Atalay - Hastorf

Society for American ArchaeologyFood, Meals, and Daily Activities: Food Habitus at Neolithic atalhykAuthor(s): Sonya Atalay and Christine A. HastorfSource: American Antiquity, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 2006), pp. 283-319Published by: Society for American ArchaeologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40035906Accessed: 17/02/2010 17:08Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sam.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected] for American Archaeology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toAmerican Antiquity.http://www.jstor.orgFOOD, MEALS, AND DAILY ACTIVITIES: FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC CATALHOYUK Sonya Atalay and ChristineA. Hastorf Weconsider the daily practices of food preparation and consumption at the Neolithic Anatolian site of Qatalhoyuk. We present the majorfood activities suggestedfrom the archaeological evidence, including the timing and range of possible ingredients eaten by the residents of this thousand-year settlement. Plant, animal, and mineral resources, aswell asthe food production and preparationpractices, are viewed in the context of the seasonal cycle. The food-related activities practiced at (âtalhoyiik within each of the seasons are placed into five primary groups: production and procurement,processing, cooking, presentation, and eating. The daily household acts associated with these categories are discussed in detail. Using flora, fauna, micromorphological,lithic, ceramic, clay and architectural evidence, we present a picture of a community that was relatively healthy. The residents had a diet that relied heavily on plant foodstuffs, with wild plants remaining an important and valuable part of the daily and seasonal food practices throughout. The people of Qatalhoyuk ate a range of animal products, including meat obtained from domesticated sheep/goats, wild cattle, small and large game, and to a more limited extent, eggs and waterfowl. Their social life can be seen through these foodways. Consideramoslos elementosdiarios de preparacion de comida y consumoen el sitio neolitico de Qatalhoyuk en Anatolia. Pre- sentamos las actividades alimentarias principales sugeridaspor la evidencia arqueologica, incluyendo el tiempoy rango de los ingredientesposiblementeingeridospor los residentesde este asentamientomilenario.Los recursos vegetales, animales y mine rales, asicomo las prdcticas de producciony preparacion de alimentos,son analizados en el contextodel ciclo estacional. Las actividades relacionadas con los alimentos, realizadas en Qatalhoyuk en cada estacion se ubican en cinco grupos principales: producciony aprovisionamiento,procesamiento,coccion, presentacion e ingesta. Los actos diarios de las unidades domesticasasociados con estas categorias son discutidosen detalle. Utilizandoevidencia floristica,faunistica,microformologica, litica, cerdmica,arquitectonicay de arcilla, presentamos una imagen de una comunidad quefue relativamentesaludable. Sus habitantestuvieronuna dieta basada mayormente en vegetales, siendo las plantas silvestres una importantey valiosa parte de las prdcticas alimentarias estacionales y diarias. Tambiendemostramos que los residentesde Qatalhoyukingirieron un rango de productosanimales, incluyendo came obtenida a traves del sacrificio de ovejas y cabras domesticadas y salvajes, asi como presas de caza mayorymenor,y en menor medida, huevos y aves acudticas. Su vida social puede observarsea traves de los restos de comida. more than any otherhuman activity, food intensively creates the individual as wellas the community through the daily practices of eating.People musteat to live and they do so every day. It is the ultimatehabitus practice, as meals structurethe lives not only of the prepar- ers but also of the consumers, forming the foun- dation of sociality (Bourdieu 1977). For plant, animal, and mineral things to be eaten, they must firstbe culturally constructed, as theformandstruc- ture of the food presentation defines the ingredients as edible (Douglas 1997; Meigs 1988). While humans initially ate theirfood rawand rotted, over the past 100,000 years cooking has come to dom- inatemost cuisines.Even beforethe industrial age of processed food thathas reachedan apogee in the past 60 years, people have been processing foods in many ways, usually to make it more edible, to increaseits "shelf-life"in additionto increasing the variety of flavorsandtextures.Such strategiesvary by region and cultural setting, urbanversus farm- stead, hot versus cool climates, and so on. Thus, perhaps morethan