Çatalhöyük 2003 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 2003 ARCHIVE REPORT

HOLY PLACE OR WOR... AND WORKING PLACE

THE CHALLANGES OF MULTIVOCALITY IN THE MEETING OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION AT ÇATALHÖYÜK TODAY

Pia Andersson

Abstract

Multivocality is one of the core interests of the Project Director at Çatalhöyük, Ian Hodder. According to himself he has, he is and he wants to continue to try to make the archaeological excavations of Çatalhöyük a place of ”many voices”. In alignment with these thoughts, a new project was introduced at the archaeological excavations of Çatalhöyük during the season of 2003. This project – which aims at studying and hopes of aiding the multivocality on site – is part of a Ph.D. thesis conducted at Stockholm University. While the doctorate thesis closer studies ”alternative archaeology” and the meeting of science and religion in archaeology today, the project at Çatalhöyük will focus its attention on the frequent religious interest of the site by the Goddess Community, their pilgrimages to the site, their interpretations of the site and how these alternative interpretations and uses of the site work together with archaeological aims, in the name of multivocality.

Özet

Çokseslilik Çatalhöyük proje direktörü Ian Hodder’in en temel ilgi alanlarindan birisidir. Kendi ifadesine göre, simdiye dek Çatalhöyük’teki arkeolojik kazilarin “çok sesli” olmasi için çalismistir ve çalismayi sürdürmektedir. Bu düsüncelere paralel olarak, 2003 yilinda Çatalhöyük’te baslatilan ve Stockholm Üniversitesi’ne bagli olarak yürütülen bir doktora çalismasinin bir parçasi olan yeni bir proje, Çatalhöyük’teki çoksesliligi incelemeyi ve çokseslilige katkida bulunmayi amaçlamaktadir. Söz konusu doktora çalismasi, “alternatif arkeoloji” üzerine egilerek günümüzde arkeolojide bilim ve dinin bulusmasini incelemektedir. Çatalhöyük’te yürütülecek olan proje ise, yerlesmeyi siklikla ziyaret eden Anatanriçaci Gruplara odaklanarak, yerlesmenin bu farkli yorum ve kullanimlarinin arkeolojik amaçlarla ne sekilde bir arada yürüdügünü çokseslilik adina inceleyecektir.

Introduction

”She came alone, without being part of an organised travel group. She had found her way to this remote place far away from the ordinary resorts by the coasts. One day she stood there on the rim of our excavation trench, asking us question after question and giving us encouraging cheers. She was obviously more well-read and engaged than the normal tourists, who usually settled with just looking and listening to the monotonous voices of the Turkish guides. She was one of "them", one of them whom we – the archaeologists working at the site – usually and a little irreverent bundled together under the label ”the mother goddesspeople”. This day was an unusually slow day and she was the only tourist around. Suddely, one of my collegues invited her to climb down the ladder and come down into the building we were excavating (actually something forbidden for others than us excavating). At first, she didn't want to, maybe didn't dare, but soon she let herself be persuaded. As she came down and stood on the floor, her eyes filled with tears, her legs started to shake and her steady stream of words suddenly came to an end. She was overwelmed by standing on the same floor which once, thousands of years ago, the people of the Mother Goddess had stood upon. Her experience was very strong. For me, as I stood there on the very same floor, the contrast between her experience and mine became very clear. Here I stood, among my working tools, longing for a break, with a headache caused by the 30-degrees heat and some layer difficult to interpret. And there she was, having a strong religious experience. The meeting didn't last very long, soon she hurried up the ladder again as if the ground beneath her was burning the soles of her feet. With a trembling voice she couldn't stop thanking us. This had been the most important moment during her journey.” (Berggren 2003).

