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Catalhayuk: These 7000 BCE people Lived with the Dead
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Apr 9, 2025
Welcome to Anthromedia! This video delves into the fascinating world of Çatalhöyük, an ancient settlement in present-day Turkey. Unearthed by archaeologist James Mellaart in the 1960s, Çatalhöyük offers a unique glimpse into Neolithic life, bridging the gap between living and the dead in ways that starkly contrast with modern attitudes toward death. Key Highlights: Living with the Dead: Discover how inhabitants of Çatalhöyük slept on platforms where their ancestors were buried, blending daily life with death rituals. Rich Art and Symbolism: Explore the extensive art and symbolic practices that permeated every aspect of life at Çatalhöyük, from painted walls to intricate burials. Architectural Marvels: Learn about the unique construction methods, including lime-rich clay plastering and densely packed houses with roof entrances. Social and Economic Structures: Understand the social dynamics, including the significance of "history houses," communal burials, and the economic shifts that shaped this ancient community. Trade and Innovation: Examine the role of the obsidian trade and the spread of innovations like pottery and metallurgy. Environmental and Climatic Influences: Trace the impact of climate change and environmental pressures on the settlement's development and eventual decline. Join us as we uncover the mysteries of Çatalhöyük, a settlement that challenges our modern perceptions of community, memory, and the interconnectedness of life and death. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more in-depth explorations of ancient civilizations! Thank you for watching! If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and share it with fellow history enthusiasts. For more fascinating insights into ancient societies, stay tuned to Anthromedia!
View Video Transcript
0:02
[Music]
0:08
every year archaeologists uncover new
0:10
sites that enrich our understanding of
0:12
the past despite many similarities each
0:16
site has a unique tale to tell about
0:18
ancient social structures technology
0:21
architecture and above all how people
0:24
made sense of Life Death and the world
0:26
around
0:27
them in our modern world we often
0:30
distance ourselves from our deceased
0:32
relatives our settlement layouts clearly
0:35
distinguish between spaces for the
0:36
living and the dead it's remarkable to
0:39
discover how closely some ancient
0:41
societies lived alongside their deceased
0:44
loved
0:45
ones unlike today's tendency to avoid
0:48
confronting death the inhabitants of
0:50
chattel hoyuk a Neolithic Village
0:53
settlement slept on platforms where
0:55
their ancestors were buried the
0:57
settlement served as both a living space
1:00
and a
1:02
cemetery in stark contrast to Modern
1:05
attitudes towards death ancient cultures
1:08
at chattel hoyuk Place death at the
1:10
heart of their rituals in daily life
1:13
Welcome to anthom media in this video we
1:16
will explore chatt hoyuk an ancient
1:18
settlement located in present day
1:21
Turkey chatt hoyuk was first excavated
1:24
by James melard in the
1:26
1960s the site consists of two Mounds
1:29
the Neolithic East Mound and the chalal
1:31
lithic West Mound the East Mound dating
1:35
from 7,400 to 6,000 BC is around 21 M
1:40
High its large size of about 13.5
1:44
hectares in complex art make it an
1:47
important site outside the Southwest
1:49
Asian cradle of
1:52
civilization while chatt hoyuk is no
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longer seen as exceptionally unique due
1:56
to the discovery of other significant
1:58
sites it remains distinctive in several
2:02
ways although many Neolithic sites have
2:05
been found in central turkey and the
2:07
cona plane cattal hoyuk stands out for
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the sheer amount of Art and the detailed
2:13
record of daily life it
2:15
provides chattel hoyuk displays a
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strange blurring between the secular and
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the symbolic even to the point of
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depositing objects that created memories
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of past events such as parts of
2:27
figurines and hearths or found
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foundations chatt hyuk's extensive art
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detailed record of daily life and unique
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construction methods make it a
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significant site for understanding the
2:40
Neolithic
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period The Continuous resurfacing of
2:45
floors and walls along with the way
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houses were abandoned and rebuilt
2:50
provides an unparalleled glimpse into
2:52
the daily lives of its inhabitants over
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thousands of
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years excavations reveal densely packed
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houses with roof
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entrances at its peak the population
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estimates for the site range from 3,500
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to 8,000 people despite extensive survey
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work there is little evidence of public
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buildings industrial areas separate
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cemeteries and ceremonial
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centers all buildings are domestic
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houses though they vary in internal
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elaboration one indication of large
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scale divisions of the Neolithic East
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Mound is a large dip or trough across
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the middle dividing it into two
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Hills the mound does seem to have
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developed in two
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halves the southern higher Eminence
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continued to be occupied after the
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general abandonment of the northern Hill
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in addition we have found some
3:48
differences in consumption and sheep
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hering Behavior some Research indicates
3:53
genetic differences in the people buried
3:55
on the two
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sides beyond the large scale division of
4:00
the settlement into two parts smaller
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groupings of houses have been identified
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at chatt
4:06
hoyuk in the latter layers of the site
4:09
there is evidence of winding Streets
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between
4:13
houses Recent research has uncovered
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Alleyways or boundaries between sectors
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of the mound each containing 10 to 50
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houses within these sectors there are
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even smaller groups of houses with
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social and economic
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connections small small groups of three
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to six houses often share a common main
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house which may have served as a
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communal burial
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site these main houses known as history
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houses have more burials and more
4:42
architectural features like platforms
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and
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pillars history houses were rebuilt over
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longer periods but they did not control
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production or storage and did not have
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wealthier burials the social differences
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between history houses and other houses
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were minimal
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at chatt hoyak much of the community's
