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Private pantries and celebrated surplus: storing and sharing food at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Amy Bogaard ,
Michael Charles ,
Katheryn C. Twiss ,
Andrew Fairbairn ,
Nurcan Yalman ,
Dragana Filipović ,
G. Arzu Demirergi ,
Füsun Ertuğ ,
Nerissa Russell  and
Jennifer Henecke
Amy Bogaard
Affiliation:
1School of Archaeology, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG, UK
Michael Charles
Affiliation:
2Department of Archaeology, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 4ET, UK
Katheryn C. Twiss
Affiliation:
3Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364, USA
Andrew Fairbairn
Affiliation:
4The University of Queensland, School of Social Science, Michie Building, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Nurcan Yalman
Affiliation:
5Caddebostan Cemiltopuzlu Cad. 79/5, Pınar Apt. Istanbul, Turkey
Dragana Filipović
Affiliation:
1School of Archaeology, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG, UK
G. Arzu Demirergi
Affiliation:
3Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364, USA
Füsun Ertuğ
Affiliation:
6Orhangazi caddesi, Kumbaçı yolu no 109, Iznik Bursa, Turkey
Nerissa Russell
Affiliation:
7Department of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Jennifer Henecke
Affiliation:
3Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364, USA
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Abstract

In the Neolithic megasite at Çatalhöyük families lived side by side in conjoined dwellings, like a pueblo. It can be assumed that people were always in and out of each others' houses – in this case via the roof. Social mechanisms were needed to make all this run smoothly, and in a tour-de-force of botanical, faunal and spatial analysis the authors show how it worked. Families stored their own produce of grain, fruit, nuts and condiments in special bins deep inside the house, but displayed the heads and horns of aurochs near the entrance. While the latter had a religious overtone they also remembered feasts, episodes of sharing that mitigated the provocations of a full larder.

Keywords

TurkeyÇatalhöyükNeolithicsocial strategyspatial analysisbotanyfauna
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 321 , September 2009 , pp. 649 - 668
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

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