Dynamic Houses and Communities at Çatalhöyük: A Building Biography Approach to Prehistoric Social Structure

Abstract

Houses are rich resources for understanding prehistoric social structure. However, conventional working methods often handle houses as stable entities that reflect the nature of households and other social units. Social groups may be inadvertently rendered static in the process. A biographical understanding, in which the on-going transformation of built space is part of different kinds of human collaboration, allows us to explore the dynamic qualities of past communities. I examine detailed life-histories of four contemporary houses at Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, using the site's fine stratigraphy to interrogate how furnishings, elaborations and rhythms of burial varied through each building's use-life. These trace shifting practice and performance in relation to built space. Çatalhöyük buildings’ social roles changed dramatically over their lives. The spatial dynamics observed suggest that commensal groups were less stable and less bound to specific houses than in more conventional views of the site, and interacted in unpredictable ways with larger forms of social collaboration. Ultimately, this suggests a more dynamic approach to both houses and social units in the Near East and the archaeology of houses generally.

Building from the Ground Up: The Archaeology of Residential Spaces and Communities in Southeast Asia

“…This is demonstrated by shifts in house architecture, from more closed units to more open dwellings in which daily activities took place in the open, uniting groups of houses into wards. Archaeological household data from Çatalhöyük show similar patterns of supra-household integration (Kay 2020). At Çatalhöyük, some houses did not have ovens, hearths, or storage but were still being used; Kay suggests that people may have eaten their meals with other nearby households that did have these features, thereby reinforcing membership as part of a broader community outside the household.…”

Staying Egalitarian and the Origins of Agriculture in the Middle East

“…Pearson et al (2021) found statistically significant differences between those buried in buildings based on C and N isotopes. The notion that groups of houses prepared food and ate together is supported by detailed work on house histories (Kay 2020;2022). In several buildings there is an absence of hearths or ovens in particular phases, suggesting that more than one building was involved in food preparation at certain times.…”

Spatial autocorrelation analysis and the social organisation of crop and herd management at Çatalhöyük

“…First, it ignores the detailed evidence of continual change and realignment in the organisation of daily activities. Kevin Kay (2020) has conducted detailed stratigraphic studies of the sequences of activities in houses. There is continual change in the location and number of hearths and ovens, platforms, burials and storage bins.…”