DOCSLIB.ORG

SECONDARY BURIAL at ÇATAL HÜYÜK in Recent Years the Amount

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
SECONDARY BURIAL at ÇATAL HÜYÜK in Recent Years the Amount SECONDARY BURIAL AT ÇATAL HÜYÜK In recent years the amount of material available for the study of Neolithic religion has been enormously increased by the partial exca- vation of the spectacular site of §atal Hiiyuk, near Konya in south- central Turkey. At this site part of a thirty-two acre town has been revealed, consisting of a number of rectangular single-storied houses, built close together so that the only means of access was through the roof. Inside the houses, rooms were provided with low clay platforms which served as seats, work-benches and beds. As well as dwelling- houses there were many buildings which seem to have been shrines. These were similar to the houses in size and structure, but had superior decoration in the form of reliefs and wall-paintings, and it is this material which provides abundant new evidence for the religion of the Neolithic period in Anatolia. The interpretation of material of this type is a hazardous task; in some cases it can profitably be compared with information from later periods, not only in Anatolia itself but also in the Aegean area and Crete. A close study by B. C. Dietrich for instance has shown 2 that a good deal of the §atal Iiuyuk material can be linked with what we know of Cretan religion. Dietrich does much to clarify the beliefs of the inhabitants of the town on the most basic problems of existence, and to illuminate the symbolic representation of the cycle of birth, death and rebirth on the walls of their shrines. But there are several features which he has to admit 3 are unparallelled in the Cretan evi- dence. Notable among these are pictures of vultures hovering above headless corpses and of piles of human skulls and bones under what 1 Preliminary reports on the Çatal Hüyük excavations are to be found in Anatolian Studies (AS) XII (1962), pp. 41-62; XIII (1963), pp. 43-103; XIV (1964), pp. 39-119; XVI (1966), pp. 165-191. General descriptions are to be found in J. Mellaart, A Neolithic City in Turkey (in Scientific American (April 1964), pp. 94-104); in J. Mellaart, Earliest Civilizations of the Near East (1965), pp. 81-101; and most fully in J. Mellaart, Çatal Hiiyiik (1966). These do not include the results of the 1965 season. A more recent summary can be found in J. Mellaart, The Neolithic of the Near East (1975). 2 B. C. Dietrich, Some Light from the East on Cretan Cult Practice in Ilistoria XVI (1967), pp. 385-413. 3 Op. cit., pp. 389-90. 227 appear to be structures of reed and matting. Clearly these must be of importance for a full understanding of religion at §atal Huyuk, and it is perhaps worth while to consider them more fully in an attempt to find a clue to their meaning and significance. Vultures, corpses and skulls are connected with death, and any study of what the citizens of Catal Huyuk believed about death must also 4 take into account the way in which they disposed of their corpses. These were buried about two feet under the floors of the houses and shrines, either in a contracted position or extended on their backs. Normally they were placed under the sleeping-platforms, and only ex- ceptionally are bodies found in oval graves outside the platform area. Several factors suggest that the bodies were not buried immediately after death. The tightness with which the bones were flexed and bound, the twisted and contorted positions of anatomically intact skeletons, the parcels of disjointed bones, the skulls wrapped in cloth, and the preservation of textiles below the skeletons all suggest that the dead were placed in the graves only when their flesh had been removed. After this primary excarnation the bones of the dead were laid on mats, placed in baskets, or wrapped in several layers of cloth, skin or fur, and then swathed in a net-like fabric, tied with a cord or with a narrow woven tape, and laid in the graves. Differing degrees of excarnation were observed, and it appears that rather than digging holes in the sleeping-platforms for individual burials the inhabitants retained the bones of the dead until they could be communally depo- sited. After the burial the hole was filled in and the entire building was replastered. Grave-goods found include jewellery, weapons and toilet-articles. These objects are often of superb quality, and some graves are richly cndowed with them. Some at least of the bones are decorated with red, blue or green paint. It is noticable that there are far more women and children than adult males in the graves. No direct archaeological evidence has been found to illustrate the treatment of the corpses before their final burial, and it is here that the interpretation of wall-paintings comes to our aid. A painting in Shrine E VIb i 5 appears to show human bones, especially skulls, resting 4 AS XII, pp. 51-2; AS XIII, pp. 95-101; AS XIV, pp. 92-97; AS XVI, pp. 182-3. 