Books by Nerissa Russell
Papers by Nerissa Russell
Russell, Nerissa 2022 Cattle for the ancestors at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. In Cattle and People: Interdisciplinary Approaches to an Ancient Relationship. E. Wright and C. Ginja, eds. Pp. 225-240. Columbus, GA: Lockwood Press., 2022
The recent ontological turn in anthropological theory has opened a space for relational approache... more The recent ontological turn in anthropological theory has opened a space for relational approaches in zooarchaeology, in which boundaries between animals and humans are permeable and persons can take nonhuman forms. Here I explore cattle-human relations in the Near Eastern Neolithic, focusing on Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia. I argue that the rela- tionship between humans and wild cattle at Çatalhöyük was intense, with aurochsen standing in an ancestral relation to humans. There are many parallels in the treatment of dead humans and aurochsen. Both humans and cattle parts are buried beneath house floors, in complementary spatial positions, incorporating both into the houses (which have their own life cycle) as ancestors. The Near Eastern Neolithic is characterized by a widespread concern with heads and head- lessness; both human and animal heads are sometimes removed and used, displayed, and deposited, as well as depicted. Cattle heads and horns are especially prominent in these contexts.
Central Anatolians resisted the adoption of domestic cattle for several centuries, while they accepted the herding of sheep and goats. I suggest this reluctance derives from the particularly close relationship between cattle and humans evident at Çatalhöyük. When small numbers of domestic cattle appear in the later levels of the site, displays of wild cattle body parts initially intensify, as though to reassert their symbolic importance. These domestic cattle may signal a change in human kinship patterns now sometimes marked with bridewealth, perhaps eroding the endogamous marriage system at Çatalhöyük and contributing to the eventual dispersal of its inhabitants.
Material Religion in the Ancient Near East, 2023
Russell, Nerissa
2023 Resting on strong shoulders: The power of animal scapulae in the Near East... more Russell, Nerissa
2023 Resting on strong shoulders: The power of animal scapulae in the Near Eastern Neolithic. In Material Religion in the Ancient Near East. S. R. Steadman and N. Laneri, eds. Pp. 289-304. London: Bloomsbury.
Wild animals play a central role in the ritual and surely religion of the Neolithic Near East. The striking animal depictions at Göbekli Tepe in what are generally seen as temples are a dramatic example. Living animals and their remains clearly held power as well. Many have noted that both human and animal heads were sometimes removed from the body and given special treatment: displayed, concealed, fleshed with plaster, built into houses. These practices suggest a belief in a power or soul that continued to reside in the head after death – and perhaps was equivalent in humans and animals. There has been less attention to another body part that receives similar, but not identical treatment: the scapula. As with the heads, it is especially but not only the scapulae of aurochsen (wild cattle) that are so treated; unlike the heads, isolated human scapulae do not appear in special deposits. I examine the contexts and composition of scapula deposits to argue that scapulae carry a different kind of enduring animal power from heads, one that sustains houses.
Walking among Ancient Trees: Studies in Honour of Ryszard Grygiel and Peter Bogucki on the 45th Anniversary of their Research Collaboration, 2022
Russell, Nerissa. 2022. "The three faces of domestication." In Walking among Ancient Trees: Studi... more Russell, Nerissa. 2022. "The three faces of domestication." In Walking among Ancient Trees: Studies in Honour of Ryszard Grygiel and Peter Bogucki on the 45th Anniversary of their Research Collaboration, edited by Michał Grygiel and Peter J. Obst, 671-681. Łódź: Fundacja Badań Archeologicznych Imienia Profesora Konrada Jażdżewskiego.
