Making Sense of Social Behavior from Disturbed and Commingled Skeletons: A Case Study from Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Abstract

In the Neolithic of Anatolia, Turkey, intramural burial practices were common. Dating from 6000 to 7400 B.C.E., the large east mound of Çatalhöyük was a place both for the living and for the dead who were buried mainly under the floors of the houses. Single primary interments were the norm, and secondary depositions, although less common, offer insights into the range of possibilities for the deceased after interment. Çatalhöyük houses had preferred areas for interment, and through several burial events in the same locale, the primary inhumations were frequently disturbed for the burial of others, leaving the disturbed bones in the pit or transporting them elsewhere. As part of their burial customs, dismemberment of the deceased body, partially or fully decomposed, also occurred at Çatalhöyük. Once a grave pit was open, they sometimes retrieved bones, possibly of specific individuals, or placed other bones into the grave. The complicated post-interment movement of human bones by the Neolithic people required the use of six depositional categories in order to accommodate the specific conditions of interment and the post-interment disturbance, dismemberment, and bone retrieval that characterize the site. From the 1995 to 2010 excavations, an MNI of 384 was determined for the number of primary, secondary, and primary disturbed skeletons interred on the site. A high percentage of the human remains were tertiary bones or loose bones from the disturbed contexts of the primary interments. The actions of the Çatalhöyük people relative to the deceased post-interment were the major source of the abundance of commingled remains on the site.