Domestication and society

Introduction

We are exploring the concept of domestication, in the widest sense, by adopting a reflexive way of viewing assumptions and definitions and by contextual analysis of a broad range of data. What do we mean by the concept of domestication? With regard to animals, for example, it may be defined as human control over breeding but there is a whole range of interactions between humans and animals. So rather than considering domestication solely in terms of control we are investigating the context and juxtaposition of activities within a complex Neolithic settlement and its environment.

One of the ways in which we could explore the complexity of interactions within the settlement, might be to visualise activities in a series of images, such as those used by Steve Mithen in his consideration of the change in spatial behaviour from early to modern humans, bringing scientific rigour to images, currently used in childrens books or for popular dissemination.

In this paper we wish to consider wide-ranging behavioural implications and effects of domestication. These issues include, for example,

• the constraints and potentials of living in a complex settlement
• the relationships between domestic, ritual and communal activities
• the domestication of new materials such as clay for pottery
• the management of animals and new ecological niches within the settlement as attested in coprolites and microfauna, for example
• time

We now wish briefly to consider each of these areas. Firstly, analysis of settlement structure is providing us with evidence of both continuity and discontinuity in building and settlement plan and human behaviour at the macro scale. The settlement mound at Çatalhöyük is one of the largest in the Near East at 13.5 hectares, and more than 18 metres high. Surface scraping at 50 metre intervals has revealed a settlement pattern with clusters of contiguous buildings interspersed with large areas of refuse. No large buildings or separate complexes have been identified. We have roughly estimated that the population may have been in the order of 5,000 people, if half of the site was covered in buildings occupied at any one time by a nominal figure of 4 people per building. What are the constraints and potentials of living in a population of this order of size?

New surface plans and excavation continue to suggest that many of the buildings were entered from the roof by ladder. What access rights and problems were there in passsage over neighbouring roofs? In Mellaart's area we have cleaned and analysed more than 160 metres of sections through 11 metres of the mound, and opened up a 20 x 20 m square to investigate the origins of complexity at the site. Does change from shared party walls in Levels XII-IX, to separate walls represent a major change in architectural technology or in social interaction? How much communal co-operation was required in rebuilding? There is evidence to suggest episodes of both organic development within one plot, and levelling across several plots.

Many of the questions at the macro scale can perhaps be best addressed by analysis at the micro scale. During the first season of excavation, and re-analysis of material from the 1960's excavation, much of our effort has been in trying to understand the differences between what is within and what is outwith buildings.

Spatial boundaries within Building 1, at the north of the mound were very visible and clearly demarcated by a complex series of walls, platforms, steps, ridges and raised thresholds. Results from a range of independent analyses suggest these spatial divisions do have behavioural implications which we have been able to trace through the birth, life and death of the building.

Analysis of the architectural layout and features has suggested that there are at least three phases of structural alterations in this building.

The change from Phase I-II is marked by the blocking up of the main oven in Space 71, and the construction of a new oven in Space 70. A plastered bin was built against the southern wall in Space 71, which had a thick layer of charred lentils on top of the latest floor. In front of it there was a shallow depression with an upturned grindstone covered in red-ochre. There was extensive burning in the southern half of the building at the end of Phase 2.

Phase 3 is marked by a major change in plan. New walls were built across the centre of both rooms, and around the eastern platform and north eastern corner in Space 71. The southern half of Space 71 was no longer used. In the northern half, a small hearth was constructed close to the platform. The oven in Space 70 was rebuilt and the floor raised 30cm.

A Neolithic pit in Phase 4, was excavated right up against the western wall face.

Integration of data from a wide range of analyses is enabling us to detect consistent differences and dualities between the north and east and south and west areas of the building throughout Phases I-III. The north and east areas are characterised by a sparsity of macro and microarchaeological finds, except for Space 111, possibly a small storage room, thick layers of clean white plaster, low phosphate readings, and a higher frequency of wall plasters. The south and west areas, by contrast have a higher concentration of finds, lenses of ash and organic remains, higher phosphate readings, and fewer layers of wall plaster.

These spatial oppositions correlate with the placement of burials in the north and east below platforms, and their absence in the south and west, and elements of decoration discussed by Jon.

At least thirty-seven individuals were buried in this building, both juveniles and adults. We are currently studying the complex sequence of burials. Earlier burials were pushed aside by later burials. Undisturbed skeletons were flexed and one was headless. Until analyses of the human remains are complete, many questions remain concerning the age, gender, life-history, and genetic and social relationships between these individuals.

Many buildings at Çatalhöyük appear to have been laid out acording to a formalised mental concept probably involving shared socio-cultural behaviour. There is a general similarity in plan and decoration between Building 1, Shrine VI.10, and many other buildings at Çatalhöyük. This emerging pattern suggests a close proximity but careful separation of:

South and West North and East lower higher dirtier cleaner busyness stillness food cooking sitting/sleeping domestic ?ritual life death ?female ?male

Current evidence suggests that these opposing elements and events are generally contemporaneous, but the specific sequence of events is as yet not known.

One of the issues we have been focusing on is how and whether it is possible to distinguish between domestic and ritual activities. We have identified a similar close proximity but careful separation of dualistic oppositions to that observed in Building 1, represented by spatial variation in microstratigraphic sequences in buildings from sections in Mellaart's area.