Animal domestication has proven to be a complex topic, difficult to define and with many competing ideas regarding its origins. Some of the difficulty arises from its dual bio-cultural properties, involving both human-animal social relationships and genetic and phenotypic changes to the animals. Scholars have focused on different aspects of the domestication relationship, emphasizing variously physical or behavioral changes in the animals, control mechanisms used by humans, and the conversion of animals to property. Here I propose another way of classifying models of domestication: according to the species that acts as the explicit or implicit type specimen of the domestic animal. For simplicity's sake, I will limit myself to the three taxa that have inspired the most modeling: the dog, the sheep (here taken to stand for sheep and goats), and cattle. Further, I will suggest that while many scholars have generalized their model of domestication from their favorite species to all animals, it is more useful to recognize that there are at least three distinct routes to domestication. While there are some similarities among these various paths, particularly in the biological and social consequences for both humans and animals, many features are distinctive, especially the motivations for domestication.
Animals, 2022
The categories of wild and domestic are one of the classic ways the nature/culture dichotomy mani... more The categories of wild and domestic are one of the classic ways the nature/culture dichotomy manifests itself in human interactions with the environment. Some argue that this distinction is not helpful and a projection of modern thought, and certainly the boundaries are complicated. However, we should try to determine in each case whether it was meaningful to particular people in the past. Here I explore whether wild and domestic were relevant concepts to the inhabitants of the Neolithic Near East in their relations with animals around the time when livestock herding began. Drawing on depictions of animals and the treatment of living animals and their remains, I examine three case studies (Cyprus, Upper Mesopotamia, and Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia) to evaluate whether emic distinctions between wild and domestic existed. I conclude that this was in fact a crucial distinction that shaped economic choices as well as ritual activities. Differential treatment of wild and domestic animals indicates that they were accorded different forms of personhood. The particular nature of human relations with wild animals helped shape the spread of both wild and domestic animals.
Animals
The categories of wild and domestic are one of the classic ways the nature/culture dichotomy mani... more The categories of wild and domestic are one of the classic ways the nature/culture dichotomy manifests itself in human interactions with the environment. Some argue that this distinction is not helpful and a projection of modern thought, and certainly the boundaries are complicated. However, we should try to determine in each case whether it was meaningful to particular people in the past. Here I explore whether wild and domestic were relevant concepts to the inhabitants of the Neolithic Near East in their relations with animals around the time when livestock herding began. Drawing on depictions of animals and the treatment of living animals and their remains, I examine three case studies (Cyprus, Upper Mesopotamia, and Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia) to evaluate whether emic distinctions between wild and domestic existed. I conclude that this was in fact a crucial distinction that shaped economic choices as well as ritual activities. Differential treatment of wild and domestic anim...
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2022
Quaternary International, 2020
Abstract Central Anatolia is one of the earliest areas to practice agriculture outside of the Fer... more Abstract Central Anatolia is one of the earliest areas to practice agriculture outside of the Fertile Crescent. This makes it an important case study in how the shift to agriculture affected the use of wild resources, in this case birds. The Pinarbasi site, located next to a major wetlands area on the Konya Plain in central Anatolia, has components from the 14th-12th millennia, 10th-9th millennia, and 7th millennium cal BC – spanning the Epipaleolithic to the Ceramic Neolithic. While agriculture is present in the region during the middle (10th-9th millennia) occupation, the Pinarbasi people remained foragers. The 7th millennium occupation is contemporary with the later levels at agricultural Catalhoyuk and very likely derives from seasonal use by task groups from that site. Not surprisingly given its location, waterbirds dominate throughout all these periods. Although the Epipaleolithic (14th-12th millennia) use of the site consists of a palimpsest of brief visits while the 10th-9th millennia occupation was permanent, the bird assemblages are very similar. However, the proportion of waterbirds reduces considerably in the 7th millennium. In contrast to the bird assemblage at nearby Catalhoyuk, which is weighted toward wings probably reflecting the extensive use of feathers, the Pinarbasi bird bones are spread fairly evenly through the body at all periods, suggesting that birds were taken primarily for food. This is true even in the 7th millennium assemblage, linked to Catalhoyuk; these Catalhoyuk people made quite different use of birds away from the site. Pinarbasi also differs from Catalhoyuk in the selection of waterbirds: whereas geese outnumber ducks in the contemporary levels at Catalhoyuk, geese are quite scarce at Pinarbasi in all periods, although proportionately slightly more common in the 7th millennium. More strikingly, ducks, which dominate the earlier assemblages, decrease sharply. With 7th millennium occupation during spring and fall migrations when geese and ducks should have been abundant, this does not appear to be a seasonal effect. Birds seem to have been less important to the shepherds and hunters visiting Pinarbasi than they were to the earlier foragers: farming reoriented relations to the landscape.
