ÇATALHÖYÜK 2005 ARCHIVE REPORT

CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MATERIALS REPORTS

Animal Bone

Katheryn Twiss, Louise Martin, Kamilla Pawlowska and Nerissa Russell

Assistants: Hijlke Buitenhuis, Ian Cameron, Rebecca Daly (Worked bone), Marina Lizarralde, Adam Watson, Rhian Mayon-White (Amphibian & small mammals)

Abstract

Faunal analysis in 2005 concentrated on remains from the 4040, South, TP, and IST Areas. Notable deposits include a rich midden as well as a cattle skull and a dog crammed into a disused oven in the 4040 Area. Also in the 4040, Building 52 yielded several remarkable finds, including a complete bucranium next to a bench with embedded horn cores and beneath a cache of horn cores; a store of raw material for bone working; and a bin containing assorted unusual remains. TP produced remains from the latest levels of the East Mound that expanded our still-limited knowledge of animal exploitation in the later Neolithic. We are increasingly confident that the animal economy of Çatalhöyük changed pronouncedly as the Neolithic progressed.

Özet

Zooarkeloji ekibi, 2005 sezonunda TP, 4040, IST ve Güney Alanları’ndan çıkarılan zooarkeolojik malzemenin kaydı üzerinde yoğunlaşmıştır. Zengin bir cöplük (midden), bir sığır kafatası ve kullanım dışı bir ocağın içine tıkılmış şekilde bulunan bir köpek dikkate değer malzemeler arasındadır. Ayrıca 4040 alanındaki, Bina 52’de bulunan tüm haldeki bukranium ve hemen yanındaki sekinin içine yerleştirilmiş olan boynuzlar, kemik yapımında kullanılan ham malzeme deposu ile değişik kalıntılar içeren bir ambar, sezonun önemli buluntuları arasındadır. TP alanında ortaya çıkarılan ve Doğu Höyük’ün en geç tabakalarına tarihlenen kalıntılar, geç Neolitik dönemindeki hayvan yetiştiriciliğiyle ilgili kısıtlı olan bilgimizi çoğaltmıştır. Çatalhöyük’de hayvan yetiştiriciliğine bağlı ekonominin, Neolitik dönem sürecinde önemli bir gelişim gösterdiğine daha güçlü inanmaktayız.

Introduction

The 2005 excavations at CH produced a wealth of faunal discoveries, including midden deposits, bone clusters, raw material stores, and special installations. Zooarchaeological research therefore proceeded along multiple lines this season. 58,269 specimens were recorded this year, from the TP, 4040, South, IST, and BACH Areas. This brought the total number of analyzed specimens from the current excavations to 708,448. We completed recording of the Bach Area material for its upcoming publication, and will not discuss it further here. We also spent considerable time on site, collaborating with excavators to assess and handle noteworthy faunal specimens. Finally, we hosted a pair of studies examining our analytic methodology. Issues that particularly intrigued us this year included diachronic variation in the site’s faunal remains and the strong but polymorphous cultural emphasis on cattle skulls and horns.

TP Area

During the 2005 season, 2102 remains from Levels I and 0 in the TP Area were analysed. Out of them, only 7% were determinate. On the one hand, the available material was scarce, however if a preliminary reference were to be made, the proportion is smaller than that in earlier levels. The excavated bones were mostly those of mammals, although human (9.3%) and bird (2%) bones were also identified. Among the mammals, most of the bones belonged to small ruminants - 78.2%. There were also some cattle bones - 20.3%. In the group of indeterminate remains, fragments of sheep/goat-size prevailed.

A very interesting discovery made in the current season in the TP zone was a cattle bucranium (11562) found with a human skull placed in the centre, below the cut-off frontal. The postcranial skeleton was damaged by a Hellenistic pit with the exception of selected elements (backbone, foot bones) placed around the contour of the pit. It was near the surface and under a plastered layer, but no cuts were found. TherelationofthehumanskullandThe relation of the human skull and the bucranium is likely to be intentional, but there are no signs of plaster on either skull. ItisnotclearwhethertheIt is not clear whether the bucranium was in the burial, the burial cut through a pre-existing deposit with the bucranium, or both were placed in during the filling process. If it was deliberately placed with the skull, it is a quite different use of bucrania from earlier levels. It seems hard to imagine that such a precise placement with respect to the bucranium was accidental. The cattle skull is on the small side for Çatalhöyük, but within female aurochs range. Comparing the dimensions of the horn core (total length = 280 mm, length of the outer curvature = 399 mm, length of the interior curvature = 324 mm, greatest diameter = 68.5 mm) with others from Çatalhöyük bucrania, they are the most similar to 1347.X1 (respectively: 275 mm, 343 mm, 263 mm, 58 mm), which was considered to be a small wild female. However, this particular bucranium is actually somewhat larger. The intercornual breadth was roughly 166.0mm.166.0 mm.