It was this moving story which inspired, from the beginning told to me across a busy lunch table after a doctorate seminar in Stockholm. Åsa, who had excavated in Çatalhöyük during three seasons, explained to me how they were there constantly visited by bussloads of ”mothergoddess-worshippers” which, while not too interested in the archaeology being done on site, mainly came to do religious rituals on the mound. These visits had with the years become an integrated part of the excavating archaeologists' daily life among visits from filmteams, journalists, local and long-way tourists. Since my doctorate thesis concerned the relationship between archaeology and new religiosity, the situation at Çatalhöyük seemed to be right up my alley and maybe a perfect part of the studies for my thesis. With the help of Åsa I was put in contact with Ian Hodder and now, one and a half year after that lunch, I myself have one season of 9000-year old dust in my excavation-clothes and a project concerning multivocality and the relationship between the Goddess Community and the archaeologists in Çatalhöyük have started.

Season of 2003

During an introductory meeting with Ian Hodder in London in December 2002, he let me know he was concerned about the groups of Goddess pilgrims being fewer and fewer during the last years. And for the excavation season 2002 they did not come at all. He said he didn't know if there would be any groups coming next season either and the chances of that diminished even further as the war in Iraq started. Nevertheless, I was invited to join the team this shortened season and I planned to do as much as I could to get my project started, with or without Goddess pilgrims on site to talk to. It was decided I would join the excavation team as an archaeologist for the full leangth of the time, to get properly integrated with the archaeology, and the archaeologists, at site, but also as a way of financing the project. Ian let me know that an anthropologist from New Zealand, Kathryn Rountree, had also been invited this season to make an exhibition for the Visitor Centre at site, representing the Goddess Community and their alternative interpretations of Çatalhöyük. By introducing these two new projects at the archaeological excavations at Çatalhöyük the intention of giving its multivocality an expanded face-lift was initiated.

Excavating full time this season during more or less the full duration of my stay at Çatalhöyük, the work on my own project was pretty much conducted during late night hours, a few less work-laden eveningsessions and some breaks in between. Since no Goddess pilgrims came to site during this excavation season (as far as we know) this seasons work mainly consisted of going through the library at site for relevant articles, searching the guestbook in the Visitor Center for comments on the topic and conducting thorough and long interviews with available people of special interest in the matter. In beginning to comprehend the differing opinions of the working archaeologists and specialists at site concerning multivocality, alternative interpretations of the site and the visits of the Goddess pilgrims, I also conducted several off-record discussions and interviews on all possible occasions - in the trenches while working and during breaks in the shade on the veranda as well as while on the evening walks around the mound and in the moonlight on the roof terrace in the late evenings. I was also asked to join the group of team members lecturing a class of tourist guides at Konya Hilton Hotel, learning how to guide at the site, to briefly talk about the Goddess Community's interest in Çatalhöyük. I compared the situation there with similar situations at other archaeological sites around the world attracting alternative interpretation and use. This tourist guide special education was initiated and organized by Resit Ergener.

During this, the projects initial, excavation season, long and thorough interviews were conducted with eight people. These interviews lasted from 45 minutes to several hours and much more was said than what I here briefly summarize. With Ian Hodder, Project Director of the archaeological excavations at Çatalhöyük since 1993, I talked extensively about the issues of multivocality; Shahina Farid, Site Director of the archaeological excavations at Çatalhöyük since 1995 shared her experiences of working within Ian Hodder's multivocality; Ruth Tringham, Team Leader for the BACH-Area excavations at Çatalhöyük told me of her decades of involvement with the debates within feminist archaeology and her aquaintance with now deceased Marija Gimbutas; Ayfer Bartu Candan, anthropologist working with the Çatalhöyük-team since 1997 conducting a project concerning all the different interest groups of Çatalhöyük, let me in on an anthropologist's impression of archaeologists; Mustafa Tokyagsun from the nearby village Küçükköy, who has been a guard at the Çatalhöyük excavation site since 1992, described the goddess rituals conducted on the mound through the years; Resit Ergener, tour guide from Istanbul told me of how he came to write the book Anatolia, Land of Mother Goddess (1988), found the society Turkish friends of Çatalhöyük and start the travel agency Anatours specializing on Goddess-oriented tours in Turkey; and Joan Relke, a goddess-inspired artist from Australia with a Ph.D. in Studies of Religion explained to me how she recently had come in possession of the unpublished manuscript of now deceased Dorothy Cameron, who worked with James Mellart in the 1960's.