Dogs: Archaeology beyond Domestication, 2020
Russell, Nerissa
2020 Scavenger and sentry: The roles of dogs at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, in the cont... more Russell, Nerissa
2020 Scavenger and sentry: The roles of dogs at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, in the context of the Near Eastern Neolithic. In Dogs: Archaeology beyond Domestication. B. Bethke and A. Burtt, eds. Pp. 132-162. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Foragers domesticated dogs before plants and livestock. In the Near East, dogs are present from the Epipaleolithic, living with settled foragers. With the advent of farming in the Neolithic, human activities changed and dogs’ lives surely did as well. Dogs have served many roles in human societies: food, pet, guard, herding aid, and scavenger, to name a few. I examine the remains of dogs and their activities (gnawed and digested bones) contextually at Çatalhöyük, a large Neolithic site occupied for ca. 1000 years in central Anatolia. At Çatalhöyük, the evidence suggests that dogs did not play a major role in hunting or herding, but served as sentries and garbage processors. In particular, they may have contributed significantly to improving human health by consuming human feces. Comparisons with other Near Eastern Neolithic sites suggest that dogs may have occupied different niches in other places. However, there is little evidence that they were primarily used in either hunting or herding across the Near Eastern Neolithic.
Dogs, 2020
Foragers domesticated dogs before plants and livestock. In the Near East, dogs are present from t... more Foragers domesticated dogs before plants and livestock. In the Near East, dogs are present from the Epipaleolithic, living with settled foragers. With the advent of farming in the Neolithic, human activities changed and dogs’ lives surely did as well. Dogs have served many roles in human societies: food, pet, guard, herding aid, and scavenger, to name a few. This chapter examines the remains of dogs and their activities (gnawed and digested bones) contextually at Çatalhöyük, a large Neolithic site occupied for approximately 1,000 years in central Anatolia. At Çatalhöyük, the evidence suggests that dogs did not play a major role in hunting or herding, but served as sentries and garbage processors. In particular, they may have contributed significantly to improving human health by consuming human feces. Comparisons with other Near Eastern Neolithic sites suggest that dogs may have occupied different niches in other places. However, there is little evidence that they were used extensively in either hunting or herding, or that they were regarded as companions in the Near Eastern Neolithic, in contrast to the earlier Epipaleolithic. Dogs become more widespread and ubiquitous through time in the Neolithic, suggesting their value increased as agriculture became established.
Food taboos are probably universal, yet difficult to study in prehistory. Recent ethnoarchaeolog... more Food taboos are probably universal, yet difficult to study in prehistory. Recent ethnoarchaeological work provides tools that enable us to identify prehistoric animal taboos from faunal remains, and even to distinguish different forms of prohibition: prohibiting all contact with an animal, proscribing the consumption of its meat, forbidding the meat to certain kinds of people or at certain times, and so on. The rich contextual record of Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Anatolia offers evidence of multiple types of taboo. It is likely that killing leopards, or at least bringing them to the site, was taboo for everyone. Bears may have been taboo to eat, but their skins and teeth were more freely allowed on site. Deer and boar may have been taboo to only some segments of the population.
The Vinča culture site of Opovo Ugar-Bajbuk in the Vojvodina is less elaborately structured, but here, too, some signs of the operation of taboos are present. Contextual analyses of taxa, body part representation, and treatment of animal remains may reveal more cases that will elucidate prehistoric belief systems and social structure.
Russell, Nerissa
2018 Neolithic taboos in Anatolia and Southeast Europe. In Social Dimensions of Food in the Prehistoric Balkans. M. Ivanova, B. Athanassov, V. Petrova, D. Takorova, and P. W. Stockhammer, eds. Pp. 14-30. Oxford: Oxbow.
