Catal Huyuk: An Analysis

Catal Huyuk and the Transition to Permanency

Introduction:

Catal Huyuk, located in today’s Konya in the Province of Anatolia, Turkey, was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement that showed a major transition from a hunter-gatherer society to a more permanent society. Although the site is not one of the largest nor oldest Neolithic settlements, it is still momentous in providing knowledge of how the first permanent settlers started the adaptation of being nomads to settlers. Hosting at its peak 10,000 people, the settlement of Catal Huyuk in 7500 CE is evidence of how early settled individuals developed and attained more skills in animal and plant domestication, curated the house and home typology and implored fertility in women as ways to sustain and instigate a growing population. This paper will explore the transition from a hunter and gatherer society to a more permanent society affected and created roles for everyday life that circulated around the ideas of life and death in order to maintain and sustain a settled population. These roles and changes in society include a favoritism in children compared to adults as a form of maintaining and sustaining the newly established settlement; the desire to preserve life through newly developed rituals and deities; and last, the hierarchy of private space to public space in determining the structure of the city as a more permanent society and how those spaces created roles for its population.

Formal Background:

The formation of Catal Huyuk as a permanent settlement was led by a series of events including but not limited to the warming of the landscape for a more hospitable environment, the congregation of multiple communities and emergence of new values in addition to the stability and continuation of the permanent house as an ideology. Catal Huyuk formed around 9,000 years ago and is the location of one of the beginnings of permanency and urbanization of a once nomadic society. One of the major factors that led to this possibility of settlement was the rich soil that was left behind after the natural drainage of the lake in the flat landscape of the Konya Plain about 25,000 years before the formation of Catal Huyuk. From 11,500 BC to 9,500 BC the lake of the Konya Plain dried into smaller lakes that transitioned from a cold and uninhabitable terrain into warm and wet environment that allowed the soil to become hospitable enough for the domestication of plants and animals. This new and rich landscape inevitably inclined nomadic humans towards a more permanent society filled with an abundance of agriculture and supplies.

After surveying the surrounding region of the site, archeologists found evidence of small local communities predating Catal Huyuk. This evidence suggests that the development of Catal Huyuk drives itself from these small groups that came together in the landscape and the convention then led to the development of longer-term and larger-scale social relations. Even before the permanency of the site, social life for this population centered itself around the values associated with hunting, feasting and ancestry. This set of values that was amplified with the availability of rich soil and domestication of plants and led to a new set of values placed continuation of life and community, evident in the decorative burial practices of children, as the settlement arose.

Lastly, the steady continuation of rebuilding the house form in Catal Huyuk impacted the progress and permanency of the site. During the early Neolithic periods in Anatolia, the house form had remarkable continuity with a house structure being rebuilt on an older home with a similar, if not, same spatial form. The only evidence of the previous dwelling space was the placement of the hearth which stayed in the same spot in the house through the centuries of rebuilding. This emphasis on continuity can also be seen in the lack of change material that was used to build the homes. Throughout the site and varied levels of rebuilding, there is an overall homogenous material of mud and plant substance that is used for the homes until the adoption of domestic cattle.

This formal background served as the basis of a new form of life that allowed for permanency and stability of the population at Catal Huyuk. Through utilizing a flourishing landscape, communities were able to come together and building sustainable homes that allowed for maintenance of agriculture and domestication that allowed for the continuation of one of the first and biggest permanent settlements.

Formal Description:

Çatalhöyük is village consisting of a series of domestic houses that were built right up against one another across the landscape. The village was really packed together and this type of structure did not allow for many streets or pathways. In order to get from one place to another, one had to walk on the roofs of homes and climb ladders made of wood and reeds. The houses themselves were also made of wood and reeds, plastered with mud and access into the house was only possible through a hole in the roof of the house via another ladder. Each house is shaped in a variation of a rectangular space and had small openings that allowed for ventilation. Each home typically had three rooms with raised platforms that were built on the walls that were used for sitting, working and sleeping. The main room served as the cooking and lounging area and is indicated by a hearth or oven. The people of Çatalhöyük also buried their dead under the hearth or floor of the sleeping and main area. Additional hearths or ovens can be found on some rooftops and indicated a more communal space. The interiors of these homes also had many paintings that typically were red murals and ranged from a variety of animals such as vultures to people themselves. Figurines of animals and women can be found in these homes as well.

Site Analysis:

Catal Huyuk lies at the base of two mounds in the flat topography of the Konya Plain, named Catal Huyuk East and Catal Huyuk West, and is represented today through a line of trees that run along a river that divides the east mound from the west mound. The boundary of the east mound is surrounded by an irrigation ditch. Along the western boundary lay a road and canal with another irrigation ditch at the southern edge of the landscape. Theses ditches allowed for easy integration of the domestication of plants and animals into the newly settled community due to close proximity. The location of Catal Huyuk also expands its values and way of life past the boundaries of the Middle East. The Province of Anatolia in today’s Turkey allowed for a strategic spread of the Neolithic way of life into Europe, spearheading civilization as the West has come to know of it.