Under the layer surrounding the bucranium there were several human burials and floor deposits (11740)inspace(11740) in space 248, stratigraphically belonging to Level 0. This was a rather low-density unit (269 pieces of bone from 101 liters of soil). The bone deposit contained remains of small ruminants and human bones. Ten pieces of human bone (fragments of ribs, cervical vertebras, first and second phalanx of the hand), fairly complete and relatively unweathered, are dissimilar from the remaining part of the unit. Perhaps they are from Byzantine burials. Among the animal bones, small (mostly about 3 cm, but up to about 5-6 cm) pieces of mostly sheep-size bone were predominant. There were also several diagnostic elements of sheep/goat bones, including teeth, a mandible fragment, an intermediate carpal, ulna and femur. There was only one cattle-sized long bone (shaft fragment). The age of the animals to which the bones belonged varied: infantile and mature. Fragments of ribs and vertebrae were digested. A small part of the bones (a few long bone shaft splinters, mostly sheep-size) were burnt at low temperatures. Generally speaking, the bone deposit in space 248 discussed here looks heavily processed and redeposited.

In the western section of the excavation area, Level I, 434 bones were recovered from (11725), described as a layer directly on top of the Neolithic floor. The bone sample contained very few diagnostic pieces, including fragments of teeth and bones: tibia, radius, calcaneum, belonging exclusively to sheep/goat. Remarkably, there was a complete sheep sacrum, which is probably associated with sheep lumbar vertebra. In the group of non-diagnostic remains, there were mostly sheep-sized fragments with some cattle-sized pieces (longbone,riband(long bone, rib and skull fragments). The bone is quite fragmented, with most pieces in the 2-3 cm range, but with some much larger (7 and 9 cm). Surfaces of bones are in relatively good condition. They are slightly weathered, but much of the bone is covered with manganese staining, obscuring real surfaces. About a quarter of the fragments are burnt at low temperature. There are no gnawing marks in the analysed material, however a very little is digested.

As for material stratigraphically younger than Level 0, a total of 49 fragments (11721 and 11727) were obtained in the current excavation season, coming exclusively from a flotation sample. This is a small amount of bones. The deposit consists solely of sheep-sized material, predominantly indeterminate, but also had a few long bone shaft fragments. Diagnostic elements included only the upper and lower deciduous teeth of sheep/goat. The bones, 1-2 cm long, showed slight to moderate weathering. Ca. 8% of the material was burnt, which is evidenced by the grey colour of the bones. This resembles reworked material found in construction or fill deposits.

In the centre of this year’s excavation area, 1349 bone fragments were described from (12205), a layer in a sequence of infills.They are worn and for the most part are slightly weathered, but they were not highly reworked/redeposited since there are some relatively delicate pieces present (e.g., a large cattle sacrum fragment). The bone deposit included mostly sheep/goat bones, with some cattle and a little bit of dog and mustelid. Among the caprines, a range of body parts is present. There were also remains of birds (long bones, including a tarsometatarsus) and, in addition, human bones (hyoid, humerus and the first phalanx of the hand). The sizes of the taxa subjectively appear similar to those of earlier levels. There was a moderate amount of burnt bone and a fair amount of digestion and gnawing.

Thus, apart from the bucranium found with a human skull, the animal bone recorded from the TP Area this year appears to derive from earlier deposits incorporated into fills and construction material. It is uncertain what relation this material has to the levels in which it was found.

4040 Area

While eventually we plan to record the animal bone recovered from the rich midden deposits excavated in the 4040 Area in 2005, so far our effort has been chiefly expended on some of the special deposits and recording previously excavated midden from the area.  In particular, we analyzed several distinctive animal bone concentrations from Building 52, which should aid in the interpretation of the building’s history.