5 AS XIII, p. 98 and Plate XXVIa. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Burials in Caves 167
    BURIALS IN CAVES 167 Eyre, J. 1989. The Ease Gill System: Forty Years of Exploration, Tratman, E.K. (editor) 1969. The Caves of North-west Clare, Ireland, London: BCRA (Speleo History Series 1) Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles Railton, C.L. 1953. The Ogof Ffynnon Ddu System, London: Cave Research Group: (CRG Publication No. 6) Further Reading Shaw, T.R. 1992. History of Cave Science: The Exploration and Study of Limestone Caves, to 1900, 2nd edition, Broadway, New South Cullingford, C.H.D. (editor) 1953. British Caving: An Introduction Wales: Sydney Speleological Society to Speleology, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul BURIALS IN CAVES Caves accessible to humans have been used from the Paleolithic Caves were located above a permanent stream, perhaps in rela- to the present. They provide a variety of burial conditions, such tion with a water cult or to signify a route to the realm of the as graves in the ground, body exposure on the floor, coffins dead. At different periods variable artefacts, pottery, and offer- exposed in selected places, storage of bones or pieces of bone in ings were placed besides bodies. jars, and cremation urns. Habits have varied through time, and Comparable habits existed elsewhere in the world. In Viet- also according to the particular people, social status of the de- nam, for instance, a few caves and rock shelters were possibly ceased person, position in the family, age, and cause of death. used for burial during Lower Neolithic Hoabinhian II–III and In Mousterian times, and perhaps before, Homo sapiens nean- three caves, Pho Binh Gia, Khe´o-Phay, and Lang Cuom, re- dertalensis buried their dead in caves and rock shelters such as vealed skulls of people of the Bacsonian culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Upper Paleolithic Human Remains Found at the Cova Gran De Santa Linya Site 9 August 2021
    Upper Paleolithic human remains found at the Cova Gran de Santa Linya site 9 August 2021 records from between 45,000 and 4000 years ago. Nevertheless, no bone remains of the individuals who inhabited it had been located until the 2020 excavation campaign. "We recovered bone remains which definitely belonged to a human skeleton, and still partly connected, two meters below the ground of a side area of the excavation. A location that didn't presage the appearance of this kind of remains," explains the CENIEH researcher Alfonso Benito Calvo. The initial paleoanthropological characterization of all the remains recovered, which was announced Remains of Linya, recovered in Cova Gran site. Credit: this week, suggests that the pelvic girdle is from an CEPA adult woman, possibly a small one, and who has been dubbed "Linya, the La Noguera woman." The remains also include two femurs, one of them still attached to the pelvis, as well as long bones from Scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigación the upper limbs (humerus, radius/ulna) and lower sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) have ones (tibia and fibula), and scattered metapodials participated in the discovery, at the Cova Gran de and phalanges. The skull and axial skeleton Santa Linya site (La Noguera, Lleida), of the (vertebrae and ribs), although present, are poorly remains of a female attributed to H. sapiens, who represented. lived in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the Upper Paleolithic, around 14,000 Funerary treatment years ago, as shown by the carbon-14 dating of the sediments in the natural receptacle in which Linya was found in a space considered to be a her remains were discovered.
