Houses for the living and a place for the dead Tuesday, 4th April. 09:00h - 14:30h (Studies in memory of J. Cauvin) Coordinators: Miquel Molist, Nur Balkan-Atli and Danielle Stordeur 09:00 - 09:20 Symbolic dimensions of material culture at Wadi Hammeh 27, Jordan Phillip C. Edwards (La Trobe University, Australia) Abstract This paper explores the dual nature of dwellings at the Natufian site of Wadi Hammeh 27 in Jordan as residences for the living and as repositories for the dead. In some cases, the site occupants maintained long-term memories of antecedent burials, but in others, mortuary remains seem to have been summarily abandoned on occupied floors. Natufian houses were by no means the first to incorporate human burials in residential space, but they do indicate initial trends in the development of the concept of property tenure. The symbolic dimensions of Neolithic life have recently commanded considerable attention as a consequence of the discoveries of elaborate symbolic paraphernalia at various sites across the Levant. Evidence for Natufian symbolic behaviour is rather different, and indeed, much more subtle. At Wadi Hammeh 27, as at other Natufian sites, there exists intriguing evidence to indicate that utilitarian objects were imbued with special significance by their makers, and that various features and artefacts were deliberately fashioned, arranged, and even colour-coded according to a series of enigmatic principles. 09:20 - 09:40 Houses and graves: The case of Mallaha (Eynan), Israel François Valla and Fanny Bocquentin (CNRS, Paris) Abstract Sites from the Natufian culture (ca. 12.500-10.200 BP) in the Carmel and the Galilee, as well as in adjacent areas, produce what is currently understood as indications of living quarters (either large quantities of refuses, either architectural remains, or both) and graves, numerous in some places. This recurrent phenomenon suggests a conscious link between living quarters and burial places. Nevertheless, according to observations conducted in the field, nor intersite homogeneity nor intrasite uniformity through time can be detected. Therefore, individual situations must be analysed in order to examine the precise relation established between living areas, houses and graves. Because both houses and graves are observed at Mallaha, this site offers a good case study for this apparent link. For two phases, the Early Natufian and the Final Natufian (but not for the Late Natufian in between) houses and graves are almost systematically superimposed at the same place. This seems to warrant a closer association between the two kinds of structure than simple grouping within the living perimeter of the « village». Difficulties arise when trying to understand how this association works. Usually, both houses and graves are dug into the ground. But it is hard to reach solid conclusions about the relative stratigraphy of structures dug at the same place when original floors have been removed or cannot be detected. Even a superficial review of theoretical possibilities reveals a diversity of situations, which may result in similar archaeological record. Finally, a few specific cases are analysed in order to illustrate these ambiguities and to investigate possibilities and limits of tentative interpretations. 09:40 - 10:00 Fathers and sons: Natufian to Neolithic burial traditions. Current state of knowledge Nigel Goring-Morris and Anna Belfer-Cohen Abstract Until recently, there was a wide spread assumption that burial practices during the Late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic centered upon disposal of the dead within domestic contexts. However, ongoing research, based on detailed field observations, as well as a critical reappraisal of burial data, clearly indicates that burial customs were far more complex than hitherto assumed. While there is a clear association between burial and architectural features, the latter are commonly of a non-domestic nature. Moreover, when the context is domestic it is usually impossible to prove absolute contemporaneity between the burial and domestic activities. It is quite clear that the primary function of certain sites or parts of sites were reserved as cemeteries (almost certainly within ritual context). In addition, manipulation of the deceased was an intricate process, sometimes comprising more than a single event, on occasion involving various portions of the corpse (beyond simply skull removal). Many elements of mortuary practices appeared to have been initiated during the Natufian at the onset of sedentism appearing hand in hand with changes in the social fabric of the human group. During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic various aspects, including obvious differential burial practices, continued and intensified. We also would like to address the fact that contrary to popular opinion burial practices during the Pottery Neolithic were probably less different than is commonly assumed and the changes were of a cumulative nature rather than an abrupt shift from the practices of their forebears. 10:00 - 10:20 Diversified funerary practices: The case of Dja’de (Syria, Euphrates valley, 9th millenium cal. BC, late PPNA and EPPNB) Eric Coqueugniot (CNRS, UMR Archéorient, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon) Abstract The PPN settlement at Dja’de covers the whole 9th millenium and presents various funerary practices: primary and secondary burials, single and multiple burials, in «houses» or outside, under the floors or in the walls. The lack of funerary assemblage is however a specificity that contrasts with practices we know for the Middle PPNB. Other funerary practices are suggested by the special use of crania or parts of them. The end of “early PPNB” (phase DJ III) is characterized by both a house specialized in the funerary use (the “house of the dead”) with a long “lifetime” and burials in domestic buildings. For the previous phases (DJ I and II), only burials associated with domestic units have been detected. 