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2019
Russell, Nerissa
2019 Feathers and talons: Birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Archaeologica... more Russell, Nerissa
2019 Feathers and talons: Birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(12):6393-6410.
Bird remains are few compared to mammals at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, but thanks in part to an extensive flotation program an assemblage of more than 1300 specimens from secure contexts has been recovered and studied, covering nearly the entire ca. 1100-year sequence from the Neolithic East Mound. The Çatalhöyük inhabitants heavily targeted water birds throughout the sequence, dropping somewhat in the latest levels of the East Mound (Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic), when other changes in taxa are also evident. However, the overall relative stability in taxa through time conceals considerable household variation both in areas of the landscape exploited and particular species taken or avoided. As I have argued for the mammals, this may result in part from taboos on some birds, notably herons, that apply only to certain households or other social categories. Indeed, in contrast to earlier sites nearby, the meatier portions of the skeleton are underrepresented at Çatalhöyük, with legs and especially wings predominating. Feathers were likely a major motivation for taking many of the birds, some of them used for costumes. Some bird bones appear in special deposits indicating a symbolic role for, at least, cranes, vultures, crows, and spoonbills.
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
Russell, Nerissa 2019 Feathers and talons: Birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Archaeological ... more Russell, Nerissa 2019 Feathers and talons: Birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(12):6393-6410. Bird remains are few compared to mammals at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, but thanks in part to an extensive flotation program an assemblage of more than 1300 specimens from secure contexts has been recovered and studied, covering nearly the entire ca. 1100-year sequence from the Neolithic East Mound. The Çatalhöyük inhabitants heavily targeted water birds throughout the sequence, dropping somewhat in the latest levels of the East Mound (Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic), when other changes in taxa are also evident. However, the overall relative stability in taxa through time conceals considerable household variation both in areas of the landscape exploited and particular species taken or avoided. As I have argued for the mammals, this may result in part from taboos on some birds, notably herons, that apply only to certain households or other social categories. Indeed, in contrast to earlier sites nearby, the meatier portions of the skeleton are underrepresented at Çatalhöyük, with legs and especially wings predominating. Feathers were likely a major motivation for taking many of the birds, some of them used for costumes. Some bird bones appear in special deposits indicating a symbolic role for, at least, cranes, vultures, crows, and spoonbills.
Current Swedish Archaeology
We demonstrate that the initial spread of farming outside of the area of its first appearance in ... more We demonstrate that the initial spread of farming outside of the area of its first appearance in the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, into Central Anatolia, involved adoption of cultivars by indigenous foragers and contemporary experimentation in animal herding of local species. This represents a rare clear-cut instance of forager adoption and sustained low-level food production. We have also demonstrated that farming uptake was not uniform, with some forager communities rejecting it despite proximity to early farming communities. We also show that adoption of small-scale cultivation could still have significant social consequences for the communities concerned. The evidence suggests forager adoption of cultivation and initiation of herding was not necessarily motivated by simple economic concerns of increasing levels of food production and security.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Apr 19, 2018
This paper explores the explanations for, and consequences of, the early appearance of food produ... more This paper explores the explanations for, and consequences of, the early appearance of food production outside the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, where it originated in the 10th/9th millennia cal BC. We present evidence that cultivation appeared in Central Anatolia through adoption by indigenous foragers in the mid ninth millennium cal BC, but also demonstrate that uptake was not uniform, and that some communities chose to actively disregard cultivation. Adoption of cultivation was accompanied by experimentation with sheep/goat herding in a system of low-level food production that was integrated into foraging practices rather than used to replace them. Furthermore, rather than being a short-lived transitional state, low-level food production formed part of a subsistence strategy that lasted for several centuries, although its adoption had significant long-term social consequences for the adopting community at Boncuklu. Material continuities suggest that Boncuklu's community...
