A MULTI DISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO IDENTIFYING DELAYED BURIALS AT NEOLITHIC ÇATALHÖYÜK, TURKEY
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 03/01/2021

Recent observations at Neolithic Çatalhöyük provide increasing evidence for a period of delay between the death and burial of certain individuals, wherein the bodies of some members of the community were retained as part of an extended, multi-stage funerary sequence, possibly seasonal in nature, or perhaps much longer. The evidence for protracted liminal funerary practices derives primarily from variations observed in the articulation and preservation of skeletal elements, as well as the degree of flexion observed among skeletons found in primary burials. Some individuals are fully articulated, while others are missing certain skeletal elements or show signs of paradoxical disarticulation of joints. The extent of flexion observed in some skeletons might suggest a substantial loss of soft tissue body mass prior to interment. Furthermore, the large number of isolated crania and skulls recovered from a variety of depositional contexts clearly demonstrates that they cannot have been retrieved from primary burials alone, as there have been far fewer “headless” primary burials excavated. Based on these observations, it appears that some bodies were treated in such a way as to reduce or remove soft tissue mass, while attempting to maintain the anatomical integrity of the body. The manner in which this processing took place is not clear, but hypotheses include defleshing of the corpse with stone tools, desiccation, and exposure of bodies to vulture scavenging. Here, we present the initial results of the various approaches taken to this question, including bone histotaphonomy, soil chemistry, as well as alterations of bone by human and non-human agents.


Author(s): Haddow, Scott (Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations) - Schotsmans, Eline (PACEA, University of Bordeaux) - Milella, Marco (Universität Zürich-Irchel) - Pilloud, Marin (University of Nevada, Reno) - Knüsel, Christopher (PACEA, University of Bordeaux)