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Burials in context: The 1960s inhumations of Çatalhöyük East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Bleda S. Düring
Bleda S. Düring
Affiliation:
Leiden University
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Abstract

The burial customs practised at Neolithic Çatalhöyük have raised a substantial amount of interest, due to factors such as a tradition of intramural inhumation, elaborate grave goods including organic remains in an excellent state of preservation, and a posited link to scenes in wall paintings supposedly showing vultures pecking at humanoid figures. In consequence, numerous publications have discussed the burial practices of the site, and the systematic study of the burial data is one of the aims of the present excavation project at the site. Given the attention the burials of Çatalhöyük have received, it is surprising that almost no hard data have been published on the hundreds of burials excavated in the 1960s. In this paper a systematic inventory of the 1960s burial data and their drawbacks will be presented. The data for this study were obtained from the notes made by Dr Angel and Dr Ferembach, the two physical anthropologists who analysed the skeletons excavated by Mellaart and his team. The inventory presented in this paper will allow us to study the burial practices at Çatalhöyük in a more systematic manner, and will provide an interesting background for the evaluation of the data forthcoming from the new excavation project at Çatalhöyük.

Özet

Neolitik Çatlhöyük'te uygulanmış olan gömü adetleri oldukça ilgi uyandırmıştır. Bunun nedeni, yerleşim içi gömü adetinin ve organik kalıntılar dahil olmak üzere çok iyi durumda korunagelmiş, ince işlenmiş mezar buluntularının ve bunlarla ilişkili olarak tartışılan ve akbabalar tarafından gagalanan insan benzeri figürleri tasvir ettiǧine inanılan duvar resimlerinin varlıǧıdır. Bu ilginin sonucu olarak pekçok çalışma yayınlanmış ve bu çalışmalarda bölgedeki gömü adetlerinin uygulama biçimleri tartışılmıştır. Şu anda gömü verilerinin sistematik olarak incelenmesi mevcut kazı projesinin başlıca amaçlarından biridir. Çatalhöyük gömülerinin günümüzde çektiǧi bu dikkate raǧmen, 1960'larda yapılan yüzlerce gömü kazısı ile ilgili hiçbir temel veri yayınının yapılmamış olması şaşırtıcıdır. Bu çalışma ile 1960'ların gömü verilerinin ve bunlarla ilgili sorunların sistematik bir dökümü sunulacaktır. Bu çalışma için gerekli olan bilgiler, Mellaart tarafindan yapılan kazılar sırasında ortaya çıkarılmış olan iskeletleri incelemiş iki antropolog Dr Angel ve Dr Ferembach'ın notlarından elde edilmiştir. Bu çalışma ile ortaya çikacak olan envanter hem Çatalhöyük'teki gömü uygulamalarını daha sistematik bir şekilde incelememizi saǧlayacak, hem de Çatalhöyük'teki yeni kazı projesinden elde edilecek verilerin deǧerlendirilmesi için ilgi çekici bir temel oluşturacaktır.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 53 , December 2003 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 2003

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