Middens

Middens are an important and interesting type of bone deposit at Catalhoyük, differing in character among the various excavation areas of the tell. A detailed analysis of these will be a topic of a separate study, however attention should be paid to the midden 8864 from the 4040 Area, containing 24,396 animal bones. This was a large midden with much diagnostic material, including mostly mammal remains, but also those of reptiles and birds (represented by bone and eggshell). In the mammal group, sheep/goat bones were predominant, but some cattle, equid (teeth and one metapodial), pig (teeth and calcaneum), and carnivore (mustelid and canid) bone remnants were also present. In addition, microfauna remains recovered from the dry sieve and human bone and also a coprolite were identified. Ca. 86% of the material was indeterminate. The scrap is largely sheep/goat size, but small to cattle-size animals are also represented.

There were remains of animals representing age classes ranging from perinatal to adult in all size categories. A conspicuous feature is a generally even distribution of body parts for sheep-goat and cattle but low on vertebrae and rib heads. Gnawing marks are present on both determinate and indeterminate bones. Some of the bones (vertebrae, metapodia, astragali, phalanges) were digested. It is interesting that severalpiecesofsheep/goatmandiblehaveseveral pieces of sheep/goat mandible have polish on the coronoid process and some rounded edges, possibly from trampling or water wear. OnlyafewoftheOnly a few of the bones are burnt. Moderate weathering (3-4 degree in the classification) appears most consistently, but this varies.

(8864), which generally appears to be the typical large midden of mostly sheep/goat derived from multiple activities, but not a street, has little coherence. While much of the assemblage appears heavily processed big pieces of fragile elements have survived. This unit was located below (8859). In reference to it, it is similar in the density of the bone material but less fragmented, with more digested pieces of bone but not much burning or cut marks.

Space 227

(11980) is a kind of deposit not previously seen at Çatalhöyük.  Although both cattle and dog remains have been found in special deposits, particularly the former, unit (11980) shows some form of association between the two, in and around an oven of an abandoned building.

The oven, built into the south wall of a room in Space 227, had a roughly square base and ledge protruding into the room.  After it fell into disuse, it seems to have been backfilled rather than truncated.  As part of this backfilling, or maybe later, a cattle skull was crammed into the oven mouth, although because it was so large, it was partially lying on the outer oven ledge.  The skull had its basioccipital (back of the skull) facing down, and frontals (forehead) up.  The right horn core was extending out of the oven.  It was in poor condition, but was clearly incomplete at time of deposition, and was fairly heavily weathered, suggesting a considerable time had passed between the death of the animal and its final deposition in the oven.   Maybe it had served as an installation.

Almost wrapped around this cattle skull - both on top, adjacent to and below it - was much of a skeleton of a dog.  The dog’s vertebrae, part of the pelvis and a tibia were on top of the skull, the dog’s skull was next to the cattle skull, and the humerus (lying beneath an ulna and radius) and another tibia were beneath the skull.  Many other skeletal elements were present, from both sides of the body; some were in articulation but many were not.  Notably, there was an absence of certain elements – all the neck and tail vertebrae, all the paws, and most of the other foot bones – showing that parts of the dog carcass had been lost prior to its deposition here.  Some carnivore gnaw marks hint that an animal may have scavenged parts away, but also suggest that while the bone seems quite fresh, the dog must have lain dead somewhere for at least a short while before being redeposited with the cattle skull.

The dog itself was a sub-adult or young adult: all bones were fused except one proximal humerus, which had an epiphyseal line visible.  Metrical analyses have not yet been undertaken, but bones and teeth seem on the medium-small side, surely dog rather than wolf.  Two lumbar vertebrae and one lumbar transverse process are pathological on their left sides.  They show signs of infection subsequent to trauma, as if the animal sustained a blow to its left side near its hip that broke a couple of transverse processes off, and the injured area got infected.

None of the bones that formed the deposit (11980) were burnt, although they were in an ashy charcoal fill (11985) that could have been associated with the use of the oven, and served as backfill.  No cut was found down from higher deposits, so presumably (11980) is synchronous with the general infilling of Space 227.

