ANIMAL BONE

Katheryn Twiss, Louise Martin, Kamilla Pawlowska and Nerissa Russell 

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.

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 (Figure 25). 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. The relation of the human skull and the bucranium is likely to be intentional, but there are no signs of plaster on either skull. It 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.

Figure 25. The cattle bucranium (11562) found with a human skull (11566) placed in the centre found in the TP Area was damaged by a Hellenistic pit F.1903.

Under the layer surrounding the bucranium there were several human burials and floor deposits (11740) in Space 248, stratigraphically belonging to Level 0 (see Figure 21). 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.

Figure 26. The assemblage (10292) in bin F.2003 in Building 52 included a large antler tool, a stone grinder, an obsidian blade and two bones - a cow tibia and a sheep horn.

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. 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 (Figure 26). Perhaps such faunal stores were relatively common at Çatalhöyük 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.

Figure 27. Directly above and aligned with the bucranium in Building 52 (see Fig 4) were two crushed and fragmentary partial bucrania. Figure 28. This tight heap of horn cores lay directly above the partial bucrania shown in Figure 27.

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 (see Figure 4). Directly above and aligned with this bucranium were two crushed and fragmentary partial bucrania (Figure 27), along with a tight heap of several additional horn cores (Figure 28). 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.

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.

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.