EXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 ‘Trrep Precmanary Report By James Metcaart ‘Tue TaD season of excavations at Catal Hiyik lasted from 10th June until goth August, 1963, seventy working days with an average of thirty-five men, some Jocal but most from the Beycesultan area, under our foreman, Veli Karaaslan, and ‘our trusted ustes, Rifat Gelimli, Mustafa Duman, and Bekir Kalayci. The 1963 season received financial support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York, the Bollingen Foundation, New York, the Munroe Fund of the University of Edinburgh, The British Academy, the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, the Australian Institute of Archaeology, the Institute of Archaeology of the University of London, an anonymous donation, and Unilever, Istanbul, and transport and survey equiprnent from BP Aegean, Ltd., Istanbul. ‘Once again we are indebted to the Turkish Department of Antiquities and its Director ; to the Vali of Konya, Bay Rebii Karatekin ; the Kaymakam of Gumra ; the Director of the Konya Museums, Bay Mehmet Onder, and numerous other dignitaries in Konya and Gumra who contributed to the success of the expedition. The expedition staff consisted of Mrs, Mellaart, administrator and photo- grapher ; Miss Grace Huxtable, artist; Miss Diana Kirkbride; Miss Pat Quin, architect ; Miss Fiona Greig, Mrs. D. Biernoff, and Miss Viola Pemberton-Piggott, conservators; Messrs. Ian Todd, David Biernoff, J. Yakar, M. Davie, field assistants ; and Bay Hayrettin Solmaz from the Konya Museum as representative of the Turkish Government. During and after the excavation we had the pleasure of a visit from the following specialists: Miss Nan Shaw (frescocs), Miss C, Weston (wood), Dr. J. Birman (glaciology) ; Dr. Dexter Perkins, Jr., who studied our animal bones; Dr. H. Helback, the palaeoethnobotanist, and Mr. H. Burnham, the textile expert, who studied our remains of cloth in the Ankara Museum, ‘Among the many visitors to the excavations were HE. The British Ambassador and Lady Allen and most of the staff of the British Embassy, who helped us in many ways; Professor and Mrs. Grahame Clark; Dr. and Mrs. Douglas Tushingham, of the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, and Mr. and Mrs. J. Grimes, British Council Representative in the Lebanon. Suaowary oF THE 1963 CamParcn at GataL Hévox The four principal aims of the 1963 season were to investigate the architectural layout of building-level VI and link up the two areas (A and E) found the previous year; to investigate the curious burial habits and the transition from aceramic to ceramic neolithic, and finally to push back deep into the history of the mound. In the course of linking up the two main areas, courts were found between blocks of shrines and houses of Level VIA (Fig. 1) and this plan was more or less followed in all later levels. Further down, however, in Levels VI B and VII, which were virtually aceramic, large courts are missing and the plan is extremely crowded (Figs. z, 11). These lower levels had not been destroyed by fire but had been abandoned after a very long occupation. Walls leant at drunken angles, developed large cracks upon drying, and were a menace all round and it soon became clear that the possibility of sinking a sounding under such conditions was perilous and impracticable. At Catal Hilyidk there is no short cut to obtaining quick results and the only course of action is that of gradual stripping off layer after40 ANATOLIAN STUDIES layer, The lowest building-levels reached in 1963—on the edge of the mound—were a series of superimposed shrines in Levels VIII-X ; and a test trench below the floor of Level X showed numerous strata continuing down to a depth of 15 feet below the present-day level of the plain. Virgin soil has not yet beer reached, but water started to seep in from the irrigation canal and the trench had to be abandoned on the last day of the dig (section, Fig. 3). ARcHITECTURE, WaLL-PaINTINGS, AND RELIEFS Building-levels VIA and VIB During the excavations of 1962 it became clear that two phases of building could be established for the houses which surrounded the five great shrines exeavated in area E and belonging to building-level VI. The numerous replasterings and changes of decoration within many of the shrines supported the idea that they indeed had stood through more than one building level. The far more extensive excava- tions of 1963 have now confirmed that there were indeed two successive building- levels : an upper one, VI A, burnt and with pottery, and a lower one, VI B, burnt only over part of the area, and without pottery, As a result two different plans can now be drawn (Figs. 1-2) and a number of buildings, described as plain “Level VE" in our previous report, can now be assigned cither to VIA or to VIB. The discovery of a VIB complex further affects the group of rooms at the western end of the mound, described as “ Level VI” in 1961, and these actually belong to Level VIB, (Sce AS. XII, 1962, p. 49 f. and Fig. 6), Of the six shrines found last year and described in the previous report, five (A VI, 1, and E VI, 8, 10, 7, and 14) had been built in Level VIB and they remained in use during Level VI A, at the end of which they were burnt. In all of these the original VIB floors were found and in several of them earlier forms of decoration could be established, The newly found “ Leopard Shrine”, E VI, 44, conforms to the same pattern: built in VIB, it remained in use until the end of Vi A, but the delapi- dated building E VI, 31, was found to have been built on an carlier shrine of Level VIB, which, though unburnt, was filled in to make room for a new building. In this it was not alone; a whole series of Level VIB shrines were given up in Level VI A (nos, E VIB 31, 29, 45, 1, 12, and 15) but as far as we can sec only three new ones (E VI A 3r, 50, and 25) took their place. There may have bei more, but denudation of numerous buildings on the west slope of the mound may have removed the evidence by which shrines are recognized, i.e. wall-paintings and especially reliefs, or the presence of cult-statues, When comparing the plan of Level VIA (Fig. 1) with that of the carlier Level VIB (Fig. 2) one is struck by a significant feature: instead of an almost solidly up arca with an occasional open space or courtyard (usually an earlier ruined house) there is a tendency in Level VIA towards a less compact plan with more space and air and larger courtyards which served as repositories of domestic rubbish and public conveniences. ‘The wide open. space, bottom left of the plan, is more apparent than reai, for here the buildings gradually rose and those of Level VI A were removed by denudation, From the earlier plans it is clear that along the outer periphery of the mound the serried ranks of houses formed a solid wall, offering no means of entry into the settlement. As all communications took place over the flat roofs of the houses, by means of wooden ladders where necessary, the outer rows of houses, so far unbroken by an entry, took the place of defensive walls, and for the same reason it is clear that domestic animals were kept, not within the settlement, but probably in corrals on its edge.Tad ss ywoven CATAL BUILOING LEVEL LATE WI Fie, 1. Plan of building-lovel VIA,Toface p40, Fro, 1, Plan of building-level WI A.nor meavares SY GATAL HoYOK BUILDING LEVEL EARLY VI Way ea ay SS 1.2. Plan of building-lev ifTo foc p40. 