The ordering of space at Boncuklu, central Anatolia (8500-7500 cal BC); household and community.

Summary

This paper explores the degree to which the spatial ordering of Neolithic settlements may be related to the nature of households and their inter-relationshps and where symbolic and cosmological factors may have had a role, using evidence from central Anatolia, notably from Boncuklu, where practices antecedent to those at Çatalhöyük are well attested.

Still influential is a ‘ Domestic Mode of Production’ model in which it is proposed that increasing household autonomy in the Neolithic reflects the dominance of the household in production and consumption, the Byrd and Banning model. Increasing house size and spatial division is often seen as related to this.

In this context the emergence of corporate institutions at the supra-household level can be construed as the counter balance to the increasing economic autonomy of households, performing key integrative functions that allow the development of stable long term communities in the face of the autonomous tendencies of the household.

We examine the Boncuklu evidence with reference to these paradigms and suggest alternative ways of envisaging relationships between households and community and consequent spatial ordering of various practices. This also allows us to consider the possible role of cosmologies in spatial arrangements and installations at the site.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Religion, history and place in the origins of settled life in the Middle East.

Keywords

Spatial Coverage