Search

Around 10,000 y ago in southwest Asia, the cessation of a mobile lifestyle and the emergence of the first village communities during the Neolithic marked a fundamental change in human history. The first communities were small (tens to hundreds of individuals) but remained semisedentary. So-called megasites appeared soon after, occupied by thousands of more sedentary inhabitants. Accompanying this shift, the material culture and ancient ecological data indicate profound changes in economic and social behavior. A shift from residential to logistical mobility and increasing population size are clear and can be explained by either changes in fertility and/or aggregation of local groups. However, as sedentism increased, small early communities likely risked inbreeding without maintaining or establishing exogamous relationships typical of hunter-gatherers. Megasites, where large populations would have made endogamy sustainable, could have avoided this risk. To examine the role of kinship practices in the rise of megasites, we measured strontium and oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel from 99 individuals buried at Pınarbaşı, Boncuklu, and Çatalhöyük (Turkey) over 7,000 y. These sites are geographically proximate and, critically, span both early sedentary behaviors (Pınarbaşı and Boncuklu) and the rise of a local megasite (Çatalhöyük). Our data are consistent with the presence of only local individuals at Pınarbaşı and Boncuklu, whereas at Çatalhöyük, several nonlocals are present. The Çatalhöyük data stand in contrast to other megasites where bioarchaeological evidence has pointed to strict endogamy. These different kinship behaviors suggest that megasites may have arisen by employing unique, community-specific kinship practices.

Directly burned human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts are often found in the literature, while cases of indirectly burned remains are rare. This case study examines thermally altered ...

The use of wood, dung and other biomass fuels can be traced back to early prehistory. While the study of prehistoric fuel use and its environmental impacts is well established, there has been little investigation of the health impacts this would have had, particularly in the Neolithic period, when people went from living in relatively small groups, to living in dense settlements. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Çatalhöyük, Turkey, is one of the earliest large ‘pre-urban’ settlements in the world. In 2017, a series of experiments were conducted to measure fine particulate (PM2.5) concentrations during typical fuel burning activities, using wood and dung fuel. The results indicate that emissions from both fuels surpassed the WHO and EU standard limits for indoor air quality, with dung fuel being the highest contributor for PM2.5 pollution inside the house, producing maximum values > 150,000 µg m−3. Maximum levels from wood burning were 36,000 µg m−3. Average values over a 2–3 h period were 13–60,000 µg m−3 for dung and 10–45,000 µg m−3 for wood. The structure of the house, lack of ventilation and design of the oven and hearth influenced the air quality inside the house. These observations have implications for understanding the relationship between health and the built environment in the past.

Summary The social organization of the first fully sedentary societies that emerged during the Neolithic period in Southwest Asia remains enigmatic,1 mainly because material culture studies provide limited insight into this issue. However, because Neolithic Anatolian communities often buried their dead beneath domestic buildings,2 household composition and social structure can be studied through these human remains. Here, we describe genetic relatedness among co-burials associated with domestic buildings in Neolithic Anatolia using 59 ancient genomes, including 22 new genomes from Aşıklı Höyük and Çatalhöyük. We infer pedigree relationships by simultaneously analyzing multiple types of information, including autosomal and X chromosome kinship coefficients, maternal markers, and radiocarbon dating. In two early Neolithic villages dating to the 9th and 8th millennia BCE, Aşıklı Höyük and Boncuklu, we discover that siblings and parent-offspring pairings were frequent within domestic structures, which provides the first direct indication of close genetic relationships among co-burials. In contrast, in the 7th millennium BCE sites of Çatalhöyük and Barcın, where we study subadults interred within and around houses, we find close genetic relatives to be rare. Hence, genetic relatedness may not have played a major role in the choice of burial location at these latter two sites, at least for subadults. This supports the hypothesis that in Çatalhöyük,3, 4, 5 and possibly in some other Neolithic communities, domestic structures may have served as burial location for social units incorporating biologically unrelated individuals. Our results underscore the diversity of kin structures in Neolithic communities during this important phase of sociocultural development., Highlights • Genetic kinship estimated from co-buried individuals’ genomes in Neolithic Anatolia • Close relatives are common among co-burials in Aşıklı and Boncuklu • Many unrelated infants found buried in the same building in Çatalhöyük and Barcın • Neolithic societies in Southwest Asia may have held diverse concepts of kinship, Yaka et al. use ancient genomes from Neolithic Anatolia and present evidence for diverse concepts of social kinship in Neolithic societies. In some communities, like Çatalhöyük, many genetically unrelated infants were buried together inside the same buildings, whereas in other sites, people buried together were frequently close biological kin.