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economic social and ritual life took
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place at the household level most houses
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consisted of a main room and one to
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three side rooms used for storage and
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food
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preparation the main rooms had
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frequently replastered walls with the
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entrance ladder or stairs usually
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located on the South Wall above the oven
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and
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hearth the northern part of the main
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room was typically High higher cleaner
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and more often replastered and this is
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where most paintings sculptures
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installations and burials were
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found although it is often said that the
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houses were dark an experimental house
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built at the site showed that the main
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rooms were quite bright during the day
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due to light coming in from the ladder
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entry the white plastered walls also
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helped reflect light making the side
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rooms reasonably well
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lit people worked with obsidian near the
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ladder entries and stored it in caches
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there possibly because of the need for
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good
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lighting the rooms were likely Smoky due
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to layers of soot found on the plaster
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walls frequent replastering was probably
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necessary to maintain light
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reflection evidence of carbon residues
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on the ribs of older individuals buried
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beneath the floors suggests that people
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spent significant time indoors
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especially during harsh
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Winters both The Young and the old had a
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close relationship with the house as
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seen in the burials of children and
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neonates near doors and
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hearths the house was a central place
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for living especially during winter and
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for the very young and old this provided
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opportunities for socialization teaching
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social roles and creating routines
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within the
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community inside the houses space usage
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was highly repetitive with main rooms
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plastered more frequently than side
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rooms the main room floors often had
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different levels with the higher areas
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covered in white
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Plaster these white floors may have been
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more heavily covered to keep them
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clean the burial practices varied within
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the house different categories of people
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were buried under different platforms
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with young people often under the
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Northwest platform and older individuals
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under the central East
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platform the art and symbolism were also
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spatially divided with paintings and
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sculptures more common on the east and
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west walls and vulture paintings only on
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the North and East
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walls at chatt hoyuk houses took on many
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roles that used to belong to the
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community in earlier sites in Anatolia
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and West Asia burials often happen
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between buildings or in special
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structures such as chonu but at chatt
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hoyuk burials were mostly inside houses
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activities like food preparation
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symbolism and rituals which used to be
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public as illustrated by gockley teepe
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were now done inside the
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house houses became key places for
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teaching social roles and
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behaviors however this shift made
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individual houses more important at the
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expense of the larger
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community in the upper levels of the
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site there's evidence of economic
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changes and the breakdown of
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CommunityWide rules houses started to
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function more indep dependently and the
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strong social cohesion of the community
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began to
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weaken in the Neolithic period unlike
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hunter gatherer societies who lived in
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the present people at chattle hoyuk
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lived in a world deeply connected to the
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past the settlement's Deep layers with
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houses built on top of one another
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display how they managed and preserved
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their
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history many houses at chattel hoyuk
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were lived in for 50 to 100 years and
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maintaining these mud brick structures
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was a
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challenge the walls tended to lean and
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bend so the people developed techniques
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like doubling the walls building houses
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close together for support and using
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horizontal wooden braces in the
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walls when a house was abandoned it was
