Agricultural innovation and resilience in a long-lived early farming community: the 1,500-year sequence at Neolithic to early Chalcolithic Çatalhöyük, central Anatolia

Abstract

Intensive archaeobotanical investigations at Çatalhöyük have created a unique opportunity to explore change and conti-nuity in plant use through the ca 1,500-year Neolithic to early Chalcolithic sequence of an early established farming community. The combination of crops and herd animals in the earliest (Aceramic) part of the sequence reflects a distinct and diverse central Anatolian 'package' at the end of the eighth millennium cal. BC. Here we report evidence for near continual adjustment of cropping regimes through time at Çatalhöyük, featuring recruitment of minor crops or crop contaminants to become major staples. We use panarchy theory to frame an understanding of Çatalhöyük's long-term sustainability, arguing that its resilience was a function of three key factors: its diverse initial crop spectrum, which acted as an archive for later innovations; its modular social structure, enabling small-scale experimentation and innova-tion in cropping at the household level; and its agglomerated social morphology, allowing successful developments to be scaled up across the wider community. This case study in long-term sustainability through flexible, changeable cropping strategies is significant not only for understanding so-called boom and bust cycles elsewhere but also for informing wider agro-ecological understanding of sustainable development in central Anatolia and beyond.

Socio-Material Archaeological Networks at Çatalhöyük a Community Detection Approach

“…Furthermore, neighboring houses show a strong interconnectivity that Hodder (2013Hodder ( , 2014b refers to possible cooperative practices like herding of animals or hunting of big animals. The same observation is made by Bogaard et al (2017) when they investigated patterns of legume consumption between adjacent burnt building in the North Area (B.131, B.77, and B.52); in this study they suggest the important role cooperation played in early agricultural societies.…”

“…Similarities between local groups of buildings have been observed frequently at the site (e.g., Tung, 2013;Yalman et al, 2013;Bogaard et al, 2017) and Hodder (2013Hodder ( , 2014b lists a vast number of similarities and shared features between nearby buildings; he also suggests that similar groups of buildings might have shared burials location, perhaps within history houses (Hodder, 2014a). Furthermore, neighboring houses show a strong interconnectivity that Hodder (2013Hodder ( , 2014b refers to possible cooperative practices like herding of animals or hunting of big animals.…”

“…Both Hodder and Mills envision a social structure comprised of autonomous houses situated within cross-cutting series of relationships and dependencies with other houses. In a similar vein, Bogaard and co-workers refer to forms of cooperative farming at Çatalhöyük and at other PPN-PN sites (Bogaard, 2015(Bogaard, , 2017Bogaard et al, 2017). Kuijt (2018) has recently suggested that the social geography of Çatalhöyük can best be characterized as an expression of households as multi-family houses.…”

Livestock faecal indicators for animal management, penning, foddering and dung use in early agricultural built environments in the Konya Plain, Central Anatolia

“…The later settlement mound at Çatalhöyük (7100-5950 cal BC) (Bayliss et al 2015), is > 13 ha in size with extensive mudbrick architecture and middens/open areas. The site has been the focus of pivotal debates regarding Neolithic innovations, agricultural practices defined broadly here as plant cultivation and animal herding, and responses and resilience to environmental change in the early Holocene (Hodder 2006(Hodder , 2007(Hodder , 2013Ayala et al 2017;Bogaard et al 2017). The Late Neolithic occupation at the Pınarbaşı rockshelter (c. 6500-6000 cal BC), with a maximum extent of 400 m 2 , displays sub-oval built environments with wattle and daub superstructures and multiple evidence of pastoral activities, including a high proportion of herded sheep in the faunal assemblage, which comprises abundant foetal and neonate remains (Baird et al 2011).…”

“…These included the adoption of animal domestication and the development of dairying activities and use of livestock for secondary purposes, based on several decades of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research, including field survey, high-resolution coring, excavations and extensive spatial sampling of early settlements (e.g. Baird 1996Baird , 2005Baird et al 2012Baird et al , 2018Martin et al 2002;Russell et al 2005;Evershed et al 2008;Bogaard et al 2017;Roffet-Salque et al 2018). This review focuses on a selection of sites in this core region in which a range of dung deposits have been found: the early agricultural settlement of Boncuklu (8300-7800 cal BC), the Çatalhöyük East Mound (7100-5950 cal BC) and the Late Neolithic occupation of the Pınarbaşı rockshelter (6500-6000 cal BC) (e.g.…”