2. Plan of building-level VIB.EXCAVATIONS AT CATAL HUYUK, 1963 Fic. g, East-west section through Ares“ E,", 4r42 ANATOLIAN STUDIES The change towards more spacious planning, first shown by the remains of Level VI A, was continued in later times (see plans of Level V in AS. XII, 1962 (Fig. 5), and IV, ibid., and in Scientific American, April 1964 issue). On the other hand, building-level VII (Fig. 13) is remarkably similar in plan to VIB showing the same crowded arrangement, a few constricted open spaces, and the same arrangement of shrines surrounded by houses in a rough ratio of one shrine per four to five houses. During the process of linking up area E with area A a new group of shrines was discovered, one of which (E VI, 45) lay below the single shrine of Level IV discovered in 1961 and the other twoon either side : the “ Leopard Shrine” (EVI, 44) to the east and E VIA, 50, to the west. The latter building was burnt in the general conflagration of Level VIA, but some interesting wall-paintings were preserved on its cast wall (Pl. 16 and Fig. 4). The main wall-painting covering the central panel between the two red-painted posts showed a textile pattern in red, white, and black on a cream ground. The triangular sections contain bulls’ horns or crosses and at the bottom left there is a clear painting of a human hand. The border along the top changes colour several times in true textile fashion, and the painting gives one the impression of having been copied from a kilim. It also shows great similarity to a somewhat earlier kilim pattern from Shrine E VI B, 1 (Fig. 16), described in AS. XII, 1962, p. 59, Pls. Xd, XI. The decoration over the smaller platform in the corner is rather similar, but it lacks the shawl-like effect of the larger painting and the patterns used are different. Beyond the bench, which once again incorporated a pair of bull’s horns, there was a painting in red of a goddess with raised arms and legs and a triangular head. In front of her lay three more bulls’ horns on a small platform. Above the two textile paintings red-painted grooves emphasize the presence of a horizontal wooden beam in the structure of the wall. As the result of the fire the wall-paintings had suffered terribly and in Level V only the western part of the room was reused. The second shrine destroyed by fire in Level VI A is the “ Leopard Shrine”, EVI, 44 (Fig. 5), but like many others it was originally built in Level VIB. Most of its north wall and its south-western corner were destroyed by deep Hellenistic pits sunk from the surface of the mound some 10 fect above. The shaft and doorway to a storeroom in the north-west corner are preserved as well as the remains of a screen (foreground, Fig, 5) separating the cult room from the kitchen part of the building which contained two great ovens. The main panel on the north wall shows two leopards in relief, face to face (Pl. I) between the vertical posts, painted red, or in an earlier phase decorated with geometric patterns in white, grey, and red (Fig. 5). Of the two leopards the left one is probably the female, the slender right one the male. Both have their tails raised. They were found covered with layers of white plaster which hid and preserved about forty successive layers of painting, though all very similar and (but for a few) not too well preserved. In the upper painted layers, the leopards were of a lemon yellow colour with black spots, black dashed outline, and each had a pink circle on the head, which was probably meant to represent the mouth. They had pink claws and a pink line round the end of the tail (PL. 114). Further down they changed their spots into rosettes and not less than twenty successive layers with rosette decoration are known to exist. The rosettes are painted in black on a white background and the animals have bright red claws (PI. Ic). Oceasional spots occur between the rosettes, and in some of the earliest layers the rosettes increase in size and some include dots within the petals of the rosettes.43 EXCAVATIONS AT CATAL HUYUK, 1963 “of WV 1A. outs ow ie “FUEANATOLIAN STUDIES “FH TA g “ounNS predoxy on, “S‘O1yEXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 45, Needless to say the earlier animals were considerably smaller and more graceful than their successors, and being of relatively small size (c. 3 feet) they were not hollow, but made of solid clay mixed with straw. The animal relief was set above a red panel (as usual) and this also was repainted numerous times. On the platform set in front of the Leopard panel, were found numerous offerings of grain and crucifer seeds as well as one fine statue (Fig. 26). Various others, to be described below, p. 75, lay in the centre of the room, In the angle between the screen and the edge of the platform lay a badly broken bull's head of plaster, incorporating fragments of actual horns and at one time painted a plain red. Also crushed on the edge were the remains of a “ bull-pillar”, but no traces of its position could be found on the platform. The original place of the bull's head is likewise unknown: the opposite wall showed no scar of attachment, and from the position in which it lay it may rather be assumed that it had been fixed on to the screen, The south wall of the building showed no decoration whatsoever, but the wooden ladder leading to the roof was found in the customary position and part of the wood was held in situ by the thick layers of plaster on the wall. The leopard shrine got its light from an adjacent courtyard to the south. The third shrine in this complex, E VI B, 45, the “ Boar's head Shrine”, was built at right-angles to the leopard shrine (Fig. 6), in Level VIB. Above it lay a burnt house of Level VIA, excavated in 1962, and above that lay the Level IV Shrine, cleared in our first season. Continuity of cult at Catal Huyk is not as absolute as in Mesopotamia and houses sometimes occupy the places of shrines of earlier layers and vice versa. Although very ruined (the west wall had lost all its plaster and the south wall was cut by a Hellenistic pit) the building showed the familiar plan but with some unusual features. Entry was obtained through a low doorway from a long corridor with a bench along the entire north wall. This cortidor must have had a ladder (or even a wooden staircase) leading to the roof. The main decoration of the room was the relief of a goddess (PI. IIIa) flanked by red-painted posts, of which only the legs and the lower part of the body survive. Itis set above a red-painted panel and the position of this relief corresponds to that of the leopards, the goddess’s sacred animals in the shrine next door, The extremities of the legs (i.e. the position of the tocs) are surrounded by a line of red paint like the fect and tails of the leopards, Two concentric red circles were also drawn round an animal head, of which only the scar remained, placed to the right of the vertical post on the east wall. Strangely enough there was only one post instead of the pair found in all other shrines and the decoration of the main panel on the cast wall was alo unusual. At some stage, probably towards the end, the plaster of the wall was cut away leaving the silhouette, roughly cut, of a huge boar’s head, a symbol of death. ‘This cut-out silhouette is closely similar to clay heads of figurines from the same building-level (Pl. ILI8). We shall see that this technique of decoration is found quite often in building-level VII and earlier and one is unmistakably reminded of the engraving of animal figures in caves or the silhouette figures of animal heads in the French Magdalenian. Finally attention must be drawn to the painting in red of the bench, another feature with parallels in Levels VIB and earlier and probably related to the custom of red-painted floors in aceramic Hacslar, Jericho, Beidha in Jordan, and Tepe Guran in Luristan. ‘One of the best preserved shrines of Level VIB is E VIB, 31, which was found below the “ Fifth ” shrine of 1962 (4S. XIII, 1963, Pl. XVa). Although both its north and the greater part of the east wall are destroyed, the rest stands to a height of 6 fect (Pls, [Ic and IV and restored views, Figs. 7 and 8). Four great wall-panels in all, separated by wide gaps marking the place of vanished woodenANATOLIAN STUDIES Fro. 6, Restored view of Shrine E VIB, 45.EXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 47 posts with capitals, one of which survives, bore large plaster reliefs. Entering the sanctuary through a low doorway in the north wall, the worshipper saw on his right the two panels on the west wall: first a large tubby figure of a mother goddess (PL. IVS) replastered over and over again, and accompanied by the symbol of her son, a bull’s head. The faint possibility that she had large ears as shown in the drawing (Fig. 7) should be noted, but it is far from certain, Several holes above the head cither indicate the sockets for applied headgear or the pegs for a hanging cloth covering the figure of the goddess from the gaze of the profane. The large head, arms, and feet are broken and as the building was not destroyed by fire, it would seem that this destruction was a deliberate act, a sort of desecration of the building before it was abandoned and filled in. The arm sockets show that the lower arm (or hands) were made separately—they may have been raised as in most of the figures, but the unique method of construction rather suggests that they may have extended forwards perhaps in a gesture of blessing. The cars of the bull’s head were outlined in red paint, but there were no traces of paint on the figure of the deity. ‘Two hornlike mouldings in plaster, symmetrically placed on either side of the wooden post, strongly suggest that a bull’s head had been moulded on it (Fig. 7) and on the second panel of the west wall numerous heads of bulls had been moulded in plaster. Here also the heads had been knocked off, but the horns remained more or less intact, though distorted through the weight of superimposed buildings, which made