    [Show full text]
  • ANTHROPOLOGICAL PICTURE of the CORDED WARE POPULATION of the SUBCARPATHIAN REGION in the LIGHT of DATA OBTAINED from the SITES at Święte, JAROSŁAW DISTRICT
    Baltic-Pontic Studies vol. 23: 2018, 213-228 ISSN 1231-0344 DOI 10.2478/bps-2018-0007 Anita Szczepanek* ANTHROPOLOGICAL PICTURE OF THE CORDED WARE POPULATION OF THE SUBCARPATHIAN REGION IN THE LIGHT OF DATA OBTAINED FROM THE SITES AT ŚWIęTE, JAROSŁAW DISTRICT Abstract Twenty Corded Ware graves containing twenty five interments were identified at sites 11, 15 and 20 at Święte, Radymno Commune, Jarosław District. In most of the graves (16), there was only one in- terment, although there were also three graves with two internments and one grave with three interments. The age and sex structure of buried individuals shows the roughly equal number of females, males, and children at the age of Infans I and II, with the category Maturus (individuals aged 40 to 50) having the highest mortality rate. So far, Rzeszów Foothills and the Lower San River Valley yielded 40 Corded Ware graves containing 51 interments in total. Single burials were predominant. Alike at Święte sites, the highest proportion of burials is recorded for individuals at the age of Maturus irrespective of sex; overall, for the entire region, male graves, however, outnumber fe- male graves. In most cases skeletons are poorly preserved, but scarce anthropometric data are the indication of dolichomorphic crania in both males and females, which phenomenon is already noted for the Małopolska Upland and present Ukraine. The intravital body height * Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sławkowska 17, 31-016 Kraków, Poland; Department of Anatomy, Kopernika 12, 31-034 Kraków, Poland; [email protected] 214 for adults varies from 161.3 to 175 cm for males and from 156.7 to 163.1 cm for females.
    [Show full text]
  • Traditions of Jars As Mortuary Containers in the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago
    8 Traditions of Jars as Mortuary Containers in the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago David Bulbeck Earthenware and imported ceramic jars were from time to time used as mortuary containers across a large swathe of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago. As noted by Peter Bellwood, this deployment of earthenwares has Neolithic origins, and burgeoned during approximately the first millennium AD. The assemblages were frequently dominated by disposals in mortuary jars but these were one of a variety of mortuary practices at other sites. Defining a jar-burial tradition as a potentially independent development of the use of jars as mortuary containers, we may provisionally identify 14 geographically discrete jar-burial traditions within the archipelago. Introduction In his textbook on the prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago, Peter Bellwood (1997) dealt at length with the use of jars as mortuary containers, which he assigned to a tradition best regarded ‘as an indigenous development in Island Southeast Asia’ (p. 306). He traced the tradition’s origins to late Neolithic contexts, noting, however, that many more sites date to the Palaeometallic or Early Metal Phase. He also stated that the recorded sites appeared to be particularly a feature of the triangular area in between the Philippines, Borneo and Sumba (p. 296). Implicitly, Bellwood referred to the use of jars not as grave goods but as mortuary containers, even if this specific use of the recovered pottery is inferred rather than directly observed at certain sites, such as Leang Buidane (see below). The examples he discussed also exclude sites with jars buried for rituals that were probably non-mortuary, considering the lack of associated human remains in conditions that should be conducive to preservation of bone – for instance, the Palaeometallic jars buried at Makabog in the Philippines (Henson 1992), Leang Balangingi in the Talaud Islands (Bellwood 1976) and Batu Ejaya in southwest Sulawesi (Bulbeck 1996–1997).