Environmental Archaeology, 2019
Russell, Nerissa
2019 Spirit birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Environmental Archaeology 24(4): 377... more Russell, Nerissa
2019 Spirit birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Environmental Archaeology 24(4): 377-386.
As they soar into the air and dive below the water’s surface, birds inspire awe for their superhuman capacity to pass among earth, air, and water. People often see birds as spirits, or as messengers to and from the spirit world. Whereas at earlier sites in the region birds made a significant contribution to human diet, at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia their nutritional significance is small. Body part distributions suggest that for the most part feathers were more important than meat. Bird remains, mainly the feathery parts of wings, appear in a number of special deposits at Çatalhöyük. Together with artistic representations, these deposits suggest that cranes and vultures played key roles in life cycle transitions and were invoked mimetically through dance. Additionally, waterbirds, particularly in association with newborn human infants, may have mediated between human and spirit worlds. Although there is little indication that Çatalhöyük residents made much use of brightly coloured feathers, bird wing deposits do attest to the importance of colour symbolism at the site. Thus bird remains offer material evidence of aspects of Neolithic cosmology and ontology, as well as social structure.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TEIBRQWEXPIVKCBDXVRN/full?target=10.1080/14614103.2017.1422685
Environmental Archaeology, 2018
As they soar into the air and dive below the water's surface, birds inspire awe for their superhu... more As they soar into the air and dive below the water's surface, birds inspire awe for their superhuman capacity to pass among earth, air, and water. People often see birds as spirits, or as messengers to and from the spirit world. Whereas at earlier sites in the region birds made a significant contribution to human diet, at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia their nutritional significance is small. Body part distributions suggest that for the most part feathers were more important than meat. Bird remains, mainly the feathery parts of wings, appear in a number of special deposits at Çatalhöyük. Together with artistic representations, these deposits suggest that cranes and vultures played key roles in life cycle transitions and were invoked mimetically through dance. Additionally, waterbirds, particularly in association with newborn human infants, may have mediated between human and spirit worlds. Although there is little indication that Çatalhöyük residents made much use of brightly coloured feathers, bird wing deposits do attest to the importance of colour symbolism at the site. Thus bird remains offer material evidence of aspects of Neolithic cosmology and ontology, as well as social structure.
Harrold, Francis B., Nerissa Russell, and Jere Wickens
2017 The Mesolithic of Konispol Cave, Alba... more Harrold, Francis B., Nerissa Russell, and Jere Wickens
2017 The Mesolithic of Konispol Cave, Albania. Iliria XL:7-38.
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Books by Nerissa Russell
Papers by Nerissa Russell
Central Anatolians resisted the adoption of domestic cattle for several centuries, while they accepted the herding of sheep and goats. I suggest this reluctance derives from the particularly close relationship between cattle and humans evident at Çatalhöyük. When small numbers of domestic cattle appear in the later levels of the site, displays of wild cattle body parts initially intensify, as though to reassert their symbolic importance. These domestic cattle may signal a change in human kinship patterns now sometimes marked with bridewealth, perhaps eroding the endogamous marriage system at Çatalhöyük and contributing to the eventual dispersal of its inhabitants.
2023 Resting on strong shoulders: The power of animal scapulae in the Near Eastern Neolithic. In Material Religion in the Ancient Near East. S. R. Steadman and N. Laneri, eds. Pp. 289-304. London: Bloomsbury.
Wild animals play a central role in the ritual and surely religion of the Neolithic Near East. The striking animal depictions at Göbekli Tepe in what are generally seen as temples are a dramatic example. Living animals and their remains clearly held power as well. Many have noted that both human and animal heads were sometimes removed from the body and given special treatment: displayed, concealed, fleshed with plaster, built into houses. These practices suggest a belief in a power or soul that continued to reside in the head after death – and perhaps was equivalent in humans and animals. There has been less attention to another body part that receives similar, but not identical treatment: the scapula. As with the heads, it is especially but not only the scapulae of aurochsen (wild cattle) that are so treated; unlike the heads, isolated human scapulae do not appear in special deposits. I examine the contexts and composition of scapula deposits to argue that scapulae carry a different kind of enduring animal power from heads, one that sustains houses.