The retrieval and re-deposition of elements of the human skeleton, especially the skull (i.e., cranium and mandible), is a common feature of Neolithic Near Eastern funerary practices. A complicated sequence of subfloor inhumations involving both primary and secondary burial treatments at Catalhoyuk demonstrates the range of funerary practices encountered at the site and elsewhere in the Neolithic Near East. This particular sequence of burials culminated in a stratigraphically verified case of post-inhumation skull removal from a primary intramural inhumation. However, the retrieval of crania and skulls from primary burials cannot account for the total number of re-deposited crania and skulls found in a variety of depositional contexts at the site. Based on increasing evidence for an extended interval between death and burial at Catalhoyuk, the removal and circulation of skulls from unburied bodies as part of a multi-stage funerary rite is proposed as another method for obtaining them, operating in parallel with their retrieval from primary intramural burials. These divergent practices, and the range of contexts from which secondarily deposited skeletal elements are recovered, reflect multiple funerary treatments and intentions likely tied to social distinctions that remain poorly understood. In order to begin to fully understand the social and cosmological meaning(s) of the Neolithic “skull cult,” however, we must first distinguish between what are essentially equifinal processes in the archaeological record. This work will involve careful attention to the spatiotemporal contexts in which isolated skeletal elements are found, in addition to meticulous osteological and taphonomic analyses of the bones themselves.Keywords: Neolithic; secondary treatment; funerary practices; skull retrieval; Anatolia Le prelevement et le depot secondaire des elements du squelette humain, et notamment de la tete osseuse (i.e. crâne et mandibule), sont des caracteristiques courante des gestes funeraires du Neolithique au Proche Orient. A Catalhoyuk, une sequence complexe d’inhumations primaires et secondaires sous plancher demontre la variabilite des pratiques funeraires rencontrees sur ce site et ailleurs pour le Neolithique du Proche Orient. Cette sequence funeraire specifique a en particulier abouti a un cas stratigraphiquement atteste de prelevement post-inhumation de la tete osseuse dans une sepulture primaire situee intra-muros. Toutefois, le prelevement des crânes et des tetes osseuses ne peut pas expliquer a lui seul le nombre total des crânes en situation secondaire mis au jour dans differents contextes de depot. Au vu des nombreux indices d’une periode prolongee entre la mort et l’enterrement du cadavre a Catalhoyuk, le prelevement et la circulation des tetes osseuses de corps non ensevelis, dans le cadre d’un rituel funeraire a plusieurs etapes, est propose comme une alternative pour les obtenir, s’operant en parallele de prelevements dans des sepultures primaires. Ces pratiques divergentes et la gamme des depots secondaires dans lesquelles les elements squelettiques sont retrouves refletent des traitements funeraires et des intentions multiples qui sont probablement lies a une differentiation sociale qui n'est pas encore entierement comprise. Afin de commencer a comprendre la ou les significations sociales et cosmologiques du «cultes des tetes», nous devons en premier lieu faire la distinction entre des processus qui se caracterisent par une equifinalite dans l’enregistrement archeologique. Ce travail necessitera de porter une grande attention aux contextes spatio-temporels d’ou proviennent les restes squelettiques, en plus d’analyses osteologiques et taphonomiques minutieuses des ossements eux-memes.Mots-cles: Neolithique; traitement secondaire; pratiques funeraires; prelevement crânien; Anatolie

Death is a universal and profoundly emotive human experience with social and economic implications that extend to communities as a whole. As such, the act of disposing of the dead is typically laden with deep meaning and significance. Archaeological investigations of funerary practices are thus important sources of information on the social contexts and worldviews of ancient societies. Changes in funerary practices are often thought to reflect organisational or cosmological transformations within a society (Carr 1995; Robb 2013). The focus of this volume is the role of cognition and consciousness in the accelerated sociocultural developments of the Neolithic Period in the Near East. In the introduction to this volume, Hodder identifies three commonly cited cognitive changes that can be measured against various archaeological datasets from Catalhoyuk. The funerary remains at Catalhoyuk are an obvious source of data for validating Hodder’s third measure of change: a shift from a fluid and fragmented conception of the body and of selfhood to a greater awareness of an integrated, bounded personal self.