(11980) is clearly open to various interpretations.  It is tempting to see the cattle skull as part of a former above-ground installation, and its placement in the oven as an act of closure of the building and its features.  The dog may have been associated with the building and seems to have died naturally somewhat before (but not long before) its abandonment, being left somewhere unprotected (where it got partially scavenged) before being returned to the building.  There are precedents for dog remains being incorporated into abandoned buildings, e.g. in a post-retrieval pit in Building 2, and another nearly-complete skeleton on top of a platform in Building 3.

Building 52

Perhaps the most astonishing zooarchaeological finds of the 2005 season came from Building 52 in the 4040 Area, which contained a wealth of extraordinary faunal remains when it burned.

Several interesting finds came from inside a bin (Feature 2004) in Space 93, the northern of the two spaces excavated in Building 52. Near the top of this bin excavation revealed an upside-down moderately weathered and calcined boar mandible (11904.X1), with fragmentary teeth still in their sockets. The animal was a medium-sized male wild boar. An antler tine as well as an assortment of calcined deer and caprine- and cattle-sized bone fragments were also recovered from the fill in the top portion of the bin.

More remarkable was the lower fill of the same bin. Dense concentrations of both faunal and botanical remains were discovered here. The bones, which were in excellent condition and appeared quite fresh, were also burned to varying extents: most were carbonized, some were calcined, and some were merely burned brown. Interspersed with the bones were pockets of botanical remains, including peas and small, oil-rich seeds that created a greasy sheen on some of the bones.

A special faunal cluster (11923) was identified in this fill. It consisted of several very large pieces (up to approximately 30 cm in length) of bones from large animals. Many of these bones were worked, including five cattle-sized rib fragments (11923. F1, F2, F3, X1, X6). These all included only rib shafts, no rib heads or distal ends. Portions of all were highly polished, and the specimens had been modified in a variety of ways.  One had been narrowed towards a flat, blunt point at one end, and another to a narrow point; two others displayed concave scallops along a long edge. Perhaps they were burnishers, for plaster or for ceramics. The rib fragments did not appear to have been arranged within the bin.

Also in this cluster was a second pig mandible (11923.X2), which lay on its right side at an angle in the southeastern corner of the bin. All of the left side of the mandible and the anterior of the right side were present. There were tooth roots in all of the alveoli, but only the left M2 and M3 were found complete. When measured, these teeth indicated that the animal had been a female medium-large wild boar. A loose pig incisor was also found in the cluster and is probably associated with the mandible.

Other bones in the cluster included two big pieces of juvenile caprine tibias (one clearly belongs to a sheep); a goat horn core splinter; a red deer antler tine; a cattle-size mandible fragment, and a caprine metacarpal fragment. There were also some non-diagnostic fragments: sheep-size ribs, cattle- and sheep-size cranial fragments, hare and sheep-size long bone shaft splinters. A single fish bone was also retrieved from the >4mm flotation, and more may be found when the >2 and >1mm samples are analyzed. The non-diagnostic and fish bones may be assigned to the unit enclosing the cluster, as the boundary between the cluster and the surrounding unit was not clear.

This is partly because the fill (11907) surrounding the cluster was also noteworthy. The bones in this fill are almost all caprine or caprine-sized. Several large caprine fragments reflect minimal processing, including a more or less complete innominate, a distal humerus, an unfused humerus head, a largely complete scapula, an articulating proximal radius and ulna (they do not articulate with the humerus), and metacarpals. Interestingly, the sheep/goat proportions are much more equal than is typical of later levels of Catalhoyuk. This may be illusory, though, as it is unclear if the remains in the bin represent multiple bones from a single goat or the remains of multiple animals.

In addition, the fill contained a pair of long chunks of red deer antler beam. These were found lying side by side and parallel. The tines had been removed from one of them, making it prepared raw material for working. The two pieces were similar in size. Also present were a complete Bos 3rd phalanx and assorted non-diagnostics from animals sheep-size and larger. However, non-diagnostics are few and mostly quite small even in the flotation samples.