any other daily practice studied by archaeologists,foodways are the most corpo- Sonya Atalay Culturaland Social Anthropology,Bldg. 1 10, Main Quad, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford University,Stanford, CA 94305-2145 ([email protected]) Christine A. Hastorf Department of Anthropology and the Archaeological Research Facility, University of California- Berkeley,Berkeley, CA 94720-1076 ([email protected]) American Antiquity,71(2), 2006, pp. 283-319 Copyright 2006 by the Society for American Archaeology 283 284AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 real,evocative, quotidian, andfundamental.In the study of any cuisine, the conventionsof edibility, sequence,timing, andlocationof practice illustrate how rulesbecome embeddedinto the body andthe group,throughyears and generations of daily rou- tine. By taking a close look at the range of artifac- tual foodremains and their distributions, we propose that we can get much closer to the daily life of the residentsof atalhoyuk, a goal of the atalhoyuk Research Project. Food's cultural categories often include raw, cooked, and rotted ingredients. The complexities ofthese processes are ramifiedin all aspects of human society, channeled by types of mobility,procurement, tending, access to resourcesandto land as well as familyhistory. Thereis a cultural importance of food through its participation in the cre- ation of the largersociety through the layering of these daily practices.Eating creates strong evocative experiences,formingdeep memoriesof tastes and smells that can be held communally. Such memories bringpeople backinto their lives, as was so famously recorded by Proust (1934; Sutton 2001), triggeredby routinized, identity-forming actions. Writing about the creationof the French identity, Barthes links the evocative qualities of foodstuffsto groupidentity and social group, built throughdaily practice, as food brings the memory of the soil and the Frenchrural past to contemporary urbanlife (1979). Thus, the historiesof people's experiences andthe associatedmemoriescan be read through the historiesof food use. Recipes handed down from grandmothers,mothers, and auntsevoke and maintainthe memory of the family, an identity-making and evoking experience whateverthe feelings of association.Commensal actsthereforeweave individuals,families, andcom- munities together on a regularbasis, in mentalcon- structsas well as through the pragmatics of keeping "food on the table."Food thereforeis the original social glue thatformsthebondsof family andsoci- ety while creating theindividual. Through the study of foods, meals, and preparations, we can get closer to not only daily life but the mentaliteof the past. Food is dually corporeal in that it participates in the creationof the physicalperson as well as the social person(Barthes1979; Farband Armelagos 1980; Massara 1997). In most settings, organic things mustbe transformedintoediblefood through preparation and presentation,aiding a mentalshift inwhat can enter the mouth (Falk 1994; Levi Strauss 1969; Meigs 1988; Rozin etal. 1997). Acceptableconsumption and edibility rules drive collection and production, as what is perceived to be edible will channeleffortsto bring foods home to the family (Sahlins 1976; Weismantel 1988). In the end, the body holds the resultsof these social interactions, of the many meals and their preparations, not only giving sustenanceand growth, but also altering the memory of a relational identity of both the food and the people. This occurs through the actions required to produce meals, which are markedin bone and ligament, in the bodily growth and length of life, as well as in the creationof the individualsense of self. Thus, the study of food is the study of nutrition,behavior,human-landscape interaction, a system of signs as well as the study ofsocialization into a community. It allows us entranceinto the daily worldof the people we wish to study. Food socialization begins when children are born, as family members are woven together throughdaily mealtime reunions (Meigs1988). The old proverb, 'The path to a man's heart is through his stomach," reflectshow food is the most "embodied"of materialculture.Food is not only a physical fact with caloriesand nutrients, butalso a social fact linkingproduction to politics,patterned by storage andmeal preparation,played outin daily meals and special community feasts (Appadurai 1981). In this paper, we apply these tenets by suggesting that through a detailed study of the foodways and cuisine of a long-livedcommunity, one canlearnmuchaboutthe daily sociallife and tempo in this