SECONDARY AT ÇATAL HÜYÜK

In recent years the amount of material available for the study of 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 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 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 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. -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.