Outside the bin, a cluster of bones (11965) was found on the floor in the southern part of Space 93, apparently having originally been stored in some form of container. The bones were probably a cache of raw materials being saved for future working. They include 31 caprine metapodia: 23 metacarpals, 5 metatarsals, and 3 indeterminate metapodia. (Two additional metacarpals and three metapodial fragments were excavated as part of the surrounding unit (11944) but are surely part of this cluster.) Many of these metapodia retained their articulating carpals and tarsals. Almost all of these metapodia were unfused and lack their distal epiphyses, but all were from essentially fully grown animals. A couple do appear older; one (11965.X11) in particular had bony exostoses above the fused distal condyles. The metapodia thus suggest slaughter of juveniles plus occasional older, lame animals.

There was a dearth of cutmarks on these metapodia, which raises the question of how these animals were dismembered and skinned. Perhaps the absence of cutmarks, in combination with the lack of distal epiphyses and phalanges, reflect a dismemberment strategy wherein the feet were simply broken off the legs with little or no cutting.

Other bones in this cache include single pieces of equid and cattle-sized ribs as well as six pieces of antler, of which at least two showed signs of working. Although virtually all heavily burned, the bones in the cluster were generally in extremely good condition.
The unit in which the additional metapodia were found (11944) also contained a large cattle skull fragment, including a lengthy horn core. This highly calcined and very fragmented find lay under burned collapse in the southern portion of Space 93.

Such burning was typical of the faunal remains from the more southern space in Building 52, or Space 94. Essentially all of the faunal remains in this space were heavily burned. Near the surface in Space 94 numerous cattle horn cores were discovered in the fill (10281, 10286). Intriguingly, the topmost horn cores were all in a very tightly packed bunch, as if someone had gathered them all in their arms and put them down together. They were also placed so that they would appear to be right-side cores.

Additional horn cores and fragments lay below and around this pile. All of the horn cores that could be assigned to one side or the other were indeed rights. Yet there was no uniformity to the horn cores themselves: curvature and morphology varied, and some came from males and some from females.

At least two very fragmentary cattle skulls were also found here, more or less on top of each other. One possessed both its left and right horn cores; the other was too fragmentary to allow portion assessment.

The skulls and horn cores were highly burned, but they displayed generally good surface conditions and did not look as if they had lain exposed for long periods of time. A minimum of 13 horn cores is present, based on a count of tips. It is quite possible that the original number was higher.

Below this cluster of cattle skull and horn cores was found the first complete bucranium of the current excavations. This bucranium (11963.X1) is a partial skull set into a niche. It sits at an angle, with the flat top of the skull and the horns the portions facing onlookers standing inside Space 94. The back of the skull and horns rest on the base of the niche, while the plastered front edge of the wall/niche surrounds the base of the skull and fills the eye sockets to hold the installation in place. The nose hangs out over the floor. The bucranium has been conserved and left in situ.

Just south of the bucranium was a bench with three left cattle horn cores (11940.X1,X3, X4) set into the side of it next to the bucranium. The bench had slumped, and if any right horn cores were originally embedded in its other side, they were no longer in place at the time of excavation.

Additional special faunal finds were also discovered in this area. Along with the wealth of horn cores above the bucranium excavators found a nearly complete cattle scapula, while behind the bucranium in the back of the niche there lay a highly calcined and badly fragmented pig mandible (11969.X1) and a cervid antler tine. A goat frontlet (11976) was also uncovered beneath the bucranium cluster on top of the raised floor. Further horn core fragments (e.g. 11928) also occurred elsewhere in Space 94, but there was virtually no other animal bone in the room.

In sum, the two spaces in Building 52 (Spaces 93 and 94) contained an unusual assortment of faunal remains, all of which burned in situ at high temperatures. At least some of this burning appears to have been unintentional, which means that the apparent atypicality of Space 93’s rich bin and cache of raw material for bone working may be at least partly illusory. Perhaps such faunal stores were relatively common at Catalhoyuk while houses were occupied. Houses that were abandoned by choice rather than destroyed by accidental fires, like the great majority of those found at the site, might have been cleared out prior to that abandonment. If so, the caches in Space 93 may represent the relatively normal stores of a building in use. Yet if the quantities and arrangements of material in Space 93 may be reasonably standard, the taxonomic contents of the caches are not, and indicate that there was something special about Building 52.

