BLACK SEA 



not link to any other river system. Catalhoyuk was 

 founded on its east bank, most likely on a small ex- 

 isting rise. (The river no longer runs by the site, hav- 

 ing been diverted into irrigation channels.) The site 

 would have been surrounded by marshy swamps in 

 the spring, the results of the rivers seasonal flooding. 



Those observ ations partly explain the original sit- 

 ing of the town: Catalhoyiik was built where it was 

 because, in a semiarid environment, people sought 

 access to water and to soils as rich as possible in nu- 

 trients. But in that context, one of our recent find- 

 ings carries surpris- 

 ing implications. 



To learn where 

 the crop plants 

 found at Catalho- 

 viik were grown. 



Konya Basin Asikli 



Qarsamba Riv 



Catalhoyuk 



asar, Dec 

 J 



1ED1TERJUSEAS SEA 



Cs'sarr.ba River 

 , (approximate 

 former channel) 



S: " 



Site of Catalhoyuk, located in the semiarid Konya Basin of Anatolia (now central Turkey), 

 comprises two mounds that accumulated as the settlement's inhabitants repeatedly built, 

 tore down, and rebuilt their mud-brick houses. The eastern mound, dating from 9,400 

 until 8,000 years ago, has two "peaks," suggesting that the population may have been 

 divided into two intermarrying kin groups. The western mound was occupied from about 

 8,000 until 7,700 years ago. 



we examined the evidence for phytoliths — silica 

 skeletons that form inside and sometimes around 

 the cells of grasses and other plants. Grasses that grow 

 in moist, clay-rich soils have more soluble silica 

 available for forming phytoliths than do grasses that 

 grow in well-drained, dry-land soils. As a result, 

 large, composite phytoliths form in grasses from 

 moist, clay-rich soils, built up from as many as a 

 hundred or more adjacent cells. Given the ground 

 conditions around Catalhoyiik. we expected to see 

 evidence of such large phytoliths. But a sample of 

 wheat-husk phytoliths studied by Arlene Rosen, an 

 archaeologist at University Gollege London, 

 showed relatively few multicell clusters, suggesting 

 that the wheat was cultivated in dry-land soils — and 

 so not near the mound. Thus at least some of the 



agricultural fields appear to have been placed well 

 away from the site. 



That finding suggested the question "why here?" 

 might require a more complex answer. The wet 

 marshes surrounding Catalhoyuk would certainlv 

 have offered a wide range of wild food resources, from 

 fish and the eggs of waterfowl (both of which have 

 been found on the site) to wild cattle and other mam- 

 mals attracted by the water and by the fresh graze that 

 grew on the alluvium. Another attraction of the site 

 might have been ready access to construction mate- 

 rials, which included the reeds people weaved into 

 matting and incorporated into roofing and the mud 

 made into bricks and plaster. In one area we exca- 

 vated to the north of the large mound, we discov- 

 ered many pits where the inhabitants had cut through 



a thin layer of alluvium in 

 order to extract the un- 

 derlying lime-rich marls. 

 Fragments scattered in the 

 middens show that in the 

 earliest levels of the site, 

 floors were constructed 

 out of hard, tired-lime 

 plaster, but in later levels, 

 the sorter lime-rich mud 

 piaster makes its appear- 

 ance on the walls and 

 floors. Firing lime re- 

 quires a lot of fuel, and my 

 guess is that the process 

 became impractical be- 

 cause local sources of 

 wood were used up. 



In fact, there is good ev- 

 idence that the Catal- 

 hoyiikans engaged in 

 long-distance trade. Date- 

 palm phytoliths at the site indicate that storage bas- 

 kets were brought to Catalhoyiik from Mesopotamia 

 or the Levant: shells suggest trade from the Red Sea 

 and the Mediterranean: obsidian undoubtedly came 

 from Cappadocia. a region about ninety miles to the 

 northeast: oak and other timber must have come from 

 at least as far as the nearest upland, six miles away. But 

 the Catalhoyiik economy was still primarily a subsis- 

 tence one. The Catalhoyiikans grew their own cere- 

 als, such as emmer wheat, and legumes, such as peas 

 and lentils: they raised their own sheep and goats: and. 

 to a lesser extent, they hunted wild cattle. 



Archaeologists today automatically assume that 

 people cluster at a site not only for proximity" to re- 

 sources, but also for social reasons. For example, 

 people may want to organize their labors, take part 



Mellaart's excavations, 1961-1965 

 Catalhoyuk Research Project, beginning 1993 



: 



44 



NATURAL HISTORY June 2006 