Formal Argument:

By understanding the basis of the foundation of Catal Huyuk, this paper will then start to understand how everyday life in a population was affected in the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to a permanent society. These roles and changes in society include a favoritism in children during burials compared to adults as a form of maintaining and sustaining the newly established settlement; the desire to preserve life through newly developed rituals and deities; and last, the hierarchy of private space to public space in determining the structure of the city as a more permanent society and how those spaces created roles for its population.

First, the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to a more permanent society in Catal Huyuk is highlighted through the population’s preference of preserving and decorating a certain age group, children, over others, such as young adults, during burials. Unlike a hunter-gatherer society, Catal Huyuk population began to place an emphasis on the treatment of children during burials by decorating them with beads and ochre while young adults showed little variation in how they were buried. In addition, contrairy to many modern speculations of gender roles in society, this early permanent settlement did not constitute sex or gender as a primary factor in how the community was created - rather, the emphasis stayed on children and age. The people of Catal Huyuk buried both men and women with similarily the same amount of artefacts, showing no preference in either sex. Hoddler and Marciniak write, “... sex does not constitute the major organization marker… instead… age may have been the most significant factor. Children are often buried with gifted items while young adults rarely receive items”. This preference in offerings indicates how the society as a whole had come to depend on the growth and sustainability of new generations as a form of inheritance, labor and task forces as well as placing a value the continuation of life, especially a child’s life, over those who have already reached a level of maturity.

Second, the transition in Catal Huyuk can also be defined by the desire to preserve life through newly developed rituals and deities. Evidence of these new worships can be found in art and sculpture, such as the mother goddess, that also rose in the settlement as the city became more permanent. Pieces of art and sculpture ranging from paintings of hunting parties to clay sculptures of women are important because they depict how the way of life changed from survival to more ornamental and materialistic. The home place becoming more permanent as well as food becoming more abundant allowed for the population to stray from simply surviving to allowing themselves to create meaningful items that were not just for function but also art. One of the most symbolic art pieces found on the site is the figurines of the mother-goddess. Shaped voluptuously, the mother goddess is a representation of female power for the Catal Huyuk. Hoddler writes how Catal Huyuk was a “matrilocal society due to the symbolic imagery throughout the site, such as the so-called goddess figurines”. The acceptance and abundance in art of this mother goddess suggest that this newly formed society placed a lot of importance in fertility, the continuation of life and in doing so, the existence of a stable population. However, there also exists another representation of the figurines. Hoddler and Mariniak write that “the importance of age, and more specifically the aging body in the mother goddess figurines was thought to have focused on fertility and pregnancy at Catal Huyuk… but have recently been discussed as representing maturity rather than fertility.” . Although there exists debate on what the purpose of the figurines were, it is evident that a deity, shaped in the form of a woman, was created at this site and accepted throughout as a form of hope and guidance to help life prosper, whether that is through birth or onto maturity.

Lastly, this transition can be defined by the hierarchy of private space to public space in determining the structure of the city as a more permanent society. Catal Huyuk consisted of a series of domestic houses that were built right up against one another across the landscape. The village was really packed together and this type of structure did not allow for many streets or pathways. In order to get from one place to another, one had to walk on the roofs of home, essentially public spaces of movement, and climb ladders made of wood and reeds. The houses themselves were also made of wood and reeds, plastered with mud and access into the house was only accessible through a hole in the roof of the house via another ladder, making them much less public. Each house and private space was shaped in a variation of a rectangular space and had small openings that allowed for ventilation. Each home typically had three rooms with raised platforms that were built on the walls that were used for sitting, working and sleeping. The main room served as the cooking and lounging area and is indicated by a hearth or oven. The people of Çatalhöyük also buried their dead under the hearth or floor of the sleeping and main area, marking these spaces more important by gesture of a raised platform. The interiors of these homes also had many paintings that typically were red murals and ranged from a variety of animals such as vultures that represented death to people themselves. Figurines of animals and women, such as the mother goddess, can be found in these homes as well. Additional hearths or ovens can be found on some rooftops, indicating and literally marking more communal space. The creation of the city is then defined by its public spaces being in the top of the homes and out in the open spaces that allowed for larger gatherings while private spaces held more personal items and intimate settings such as the burial ground.

In conclusion, Catal Huyuk presents many opportunities to explore how a nomadic society was able to shift from a hunter-gatherer society to a permanent one. Through moments of transition such as the importance of a child’s life, the preservation and perseverance of life represented through art pieces of goddess and the creation of spatial hierarchy of public and private spaces, viewers today can determine specific points as to how early civilized humans came to domesticate the land. This settlement provides important information to academics, architects and archaeologists today in as it is one of the original forms of how domestic spaces were built, lived in and preserved through centuries. It can serve as an initial point in when humans started settling, starting domesticating and having roles and can be compared to how those roles changed. If given more time to explore the idea of gender in history and architectural space, I would have liked to compare how the one of the first permanent society, Catal Huyuk, had no gender preferences, evident in the lack of preference during burials of male and females, and yet, our society today and all those after Catal Huyuk have had a gender preference. In addition, this settlement also provides a stepping stone to how the dead have been treated, starting off with the first civilization and how that’s transgressed through the centuries to Egypt and modern life today. Overall, this Neolithic settlement serves as point one in this journey of defining how humans and civilization as we know it came to be.

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https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1405.pdf