This impression is strongly reinforced by the extraordinary assortment of faunal remains recovered in Space 94. A complete bucranium was installed in a niche next to a bench with cattle horns embedded in it. Directly above and aligned with this bucranium were two crushed and fragmentary partial bucrania, along with a tight heap of several additional horn cores. There are indications that side may have been important here, as all of the sideable horn cores above the bucranium proved to be rights, whereas all of those embedded in the bench were lefts. Other remains in this niche are also thought to have had special significance at Çatalhöyük and include a cattle scapula, a pig mandible, and a goat frontlet. Few commonplace faunal remains were recovered from this space. If the contents of Space 93 appear unusual, the contents of Space 94 are truly exceptional.South Area

In Space 261 two animal bone clusters, (11392) and (11393) (which may represent the same depositional event) were found at an interface between fills, and their character appeared quite different from surrounding deposits.  The fill within which they sat – (11379) – has not yet been recorded for faunal remains, so instead, the clusters are here compared to (11366), a unit interpreted as dumped midden-like deposits in Space 260 which is next to the clusters, and of the same approximate time period.

(11366) has a lot of well-preserved animal bone pieces, mostly unburnt with high fragmentation (most being in the 2-3 cm range).  There is very little gnawing, but a little digestion, which is typical of midden deposits.  As can be seen from the table, most of the material is sheep-sized, and most of the identified fragments belong to sheep/goat, with cattle constituting a lower proportion, and pig and small carnivores being far fewer.  Much of the material is unidentifiable to taxon, but only animal size class.  For the two main size classes (cattle and sheep) all body areas are represented, although there is an under-representation of horn core, which appears to be being deposited elsewhere.  The unit is consistent with the idea of fairly intensive processing of bone for marrow and grease, with bone coming from multiple sources, but all being fairly rapidly buried.

An interesting observation about the (11366) material in general (not relating to a comparison with the clusters) is that there appears to be an under-representation of vertebrae (for sheep/goat size) for the amount of ribs and long-bones.  Also there are some sheep neck vertebrae that seem to have been chopped longitudinally, which has not been observed before at Çatalhöyük at earlier levels of the site, and which may relate to different butchery/carcass division techniques in this period.

By contrast, (11392) and (11393) have far smaller quantities of material, with most of it identified to taxon.  Fragments appeared to be lying on a ‘surface’ – an interface between fills of an external midden, together with some stones, and pieces were relatively large and unfragmented.  (11392) included a chunk of fallow deer antler (probably European fallow), three right hand scapulae (from pig, equid and cattle), a large equid pelvis and some cattle skull and horn core pieces.  (11393), which appears to have been deposited synchronously but with some spatial separation, contains similar large chunks of bone with stones.  Taxa represented here are mainly cattle and cervid (seemingly both red and fallow), a couple of boar/pig fragments, and one wild sheep and a (?) wild goat horn core.  There are lots of horn core and antler fragments and one red deer pelvis, fairly complete.

From both units, there were no burnt animal remains, and no evidence of cut marks, although much of the material appears smashed (flattened, not fragmented). Much of the material is fairly weathered as if it was left exposed for some time.  The clusters certainly seem to represent special deposits of some kind.  Maybe some of the material is consumption debris (e.g. the pelves) but if so, they have only seen meat removal and no intensive processing for marrow and grease.  Other pieces, like the horn cores and antlers may have derived from installations (there is no evidence for working of the antler).  Together, they may represent a commemorative deposit, similar to (11897) in Istanbul Area described below.

Istanbul Area

Work began this year in the new IST Area. A limited number of Neolithic contexts have as yet been excavated, of which only a subset were dry-sieved. Statistical analysis of the IST fauna is therefore premature. However, the fill inside a new structure yielded an interesting cluster of large bones (11897). Most remains are from cattle: an atlas and axis, three humeri fragments, a complete calcaneum and a scapula, none of which were in articulation. In addition, there are two cattle skulls (X1 and X3), each of which include frontals plus about half of both horn cores but lack inferior skull elements.  The skulls were squashed rather flat and were in poor condition, which may be post-depositional, but the destruction of their horn cores leaving part of the corpus is pre-depositional.  Cervid remains are represented by a large antler chunk probably with a shed base (raw material for working?) and a femur head, and there is a goat horn core and scapula.  There are several other small fragments of bone, two worked pieces, and also quite a large fragment of human sacrum.