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sometimes used as a dump site other
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times new houses were built in the same
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spot using the same layout over multiple
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rebuilds longlived houses often had more
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burials beneath their
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floors while the average house had five
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to eight burials some had as many as 62
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including secondary burials from other
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houses the use of space in history
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houses remained consistent over time
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helping to establish and maintain
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historical memories this consistency is
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seen in repeated paintings and relief
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sculptures across different phases and
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levels of the buildings
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for instance pairs of relief leopards
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appear in several buildings and in two
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cases they are placed directly above
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each other in a distinctive style
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suggesting deliberate commemorative
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memory these history houses often
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contained human remains with many
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burials beneath the floors sometimes
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body parts were retrieved and
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reused for example teeth from one
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skeleton were placed in another
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individual's jaw in a l
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building skulls were especially
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significant and were sometimes kept and
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placed at the base of house posts or
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added to
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burials one notable example is in a
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building where the tops of upright
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wooden pillars were plastered to place a
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human skull on top of
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it the practice of creating and
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maintaining histories at chatt hoyuk
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involved the repetition of house
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construction and passing down human
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skulls
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at chatt Hoak the house played a key
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role in preserving memory this is also
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seen with wild animal heads there was a
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common pattern of destroying the West
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walls of the main rooms to remove
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sculptures the heads and feet hands of
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relief figures likely depicting bears
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were always removed before buildings
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were filled
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in the wild bull was a prominent image
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in chattle hyuk's art and was important
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in
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feasting the bones of wild male cattle
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were often found in large quantities
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suggesting they were used in significant
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feasts although these feasting
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activities might not have been
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concentrated in the history houses but
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wild bull horns were often displayed in
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these elaborately decorated
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houses in the latter period of chatt
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Hoak the tradition of creating elaborate
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houses with real bull horns reliefs and
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paintings declined bullhorns and wild
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animal parts were less frequently used
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in house decorations and some horns were
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made of plaster rather than real
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ones this shift might be due to a
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decrease in wild cattle and other wild
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animals in the
12:14
area instead of using real wild animals
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people began to represent them in
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pottery and
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paintings in later periods small
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symbolic bullheads appeared as handles
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on pottery and paintings to depicted
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scenes of teasing and baiting wild
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animals which introduced a narrative
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element to their art stamped seals with
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abstract signs also emerged suggesting a
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more symbolic and discursive approach to
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rituals in the upper levels of city and
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horde ceased and pottery became more
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diverse and decorated by the chalal
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lithic period about 6,000 BC Pottery
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featured complex designs burial
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practices also changed with fewer adult
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burials inside
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houses instead there were Collective
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burials in decorated tombs and
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associations of animal and human bones
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indicating evolving
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rituals house construction and urban
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layout
13:14
transformed houses became larger
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multi-roomed and often two-story with
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buttresses added to support the walls
13:23
the town became more dispersed and
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fragmented with the emergence of streets
13:27
and street level entrances
13:31
a combination of economic independence
13:33
from domestic animal and seral
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production and external factors like
13:37
climate change might have influenced
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this
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shift the occupation at chattel hoyu can
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be divided into three periods the early
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phase was from 7,030 BC the middle phase
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was from 6,600 BC and the later phase
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was from 6,400
13:56
BC during its peak in the middle period