Animal domestication has proven to be a complex topic, difficult to define and with many competing ideas regarding its origins. Some of the difficulty arises from its dual bio-cultural properties, involving both human-animal social relationships and genetic and phenotypic changes to the animals. Scholars have focused on different aspects of the domestication relationship, emphasizing variously physical or behavioral changes in the animals, control mechanisms used by humans, and the conversion of animals to property. Here I propose another way of classifying models of domestication: according to the species that acts as the explicit or implicit type specimen of the domestic animal. For simplicity's sake, I will limit myself to the three taxa that have inspired the most modeling: the dog, the sheep (here taken to stand for sheep and goats), and cattle. Further, I will suggest that while many scholars have generalized their model of domestication from their favorite species to all animals, it is more useful to recognize that there are at least three distinct routes to domestication. While there are some similarities among these various paths, particularly in the biological and social consequences for both humans and animals, many features are distinctive, especially the motivations for domestication.
2020 Scavenger and sentry: The roles of dogs at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, in the context of the Near Eastern Neolithic. In Dogs: Archaeology beyond Domestication. B. Bethke and A. Burtt, eds. Pp. 132-162. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Foragers domesticated dogs before plants and livestock. In the Near East, dogs are present from the Epipaleolithic, living with settled foragers. With the advent of farming in the Neolithic, human activities changed and dogs’ lives surely did as well. Dogs have served many roles in human societies: food, pet, guard, herding aid, and scavenger, to name a few. I examine the remains of dogs and their activities (gnawed and digested bones) contextually at Çatalhöyük, a large Neolithic site occupied for ca. 1000 years in central Anatolia. At Çatalhöyük, the evidence suggests that dogs did not play a major role in hunting or herding, but served as sentries and garbage processors. In particular, they may have contributed significantly to improving human health by consuming human feces. Comparisons with other Near Eastern Neolithic sites suggest that dogs may have occupied different niches in other places. However, there is little evidence that they were primarily used in either hunting or herding across the Near Eastern Neolithic.
The Vinča culture site of Opovo Ugar-Bajbuk in the Vojvodina is less elaborately structured, but here, too, some signs of the operation of taboos are present. Contextual analyses of taxa, body part representation, and treatment of animal remains may reveal more cases that will elucidate prehistoric belief systems and social structure.
Russell, Nerissa
2018 Neolithic taboos in Anatolia and Southeast Europe. In Social Dimensions of Food in the Prehistoric Balkans. M. Ivanova, B. Athanassov, V. Petrova, D. Takorova, and P. W. Stockhammer, eds. Pp. 14-30. Oxford: Oxbow.
2019 Feathers and talons: Birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(12):6393-6410.
Bird remains are few compared to mammals at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, but thanks in part to an extensive flotation program an assemblage of more than 1300 specimens from secure contexts has been recovered and studied, covering nearly the entire ca. 1100-year sequence from the Neolithic East Mound. The Çatalhöyük inhabitants heavily targeted water birds throughout the sequence, dropping somewhat in the latest levels of the East Mound (Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic), when other changes in taxa are also evident. However, the overall relative stability in taxa through time conceals considerable household variation both in areas of the landscape exploited and particular species taken or avoided. As I have argued for the mammals, this may result in part from taboos on some birds, notably herons, that apply only to certain households or other social categories. Indeed, in contrast to earlier sites nearby, the meatier portions of the skeleton are underrepresented at Çatalhöyük, with legs and especially wings predominating. Feathers were likely a major motivation for taking many of the birds, some of them used for costumes. Some bird bones appear in special deposits indicating a symbolic role for, at least, cranes, vultures, crows, and spoonbills.
