Constructing communities : clustered neighbourhood settlements of the Central Anatolian Neolithic ca. 8500-5500 Cal. BC

Abstract

This study consists of a contextual analysis of a group of Central Anatolian Neolithic settlements that includes the sites of Aşıklı Höyük, Canhasan III, Çatalhöyük,Erbaba, and Canhasan I, and can be dated between 8500 and 5500 Calibrated BC. These settlements are characterised by a spatial organisation in which buildings are grouped in neighbourhood clusters and in which an estimated 30 to 40 households would have lived. These neighbourhoods lack streets, and the buildings within them were accessed from the roof level. The study explores the social significance of this form of organisation of settlement space at a number of levels. First, the nature of the individual buildings and how these related to household is investigated. Second, non-domestic features in these settlements, such as sub-floor burials, are contextualised in order to identify status differentiation between buildings. Third, the scale and composition of clustered neighbourhoods is studied, to arrive at a better understanding of their significance. Finally, the manner in which neighbourhoods in a settlement related to one another and the ways in which settlements were part of larger settlement systems is considered. In this manner new light is shed on the social structure of these Central Anatolian Neolithic communities