The use of human teeth for ornamental purposes is archaeologically documented from the European Upper Palaeolithic, and, sporadically, during the subsequent Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. To date, no examples of this practice are available for the Near East during this timeframe. This contribution presents three human teeth from Neolithic Catalhoyuk (Central Anatolia, Turkey; 7100–6000 cal BC) that appear to have been modified for use as pendants. Macroscopic, microscopic and radiographic analyses confirm the modification and use of two out of three of these finds. The two confirmed pendants were likely extracted from the skeletonised remains of mature and old adults, carefully drilled, and worn for a variable period of time. The rarity of such artefacts in the prehistoric Near East suggests a profound symbolic meaning for this practice and these objects, and provides new insights into the funerary customs and symbolic importance of the use of human body parts during the Neolithic of the Near East.

The early village at Çatalhöyük (7100–6150 BC) provides important evidence for the Neolithic and Chalcolithic people of central Anatolia. This article reports on the use of lipid biomarker analysis to identify human coprolites from midden deposits, and microscopy to analyse these coprolites and soil samples from human burials. Whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) eggs are identified in two coprolites, but the pelvic soil samples are negative for parasites. Çatalhöyük is one of the earliest Eurasian sites to undergo palaeoparasitological analysis to date. The results inform how intestinal parasitic infection changed as humans modified their subsistence strategies from hunting and gathering to settled farming.

During the Neolithic, mortuary practices in the Near East sometimes involved intramural burial and often some type of removal or caching of the bony elements of the head. Reports of defleshing are described in the literature, but there is little published evidence for other surface modifications of human remains. In his 1960s publications on the Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk, James Mellaart proposed that individuals were defleshed by vultures prior to intramural interment. This hypothesis was predominantly based on the discovery of wall paintings of large raptorial birds hovering over headless bodies, coupled with the various states of disarticulation of many of the human remains excavated on site, including ‘headless’ bodies (those missing the cranium and mandible), as well as isolated crania and other skeletal elements. Despite these observations, subsequent osteological analysis has failed to show definitive taphonomic evidence of such practices. However, current forensic work on human decomposition has shed new light on the effects of vulture defleshing on human remains. Initial results indicate that vultures are adept at soft tissue removal, defleshing a body in a matter of hours over the course of several visits. Moreover, the skeleton can be left largely articulated (at least initially) and display limited skeletal marks from the defleshing process. In light of these recent taphonomic studies, the possibility of vulture defleshing at Catalhoyuk is re-visited here. In many subfloor burials, body position, skeletal articulation, and skeletal completeness are consistent with a taphonomic signature of defleshing prior to interment. Furthermore, defleshing would have facilitated body part removal and may have been necessary for intramural interments. This re-assessment of mortuary treatments at Catalhoyuk may provide a new way of evaluating the skeletal assemblage at the site and can serve as a model for the interpretation of vulture iconography in the ancient Near East.

Food has long served as a mechanism for identifying and reinforcing social structures, but while carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis has provided important identity-based evidence of past diets, the cyclical and stable/fluid nature of food consumption practices across the life course has been relatively neglected. In this paper, the large human assemblage at Çatalhöyük with all age groups present has enabled diet reconstruction of the rarely represented groups of older children and adolescents as well as for the young, middle and old adult age groups of both sexes. These data show how neonates reflect foods available to pregnant mothers, that infants were breastfed until around 18 months of age and weaned by three years of age, older children had a different diet compared to adolescents and young adults who, in turn, differed from middle and older adults. The absence of sex-related differences suggests changes in food consumed at Çatalhöyük accompanied the marking of transitions through the life course.