2019 Spirit birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Environmental Archaeology 24(4): 377-386.
As they soar into the air and dive below the water’s surface, birds inspire awe for their superhuman capacity to pass among earth, air, and water. People often see birds as spirits, or as messengers to and from the spirit world. Whereas at earlier sites in the region birds made a significant contribution to human diet, at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia their nutritional significance is small. Body part distributions suggest that for the most part feathers were more important than meat. Bird remains, mainly the feathery parts of wings, appear in a number of special deposits at Çatalhöyük. Together with artistic representations, these deposits suggest that cranes and vultures played key roles in life cycle transitions and were invoked mimetically through dance. Additionally, waterbirds, particularly in association with newborn human infants, may have mediated between human and spirit worlds. Although there is little indication that Çatalhöyük residents made much use of brightly coloured feathers, bird wing deposits do attest to the importance of colour symbolism at the site. Thus bird remains offer material evidence of aspects of Neolithic cosmology and ontology, as well as social structure.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TEIBRQWEXPIVKCBDXVRN/full?target=10.1080/14614103.2017.1422685
2017 The Mesolithic of Konispol Cave, Albania. Iliria XL:7-38.
Central Anatolians resisted the adoption of domestic cattle for several centuries, while they accepted the herding of sheep and goats. I suggest this reluctance derives from the particularly close relationship between cattle and humans evident at Çatalhöyük. When small numbers of domestic cattle appear in the later levels of the site, displays of wild cattle body parts initially intensify, as though to reassert their symbolic importance. These domestic cattle may signal a change in human kinship patterns now sometimes marked with bridewealth, perhaps eroding the endogamous marriage system at Çatalhöyük and contributing to the eventual dispersal of its inhabitants.
2023 Resting on strong shoulders: The power of animal scapulae in the Near Eastern Neolithic. In Material Religion in the Ancient Near East. S. R. Steadman and N. Laneri, eds. Pp. 289-304. London: Bloomsbury.
Wild animals play a central role in the ritual and surely religion of the Neolithic Near East. The striking animal depictions at Göbekli Tepe in what are generally seen as temples are a dramatic example. Living animals and their remains clearly held power as well. Many have noted that both human and animal heads were sometimes removed from the body and given special treatment: displayed, concealed, fleshed with plaster, built into houses. These practices suggest a belief in a power or soul that continued to reside in the head after death – and perhaps was equivalent in humans and animals. There has been less attention to another body part that receives similar, but not identical treatment: the scapula. As with the heads, it is especially but not only the scapulae of aurochsen (wild cattle) that are so treated; unlike the heads, isolated human scapulae do not appear in special deposits. I examine the contexts and composition of scapula deposits to argue that scapulae carry a different kind of enduring animal power from heads, one that sustains houses.
Animal domestication has proven to be a complex topic, difficult to define and with many competing ideas regarding its origins. Some of the difficulty arises from its dual bio-cultural properties, involving both human-animal social relationships and genetic and phenotypic changes to the animals. Scholars have focused on different aspects of the domestication relationship, emphasizing variously physical or behavioral changes in the animals, control mechanisms used by humans, and the conversion of animals to property. Here I propose another way of classifying models of domestication: according to the species that acts as the explicit or implicit type specimen of the domestic animal. For simplicity's sake, I will limit myself to the three taxa that have inspired the most modeling: the dog, the sheep (here taken to stand for sheep and goats), and cattle. Further, I will suggest that while many scholars have generalized their model of domestication from their favorite species to all animals, it is more useful to recognize that there are at least three distinct routes to domestication. While there are some similarities among these various paths, particularly in the biological and social consequences for both humans and animals, many features are distinctive, especially the motivations for domestication.
2020 Scavenger and sentry: The roles of dogs at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, in the context of the Near Eastern Neolithic. In Dogs: Archaeology beyond Domestication. B. Bethke and A. Burtt, eds. Pp. 132-162. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Foragers domesticated dogs before plants and livestock. In the Near East, dogs are present from the Epipaleolithic, living with settled foragers. With the advent of farming in the Neolithic, human activities changed and dogs’ lives surely did as well. Dogs have served many roles in human societies: food, pet, guard, herding aid, and scavenger, to name a few. I examine the remains of dogs and their activities (gnawed and digested bones) contextually at Çatalhöyük, a large Neolithic site occupied for ca. 1000 years in central Anatolia. At Çatalhöyük, the evidence suggests that dogs did not play a major role in hunting or herding, but served as sentries and garbage processors. In particular, they may have contributed significantly to improving human health by consuming human feces. Comparisons with other Near Eastern Neolithic sites suggest that dogs may have occupied different niches in other places. However, there is little evidence that they were primarily used in either hunting or herding across the Near Eastern Neolithic.