10:20 - 10:40 La pratique funeraire d’Asikli Hoyuk (Néolithique précéramique au Centre Anatolie) Yasemin Yilmaz (Université d’Istanbul et UMR 5199 LAPP Talence) and Metin Özbek (Université Hacettepe) Abstract Le site néolithique précéramique (8600-8200 av. J.-C. cal.). Le site a été fouillé par le Prof. Dr. Ufuk Esin (1989-1999) de l'Université d'Istanbul; depuis 2000, les fouilles se poursuivent sous la direction du Prof. Dr. Nur Balkan-Atli. Les travaux d'Asikli Hoyuk ont mis en évidence l'organisation du site, l'architecture, l'industrie lithique, l'économie alimentaire des premiers villages de la région. Au moins 65 individus ont été mis au jour dans le contexte funéraire. Les sépultures sont associées aux maisons, la majorité des défunts sont inhumés dans des fosses, sous les sols de pièces d'habitation. Les sépultures primaires individuelles sont les plus fréquentes et semblent constituer le mode d'inhumation standard. La plupart des corps reposent en décubitus latéral gauche ou droit, avec les membres fléchis ou hyper fléchis. Dans cette communication, nous ferons une synthèse à partir des données démographiques, des mobiliers funéraires, du contexte archéologique de sépultures d'Asikli Hoyuk. La rareté des sites archéologiques datant du néolithique précéramique, et le caractère hasardeux de la découverte de restes humains sur le peu de sites existant, limitent notre connaissance des pratiques funéraires d’Anatolie centrale à cette époque. Les nouvelles données apportées par les sépultures nous aideront à comprendre les pratiques culturelles de la population d'Asikli et joueront un rôle clé pour compléter la néolithisation de la région et comparer ses pratiques funéraires avec d'autres. 10:40 - 11:00 Burials in PPNB houses at Tell Halula (Syria). Social and economic approaches Emma Guerrero, Miquel Molist and Josep Anfruns (SAPPO, University Autonoma of Barcelona) Abstract Tell Halula is a neolithic tell placed in the middle valley of the Euphrates river (Syria), with a nearly continuous occupation from 7.900 to 5.700 cal BC. In the oldest phases, belonging to Middle PPNB, there has been excavated 16 houses; inside them, 107 burials has been found in all, where 127 individuals were interred. These burials are excavated under the floors and the most of them are placed in the entrance area of the main room of each house. In the frame of this Workshop, we present in detail the features of these burials, defining their particular burial practices and some different aspects related to them (constructive elements of the graves, specific treatment of the deads, associated finds,...). Other aim of this paper would be our contribution on the general discussion concerning the relationship between the burial world and the domestic use of the houses during the Prepottery Neolithic at tell Halula. 11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break 11:30 - 11:50 A place for the dead in the houses of Tell Aswad (Syria). (Early PPNB Horizon levels and Middle PPNB levels) Danielle Stordeur and Rima Khawam (CNRS, UMR Archéorient) Abstract Tell Aswad is a large Neolithic tell situated in the Damascus region. Occupied between about 9500 BP and 7500BP its funerary practices are particularly well represented (a hundred individuals). One can observe radical changes in the traditions at specific moments of the occupation. In the levels dated to the early and middle PPNB the funerary deposits are in or near the houses. In contrast during the late PPNB a cemetery was found on the edge of the village. We will present in this workshop only the funerary practices from the early levels giving field observations concerning the precise position of human remains and the implication of the location in relation to the buildings. Depending on the different locations we will analyse variations in the deposits themselves. Funerary contexts may be primary but also secondary, for example the grouping of skulls. The type of burial (exposed, walled, excavated) and the specific arrangement (coffins, baskets, shrouds, etc) and the presence/absence of funerary furnishings will be taken into account. The final goal is not just to present unpublished data but also to present some preliminary sociological interpretations. 11:50 - 12:10 Homes of the Living Dead: Time, Place and Life Cycles within Neolithic Households Ian Kuijt (Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame) Abstract In this paper I explore some of the physical and symbolic interrelationships between Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic mortuary practices and the organization of space within settlements. As one aspect to this I argue that secondary mortuary practices, focused on the removal and reuse of skulls, illustrate the emergence of shared social practices. Drawing on enthographic examples, I explore how the act and organization of skulls caching must have involved multiple families, and probably required the use and recirculation of skulls as ritual heirlooms. I also consider how Neolithic skull removal and plastering from the perspective of the development of personhood and embodiment that were visually centered on the head and face. Skull plastering linked the social and physical body with the past, present and future projecting community members forward and backwards in time. Manufacture, repeated use, and modification of these objects as heirlooms illustrate a process of embedding personhood and materiality of social bodies in the mundane and ritual spheres. 