ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on variability as a way of assessing normative behavior within the settlement of Neolithic Catalhoyuk in central Anatolia. Catalhoyuk is located on the Konya Plain of central Anatolia, and dates to ca. 7400-6200 cal BCE. It is a tell site built up from superimposed, closely packed mudbrick buildings, with no apparent public buildings or public spaces such as plazas. Animal symbolism at the site centered on wild animals, notably aurochsen and leopards but also boar, equids, cranes, and others, as depicted in paintings, reliefs, and figurines and as animal parts incorporated into architecture. The nature of crop husbandry at Catalhoyuk is a major theme of current archaeobotanical research at the site. Any such feasting foods must have been assembled by drawing on multiple individual household stores, implying not only supra-household relationships but the necessity of carefully calculated manipulation of social relationships in order to host a feast.