The cluster is characterised by lots of relatively large chunks of bone that are in rather poor condition, which may result from the heavy clayey matrix and being quite close to the surface.  Some bones look like consumption debris (the cattle and cervid postcranials), some like raw material (antler), a couple are worked, and the cattle skulls may either represent destroyed installations or butchery/consumption debris – although the missing horn core parts fit the former interpretation better.  The human sacrum adds to the picture of a re-deposited mix of remains that were important for one reason or another, that were included as a cluster within the fill of (11863) (similar to the earlier deposits from B.42: (11392) and (11393)).

Later Neolithic levels: summary to date

After the 2005 season, we can update our preliminary observations on the animal remains from the later Neolithic levels of the East Mound.  Since there are uncertainties about the level assignments of many units, we have lumped them into two approximate periods: Levels V-IV (South, 4040, and Building 42) and Levels III-I (TP).  In all cases, we have tried to omit from the analysis units containing post-Neolithic material.  We use Watson’s (1979) diagnostic zone method for quantification.

These two groups of levels are fairly similar in the proportions of taxa represented.  However, they stand in contrast to the earlier levels (Russell and Martin 2005), where sheep and goat consistently form ca. 65-70% of the diagnostic zones, cattle 20-25%.  From roughly Level V on, sheep/goat exceed 80% and cattle drop to about 10%.  Other taxa drop less dramatically.  This shift is striking, as there was little change in proportions of taxa in the earlier levels.  Assuming these are representative samples, there would seem to be a fairly abrupt shift to increased reliance on caprine herding (already the main contributor to the faunal assemblage).  This could mean either larger herds of sheep and goat or less hunting of wild animals.  In any case, it probably involved a shift in the organization of labor.  The ratios of sheep to goat, however, remain within the ranges observed in earlier levels (5:1 to 11:1), with 9:1 in Levels V-IV and 7:1 in Levels III-I.

To explore possible changes in herding practices, we can compare mortality profiles, here calculated in terms of age stages, with those from earlier periods.  The age class distribution from Levels V-IV is similar to that from earlier periods, and suggests a herding strategy oriented to meat production (Russell and Martin 2005).  The distribution from Levels III-I is dramatically different, with substantially more adults represented.  This might indicate a switch to use of dairy products.  However, we should remember that while the Levels V-IV material is derived from a broad range of contexts from both the northern and southern lobes of the tell, the Levels III-I material comes exclusively from a single area.  Thus it is more likely that it represents only part of the herding strategy at that point.  Nevertheless, it is an intriguing preliminary finding that we hope to explore further in the future using other approaches to possible dairy use or changes in herding practices.

Special Studies

Additional research conducted in the faunal laboratory during 2005 included a pair of studies concerning zooarchaeological methodology. Adam Watson investigated the potential utility of applying Outram’s (1999, 2001, 2002) fracture freshness index (FFI) to the Çatalhöyük macromammalian assemblage. The FFI is designed to evaluate the role played by human processing in the formation of a given faunal assemblage, based on analysis of each specimen’s fracture angle, surface texture, and outline. Watson compared FFI results for three units (Watson n.d.). These units had been previously analyzed using the existing Çatalhöyük system and identified as a midden, a feasting deposit, and room fill.

The FFI results were consistent with those provided by the earlier analyses (Watson n.d.). Outram’s method also proved easy to use (Watson n.d.). However, little new information was gained by adding FFI analysis to the already extensive Çatalhöyük assessment strategy. It was therefore agreed that FFI evaluation would not be incorporated into the standard Çatalhöyük faunal methodology at this time.