    [Show full text]
  • An Investigation Into the Placement of Disarticulated Human Remains Into Shell Middens During Prehistory
    An investigation into the placement of disarticulated human remains into shell middens during prehistory Emily Rebecca Hellewell PhD University of York Archaeology October 2015 Abstract The aim of this thesis was to critically evaluate the evidence for disarticulated human remains in shell middens, using sites in northwest Europe dating to the Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic as case studies. Traditionally, disarticulated remains placed in shell middens have been overlooked and assumed to be the result of burial disturbance with little in-depth analysis to the plausibility of this as an interpretation. The research considers whether it is possible to determine that the remains occurred through disturbance to inhumations, and to assess to what extent it is possible to reconstruct the processes of deposition of disarticulated remains. A new methodology has been developed with specific emphasis on identifying what taphonomic processes may have led to commingled human remains to be found at shell midden sites. Six hypothetical bone profile diagrams are presented, based on differing taphonomic processes known to affect burial remains. These hypothetical diagrams then provide comparative models to assess the evidence presented in the case studies. Three case studies located on the coast of western Scotland; Cnoc Coig, An Corran and Carding Mill Bay, demonstrate that it is likely that the placement of human remains into ancient shell middens emerged as part of secondary burial practices employed around the time of the Mesolithic/ Neolithic transition, while a Danish case study, Havnø, highlights a potential change in practices occurring from the Mesolithic into the Neolithic. Critically, the close assessment of the disarticulated remains provides strong evidence that disarticulated remains in shell middens are likely to be the result of more complex burial processes than previously thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Burial and Identity in the Late Neolithic And
    Burial and identity in the Late Neolithic and Copper Age of south-east Europe Susan Stratton Thesis submitted in candidature for the degree of PhD Cardiff University March 2016 CONTENTS List of figures…………………………………………………………………………7 List of tables………………………………………………………………………….14 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ 16 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 17 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 18 2 Archaeological study of mortuary practice ........................................................................... 22 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 22 2.2 Culture history ................................................................................................................... 22 2.3 Status and hierarchy – the processualist preoccupations ............................................ 26 2.4 Post-processualists and messy human relationships .................................................... 36 2.5 Feminism and the emergence of gender archaeology .................................................. 43 2.6 Personhood, identity and memory ................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Ancestral Landscapes Burial Mounds in the Copper and Bronze Ages
    travaux de la maison de l’orient et de la méditerranée n° 58 ANCESTRAL LANDSCAPES BURIAL MOUNDS IN THE COPPER AND BRONZE AGES (Central and Eastern Europe – Balkans – Adriatic – Aegean, 4th-2nd millennium B.C.) Edited by Elisabetta Borgna and Sylvie Müller Celka AncestrAl LandscApes BuriAl mounds in the copper And Bronze Ages (central and eastern europe – Balkans – Adriatic – Aegean, 4th-2nd millennium B.c.) maison de l’orient et de la méditerranée – jean pouilloux (université lumière-lyon 2 – cnrs) publications dirigées par Jean-Baptiste Yon Derniers titres parus dans la série tmo (travaux de la maison de l’orient) tmo 48 Failaka, Fouilles françaises 1984-1988, matériel céramique du temple-tour et épigraphie, sous la dir. d’Y. Calvet et m. pic, édition bilingue français-anglais, trad. par e. Willcox, 2008, 204 p. (isBn 978-2-903264-98-7) tmo 49 Archaeozoology of the Near East VIII (Actes des huitièmes Rencontres internationales d’Archéozoologie de l’Asie du Sud-ouest et des régions adjacentes, Lyon, 28 juin-1er juillet 2006 / Proceedings of the eighth international Symposium on the Archaeozoology of southwestern Asia end adjacent areas, Lyon, June 28th-July 1st 2006), ed. by e. Vila, l. gourichon, A.m. choyke and h. Buitenhuis, 2008, 648 p., 2 volumes. (isBn 978-2-35668-005-1) tmo 50 Actes de vente dans le monde grec. témoignages épigraphiques des ventes immobilières, J. game, 2008, 210 p. (isBn 978-2-35668-004-4) tmo 51 Amphores vinaires de Narbonnaise. Production et grand commerce. Création d’une base de données géochimiques des ateliers, F.