the whole panel sag out of position. As most of the heads had been keyed into the plaster of the wall, the place of attachment was marked by a scar (Pl. IVa) and it is therefore possible to restore the original arrangement on paper. A third panel on the south wall (which is not usually decorated) shows a smaller relief of a goddess with outstretched arms and legs (PI. IVa). One foot touches a horizontally moulded ledge and a slightly recessed panel occurs below the figure. Its significance is not known, but it reappears in other buildings, The smaller figure may represent the younger aspect of the goddess, or her daughter. ‘As the next panel on the south wall carried the diagonal impression of the wooden ladder leading to the roof, no space was available for a relief here, and the sequence is therefore continued on the east wall (PI. III¢ and Fig. 8). This shows another figure, with head (destroyed) in profile and hair flowing in the wind, in a state of motion or whirling. Left and right arms and legs are not of equal length, which emphasizes the idea of rapid movement. Traces of orange paint near the outstretched right arm suggest that something, perhaps held in her hand, was broken off. Nor do we have any indication of what might have been represented on the next central panel (restored as a blank) which was destroyed right down to the lower red-painted dado above the platform. In most of the other shrines the east wall is connected with death and the destruction of the possible reliefs on this wall may have robbed us of the explanation for the running goddess. This shrine is of great interest in that it appears to portray the current “pantheon” presided over by the mother goddess, her son, and husband—male spirits of fertility symbolized by large and small bulls—and her daughter (or daughters ?), younger version(s) of the great goddess herself. The small building, E VIB, 29, built against the northern end of this great shrine, also appears to have been a sanctuary, for on the east wall a niche and the scars of two broken-off bulls’ heads were found. The larger again had red-painted eats, The dismantling of the remains of the west wall of Shrine E VI, 10, produced further surprises. Its original VI B floor was reached 2 fect (0-60 m.) lower down,ANATOLIAN STUDIES 48 S16 ‘eL EA 1 SURIUS Jo [HB (Lin6s Jo yaNd puw A454 Jo (BamneIUS) HONeLOIY “L “orgEXCAVATIONS AT CATAL HUYUK, 1963 Fic, 8, East wall of Shrine E VIB, 31. 4950 ANATOLIAN STUDIES giving the original height of the building from floor to roof as 11 fect. Behind the thick layers of plaster on the west wall, earlier features were concealed such as larger niches, scars of broken-off animal heads, and the lower jaw of a wild boar above the niche in the north-west corner, There were also panels of red paint and some fragmentary geometric designs. A new reconstruction incorporating these discoveries is presented in Fig. 9, which also shows a more likely form of roofing in light materials for the central part of the building. ‘The altered head of the goddess, based on the complete outlines of the heads in shrine E VI B, 31, is also suggested by the horned hair-style of the smail deity carved on a spatula from Hacilar IX. This building being the best-preserved one hitherto found, it has been used as a basis for the architectural drawing reproduced in Fig. 10, which illustrates the principles of construction in use in Catal Hayik VI. Here are clearly shown the plan of a house ; the division of a room into kitchen space (south end with the position of hearth, oven in the wall, and wooden ladder leading to the roof) ; the sunk area in the centre of the room and the platforms and bench along the east and north walls. The peculiar wooden half-timber structure of the walls, filled with mudbrick and thickly plastered, is diagrammatically shown together with the system of roofing which is standard in the Near East and well attested at Catal Hayuk. Level VIT (Fig. 11 and Pl. Te) Although the buildings described above added much to our knowledge of the plan of the area, the layout of courts and the groupings of shrines with their attendant houses for the cult personnel, not to mention the wealth of detail about neolithic religion, they did not really break any new ground. In order to investigate the lower levels, the entire lower terrace of area E was cleared down to the next building-level (VII) (Fig. 11 and Pl, Ia) and the plan was followed up southwards and northwards until erosion (marked by the irregular line on the plan) had removed even its foundations, In the course of this work suitable areas were found for a probe into even earlier strata (VITI-X) (Fig. These carlier levels (including most of VIB) had not been destroyed by fire or hastily abandoned, but they had been lived in until they had become unfit for human habitation, and were pulled down and filled in. Finds on the floors were therefore uncommon, wooden posts had been removed for reuse or as fuel, with many of the animal heads which had been fixed on them in shrines. On the other hand, destruction by fire does not improve the wall-paintings, and a number of these were therefore well preserved. The plan of Level VII (Fig. 11) closely resembles that of Level VI B and is no less interesting. ‘The buildings show the same crowded arrangement, the same rarity of courtyards (all condemned houses used for rubbish disposal and sanitation) and the same concentration of shrines, which are surrounded by private houses. The latter vary very much in size, according to the social status of their owners or the size of the family. The minimum requirement is a single room with two platforms and wooden ladder, hearth, and oven (c.g. room 6), but most houses are larger and better appointed. The entrance shafts are now larger and frequently they take the form of a long corridor with access to the roof, Red-painted plaster is occasionally used on benches and platforms (as in Level VI B and Aceramic Hacilar), Hearths, rectangular or square in the upper levels, are most often circular in Level VIL, but they are still raised. The outside limit of the settlement presented a blank wall, with kitchen and storerooms directly behind. ‘The remains of eight shrines have so far been identified in Level VII and theyEXCAVATIONS AT CATAL HUYUK, 1963 5 io. 9. Restoration of the easliee (VIB) phase of Shrine E VI, to.52 ANATOLIAN STUDIES ee et iagrammatic view of a typical Level VI building at Gatal Hyuk. Fic. ro. are grouped in twos or threes well away from the periphery of the mound, The southernmost group (VII, 1, 8, and 10) lay immediately below the Level VIB shrines (same numbers), thus showing continuity of cult: the middle group (VII, 14 and 9) were replaced in VI B by a twin shrine (VI, 14 and 7), but the northern group (VII, 35, 23, 21) had no successors, as far as we know. The small shrine (VII, g) in the middle group was richly decorated with animal heads (Pl. Va) fixed on wooden posts, but the removal of these prior to filling it had played havoc with the building and its splendour can only be seen in the reconstructions (Figs. 12 and 1). Three superimposed bulls’ heads with boldly modelled horns were fixed on the south post and a single one with double horns was found on the north one. Between them a fifth head was fixed to the wall where a scar showed its former presence (Fig. 12). The east wall was simpler but similar (Fig. 1g) and the place of the horns was taken by a horizontal beam. Two doorways led into a narrow corridor, at the north end of the room. Although this shrine was not rebuilt in Level VI B, the sanctity of the place was remembered in Level VI A, when a small white plastered chamber was built above it, containing the horn-cores and frontal of an enormous wild bull (4S. XII, 1962, Pl. Ve, and P. 51). The larger building to the east (VII, 14) should probably also be regarded asseeoeren, “THA Peerfuypyng go wera “1 “OL pee ow A VaAg1 oNICTINe WOAQH aAVLWS53 > 1963, ‘UK, EXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUY! parorsos speay june yay 1S JO [TO SOAK "EA “ONANATOLIAN STUDIES 54EXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 55 a shrine on account of one of the most fascinating wall-paintings found in it (Pls. Vb and Via). Nine feet in length, it covered both walls above the north-east platform which was carpeted with fine reed matting. The interpretation of the subject depicted is, of course, subjective (and perhaps controversial) but it seems likely that the eighty or more squares drawn along the base in rows or terraces represent a view of a town and one has only to compare Fig. 11 with Pl. Via to see that this is indeed a possibility. Each house has its own walls and the internal divisions in the