Excavations at Catalhoyuk have been ongoing for over 20 years and have involved multi-national teams, a diverse range of archaeological specialists and a vast archive of records. The task of marshalling this data so that it can be useful not only at the post-excavation stage, but also while making decisions in the field, is challenging. Here, members of the team reflect on the use of digital technology on-site to promote a reflexive engagement with the archaeology. They explore how digital data in a fieldwork context can break down communication barriers between specialists, foster an inclusive approach to the excavation process and facilitate reflexive engagement with recording and interpretation.

A programme of archaeological investigation took place on Fin Cop hillfort, in the Derbyshire Peak District, during the summers of 2009 and 2010. In total fifty test-pits and eight trenches were excavated, revealing evidence for a Mesolithic quarry site, and sporadic evidence for Neolithic and Beaker period activity. An assemblage of Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age ceramics was recovered from the interior of the fort in association with rock-cut pits testifying to occupation of the hilltop prior to the construction of the hillfort rampart. The hillfort rampart construction took place in the period 435–390 cal. BC (68% probability) and was destroyed before its completion, probably by the mid-fourth century cal. BC, when large numbers of women and children were disposed of in the ditch together with the demolition material from the fort's wall. The defensive character of the monument and the evidence for a violent end to the site appear to indicate, on current evidence, that the fort was sacked.

The majority of burials at Neolithic Catalhoyuk (7100– 6000 calBC) consist of intramural subfloor primary interments, most often underneath the northern and eastern platforms of the central room. Loose, disarticulated skeletal remains such as crania and other elements are often recovered from the grave fills of these burials, but it is often difficult to determine whether they represent an intentional secondary redeposition or an unintended consequence of disturbances of earlier primary burials by later ones. As a result, the commingling of skeletal remains at Catalhoyuk is extremely common. In this chapter, we seek to build upon previous discussions of the formation of commingled deposits of human skeletal remains at the site by focusing on two very different assemblages recovered from adjacent platforms in Building 52, a house currently under excavation in the North Area of the site. These two skeletal assemblages exhibit various degrees of commingling and represent the outcome of divergent mortuary practices: one characterized by successive inhumations carried out over time and the other by an unusual single interment episode consisting of multiple individuals in various states of articulation. Our aim is to demonstrate the relationship between these two assemblages and the occupational history of Building 52. We argue that the life-course of houses and the individuals associated with them were deeply entangled. This shared biography was achieved through the periodic and episodic incorporation of bodies—whole or in part—within the fabric of the house.

The vast majority of primary burials at Neolithic Catalhoyuk (Central Anatolia, Turkey, 7100-6000cal BC) are recovered from beneath house floors, with burials in external spaces extremely rare. Excavations at Catalhoyuk in 1998 brought to light a young adult male buried in a midden (a burial location observed so far for only 4 out of 440 individuals), showing a suite of pathological features affecting the entire skeleton. The observed pathological changes include perimortem and antemortem fractures, proliferative and resorptive areas, thinning of the bone cortex, and localized areas of disorganized spongy bone invaded by fibrous tissue. We propose a differential diagnosis by considering a set of conditions: Paget's disease, osteomyelitis, hyperparathyrhoidism, Ollier's disease, fibrosarcoma, and fibrous dysplasia. The severity and distribution of the observed skeletal changes are consistent with a diagnosis of polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, a possibly debilitating and disfiguring condition. This, together with an unusual depositional context, may suggest a socially-mediated reaction to this individual's infirmity.

Between 1979 and 1989 the skeletal remains of 21 adults and 38 children, yielding 317 permanent and 134 deciduous teeth, were recovered at Tell Leilan, Syria, the site of a major urban center during the emergence of complex state society in northern Mesopotamia in the mid-third millennium BC. Tooth crown dimensions (faciolingual and mesiodistal diameters, total crown area, and molar crown area) are presented and the last two serve as the primary units of comparison for a diachronic interpretation of tooth size variation in the ancient Near East. Both permanent and deciduous dental data support the pattern of dental reduction since the Middle Paleolithic that has been documented for Asia and Europe. The total crown areas for the permanent and deciduous dental samples, 1189 mm2 and 497 mm2 respectively, place this archaeological population at the smaller end of the crown area scale for the Near East; smaller in size than nearby Paleolithic and Neolithic populations. Given the paucity of odontological data for this area, this study contributes to the odontometric history of Mesopotamia and as a summary compilation and comparison of previously conducted odontometric work as it relates to the phenomenon of dental reduction within the ancient Near East.