    [Show full text]
  • The Archaeology of Cyprus Has Always Been Somewhat of an Enigma
    Andrew Waters 12/15/12 The Divergent Development of Cyprus in the Early Aceramic Neolithic The archaeology of Cyprus has always been somewhat of an enigma. The excavation of Khirokitia-Vouni (commonly called Khirokitia) in the 1950’s revealed a Neolithic culture lacking cattle, pottery, and rectilinear architecture—in sharp contrast to contemporary mainland cultures and seemingly developed in isolation. From this so- called Khirokitia Culture (c. 7000 BCE) through the Ceramic Neolithic and Chalcolithic (end 3rd mil. BCE), Cyprus displays a largely homogenous material culture that, although belatedly adopting pottery, remained isolated from mainland culture; with a continued preference for circular architecture, a mixed hunting-farming subsistence strategy, and a unique emphasis on stone vessels and figurines. This has led many to categorize Cyprus as a culturally and technologically impoverished offshoot of mainland Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) culture. Indeed, Cyprus has fallen prey to what Paul Rainbird describes as a biased view of islands in western thought, which sees them as inherently isolated, and their inhabitants suffering from this isolation; however, statements about Cyprus’ inferiority wrongly assume a unilinear social evolution and do not take into account the Cypriot point of view.1 The more recent discovery of both a PPNA and PPNB culture on Cyprus allows for a new window into the development of Cyprus, one that takes Cypriot agency and choice into consideration, and moves beyond simple functionalist statements regarding the insularity of Cyprus. The insular, and idiosyncratic culture of Cyprus can clearly be seen in the Khirokitia Culture, but its roots lie earlier in the Aceramic Neolithic.
    [Show full text]
  • Acephalous Skeletons As Witnesses of Pre-Pottery Neolithic North-South Levant Connections and Disconnections Fanny Bocquentin, Ergul Kodas, Anabel Ortiz
    Headless but still eloquent! Acephalous skeletons as witnesses of Pre-Pottery Neolithic North-South Levant connections and disconnections Fanny Bocquentin, Ergul Kodas, Anabel Ortiz To cite this version: Fanny Bocquentin, Ergul Kodas, Anabel Ortiz. Headless but still eloquent! Acephalous skeletons as witnesses of Pre-Pottery Neolithic North-South Levant connections and disconnections. Paléorient, CNRS, 2016, 42 (2), pp.33-52. hal-02010457 HAL Id: hal-02010457 https://hal.parisnanterre.fr//hal-02010457 Submitted on 7 Feb 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike| 4.0 International License Headless but still eloquent! Acephalous skeletons as witnesses of Pre-Pottery Neolithic North- South Levant connections and disconnections F. Bocquentin, E. Kodas and A. Ortiz Abstract: This paper discusses the practice of skull removal in the Late Epipalaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the Northern and Southern Levant, a feature which may serve as a basis for comparison of funerary customs between regions. Even though the topic of skull removal has been widely debated, factual data remain incomplete and funerary treatment is complex and highly variable. We have undertaken a preliminary synthesis based on 65 sites (MNI: 3001 individuals) distributed across the Southern and Northern Levant, the Upper Tigris and Central Anatolia from the Early Natufian period (13000 cal.
    [Show full text]
  • Krapina 3: Cut Marks and Ritual Behavior?
    PERIODICUM BIOLOGORUM UDC 57:61 VOL. 108, No 4, 519–524, 2006 CODEN PDBIAD ISSN 0031-5362 Original scientific paper Krapina 3: Cut Marks and Ritual Behavior? Abstract DAVID W. FRAYER1 JÖRG ORSCHIEDT2 Incisions on the frontal of the Krapina 3 cranium differ from other cut JILL COOK3 marks from the site. Thirty-five, mostly parallel marks course up the frontal MARY DORIA RUSSELL4 JAKOV RADOV^I]5 from right of the midline, just posterior to the supraorbitale point to left of the midline, slightly anterior to bregma. They are angled mostly perpendic- 1 Department of Anthropology ular to the midsagittal plane, averaging 5.2 mm in length and are on aver- University of Kansas age 1.2 mm apart. The marks' characteristics are not consistent with scalp- Lawrence, KS, USA 66045 ing, cannibalism, defleshing or other perimortem activities described for E-mail: [email protected] Neandertals or modern groups. These marks represent a type of funereal be- 2 Archaeologie, Historisches Centrum Hagen havior yet to be documented in Neandertals and suggest a kind of ritual Eilper Strasse 71–75 treatment of the deceased. 58091 Hagen, Germany 3 Head of Prehistory Department of Prehistory and Europe The British Museum INTRODUCTION London WC1B 3DG, UK one modifications attributed to cannibalism in fossil humans were 4 4083 Princeton Boulevard Brecorded at the Krapina Neandertal site in 1899 by Dragutin Cleveland Ohio 44121, USA Gorjanovi}-Kramberger. These observations were some of his first in- 5 Croatian Natural History Museum terpretations of the Neandertal bones from Krapina and the first, any- Demetrova 1, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia where for cannibalism at a Neandertal site.
