in your master's thesis on Catal Huyuk, provided that your thesis is
not for publication in any form and provided you acknowledge our book, the author and
ourselves as the publisher.
If your thesis is for publication, please let me know and I will simply mail your letter to
Professor Mellaart.
With best wishes,
Naomi Pritchard
Picture Permissions
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Çatal Huyuk The Prelude

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CATAL HUYUK: A PRELUDE TO CIVILIZATION

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