Crops in The Grave: The Relationship Between Plants and Burial From Early Chalcolithic Kanlıtaş Höyük (İnönü/Eskişehir)

Abstract

The archaeobotanical study on the plant remains from the Early Chalcolithic grave of the earliest known human of the Upper Porsuk Valley and Central Western Anatolia at Kanlıtaş Höyük provides valuable information about the burial customs, diet and economy of the region and the settlement. The grave, dated to the first half of the 6th millennium BC, contains a rich variety of plant remains, including cereals such as einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, bread wheat and seeds of wild species such as goosefoot and bitter vetch. In addition to these plant remains, the presence of grave goods and the careful placement of flat stones on certain parts of the skeleton indicate a burial ritual that reflects the sociocultural structure and belief system of the period. The study concludes that society at Kanlıtaş Höyük agriculture and plants have played a role in their spiritual life as indicated by the various plant remains found in the grave. These findings are very important because of the limited archaeobotanical data from excavations in Anatolia, especially from graves, and because they provide invaluable information about the funerary practices and rituals of ancient societies. The study also draws attention to the increased use of plants in burial customs in the Early Bronze Age compared to the results of other settlements in Anatolia after the Chalcolithic Period. The archaeobotanical analysis of the Kanlıtaş Höyük grave provides a rare glimpse into the daily lives, sociocultural structures and belief systems of the region's earliest inhabitants, contributing to our understanding of the relationship between plants and burial customs in prehistoric Anatolia.