12:10 - 12:30 "Dead houses”: The burial of houses Mehmet Özdogan (Istanbul University) Abstract Since the time of their recovery, architectural remains in sites such a Jericho, Çatal Höyük or Can Hasan had been noted for the exceptional degree of their preservation. In excavating sites of later periods, to recover remains that would be as intact, for example as the mud brick walls of Çatal Höyük with the painting on their plastered surfaces showing no signs of erosion, preserved almost in their original height, or as the amazingly high standing tower of Jericho, occurs only under extremely rare conditions. If the well preserved Neolithic remains would have been restricted to these early examples, then it would still have been possible to surmise their preservation to some sort of depositional conditions. However, since then, amazingly well preserved architectural remains have been recovered in almost every excavated site of the Neolithic period; besides the mud brick or dry stone walls sometimes still standing as high as 4 m., like at Göbeklitepe, is common to all sites. Likewise, in sites such as Nevali Çori or Çayönü overlying building remains have been recovered with almost no single stone of the underlying one missing. Thus, the state of preservation in Neolithic sites strongly suggests that there was an intentional care to preserve them and that they were deliberately buried. Moreover, there are now increasing number of excavation reports where the excavators have noted that the deposits within the “well preserved” buildings have been intentionally brought in fills, and that they are not accumulated by the of the collapse of the structure, but by intentionally brought in material. This, inevitably brings in the possibility that the items found in such structures are not left overs from the use of these structures, but are placed for the burying process. It all leads to conclude that during the Neolithic Period. Certain structures, were not only used as the houses for the dead, but themselves were buried like human beings, together with burial gifts. The paper will consider the evidence on the burial of buildings. 12:30 - 12:50 Sub-floor burials in houses at Çatalhöyük Bleda Düring (Leiden University) Abstract Amongst the richest burial assemblages linked to houses in the Prehistory of Near East is that of Çatalhöyük. Hundreds of burials have been excavated at the site. The sub-floor burials at this site have often been interpreted as: first, representing the deceased inhabitants of the houses; and second, as evidence for ancestor cults. Only 20% of the buildings contain sub-floor burials, however, and some of these buildings contain too many burials to encompass only the deceased of the households inhabiting these buildings. Further, the sub-floor burials include both sexes and all age categories, which makes it highly unlikely that we are dealing with ancestors. In this paper it will be argued that: first, specific houses were particularly appropriate as burial sites and were used for interring people from multiple houses; and second, that only a selection of the deceased were buried inside the houses at Çatalhöyük. These two observations have considerable ramifications for the manner in which the sub-floor burials at Çatalhöyük can be interpreted, and in particular for the manner in which the burials relate to the houses in which they were placed. In the final part of the paper I will evaluate some of the models that have so far been proposed for the Near Eastern Neolithic sub-floor burials in general and those of Çatalhöyük in particular, in relation to the patterns emerging from the burial data at that site. 12:50 - 13:10 Burial and the construction of house histories at Catalhoyuk Ian Hodder Abstract There is some evidence at Catalhoyuk for the sequencing of art motifs in particular houses, and for the recovery of earlier art installations in order to create house histories. Burial also plays a role in this process, especially as regards the use, circulation and reuse of human heads. There is some evidence that the houses that most invested in the production of histories were dominant houses. Even new dominant houses used the dead to found their position. 13:10 - 13:30 Burning down the house: The relationship between fire and the dead in the late Neolithic Near East Peter Akkermans Abstract Although the data sets are still restricted, a number of sites in the Late Neolithic Near East provide evidence for an intriguing relationship between (storage) buildings, their destruction by fire, and the occurrence of dead persons in them. This burning of buildings and the associated placement of dead people, it will be argued, was intentional and preconceived, not accidental. The paper will discuss the deliberate act of destruction in more detail and will offer possible scenarios for interpretation. 13:30 - 13:50 Ordering time and space: Creating a cultural world Trevor Watkins (Archaeology, University of Edinburgh) Abstract At the beginning of the Neolithic there was an extraordinary explosion of architecture, in the form of domestic and communal buildings, and the layout and organization of whole settlements. In common with modern architectural practice, the built environment was designed to facilitate the range of people’s aspirations and activities, both material and immaterial. The Neolithic built environment provided arenas for symbolic display and ritual activity, which together constituted a multi-modal expression of people’s ordering of their world – who they were, how they related to the world around them, rooting them in space and time. For the first time in human history, communities had the cognitive and cultural facility to surround themselves with a cultural environment, within which they were born, grew up and learned what it was to be a member of their community. From that time, the selective pressures that have been most important in the evolution of humans have been cultural rather than those of the physical environment. 13:50 - 14:30 Discussion