The Vinča culture site of Opovo Ugar-Bajbuk in the Vojvodina is less elaborately structured, but here, too, some signs of the operation of taboos are present. Contextual analyses of taxa, body part representation, and treatment of animal remains may reveal more cases that will elucidate prehistoric belief systems and social structure.
Russell, Nerissa
2018 Neolithic taboos in Anatolia and Southeast Europe. In Social Dimensions of Food in the Prehistoric Balkans. M. Ivanova, B. Athanassov, V. Petrova, D. Takorova, and P. W. Stockhammer, eds. Pp. 14-30. Oxford: Oxbow.
2019 Feathers and talons: Birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(12):6393-6410.
Bird remains are few compared to mammals at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, but thanks in part to an extensive flotation program an assemblage of more than 1300 specimens from secure contexts has been recovered and studied, covering nearly the entire ca. 1100-year sequence from the Neolithic East Mound. The Çatalhöyük inhabitants heavily targeted water birds throughout the sequence, dropping somewhat in the latest levels of the East Mound (Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic), when other changes in taxa are also evident. However, the overall relative stability in taxa through time conceals considerable household variation both in areas of the landscape exploited and particular species taken or avoided. As I have argued for the mammals, this may result in part from taboos on some birds, notably herons, that apply only to certain households or other social categories. Indeed, in contrast to earlier sites nearby, the meatier portions of the skeleton are underrepresented at Çatalhöyük, with legs and especially wings predominating. Feathers were likely a major motivation for taking many of the birds, some of them used for costumes. Some bird bones appear in special deposits indicating a symbolic role for, at least, cranes, vultures, crows, and spoonbills.
2019 Spirit birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Environmental Archaeology 24(4): 377-386.
As they soar into the air and dive below the water’s surface, birds inspire awe for their superhuman capacity to pass among earth, air, and water. People often see birds as spirits, or as messengers to and from the spirit world. Whereas at earlier sites in the region birds made a significant contribution to human diet, at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia their nutritional significance is small. Body part distributions suggest that for the most part feathers were more important than meat. Bird remains, mainly the feathery parts of wings, appear in a number of special deposits at Çatalhöyük. Together with artistic representations, these deposits suggest that cranes and vultures played key roles in life cycle transitions and were invoked mimetically through dance. Additionally, waterbirds, particularly in association with newborn human infants, may have mediated between human and spirit worlds. Although there is little indication that Çatalhöyük residents made much use of brightly coloured feathers, bird wing deposits do attest to the importance of colour symbolism at the site. Thus bird remains offer material evidence of aspects of Neolithic cosmology and ontology, as well as social structure.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TEIBRQWEXPIVKCBDXVRN/full?target=10.1080/14614103.2017.1422685
2017 The Mesolithic of Konispol Cave, Albania. Iliria XL:7-38.
Many faunal assemblages across southwest Asia contain the remains of multiple wild equid species, which may reflect individual prehistoric human populations' use of different hunting and/or landscape exploitation strategies. Accurate equid species assignments are therefore important. This paper tests the extent to which zooarchaeologists agree on equid species assignments made using commonly used zooarchaeological dental identification criteria. Seven zooarchaeologists individually use published criteria to assign species to equid teeth from Neolithic Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, then use Fleiss' kappa to measure our reliability of agreement. We assess our degrees of agreement for species assignments made using scanned images versus actual specimens and for mandibular teeth versus maxillary teeth. Having failed to achieve significant agreement, we conclude that zooarchaeologists should be cautious about species assignments made using these methods.