drawing remind one of the platforms, etc., in the plan, and one is struck by the variations and irregularities in the drawing of the individual houses. Therefore in our opinion this is a representation of a neolithic town, probably Gatal Hatyak itself, the houses of which rise in exactly the same manner as is shown in the painting, This brings us to the strange double-peaked object in the back and if one looks from the top of the mound to-day, such objects are easily identified as mountains. Twin cones mark the position of Konya to the north-west, twin peaks crown the mighty mass of Karadag and in the far distance one sees on a clear day the double cone of Hasan Dag (10,000 feet), then an active volcano and the highest mountain in the region. Hasan Dag had a special importance for the neolithic inhabitants of Catal Hiiyiik, for it was the source of obsidian, the volcanic glass from which they made their tools and weapons, beads and mirrors, the commodity which they exported far and wide. The exploitation of the obsidian fields and a monopoly in the obsidian trade was probably the basis of Gatal Hiiyiik’s wealth. Its mysterious origin, sharpness, transparency, and reflective power were probably regarded as unusual if not “ magic ”, the benevolent earth goddess’s gift to neolithic man. Volcanic eruptions still stir even the most unimaginative moderns and must have been regarded with awe by early man, How much more so then when his precious source of income was at stake! This brings one to the spots on the mountain, the objects spurting out of the right-hand top, the “ cloud ” of dots and strokes above (and to the right) of it and the lines extending from the base of the All these can be interpreted as the usual phenomena of a volcanic the rain of glowing volcanic bombs and red-hot rocks ; the cloud of glowing particles above it and perhaps tongues of lava welling up from vents near the base of the mountain, It is known that the Central Anatolian volcanoes were active until the second millennium 3.c, An “eye-witness ” painting of an carly seventh millennium eruption of Hasan Dag is therefore certainly a possibility and in view of its economic importance a highly relevant subject to be recorded in a shrine. A fine series of sanctuaries lay a little further south, below those of Level VI. The westernmost (VII, 1) (PI. XIa) was decorated with monumental reliefs of cut-out figures in plaster on its west and south wall. Entering the shrine through a low doorway in the north wall one was confronted by the figure of a cow, facing right. Its single horn, ear, and eye were modelled in low relief, whereas the rest of the animal was roughly cut in the thick layers of plaster. No legs are indicated, but the animal is shown standing on a pedestal which was painted red ; the cow itself was covered with pale blue paint, the only instance of the use of this colour on walls. Between the back of the cow and the back of a bull which occupies the rest of the west wall, there remained one arm, a breast and a few impressions of a goddess in relief with raised arms and legs. Asymmetrically placed below her were the trodden-down remains of a bull’s head. ‘There is just enough room for a second figure, now unfortunately lost, to balance the composition, and we know from the neighbouring shrine, E VI B, 12, that pairs of goddesses were by no means unknown (AS. XII, 1962, p. 49 ff, Fig. 8, and Pl. III). It is indeed far more likely thatANATOLIAN STUDIES 56 “ILA 2uug Jo [Tem 360m Jo maya povoreony “HongPLATE I (2) General view of Level VIL with Level VI B on right, looking north-west, Copy Grace Ht, (8) Transcript of wall painting from central panel in Shrine E VIA, 50.PLATE It Copy Wy Grace Harta, (@ Copy ofan early phase of painted leopard relief:PLATE It (@) Lower part of a goddess in relief from Shrine E VIB, 45. (8) Silhouette of a wild boar cut in plaster, on east wall of Shrine E VIB, 45, (¢) Relief of running or whirling goddess, on east wall of Shrine E VIB, 31.PLATE WV (a8) Reliefs of deitics and broken-off bulls’ heads from south and. west walls of Shrine E VIB, 31.(a) West wall of Shrine VIT, 9, with remains of animal heads. (#) Wall painting of town and volcano from north wall of Shrine VII, 14.PLATE VI (6) Transeript of wall painting with hands.PLATE VII Copy by Grace Huta (8) Transcript of the wall painting with five vultures found below the black bull in Shrine VII, 8.PLATE VIL “8 ‘TIA 2unyg Jo [fem yse9 uo Sunuped aanajna yenuad jo rdyosuen pure peussuQ, (9-0)EXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 87 originally two such figures occupied the place between the two animals, for had there been but one, plain plaster would probably have been preserved in this position, whereas we found evidence that something had been broken away. The silhouette of the bull is even cruder than that of the cow and only its head is modelled with some care (Fig. 14). Owing to subsidence the wall (and the drawing) is unduly depressed, but the boldly moulded horn is very clear and the silhouette of the head with car and muzzle emphasized by a cut-away recess in front of the head. Only the cye was modelled. The representation evidently emphasizes the role of the goddesses (mother and daughter ?) as Mistresses of Animals, and the bull's head below the older goddess again suggests a scene of birth, like those shown in AS. XIII, 1963, Pl. [Xa and Fig. 8, and Pl. XVIa and Fig. 18, from shrines of Level VI. The rorth and cast walls of the same shrine (Pl, XId and Fig. 15) were covered with wall-paintings clearly imitating kilims with geometric patterns, painted in red on cream, On cither side of the main post a breast and a horn are modelled in plaster, both evident symbols of fertility. Strong continuity in the occupation of this building and the next shrine above (E VI B, 1) (Fig. 16) is suggested not only by the plan, but by the kilim paintings on the east wall. These were described in AS. XH, Pls, X-X1, Fig. 10, p. 59, and XIII, p. 98 and Pl. XXVI, but the drawing (Fig, 16) showing the entire room is new. Unfortunately the west wall of this building was denuded of all plaster, but it is possible that it may originally have had relief decoration. All traces of this were probably removed in Level VIA when the shrine was turned into a house after it had burnt in a fire. Shrine VII, 10 (Pl. X2), contained no wall-paintings at all, but was decorated with modelled and cut-out plaster animals and animal heads (Fig. 17). Along the north wall, the central post was supported by a ram’s head as in the shrine above, but with a single horn. To the left of this an animal (deer 2) silhouette is cut out of the plaster, but its upper part is lost, In the north-cast corner an extremely naturalistic stag on a rock is modelled in plaster and its outline on the left is defined by the cut-out technique (Fig. 17 and Pl. X6). On the east wall a fine bull’s head is treated in exactly the same way and the two heads (Fig. 14 and 17) of bulls from Shrines VIE 1 and 10 are very similar. In this shrine, however, only the head of the animal is shown with a small recess in front. In the shrine above this was replaced by a bull's head, fully modelled and placed above a deep niche (4S. XIIL, Pl. XI'Va and Fig. 15) but the symbolism remained the same. ‘The middle shrine of this southern group, VII, 8, was situated directly below the splendid First Shrine” (E VI, 8) found in 1962. Three main phases of decoration could be distinguished, the earlier two with wall-paintings and a final one with figures cut out of the plaster. To this last phase belongs the sunk relief of a huge bull, carved on the north wall, east of the doorway (Pl. Vila and Fig. 18). ‘The carving is at Jeast an inch deep and carefully executed and the bull was then covered with black paint (the natural colour of the aurochs), providing a strong contrast with the surrounding white plaster and the red panels below. ‘The head and upper part of the bull are lost, with the upper part of the narrow wall that divided the main room from the corridor at the back. ‘The position of this bull is exactly similar to that found in the building above (AS. XIII, Pl. IXb, Fig. 9) and so are the wavy lines in the plaster below the bull. It can now be shown that these were not intentional but the result of earth-pressure from above. In front of the bull there are three peg-holes (2) in the plaster of the wall, a feature also noted on the north wall of Shrine E VI, ro (AS. XILL, Pl. XIHa). In front of the bull panel there were two platforms, and on the edge of the58 ANATOLIAN STUDIES Fro. 15, East wall of Shrine VII, 1, with wallepaintings restored.59 EXCAVATIONS AT CATAL HUYUK, 1963 “patovsas sSrgred-ype ype “Gl LA aPOYS J9 TIE 1H PEE THON “OF “OtGo ANATOLIAN STUDIES , Frio, 17. Restoration of ShrineEXCAVATIONS AT CATAL HOYUK, 1963 6 higher one in the comer the scar for a “ bull-pillar” was clearly visible (PI. VIIa and Figs. 18-19). These pillars still occur in Level VII, but they were much less common than in later Ievels. To manufacture them, a plentiful supply of horns of wild bulls was required and this docs not scem to have been the case until Level VI A. In earlier levels, therefore, we find animal heads with horns modelled in plaster and only occasionally were actual horn cores uscd. The west wall of this shrine (Fig. 18) showed some interesting features. The cut-out decoration would seem to be later in date than the panel of hands painted above a red dado, On the floor a roughly modelled bull’s head with a disc-shaped basin was found. This reminds one of the bull’s head and libation hole to left of it found in the shrine above (4S, XIII, Fig. 8 and Pl. IX«) in exactly the same position. The plaster of the wall was cut into two animals facing each other just above this bull’s head in the manner of the leopard relief in Shrine E VI, 44. The extremities of the animals are not well shown, but outlined as in the case of the cow (Fig. 14) and they likewise rest on pedestals. The cut-away portion between the animals perhaps only fortuitously resembles a violin-shaped idol, but such are not known in the neolithic of Catal Hiiyik, On the other hand, the outline of the animal heads and feet is exactly similar to those of the statuettes of goddesses with Jeopards, found in Shrine EVI, ro (AS. XIII, Figs. 23, 24), and one may well ask whether at some time or other busts of the two deities had not been modelled above the animals in the manner of these statuettes. The two alternatives are illustrated in Fig. 18, which shows the wall as found, and Fig. 19, which attempts such a restoration. Although there is not cnough evidence to suggest that modelled figures ‘of the mother and daughter had indeed been executed, the possibility remains and the neighbouring shrines VII, 1, and VIB, 12, both had such twin deities. At the desecration of the building these figures could casily have been removed. One might also suggest that the group of three figures of deities with leopards found in shrine EVI, 10, but already old, worn and broken, originally came from this Level VII shrine, but were removed and kept as heirlooms when the building was filled in. ‘The wall-painting found in the north-west corner is evidently earlier in date than the cut-out plaster decoration, but not as early as the vultures which appeared below the bull. It may be contemporary (or roughly so) with a panel that was found preserved just to the right of the doorway (and well away from the deep cutting of the buil). Its decorative scheme is simple and geometric, but the colours used (mauve, chalk white and black) are unusual, On the left rosettes in. orange decorated the door jamb. ‘The scheme of decoration has a close resemblance to that of the E VIB, 1 shrine next door (Fig. 16). ‘The main panel in the south-west corner shows two rows of hands with the fingers pointing towards the right (and the door) framing a pattern of alternate red and black geometric “ ladders and squiggles”, not unlike some of the net pattern found on the goddess in Shrine VII, 23 (PI. XIII), and perhaps likewise of textile origin (PI. VI6, c). Seven red hands line the bottom of the panel and twelve alternate red and black hands the top. Of these seven are red and five black. Most of the red hands are right, most of the black left hands, suggesting a symbolism which is still by no means extinct. All hands have an open area in the palm, which is frequently filled with one or more dots. The composition reminds one of the “honeycomb” framed by red and black hands in the decoration of the Level VIB shrine above (AS. XIII, Figs. 1 and 12 and Pl. XI) and of the great panel of hands in Shrine E VI B, 15 (ibid., Pl. XVIIIb), where very similar net patterns in black and red were found beneath them.ANATOLIAN STUDIES 62 spun re ‘oreyel are] ‘9 “ILA. 2UETyS Jo TTem 162m 0 a2ed pure DIONE “gE “OLEEXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 Rio, 19. Tentative restoration of north and west wall of Shrine VII, 8, last phase.64 ANATOLIAN STUDIES Wall-paintings of a quite different nature adorned this shrine (VII, 8) when it was first built (Fig. 20), perhaps a century or so before the animals were cut out of its thick wall-plaster, when at least a hundred layers of wall-plaster had reached a thickness of 4 cm. One continuous wall-painting, interrupted only by the two posts on the east wall, covered the entire wall space from the doorway to the south wall (Fig. 20). When complete the painting was nearly 6 feet in height and it took over a month to clean, It showed seven vultures (Gyps fulous), three flying to the right and four to the left, swooping down on six human corpses, shown as lying contracted on their left side or extended, the usual position of the dead. All « headless and on one the short stump of a neck is shown. The absence of the head is probably a pictorial convention indicating that these people are dead, for neither does it correspond to the current burial customs, nor do vultures remove heads. The vultures are extremely well drawn with their enormous wings, their bald heads, the characteristic crests and short legs. ‘The plumage of the bodies is. clear indicated and they are shown in full motion. The group on the north wall (PI. VITé) was found below the bull, but the others on the central (Pl. VIIL) and south panels (PI. IX) of the east wall were even larger and better preserved, though rather faint. Individual brush marks could be seen clearly and the entire scene was painted in a dark red on a pinkish white background, A feature of these carly scenes is that no account is taken of corners and the entire wall-space is treated as one continuous field of decoration, as on rocks or in caves. The interpretation of this scene again presents difficulties, It is unlikely that these people should have felt the need to show on such a monumental scale a rather macabre feature of their burial rites: the cleaning of corpses by vultures. If we bear in mind that the vulture is a symbol of the Great Goddess in her aspect of death (see AS. XIII, pp. 70, 90 and Fig, 26), it would seem more likely that the scene represents the goddess of death claiming her own—the ultimate fate of man- kind—but at the same time a necessary condition for resurrection and rebirth, the aim of every religion, Hence the monumental composition, the cnormous birds of prey and the puny human corpses. Another Level VII shrine (VII, 21) also shows scenes with vultures (PI. XII) attacking a headless corpse. This scene is placed on the north wall above the corner platform and apparently continued westward (beyond a post) with a further vulture and corpse as shown in the reconstruction (Figs, 21-2). There is, however, an important difference, for the two more or less complete vultures are shown with a pair of human legs. This suggests that they do not represent the familiar beast of prey, but human beings disguised as vultures in the performance of a (presumably funerary) rite, to which the two human skulls found on the edge of the platform bear eloquent witness. The panel below this scene was originally painted black, the colour of death, but later it was painted red, the colour of life. The panel below the continuation of the scene is one of those resembling a textile or kilim. White grooves separate red and black triangles, cach with a central (white) impressed dimple, and the pattern is probably intentionally irregular. ‘The decoration docs not continue all along the north wall, but only up to the porthole entrance of the building which was found almost intact. It was placed well above ground-level so that a short ladder or some wooden steps must have been provided to facilitate entry into the shrine from the long narrow room at the back. The west wall of this building was dominated by a large modelled bull’s head, with mouth and nostrils and painted ornament. In it were sct the horn cores of an cnormous wild bull: a single horn core, found crushed on the floor, measuredPLATE IX (@-6) Original and transcript of south pane! of east wall of Shrine VII, 8.ates yo sousno weap oa pae Apaed por ae hee «yo amg (4) aaioo HoMaTHON (6)PLATE XI (2) Engeaved bull with modelled hon on south-west corner of Shrine VII, 1. (8) Detail of painting of a kilim on east wall of Shrine VIL, 1.PLATE Xi1 (@-6) Original and transcript of wall painting with vultures from north wall of Shrine VII, ar.PLATE XU a (oS TAB Gad Sl AI SG SG} ays SI pu GON Jo Mara PasoMNTY “EE “OIjo ANATOLIAN