As well as these spatial oppositions there may also be temporal changes in the use of space, as attested by the microstrtaigraphic sequence within this building from: i) dirty activities attested by relatively thick plaster floors and burnt trampled occupation deposits associated with a plastered emplacement perhaps for a pot, to ii) cleaner activities attested by this sequence of fine white and orange plaster floors which were kept clean, and are associated with a collapsed cattle jaw and horn cores, and moulded plastered sculptures. This change in the microstratigraphy coincides with the digging of a large grave with human remains, and suggests the use of at least this part of the building may have changed from a residence to an ancestral shrine.

In thin section, the initial dirtier sequences comprise thick layers of plaster which are cracked from exposure to heavy trampling, and have been impregnated with salts. Overlying deposits are unusually thick at 1-2 cm, and include fragments of oven plaster, charred cereal-like husk, siliceous grasses, ash and bone.

Two lenses of red ochre were detected in the top of a small hole in the grave at the boundary between the change in deposits. They are clearly separated by a layer of wall plaster fragments, which may have been dislodged by modification or erection of fixtures and fittings within the room. The hole is sealed by a thick layer of white plaster. The overlying mud plaster floors were often covered with white plaster, and kept remarkably clean. The only accumulated deposits are less than 0.3 mm thick. They include fibrous, possibly digested plant remains, which strongly resemble a layer of small dung pellets on the latest floor within the building. We are waiting for organic residue analysis of any surviving traces of coprostanols and bile acids, to aid determination of whether the dung is from, perhaps a meandering large rat, or perhaps a sacrificial small sheep/goat.

The domus idea is very much based on the domestic mode of production. Yet there is considerable evidence for specialised skills, in the manufacture of obsidian mirrors and other tools, in some of the bone and wooden items, for example. Re-analysis of obsidian from the 1960's excavations has suggested that fine bifacially flaked obsidian points and cores tend to occur more frequently in the more elaborate 'shrine-like' buildings, suggesting perhaps a preferential access and involvement with these artefacts. The symbolic role of obsidian remains obscure. Caches of obsidian, however, are found within buildings, frequently in association with hearths and ovens. The cache in building 1 represents a group of blanks which do not fit together and derive from different manufacturing sequences.

Development of domestication is accompanied across the Near East with a horizon in the development of pottery in the 7th millennium. Our understanding of this is as yet unclear. At Çatalhöyük we can see at least three technological changes in the manufacture of pottery from grey burnished wares with chaff, to thinner walled mineral tempered ceramics in Level VIII-VII, followed by other technological changes in Level III, with more oxidised pottery and a wider variety of forms. Do these changes relate to changes in technology and use of fire, diet, sharing of food, or the environment? The change in pottery temper corresponds with a change in the manufacture of mudbricks, from predominantly grey reducing sediments, probably from backswamp soils, to more organic oxidising alluvial sediments. Do these material differences represent a change in environment, or access to land? We do not know as yet whether pots were made in domestic ovens within households, or by specialised potters in separate complexes. The increase in pottery is generally inversely proportional to the decreasing numbers of clay balls, which are abundant in early levels. The application of organic residue analysis to study of the use of clay balls and pottery and diet, can be richly related to other analyses of bioarchaeological remains and human bones, to understand better the interplay between natural and cultural influences on domestication of materials.

How many activities were conducted on the roofs and in the open areas between buildings? The extent to which remains from within buildings are redeposited in refuse and midden areas is discussed in an earlier paper.

There is new evidence to suggest that animals were kept in stables within the settlement at Çatalhöyük. In thin-section these thin interbedded lenses of orange and white deposits, in Mellaarts Level VIII, courtyard 25, clearly comprise layers of trampled salt, dung pellets, and organic staining. This pellet included a diet of digested tubers, and grass stems and leaves, and spherulites. These deposits resemble modern samples from a winter stable for sheep and goats, collected by Seona Anderson from a village on the Konya Plain. We are comparing these physical attributes to chemical characteristics, firstly from organic residue analysis of the coprostanols and bile acids which, if present, will allow us to identify the species from which these are derived. And secondly from inorganic analyses. The level VIII stable deposits produced high phosphate readings at more than 12,000 parts per million. Dung was widely u sed as a source of fuel at Çatalhöyük in conjunction with wood, reeds and grasses.

Animals may have been stabled within the settlement for at least four reasons:

1) protection from weather and predators,

2) keeping animals nearby possibly for milking or shearing, although these may not yet have been an issue at Catal

3) protection of fields + gardens from animals

4) access to animals for shamanistic or sacrificial purposes. Sometimes ritual killings are preceded by a period of keeping the animal in confinement; one need only increase the numbers and extend the period of confinement suffici ently to permit breeding. Prior to sacrifice, wild or semi-wild animals are often subjected to a good deal of abuse or taunting. Certainly the paintings of animals that seem more 'teased' than hunted could be interpreted in this way. Isotope analysis of animals through time and across contexts may enable us to see control or limitation on animal feeding/grazing linked to use in ritual etc. How do the specific animal bones used in the art/sculpture/wall decoration differ from those that are not?

The application of a range of dating techniques and comparison of the relative chronology of floors, wall plasters, features, burial, buildings and middens, should help us to begin to understand the temporal sequenc e and framework within which the diverse activities and socio-cultural changes associated with domestication took place.