Çatalhöyük: the leopard changes its spots. A summary of recent work

Abstract

AbstractThis paper summarises and interprets data from the Neolithic site ot Çatalhöyük East collected between 2000 and 2008, while at the same time integrating data from earlier and more recent excavation seasons. The paper focuses on evidence for change during the occupation of the site, arguing for an increase in the size and density of occupation into the middle levels associated with symbolic and ritual elaboration within an aggressively egalitarian community. The middle ‘classic’ levels at Çatalhöyük were associated with increased workload, physical stresses and illness. The pressures were relieved in the upper levels after 6500 BC by shifts to greater mobility, increased economic independence of houses and dispersal of population. This shift in the upper levels may be of relevance to the spread of farming populations into northwestern Anatolia and Europe.