A Neolithic Irregular Burial at Çatalhöyük (Turkey)

Summary

At Neolithic Çatalhöyük adult burials are usually located beneath platforms within habitations. Middens (waste areas) are, on the other hand, only sporadically used as burial locations at the site and, overall, are consistent with intentional exclusion from platform depositions, therefore representing a form of irregular burial.

Here, we describe a young adult male from Çatalhöyük buried in a midden and presenting several skeletal anomalies (united and unhealed fractures, and bone structural changes) consistent with a diagnosis of fibrous dysplasia. The observed pathological condition, together with his deposition in a midden, suggest a complex scenario, with the individual becoming the focus of special attention, possibly in a negative way, as his physical appearance and behavior would have been altered by the progress of the disease. Altogether, the present case may document a form of disease-related social exclusion- and its impact on funerary behavior in a Neolithic society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Poetics of Processing: Memory formation, cosmology and the handling of the dead

Keywords

Spatial Coverage