Social violence and intolerance at neolithic Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia, turkey (7100-5950 cal. B.C.)

Milella, Marco (7 September 2019). Social violence and intolerance at neolithic Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia, turkey (7100-5950 cal. B.C.) (Unpublished). In: Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists. Bern. 5-7 September 2019.

The large Neolithic tell site at Çatalhöyük holds an iconic status as an early mega-site
settlement in the Konya Plain of central Anatolia. Its large size of some 13 ha and
considerable population density, without apparent social distinctions among its
inhabitants, has made it an anomaly when other, albeit later sites, provide evidence of
social differentiation. Because of its early date, signs of social differentiation may be
subtle and seem inconsequential when compared with those of later developments. This
study uses evidence of cranial trauma and anomalous or irregular burials, those found
outside of the more commonplace burial beneath house platforms, to suggest that
individual social distinction was present at the site. Two adult males and an adolescent
were found in anomalous burial locations, but females sustained a greater number of
cranial injuries than males, and the patterning of injuries is different between the two
sexes. It seems that both exclusion from platform burial and violence were engendered
and represent a form of social distinction. The site thus seems to provide a glimpse of
early manifestations of inegalitarian social relations that developed in a more fully blown
manner in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age.

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