2009/09/01 by Amy Bogaard, Michael Charles, Katheryn C. Twiss +7 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Ancient Near East History #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1017/s0003598x00098896
openalex publication_date 2009/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
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.