On the way back home to Sweden I took a detour passing by Bodrum, where I met with Ceylan Orhun for a whole day of interviewing. She is one of the most mythical persons connected with the Goddess Community's business at Çatalhöyük, mainly because she bought a house in the nearby village, Küçükköy, a few years ago which was mysteriously burned down before it came to use. A lot of different stories abound, among the local villagers and the archaeologists, about both the burning of the house as well as about Ceylan Orhun herself. She was by some described to me as Turkey's authority witch and leader of the Goddess Movement in Turkey, titles she herself laughed hearty at when I told her. Ceylan has through the years dedicated herself to women's rights and environmental issues, co-founded Friends of Çatalhöyük with Resit Ergener. Unfortunately an interview with the anthropologist and expert on the Goddess Community, Kathryn Rountree, who also put together the Goddess-exhibition text for the Visitor Centre, was not possible due to her own choice.

Future plans

After these initial, and quite physical, 6 weeks at the archaeological excavation in Çatalhöyük, this project is now entering a more theoretical phase. Several hours of interviews are waiting to be transcribed and analysed more closely and a lot of litterature on the subject remains to be read. It is also my great hope of coming in contact with individuals and groups within the Goddess Community in the nearby future. Resit Ergener, who has organized several Goddess-tours in Turkey through the years, have been most kind in sharing his knowledge and contacts. Perhaps also the website of the Çatalhöyük Research Project might function as a forum for contact (see e-mail adress below). Through this direct communication with the Goddess Community I wish to learn what its individuals and groups think of the archaeological work being done on site and how they perceive the interpretations of the site being made by the excavation project. I also wish to learn how individuals and groups within the Goddess Community themselves interpret Çatalhöyük's prehistory, why the Goddess pilgrims have ceased to visit the site (at least to the same extent as before), and what they wish for the future concerning Çatalhöyük.

Until next years excavation season I also wish to put together a folder for the site library with articles and tips of further readings on the Goddess Community, their alternative interpretation of prehistory and related ares. An article is currently being prepared and the situation at Çatalhöyük will also be one of the topics for discussion at the workshop From Thomsen to Däniken: workshop on alternative archaeology organized by Swedish archaeologist Stig Welinder and myself in Härnösand, Sweden in October 2003. There eleven archaeologists - mainly from Sweden but also from Norway, Denmark and Germany - will discuss the phenomena of ”alternative archaeology”. An anthology will be published in the coming year presenting the discussions and results of the workshop, including one chapter about the Goddess Community and Çatalhöyük. Other than this, it is my wish and plan to spend time working at Çatalhöyük the following excavation seasons, thereby hopefully not only feeding my doctorate thesis with valuable material and my comprehension of these matters with more insight, but also maybe aiding the Çatalhöyük Research Project in its endeavour to develope and maintain multivocality.

In the closing days of this years excavation season Kathryn Rountree's text was illustrated and a layout was made by Sophie Lamb. In the Visitor Center at Çatalhöyük there is now two 1x2 meters colourful panels presenting the Goddess Community and their alternative interpretations of the site, including quotations from the Visitor Center guestbook (Fig. 70). Earlier in the excavation season Kathryn's text was put on display on the notice-board for anyone working on the project to comment on, but no one objected (officially) to either the text or the idea of the Goddess-exhibition. Creating this presentation space for alternative interpretations by the Goddess Community, and making it a part of the permanent exhibition at the Visitor Center, is not only a big step on the way towards a more expanded multivocality of the Çatalhöyük Research Project, but also one of the first steps of its kind. While indigenous interpretations of prehistory have succesfully claimed some exhibition space at archaeological sites, for example in the US, voices from the new religiosity community is still crying out for more information of popular, alternative interpretations presented at excavation exhibitions, such as for example Stonehenge and Avebury in England (Wallis 2003). This initiative by Ian Hodder at Çatalhöyük will surely generate varied reactions from both academic disciplines, alternative communities, and visiting tourists. I will do my best to follow the twists and turns of opinions through the years ahead.

Please, contact me anytime for comments or thoughts at Pia@PoBox.se