Blog Post #25: Human-Animal Entanglements in the Neolithic with Lindsay Der

Perhaps now, more than ever before, we are coming face to face with the way that our interactions with the environment have consequences. The global pandemic is a reminder that even in this industrial age, humans do not live in a bubble. Just as our actions affect the natural world, the natural world affects us! As an archaeologist, I do research into this very topic as it happened in the past. What kinds of relationships did people have with animals thousands of years ago?  Why do these relationships matter? And how did they transform society? Conversely, how did society transform its surrounding environment? These questions are not always easy to answer. As archaeologists, we are kind of like gumshoes. We find evidence from multiple sources and try to piece it together to make a cohesive story, “solving” the questions at hand. This evidence can come in many forms. Some archaeologists, bioarchaeologists, study human remains, while zooarchaeologists study the bones of animals, instead. Others might specialize in stone tools, pollen, soil —- the list goes on and on!

In order to drill down into the questions posed above and better understand the role of human-animal relations in society at Çatalhöyük, my research takes this data on the figurines and combines it with other types of material culture related to animals at the site. Archaeologists, contrary to what is largely portrayed by fictional characters like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft, work in teams. We may each have our own specializations and research objectives, but the work done on an individual level usually feeds into an umbrella excavation so that the parts that we all individually produce can be assembled together to give a more complete picture (remember that gumshoe reference I made above?). By sharing our data, not only within our team, but by also making it available to other archaeologists and the general public, we can do archaeology in a more ethical way.

This team structure facilitates an integrated approach, so that I am able to synthesize the data on the figurines with other datasets on faunal installations (the term we use for the skeletal remains of animals that were then embedded and plastered into wall, bench and pillar features within houses), structured faunal deposits (animal remains likely related to ritual practices such as bones found in platforms, burials, pits or the foundations of houses), iconography like plastered wall reliefs of animals and wall paintings, stamp seals and pottery. By analyzing the spatial (where animal expressions are found at the site and in what context) and temporal (over time) patterning, we can shed light on our research questions. Changes in the depositional patterning of animal expressions, as well as the types of expressions and the media that was used for these expressions, tells us that relations between humans and animals did not stay the same, but shifted and transformed throughout the lifespan of the town.

For instance, beginning from the mid point of the settlement’s occupation, there is a clear move away from permanent animal art (wall paintings, faunal installations and plastered reliefs) toward more portable types (pottery and stamp seals). In the animal bones, we see a decrease in the wild species that were hunted and an increase in the selection for domesticated sheep, goat and even cattle; before this time cattle were only hunted, not farmed. Concurrently, we start to see motifs of human domination over animals in the art, such as figurines of humans astride animals. In the earlier half of the occupation, people treated wild animals and conducted rituals with their remains in a way similar to humans. In the later half, we see evidence that these animals became increasingly commodified. Household independence grew and communal and shared practices (like multiple households tending to herds of sheep and goat together) fell off. In sum, as people’s relationships with animals changed and animals became more like commodities, society itself was also transformed, setting the scene for emergent social inequality.