STUDIES Three further building levels, VIII-X, were investigated here. It would seem that the area was given up to sacred buildings from the very beginning and all six may have been shrines. Below Shrine VII, 8, the “ Vulture Shrine”, was found a very similar building (Shrine VIII, 8), but few traces of its decoration remained and only on the cast wall was a fairly well-preserved wall-painting found (P!. X1Va). ‘This showed two black vultures face to face, possibly painted over a geometric design in red. Between the vultures there are remains of (wo human figures in red: a man swinging a black sling and brandishing an indeterminate object in his left hand and below him a headless corpse lying on its left side, One has the impression that he is protecting the corpse from an attack by the two huge vultures. At the far left are more remains of blurred figures which now defy interpretation. Evidently we are shown here another version of the vulture myth. Shrine VIII, 1, appears to have had geometric wall paintings on its north and east wall (like its two successors) but these were too worn to form a coherent pattern, No decoration had survived on its west wall. The shrine immediately below, IX, 1, had a panel framed between two wooden posts on its west wall and on it a large bull’s head and a small ram’s head. A platform in the north-west corner had a red-painted floor with a sunk hearth, an arrangement suggestive of aceramic Hactlar and Jericho. Its north wall bore two successive intricate geometric paintings, overlapping in the manner of these carly paintings on to the east wall, which had suffered great damage. Over its central platform only the remains of two slings painted in black had survived. ‘The shrine next door, IX, 8, however, showed an unusual plan of antechamber with a great oven and a small, but richly decorated, sanctuary (Pl. X[V#). In its final phase, the north wall bore the cut-out silhouettes of two animal heads; a horned animal (probably a bull) on the left and a feline (probably leopard) head on the right (Fig. 24). These were cut through deep layers of white plaster, but the second horn of the bull was destroyed when the wall was cut down to fill in the building (at the end of Level IX). Belonging to an earlier phase of decoration was a huge black bull with carefully drawn hooves (Pl. XIV6), shown marching to the right. Below it was a niche and a rectangular structure drawn in red. ‘The bull was decapitated with the destruction of the north wall. On the panel of the east wall in front of the bull was found a polychrome geometric pattern in red, black and white, imitating a kilim. Once again the presence of a bull on the north wall of shrines in this position should be noted, for this is the third in succession (Shrines VI, 8, VII, 8, and TX, 8). The building immediately underneath, X, 1, had no features which definitely marked it asa shrine. The long narrow room along the north side was filled with strongly built, but empty grain-bins. A few worn smears of paint on the north and cast walls of the main room suggested the possibility of geometric kilim paintings of familiar type, but they were too fragmentary to restore the pattern. How from below the floor of this room came a slab of plaster, probably a remnant cither of the plaster covering a post or perhaps part of a door-jamb with a fine maltese cross painted on it, It is therefore clear that painting at Gatal Hiiytk may have been practised even before Level X, which we tentatively date around 6500 #.<. Disappointing as this building was, its companion, Room X, 1, provided us with a fine example of a Level X shrine (Fig. 25). Although perhaps a little less developed than the splendid buildings of Levels VIE and VI, it foreshadows these in its decora- tion and plan. Along the north wall we find the entry matched by a shallow niche and in between a post on which was fixed a small bull’s head with large hornsEXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 Fto, 24; North wall of Shrine IX, 8, with cutout animal heads. m72 ANATOLIAN STUDIES Fio, 25, Restored view of north and east wall of Shrine X, 1.EXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 B modelled in plaster. On the east wall a small head, painted red and with enormous horns, is shown with a pair of bulls’ heads on the left and a pair of rams’ (?) heads on the right, and beyond the post there is again one large and one small head and a niche beyond, Because of its depth and the tremendous weight of five successive shrines (IX-VI A) built on top of it, the walls bulged, the decoration had been somewhat compressed and its west wall was deformed beyond recognition. In all these early buildings, however, hearths and ovens are found in their customary place towards the south end of the room and the principles of construc- tion described above for Level VI, even if not quite identical, are closely similar. Before any attempt can be made to trace a development in the architecture from Levels X to VI more buildings will have to be excavated and it may suffice here to say that these lowest buildings so far excavated at Catal Huyak were neither smaller nor inferior to the better known examples in the later levels. Wall-paintings and relief and the technique of cut-out figures in plaster seem to accompany the earliest buildings found so far on the site. The Sounding Below Room X, 8 In order to establish whether any further shrines might be found below Level X, a narrow test trench was sunk, during the last few days of the excavation, below the floor of room X, 8 which was about a metre below the actual level of the plain. Four more metres (12 feet) of occupation deposits were found in this trench (see Fig. 3) before it had to be abandoned for technical reasons. At this depth of 15 fect below the level of the plain, ground water had not yet appeared and there was no trace of virgin soil, but water was seeping in from the irrigation ditches in the plain. In this q-metre deposit we were able to recognize not less than ten plaster floors, some of extraordinary hardness, others soft like those in the upper layers. Remains of ovens, human burials, stone and bone tools as well as animal bones were found, but no pottery or artifacts made of clay. The entire deposit gave the impression of accumulations of domestic rubbish in courtyards, rather than of houses, but down. to the bottom the earth was that of decomposed yellow and green mudbricks, chunks of wall plaster and ashes. Evidently this material came from decomposed buildings, probably situated not too far away, and this bodes well for the continua- tion of the excavations. Finally it should be mentioned that on top of this almost horizontal deposit there lay a deposit of grey clay, about a foot in depth, with a brown humus layer at the top. This was probably deposited during a period of flooding, to which this side of the mound nearest the river may have been periodically exposed. Stone Cutt Sraturs Compared to the number and the quality of the stone statues discovered in 1962 in Level VI, those found in 1963 are on the whole somewhat inferior artistically. On the other hand, they do emphasize a number of points previously established : (a) the discovery of cult statues is invariably accompanied by a collection of stalactites and concretions, (6) the newly found statues conform to the same types established before, and (c) they show that the cult established for Level VI A had predecessors in Levels VI B and VII, thus showing continuity of cult, such as we had come to expect. Besides proper cult statues, invariably discovered within shrines, the ex-voto figurines of schematized human figures and animals continue as far back as Level IX. The latter are found near shrines, in houses or discarded on rubbish dumps.ANATOLIAN STUDIES 4 ‘sunys predooy wosg -neo £-81 :1ySop “owes weg “ssoppod Suppuers w jo omfg “ge “o1gEXCAVATIONS AT CATAL HUYUK, 1963 75 ‘There is then no reason to suggest a break in cult or ritual observances during the period of Gatal Hayak X-O and this is further supported by the extraordinary rich evidence provided by the succession of shrines. The stone statues (Figs. 26-32 and Pls. XV-XVII) found during the 1953 season derive from three building-levels: the “ Leopard Shrine” (VIA, 44), the “ Boar’s head Shrine ” (VIB, 45) and the “Second Vulture Shrine” (VII, 21) and its adjacent house (VII, 24). Fro, a7. Figure of a standing goddess, Black stone, Height: 12 ems, From Leopard Shrine. ‘The group of statuettes from the “ Leopard Shrine” consisted of two standing figures of black volcanie stone ; a bold naked goddess (Fig. 26 and Pl. XVa-t) and a somewhat smaller and more schematized one which appears to be dressed in a shawl (?) (Fig. 27). Perhaps these two figures represent the older and younger aspects of the Great Goddess, i.e. mother and daughter. ‘The older figure resembles the Goddess found with the vulture (AS. XIII, 1963, Pl. XXIlc, ¢). It was coated with carbonized grain lying on the platform in front of the left-hand (female) leopard, suggesting that it was used in some fertility rite at the time of the destruc- tion of the shrine. ‘The second statue lay with another group of figures, concretions and stalactites in the space between the two platforms, seen in the reconstruction (Fig. 5). A fine bearded male god, seated on or riding a bull (Fig. 9, Pl. XV, d) Height ; 10.cms, House VI, 24, ‘98 cms. From Leopard Shrine, Fic. 28. (2) Limestone concretion with carved (6-<) Figure of bearded god. Alabaster. Hei76 ANATOLIAN STUDIES Fic. 29. Figure of a bearded god on a bull, Alabaster, Height: 10-7 ems, From Leopard Shrine,EXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 Fe, go. (a) Schematie figure. Brown limestone, Height 4+5 ems. From Leopard Shrine. (8) Pebble figurine, Limestone. Height : « 16 cms. From Shrine EVI, 10. 