"Since 1993 the world-famous site of Catalhoyuk in Turkey has been the subject of major new excavations and research by an international team of archaeologists, led by Ian Hodder. The present volume, the sixth in the Catalhoyuk monograph series, draws on material from Volumes 3, 4 and 5 to deal with broad themes and provide a synthesis of the results of the recent fieldwork. evidence from architecture and excavation contexts is linked into a broader discussion of key topics of life at Catalhoyuk such as seasonality, art and social memory. The volume goes beyond the basic excavation and laboratory results that have been presented in Volumes 3 to 5 to present more synthetic accounts that arise from the high degree of integration and collaboration between specialists for which the project has striven at all stages. It is in this current volume the Catalhoyuk team most clearly describe the 'stories they have been telling ourselves' during the process of recovering and interpreting the evidence. This volume thus contextualizes the work described in Volumes 3 to 5, recording the framework of thought within which the data were collected and studies, and the interpretation that emerged directly from the interaction between team members and the diverse categories of evidence."--BOOK JACKET.

The Clay World of Çatalhöyük explores the dual function of clay as raw material and landscape factor. It presents a new interpretation of major clay-related material culture transitions by offering a revised landscape setting for this important Early Neolithic site.

This volume reports on the ways in which humans engaged in their material and biotic environments at Çatalhöyük, using a wide range of archaeological evidence. This volume also summarizes work on the skeletal remains recovered from the site, as well as analytical research on isotopes and aDNA.

They are essential to every major archaeological excavation but rarely acknowledged by the visiting researchers once the artifacts have been shipped. As part of the innovative, multivocal output from the famous Turkish Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, we hear from one of the site guards, Sadrettin Dural, who tells the story of the excavation from the point of view of the “Other.” He offers tales of the strange habits of archaeologists, describes the local in-fighting that scholars never see, and explains how scientists can be protected from the Yatirs, spirits of the dead who guard the mound. Ian Hodder, director of the Çatalhöyük project, provides explanatory notes for the reader and an interview with the author, exploring indigenous interpretations of ancient sites and the archaeologists who excavate them. For the archaeologist, this offers a revolutionary new viewpoint on their work. For the cultural anthropologist, Dural’s role as site guard is only a small part of his life as a Turkish villager. The author recounts the daily lived experience of one man in a contemporary Turkish village, including changing economic strategies for supporting his family, brushes with the law, trips to the beach and the city, and Turkish phone sex.

Veteran science writer Michael Balter skillfully weaves together many threads in this fascinating book about one of archaeology’s most legendary sites— Çatalhöyük. First excavated forty years ago, the site is justly revered by prehistorians, art historians, and New Age goddess worshippers alike for its spectacular finds dating almost 10,000 years ago. Archaeological maverick Ian Hodder, leader of the recent re-excavation at this Turkish mound, designated Balter as the project’s biographer. The result is a skillful telling of many stories about both past and present: of the inhabitants of Neolithic Çatalhöyük and the development of human creativity and ingenuity, as revealed in the recent excavation; of James Mellaart, the original excavator, whose troubles off the mound eventually overshadowed his incisive work at the site; of Hodder and his intense, brilliant crew who marveled and squabbled over the meaning of finds in dusty trenches while attempting to reintepret Mellaart’s work; and of the recent history of the theory and methods of archaeology itself. Part story of the human past, part soap opera of modern scholarly life, part textbook on the practice of modern archaeology, this book should appeal to general readers and archaeological students alike.

This volume centers on the application of social theory to commingled remains with special focus on the cultural processes that create the assemblages as a way to better understand issues of meaning, social structure and interaction, and lived experience in the past. The importance of the application of theoretical frameworks to bioarchaeology in general has been recognized, but commingled and fragmentary assemblages require an increased theoretical focus. Too often these assemblages are still relegated to appendices; they are analytical puzzles that need the interpretive power offered by social theory. Theoretical Approaches to Analysis and Interpretation of Commingled Human Remains provides case studies that illustrate how an appropriate theoretical model can be used with commingled and fragmentary remains to add to overall site and population level interpretations of past and present peoples. Specifically, the contributions show a blending and melding of different social theories, highlighting the broad interpretive power of social theory. Contributors are drawn from both the Old and New World. Temporally, time periods from the Neolithic to historic periods are present, further widening the audience for the volume.

This volume presents material artifacts recovered from the site in these seasons, including a range of clay-based objects (ceramics, clay balls, tokens, figurines) as well as those made of stone, shell and textile.