The bioarchaeological record of human remains viewed in the context of ecology, subsistence, and living circumstances provides a fundamental source for documenting and interpreting the impact of plant and animal domestication in the late Pleistocene and early to middle Holocene. For Western Asia, Catalhoyuk (7100–5950 cal BC) in central Anatolia, presents a comprehensive and contextualized setting for interpreting living circumstances in this highly dynamic period of human history. This article provides an overview of the bioarchaeology of Catalhoyuk in order to characterize patterns of life conditions at the community level, addressing the question, What were the implications of domestication and agricultural intensification, increasing sedentism, and population growth for health and lifestyle in this early farming community? This study employs demography, biogeochemistry, biodistance analysis, biomechanics, growth and development, and paleopathology in order to identify and interpret spatial and temporal patterns of health and lifestyle under circumstances of rapid population growth and aggregation and changing patterns of acquiring food and other resources. The record suggests that the rapid growth in population size was fueled by increased fertility and birthrate. Although the household was likely the focus of economic activity, our analysis suggests that individuals interred in houses were not necessarily biologically related. Predictably, the community employed resource extraction practices involving increased mobility. Although oral and skeletal indicators suggest some evidence of compromised health (e.g. elevated subadult infection, dental caries), growth and development of juveniles and adult body size and stature indicate adjustments to local circumstances.

The transition from a human diet based exclusively on wild plants and animals to one involving dependence on domesticated plants and animals beginning 10,000 to 11,000 y ago in Southwest Asia set into motion a series of profound health, lifestyle, social, and economic changes affecting human populations throughout most of the world. However, the social, cultural, behavioral, and other factors surrounding health and lifestyle associated with the foraging-to-farming transition are vague, owing to an incomplete or poorly understood contextual archaeological record of living conditions. Bioarchaeological investigation of the extraordinary record of human remains and their context from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (7100–5950 cal BCE), a massive archaeological site in south-central Anatolia (Turkey), provides important perspectives on population dynamics, health outcomes, behavioral adaptations, interpersonal conflict, and a record of community resilience over the life of this single early farming settlement having the attributes of a protocity. Study of Çatalhöyük human biology reveals increasing costs to members of the settlement, including elevated exposure to disease and labor demands in response to community dependence on and production of domesticated plant carbohydrates, growing population size and density fueled by elevated fertility, and increasing stresses due to heightened workload and greater mobility required for caprine herding and other resource acquisition activities over the nearly 12 centuries of settlement occupation. These changes in life conditions foreshadow developments that would take place worldwide over the millennia following the abandonment of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, including health challenges, adaptive patterns, physical activity, and emerging social behaviors involving interpersonal violence., John Templeton Foundation; National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration; Investments for the Future Program, Initiative d’Excellence of the University of Bordeaux; European Union (European Union); Horizon 2020; European Commission H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Program; Collaborative Projects of the France–Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies; National Science Foundation; American Research Institute in Turkey; American Association of Physical Anthropologists Professional Development Grant

Çatalhöyük is most well known for its Neolithic settlement, but the site also served as a cemetery during the Bronze Age, as well as the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods. During the Neolithic, Çatalhöyük is distinctive as a place for both the living and the dead, but thereafter the site becomes more closely associated with the dead. This chapter discusses four examples of non-normative burials from different time periods at the site, including two Neolithic burials: one of a mature male buried with a sheep and another of a young male with a congenital deformity; a Roman period double burial with an atypical grave orientation; and an isolated twentieth-century burial of a woman from the local village, which represents the last known burial on the mound. Osteobiographical information and sociocultural context are used to assess the significance of each burial. We also question how normative and non-normative burials are typically defined in the archaeological record.