Ian Cameron undertook a study of the Çatalhöyük equid remains for his Master’s dissertation (submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, UCL).  His project undertook to test the application of methods for separating equid species, and built on work already done on the samples which tentatively identified the presence of three wild species at Çatalhöyük - Equus hemionus, Equus hydruntinus, Equus caballus ferus – using the morphology of dental enamel folds (following Davis 1980, Martin and Russell in press, Russell and Martin 2005).   Cameron’s study confirmed the presence of the three species, and focused particularly on the separation of the two smaller wild asses (E. hemionus and E. hydruntinus).  He did a detailed metrical recording of the equid teeth (Buitenhuis 1991, Payne 1991) although sample sizes were too small for analysis.  He compared measurements of postcranial bones of the Çatalhöyük equids with those of other sites in the broad region, and undertook an original morphological study of the first phalanx (with Buitenhuis and Martin), since this is the most common element.  Results of the latter analyses show intriguing patterns of morphological and proportional variation within skeletal elements (Cameron 2005).  Interpretation is hampered, however, because at this stage it is not known to what extent patterning represents anterior/posterior phalanx variation, or species variation.  Larger samples of equid remains, and comparison with as yet unpublished material from other sites, may allow further refinement of our understanding of the representation of different equid taxa at the site.

Conclusion

During the 2005 season much of our time was spent excavating and recording cattle horn cores and other remains from multiple excavation areas.  As a result, we now have a fairly substantial sample of cattle horn cores from various contexts on the site.  These will form the basis for analyses over the next year, to be reported initially in a paper at the meetings of the Society for American Archaeology in April 2006.

In addition, we are gradually increasing our knowledge of the later Neolithic levels (V-0) of the site.  The trend toward greater representation of sheep/goat seen last year is confirmed.  On present evidence this seems to happen fairly suddenly ca. Level V.  However, the mortality profile of the sheep/goat herds appears to change later, ca. Level III.  We also have evidence for the continuing occurrence of special deposits of animal remains through these later levels, although perhaps the nature of these changes ca. Level III.  Thus as we continue to record faunal data from the later prehistoric periods, we look forward to addressing many interesting questions concerning changes in herding, hunting, and the meaning of animals at Çatalhöyük.

Meanwhile, the large corpus of data accumulated so far is proving fertile ground for special studies.  In addition to the two studies carried out at the site in summer 2005, Jessica Pearson collected samples for an expanded program of isotope analysis that is intended to clarify herding practices and the mobility of sheep and goat (see below).

REFERENCES

Archive Reports can be consulted on the Çatalhöyük web site www.catalhoyuk.com

Buitenhuis, Hijlke (1991) Some equid remains from south Turkey, north Syria, and Jordan. In Equids in the Ancient World. R. H. Meadow and H.-P. Uerpmann, eds. Pp. 34-74. Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Reihe A, Naturwissenschaften, No. 19/2. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag.

Cameron, Ian (2005) Equids of Çatalhöyük: An Insight into Theory and Methodology in the Identification of Equidae. Unpublished MSc thesis, University College London.

Davis, Simon (1980)  Late Pleistocene and Holocene equid remains from Israel. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 70:289-312.

Martin, Louise, and Nerissa Russell (in press) The equid remains from Neolithic Çatalhöyük, central Anatolia: A preliminary report. In Horses and Humans. S. L. Olsen, ed. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Outram, Alan K. (1999) A comparison of Paleo-Eskimo and Medieval Norse bone fat exploitation in Western Greenland. Arctic Anthropology 36:103-117.

Outram, Alan K. (2001) A new approach to identifying bone marrow and grease exploitation: Why the “indeterminate” fragments should not be ignored. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(4):401-410.

Outram, Alan K. (2002) Bone fracture and within-bone nutrients: An experimentally based method for investigating levels of marrow extraction. In Consuming Passions and Patterns of Consumption. P. T. Miracle and N. Milner, eds. Pp. 51-63. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Payne, Sebastian (1991)Early Holocene equids from Tall-i-Mushki (Iran) and Can Hasan III (Turkey). In Equids in the Ancient World. R. H. Meadow and H.-P. Uerpmann, eds. Pp. 132-177. Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Reihe A, Naturwissenschaften, No. 19/2. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag.

Russell, Nerissa, and Louise Martin (2005) The Çatalhöyük mammal remains. In Inhabiting Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995-1999 Seasons. I. Hodder, ed. Pp. 33-98. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Watson, Adam S. (n.d) Çatalhöyük FFI Pilot Study: Applying Outram’s Fracture Freshness Index to the Study of Bone Marrow and Grease Processing at Çatalhöyük. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Unpublished report No.

Watson, John P. N. (1979)     The estimation of the relative frequencies of mammalian species: Khirokitia 1972. Journal of Archaeological Science 6:127-137.