Isotopes and Images: Fleshing out Bodies at Catalhoyuk

Jessica PearsonLynn Meskell

2013. With Jessica Pearson. In the Journal of Archaeological Theory and Method, 20/3: 1-22. For 20 years, archaeological approaches to the body have tended to focus upon evidence confined to specific areas of expertise. Such scholarly separations are understandable due to archaeological specialisations in osteology or figurines, burial practices or stable isotope ratios. Here, we provide a multi-stranded data analysis of the archaeological body at Çatalhöyük using data from stable isotope analysis, physical anthropology, figural representation and the burial assemblage. Using these diverse datasets dialectically, we suggest that our analysis offers more rigorous perspectives on ancient bodies and embodiment and that our interpretations are reinforced by the variation and scale of evidence employed. Recent research at Çatalhöyük underscores a general lack of gender differentiation in health, lifestyle and diet but does provide evidence for age differentiation. For example, the isotope data reveal that younger adults consumed different foods than older adults. This pattern accords well with a particular attention to age in the burial assemblage; older individuals accrued the most diverse and biographical burial assemblages. New studies of anthropomorphic figurines from the site reveal an emphasis on depicting fleshy, aging, non-gendered bodies that might signify a concern with old age and survival that serves to challenge older notions of a Mother Goddess cult. We suggest that the Çatalhöyük inhabitants attached a specific significance to flesh in their material world, which they used to signify age and maturity, and that this challenges older notions about matriarchy, gender hierarchies and the privileging of female fertility.