7778 ANATOLIAN STUDIES is comparable to the cruder black figure on a bull, found in 1962 (4S. XIII, 1963, Fig. 21). With it lay another more stylized carving, also of alabaster (Fig. 285 and Pl. XVIa) showing a bearded male, seated. Still in the same group there was a brown limestone figure (Fig, 30a and Pl. X'VIb) without any indications of a head, ‘a crude one in chalk (Fig. 31¢ and Pl. XVIIa), a small bust and an animal head roughed out in pumice stone. One of the finest finds lay a litle further east, on the very edge of a deep Hellenistic pit which is probably responsible for its destruc- tion, It was a fine alabaster head (Fig. 316 and Pl. XVIc) with a sockethole in the neck, showing that it had been made separate from the body. The large size of the head (5-4 cm.) suggests that the entire statue might have been nearly a foot in height, The face is that of a young man and it may have resembled the Young God found in 1962 (4S. XIII, 1963, Pl. XXIJa, 6). With this group of carvings which lay in disorder in the centre of the room was found a collection of white, yellow and pink stalactites and limestone concretions, and a further collection of stalactites, some up to a foot in length, was deposited outside the doorway to the shaft in the north-east corner of the building. Many of these stalactites were selected for their resemblance to clusters of breasts and the limestone caves from which these came cither lic in the region between Beyschir and Scydischir, west of the plain, or further south near Hadim and Taskent. This group of statuettes from the “ Leopard Shrine” (VI, 44) is of the same date as the two deposits from Shrines VI, 10 and VI A, 25, All were destroyed by fire at the end of Level VI A and burnt debris sealed the deposits. Although they cannot be later than Level VI A, it is quite possible that many of them were made at an earlier date, as we pointed out in our previous report. A pebble with carved eyes and mouth (Fig. gob) was found between the west wall of Shrine E VI, 10, and its adjacent storeroom and belongs to the same type as the figure in AS, XIII, 1963, Pl. XIXe. Fig. 31d illustrates a small alabaster seated goddess that was found in the narrow room of the “Boar’s head Shrine” of Level VI B (PI. XVId). It shows a new type with closer resemblances to the neolithic stone figures of Crete and Greece, but artistically it is not remarkable. Some earlier statues were found in building-level VII. A fine one of white calcite (Fig. 32, Pl. XVIle, d) was found in a basket accompanied by a stone pestle and a bone scoop in the anteroom to Shrine E VII, 21. It has a very large (unfinished ?) head on a fine muscular body and shows a young male seated on a bull with a clearly defined head, extremely like the plaster heads in the shrines. From the adjacent room (E VIL, 24) came a group of natural limestone con- cretions, a few strange stones and two statuettes. One of these is a water-worn block of limestone (Fig. 284) with a resemblance to the statue of a god riding an animal (Fig. 2g) and the resemblance is emphasized by the carved and polished head. The second figure is a small seated female in white calcite (Fig. 31a, Pl. XVII6) perhaps shown seated on something, but the preservation is such as to make this a little uncertain, If we add this additional group of statuettes to the ones already found in 1962, it can be seen that certain more or less standardized types are emerging. Besides the purely aniconic forms of concretions and stalactites, objects of awe and reverence unshaped by human hand, we have those where certain. features are shaped to enhance a resemblance. To this same group belong the pebble-figures with incised eyes or mouth and sometimes with carved noses. Next come the schematic figures, fully carved, but with few features (and theit clay ex-voto counterparts) and finally the fully anthropomorphic statues : female deities, standing or seated males, seated or riding on animals (probably bulls, but possibly rams), old goddesses and theirEXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 79 Fic, 32. (a) Calcite figure of seated goddess. Height : 4-2 ems. From house VIL, 24. (6) Alabaster head of male figure. Height : 5-4 cms. From Leopard Shrine, (c) Figure carved in chalk. Height : 6 cms. From Leopard Shrine. (d) Alabaster figure of goddess. Height 5-3 ems. From Shrine E VIB, 45.ANATOLIAN STUDIES Fic. g2, Calcite figure of deity seated on a bull, Height 15 cms. From Shrine VII, 21EXCAVATIONS AT GATAL HUYUK, 1963 8r daughters and bearded or adolescent males. So far these types have been traced down to Level VII, but if, as there seem grounds for believing, the clay ex-voto figures copied the stone cult statues, then we may expect similar carvings at least as far down as Level X. Shrines and wall-paintings of Levels VIII-X have already appeared and earlier statues may be expected. Tue Transrrion From an Aceramic To a Ceramic Neourraic The recognition that pottery is not a characteristic of the earliest neolithic in the Near East is comparatively recent and was first established at Jarmo in Iraq and at Jericho in Jordan, Since then accrami¢ neolithic cultures have been recognized at numerous sites throughout the Near East, as well as in its influence zone in South-castern Europe, in Greece and the Balkans. The introduction of pottery therefore does not accompany the earliest neolithic settlements, but is a later development, and its introduction is usually abrupt without a phase of transition, at least in Mesopotamia and Palestine on the one hand and in South-eastern Europe on the other. The latest discoveries in the Zagros mountain-zone point towards the discovery of pottery in this area, from which it spread to Mesopotamia, but a second independent centre of discovery lay in Southern Turkey, which appears to have influenced both South-eastern Europe as well as Syria and Palestine, The products of these two independent areas have little in common and no links can yct be established between them. It would appear that the Anatolian pottery is the earlier in date, appearing first around 6500 2.c., but not coming into general use until half a millennium later. The excavations at Qatal Hayuk in 1963 have moreover shed important light on the transition from aceramic to ceramic neolithic in that we have found abundant evidence for what materials were in use in the aceramic period. Unlike Jarmo and Jericho, where stone vessels predominate, the people of Catal Huyuk made extensive use of wood and basketry besides bone, antler and stone, for the manufacture of containers. This probably reflects the local ecology, for Catal Hyuk lies in an alluvial plain surrounded by forests, whereas Jarmo or Jericho lie in the hills (or near them) within casy reach of stone. There is a farther point of great interest at Gatal Hyuk, for here the introduction of pottery did not correspond to a change of culture, as eg. in Greece, Palestine or Syria, but merely marked the arrival of a new material and a new technological advanee. The Pottery Sequence at Gatal Hiiyitk In the top six building-levels (V-O) pottery was in common use, gradually increasing in quantity and improving in quality as time went on, A western off- shoot of this pottery developed into the Late Neolithic ware of Hacilar Late Neolithic (levels IX-VI, c. 3700-3600 B.c.), but Late Neolithic developments in the Konya Plain itself are not yet known. In the burnt level VI A, however, pattery was exceedingly scarce, not only in the houses and shrines, which were kept scrupulously clean, but also in the court- yards and rubbish pits which served as a repository