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the population and housing density were
14:01
at their
14:02
highest towards the end of the
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occupation on the East Mound the
14:06
surrounding environment changed from a
14:08
wetland to a more stable dry
14:12
ground various analyses confirmed this
14:15
by showing a decline in fish Moc wood
14:18
and plant diversity consequently the
14:21
population declined houses were more
14:23
spaced out and there was an increased
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use of Open
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Spaces the site was eventually abandoned
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by around 6,000 BC shifting towards
14:33
multiple small to mediumsized early
14:35
chalcolithic sites instead of a single
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dense
14:39
settlement this transition coincided
14:42
with a significant Global Climate event
14:44
around 6,200 BC which brought drought
14:48
conditions to much of Africa and Asia
14:51
these climatic changes likely
14:52
contributed to the end of the East Mound
14:54
occupation and the relocation to the
14:57
West Mound
14:59
at chatt hoyuk there was little evidence
15:01
of specialized roles or distinct
15:04
political and social functions instead
15:06
the town appeared to function through
15:08
the repetition of social behaviors
15:10
within individual
15:13
houses daily routines reinforced social
15:16
order teaching people the roles and
15:18
rules of their society these routines
15:21
were embedded in a rich symbolic system
15:23
centered around wild animals and
15:26
ancestors buried under the floors
15:29
rather than having a centralized
15:31
hierarchy or public ceremonies social
15:34
rules and rituals were learned and
15:36
enforced within each house the elaborate
15:39
house-based symbolism and rituals
15:42
provided a strong sense of power and
15:45
meaning this focus on domestic Cults and
15:48
body regulations contributed to the
15:50
formation of a very large Village rather
15:53
than a traditional
15:55
town to access the rights and resources
15:58
associated with a house individuals
16:00
needed to be part of its history and
16:03
symbolism this often meant being
16:05
physically connected to the House's
16:07
Fabric and its
16:09
burials as the site grew houses likely
16:12
clustered around history houses with
16:14
many burials and a long period of
16:17
reuse being near these ancestral homes
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was crucial for maintaining social and
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resource
16:24
rights over time economic and
16:27
environmental changes led to to a
16:29
shift in the later part of the 7th
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millennium BC there was a move towards
16:35
more intensive use of domesticated
16:37
plants and animals reducing Reliance on
16:40
wild animals houses transformed from
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ritual centers to centers of production
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and consumption the history house system
16:48
declined and houses became larger and
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multi-roomed chattle hoyuk flourished
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largely due to its control over the
16:57
obsidian trade
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a valuable volcanic glass sourced from
17:01
nearby mountains however obsidian was
17:04
just one among many materials traded by
17:07
Southwest Asian farmers starting around
17:09
9,000 BC items like Marine shells jedite
17:13
Serpentine turquoise and other exotic
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goods were exchanged through barter
17:18
across Villages these exchanges likely
17:21
served not only to acquire rare
17:23
materials but also to strengthen social
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ties the w widespread trade of raw
17:30
materials accelerated the spread of
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Innovations such as shepherding pottery
17:34
making and eventually metalurgy of
17:37
copper and
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bronze studies using spectrographic
17:41
analysis of obsidian fragments from
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hundreds of sites across turkey and
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Mesopotamia show that each obsidian
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Source has distinct Trace elements
17:51
allowing researchers to trace its
17:53
distribution from various
17:56
locations the percentage of obsidian
17:58
found found decreases with distance from
18:00
its source suggesting that early farming
18:03
communities engaged in down the line
18:05
bartering passing Goods along from
18:08
Village to
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Village chattel hoyuk relied on
18:12
domesticated plants and animals with
18:14
wheat dominating the crops and sheep
18:17
being the most common livestock wild
18:20
plants and animals were also consumed
18:22
but were less important in the
18:24
diet the community symbolic art
18:27
depicting Wild animals and hunting
18:29
scenes suggests that hunting held social
18:32
significance despite being a minor part
18:34
of their
18:36
diet most farming likely occurred in
18:39
better drained areas 13 km south of the
18:42
settlement requiring considerable labor
18:45
and Mobility for cultivation and
18:47
transport evidence suggests increased
18:50
Mobility over time with herders
18:52
traveling greater distances to find
18:56
resources additionally raw materials for
18:59
bead and pottery making shifted from
19:01
local to non-local sources indicating
19:04
expanded territory
19:06
use this shift resulted from a move from
19:09
communitybased to household-based
19:11
economies leading to Greater resource
19:14
depletion near the settlement and
19:16
necessitating further travel for
19:19
resources over 300 skeletons were
19:22
uncovered at chatt
19:24
hoyuk analysis showed a preference for
19:26
primary single burials in noval pits
19:29
under house floors bodies were often
19:32
flexed and sometimes wrapped in cloth or
19:35
accompanied by various grave Goods like
19:37
shells beads and
19:40
tools most burials lacked grave Goods
19:43
though some showed evidence of
19:45
dismemberment or missing skulls and
19:47
limbs one plastered and painted skull
19:50
was found with an adult female skeleton
19:53
similar to other NE Eastern
19:56
finds archaeological surveys of the Kane
19:59
plain show a pattern of increasing
20:01
population density and habitation
20:04
culminating in the emergence of chatt
20:06
hoyuk as a prominent
20:09
Community initial small settlements in
20:11
the region like banku clu hoyuk may have
20:14
Amalgamated to form chatt hoyuk
20:16
transforming from a few dispersed
20:18
dwellings into a large dense
20:21
settlement population growth at chattle
20:24
hoyuk was likely driven by increased
20:26
fertility and birth rates
20:29
the sight skeletal remains reveal a high
20:32
percentage of juveniles indicating a
20:34
higher birth rate traditional
20:37
interpretations of high juvenile
20:39
mortality have shifted to understanding
20:42
these numbers as a sign of population
20:44
growth and
20:46
fertility juvenility indexes show a peak
20:50
in population growth during the middle
20:52
period followed by a decline in the late
20:56
period other factors such as immigration
21:00
might have contributed to population
21:01
growth but evidence suggests this was
21:04
unlikely settlement data show little
21:07
population outside of chatt hoyuk during
21:09
its peak an analysis reveals no
21:12
significant influx of
21:15
migrants the diet at chattel hoyuk
21:17
played a crucial role in sustaining its
21:20
high population
21:21
growth analysis of plant and animal
21:24
remains indicates a heavy Reliance on
21:26
serial grains particular wheat and
21:29
barley and domesticated animals
21:31
especially
21:33
sheep there is an observed increase in a
21:36
higher consumption of animal protein
21:39
possibly due to the introduction of
21:41
domesticated
21:43
cattle breastfeeding led to higher
21:45
nitrogen values in infants which began
21:48
to decline around 18 months as weaning
21:50
started and returned to Baseline Levels
21:53
by about 3
21:55
years this pattern is typical of
21:57
traditional farming societies and
21:59
indicates that children were vulnerable
22:01
to infections during the weaning process
22:04
due to a compromised immune
22:06
system chattel hoak's social structure
22:09
was characterized by a shift towards
22:11
practical kinship and household Centric
22:14
organization driven by the demands of
22:17
early farming practices and communal
22:20
living this departure from traditional
22:22
biological kinship models highlights the
22:25
Adaptive nature of social organization
22:27
in response to to Agricultural
22:30
intensification and Community
22:31
consolidation during the Neolithic
22:33
period
22:37
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