    [Show full text]
  • Death in the Stone Age Making Sense of Mesolithic-Neolithic Mortuary Remains from Finland (Ca
    Department of Cultures University of Helsinki Finland DEATH IN THE STONE AGE MAKING SENSE OF MESOLITHIC-NEOLITHIC MORTUARY REMAINS FROM FINLAND (CA. 6800 TO 2300 CAL BC) Marja Ahola ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Helsinki, for public examination in lecture room PIII, Porthania, on 18 October 2019, at 12 noon. Helsinki 2019 Supervisors Doc. Antti Lahelma Department of Cultures University of Helsinki Prof. Mika Lavento Department of Cultures Univesity of Helsinki Doc. Kristiina Mannermaa Department of Cultures University of Helsinki Reviewers PhD Liv Nilsson Stutz Department of Cultural Sciences Linnaeus University, Sweden Prof. Aivar Kriiska Institute of History and Archaeology University of Tartu, Estonia Opponent PhD Liv Nilsson Stutz Department of Cultural Sciences Linnaeus University, Sweden © Marja Ahola (Summary paper) © The Finnish Death Studies Association (Paper I) © The Archaeological Society of Finland (Paper II) © Cambridge University Press (Paper III) © John Wiley & Sons Ltd (Paper IV) © The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities (Paper V) ISBN 978-951-51-5300-5 (pbk.) ISBN 978-951-51-5301-2 (PDF) http://ethesis.helsinki.fi Unigrafia Helsinki 2019 ABSTRACT This study aims to understand and explain prehistoric funerary practices from the perspective of Finnish Stone Age hunter-gatherer and early pastoralist earth graves located in mainland Finland. These structures date primarily from the Late Mesolithic to the end of the Middle Neolithic (ca. 6800–2300 cal BC) and represent a unique challenge to archaeological research. This is because unburnt bone material — including human remains — along with other perishable materials are generally not preserved in the acidic soils of Finland.
    [Show full text]
  • Bioarchaeology International (Volume 1)
    Skull Retrieval and Secondary Burial Practices in the Neolithic Near East: Recent Insights from Çatalhöyük, Turkey Haddow, Scott Donald; Knüsel, Christopher J. Published in: Bioarchaeology International DOI: 10.5744/bi.2017.1002 Publication date: 2017 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Document license: CC BY-NC Citation for published version (APA): Haddow, S. D., & Knüsel, C. J. (2017). Skull Retrieval and Secondary Burial Practices in the Neolithic Near East: Recent Insights from Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Bioarchaeology International, 1(1–2), 52-71. https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2017.1002 Download date: 04. okt.. 2021 Bioarchaeology International Volume 1, Numbers 1–2: 52–71 DOI: 10.5744/bi.2017.1002 Skull Retrieval and Secondary Burial Practices in the Neolithic Near East: Recent Insights from Çatalhöyük, Turkey Scott D. Haddowa* and Christopher J. Knüsela aDe la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement, et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, France *Correspondence to: Scott Haddow, Université de Bordeaux, De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environne- ment, et Anthropologie (PACEA), UMR 5199 PACEA, Bâtiment B8, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, CS 50023, Pessac Cedex, France 33615 e-mail: scott .haddow@gmail .com ABSTRACT The retrieval and re-deposition of elements of the human skeleton, especially the skull (i.e., cranium and man- dible), is a common feature of Neolithic Near Eastern funerary practices. A complicated sequence of subfloor inhumations involving both primary and secondary burial treatments at Çatalhöyük demonstrates the range of funerary practices encountered at the site and elsewhere in the Neolithic Near East. This particular sequence of burials culminated in a stratigraphically verified case of post-inhumation skull removal from a primary intra- mural inhumation.
    [Show full text]