for household rubbish. The pottery illustrated in AS. XII, 1962, Fig. 9, as from Level VIII, came from such pits and can be reassigned to Level VIA now that the entire area has been excavated and the stratigraphy re-examined. Less than fifty pots or fragments thereof have been found in sixty-five shrines, houses, store-rooms and three courts—an average of less than one pot per house. There is good evidence to show that this building-level lasted at least sixty years but as the life of a pot is short it is obvious that the amount of pottery found can82 ANATOLIAN STUDIES ‘only represent the very last occupation of the houses, etc., immediately prior to the fire in which they were destroyed c. 3900 B.c. This late VIA pottery was already a highly accomplished product ; it was made by hand from local clay which contained small grits, but no straw. It was coil-built on a flat surface and finished by paddle and anvil so that the walls are thin, It was highly burnished, hard fired, dark in colour, but otherwise undecorated. Shapes were few and simple with flat or, less commonly, ring bases, round or square. The mouths of the vessels were round, oval or rectangular and beakers and hole- mouth shapes predominate. Lugs and basket-handles were numerous and lugs were horizontally or vertically perforated. Functionally one can distinguish cooking-pots and storage jars, often buried up to their neck in the ground, bowls, cups and boxes, The technical competence shown by this pottery shows an advanced technique, evidently already far removed from the first fambling beginnings of pottery-making. The complete absence of any pottery in the extensive building-complex of Level VIB (Fig. 2), with sixty-five houses and shrines, was therefore most surprising and the situation in building-level VII (Fig. 11), with thirty-eight rooms and two courts, very similar. One bowl, probably intrusive (Fig. 33 : 1), was found in this building-level and one single sherd in the four or five rooms cleared of the next earlier level VIII. Had excavations been conducted on a smaller scale one would probably have regarded Levels VI B-VIII as “ pre-pottery ”. Tn building-level IX, however, the two sanctuaries excavated each produced two or three sherds (Fig. 33 : 2-6) and eight further sherds (Fig. 33 : 7-14) came from a shrine in Level X. As no houses of these building-levels have yet been reached, it is impossible to say whether pottery was more common in these early layers, but a deep sounding, penetrating 4 metres of occupation deposits below Level X (see section, Fig. 3) and a depth of 5 metres (15 feet) below the present level of the plain, yielded not a single sherd of pottery. ‘This suggests that below Level X we may indeed have reached a fully aceramic or “ pre-pottery” period. This earliest pottery then (Levels IX-X) is of considerable interest, for it is evidently the ancestor of the developed pottery of Level VIA. Although more Fro. 93. ‘The earliest known Anatolian pottery from Catal Huyik and Beldibi 1. Level VIL. (Burnt house E VIL, 24). Red-brown burnished ware with mottled grey rim and geey spots. ‘Buff ware, with grits, no straw. 2. Level IX (Shrine E Buel Ware, grey cots containing mica and afew straw feagments, Harifired. Fine streaky bu ibuff rim and brown body both and exterior. 4. Level IX (Shrine E 1X, 1) "Oval bate, broken on oll, Mat impression on sider Pale brown burnished ware, hard fred, Thick grey core. Duff ware with gold mica, white gets and some stave 4, Lavel 1X (Shrine E IX, 8}r Jar with knob handle (ef, D from Belibi). Sofifred, tick black corey ‘white grits. Straw-marked interior, brown washed, Strav-masked exterior, burnished light brown, moitled greyish black, dark brown below. 5: Level IX (Shrine E IX, 8). ‘Thick-walled bowl, Very thick black core, Softfied and crumbly. Black interior, heavily faced with stra, White grits in clay, Exterior cream, mottled black with fine barnish 6, Level IX Shrine E. IX, 8). Qval base, coil marks, Burnished pale buff ware with grey core. White sits and mica, no straw. Hardfired. 7. Level X (Shrine #1. Grey-brown ware, worm, Blek cove with white grits and mica. Posibly & Level Rhine EX, 2. Banish grvih bull wate with eld mien. 9. Level X (Shrine E X01). Buentihed brownish grey ware. Greyish-buf clay with mica. 10. Level X (Shrine EX t), Coarse smoeihed buff ware, hardfired buff core, grits. 11 Level X (Shrine ES 1). Tournled greyish Brown ware, Solved, with srawr and geit eooeee 12, Level X (Shrine BX, 1). Smoothed greyish buff ware, black core, Strawisced. $5. Level X Girne . Smoothed buff surface, grey core, Coarse interior, white grits, no straw. Uh Level X (Shrine Lower part of vesel, Smoothed Bits bul strwtaeed and rity cone ware. Brick red heavily straw:faced interior. Closest to Beldibi in coarseness, ACH. Pottery from top of Level B at Beldibi (after Anatolia, IV, 1959, pl. IV).84 ANATOLIAN STUDIES primitive in appearance, sofifired with thick black cores, crumbly and sometimes containing straw as well as grits (but not always) it is already burnished and shows the familiar variations in colour from brown to buff, grey and reddish. Bases are already flat, lug handles are more solid, but the shapes show little difference from those of the later ware, This pottery is in every respect comparable to, if not identical with that found in the top layer of a rock shelter at Beldibi, south-west of Antalya on Anatolia’s south coast (Fig. 33: A-H). Similar pottery was also found at Belbag, near Beldibi, but has not yet been illustrated and it also occurs at Reis Tumegi, a small mound west of Kiigukkéy, a few miles north-west of Gatal Huyak, where we found it in 1958. At Beldibi this pottery may have come from the Anatolian plateau (the reverse direction is most unlikely) and there it was associated with a local microlithic stone industry of “Mesolithic” type and schematic rock-paintings. At Catal Hyuk IX and X we have wall-paintings in sanctuaries or shrines, but no trace yet of a “ Mesolithic ” industry. The present evidence from Catal Hiiyiik therefore suggests that the first pottery was made there c. 6500 3.c. or thereabouts but did not come into general use until the end of Level VIA, some 600 years later. Why this was so, we can only guess ; either local conservatism of the inhabitants of the priestly quarter was opposed to the use of this new material, just as most of us object to plastic and cardboard cups and plates, or the primitive pottery could not compete with the traditional wood- work and baskets until it had reached a more developed state and proved its usefulness all round. Whichever of the two suggestions may turn out to be the right one, it is clear that somewhere else on the mound—and that is probably in the not yet excavated artisan quarter—pottery-making developed from the primitive products of Levels X-IX to the competent wares of Level VIA. In the meantime itis abundantly clear that this development was a local one and that vessels of other materials took the place of pottery (in the quarter excavated) during the first half of the 7th millennium B.c. Vessels of Stone and Bone Three seasons of excavations at Gatal Hiyuk have yielded less than a dozen stone vesscls and it is therefore clear that these were not widely used. Although the site lay in the middle of an alluvial plain, various rocks were brought from the mountains around for the manufacture of querns and grinding stones, pounders, mortars and pestles, polishing stones, adzes and axes and jewellery. Varied rocks were used for the carving of religious statuettes or for weapons and it was certainly not technical incompetence which was responsible for the lack of stone bowls and dishes. ‘The reason is probably a simple one: there already existed a well- established tradition of making vessels and containers in the more tractable and perishable materials such as basketry, wood and bone, Stone vessels would be luxury objects and this is exactly what their rare occurrence in shrines or with important burials suggests, The thin-walled marble bowl on crescent feet from Level IV, the four spouted dishes in fine veined red limestone from various shrines in Level VI A, the similar white marble dish (Pl. XVIIIa) found with the ceremonial dagger (PI. XXVIE) in a male grave of Level VIA in room 29, all show accom- plished carving and rare materials and so were obviously either the possessions of the rich or used for ritual purposes. The depression in the edge of the dish and the two holes on cither side may have served for tying on a handle of a different material, probably wood. More common than stone vessels are those made of bone or antler but here the size of the vessel and to some extent its shape were conditioned by the size of