long-pastsetting, in additionto some insights into the identity and changes thatoccurred through time to the individual, family life, and society. Archaeologists have begun to studypast lifeways, social identities, local symbolism, and political endeavors through food with engaging success as seen in the recent works by Dietler and Hayden (2001), Wiessnerand Schiefenhovel (1996), Mir- acle andMilner (2002), andParkerPearson (2003), to name a few recentedited volumes. We considerlife at the NeolithicAnatoliansite of atalh6yiikthrough the elementsof food prepa- rationand consumption, and the potential mean- ings associatedwith these basic acts. We present the food activities suggestedby the archaeological material, with a special focus on the range of pos- Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 285 Figure 1. Aerial view of fatalhoyuk's East Mound, taken from the southwest. Copyright atalhdyiik Research Project. sible ingredients anddishesthatwere likely to have been eaten at Qatalhoyiik.Identifying these small but regular nutritiveacts should illuminatesocial life withinthe settlementover time as individuals, houses, andcommunitieswereformedand reformed (Hodder andCessford 2004). This information gets us closer to the lived experience that Bourdieu (1977)sought whenhe suggestedstudying people's lives by uncovering hintsof theirhabitus. The Site and the Project âtalhoyuk isa 9,000-year-old Neolithicsite locatedin the middle of the Konya Plain in south central Anatolia, 260 km south of Turkey's mod- ern capitalcity, Ankara, and40 km southeastof the historic city of Konya. After its initial settlement around7200 B.C. (Cessford 2006), the site was occupied for nearly 1,000 years, growing to13 hectares.It is comprised of two mounds:the East mound, occupiedduring the Early Neolithic period, and the West mound, occupied during the Late Neolithicand Early Chalcolithictimes. This study focuses on the earlierEast mound, which covers an areaof 450 by 275 metersseen in Figures 1 and 2. Excavationshavetaken place in five areasin and aroundthe East mound, including South, North, Bach, KOPALand Summit (includingTP) areas; however, the data and conclusions presented here rely on materialsrecoveredfrom only threeof these areas (South,North, and KOPAL). Thesethreesec- tors have receivedthe bulk of the recentresearch. Initialexcavations during the 1960s on the East moundby James Mellaart(1962,1963, 1964, 1966, 1 967) andrenewedexcavations by an international researchteam under the directionof Ian Hodder (Hodder 1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2004, 2005a,b,c, 2006) have revealed many mudbrick buildingsabutting each other, each with redundant interiorfeatures including ovens,hearths, and platforms, as well as complex art,moldings, andarchi- tectural features, which is why many attributethe house-likearchitectureto expressions of an active system of ritualbeliefs. The recentdetailedexca- vationsrevealthatthe plastered floorsin the buildings had been cleared ofmost artifacts before systematic andritualizedclosureandabandonment (Matthews et al. 1997). A limitedamountof material culturedid remainin situ in primary and sec- ondary contexts, including bothworkedand ground stone, floralandfaunal remains, potteryfragments, anda numberof other produced andcrafted pieces such as beads, worked bone, clay balls, and figurines (Hodder and Cessford 2004). In addition, similar material culture remains were found in nearby middens as wellas in the between construction material, which had been used to fill the space before a new room was built over the old. 286AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Figure 2. Contour map of atalhoyuk's East Mound. Copyright (Jatalhoyiik Research Project. Over 1,000 years, this sequence of living and rebuilding formed the tell. From these artifacts, their distributions, andthe scholarswho have studied these data, wehave winnowed information aboutNeolithic foodways at Qatalhoyiik. Five excavationfield seasons have openedup a seriesof buildings, fielddirected byRoger Matthewsand ShahinaFarid.All excavatedsedi- mentwas sievedon site from every excavationunit. The environmentaldata was analyzed from systematically collectedsediment samples. Each newly identified unit was sampled for organic remains by the collectionof soil, averaging 30 liters (between 1 and 60 liters), to maintain plant and lithic densities required for a representative sample. Datawere collectedfromeithera threedimen- sional point-plotted sediment sample(bulk) orfrom average(scatter)samples takenfrom midden and other mixed areas (Popper and Hastorf 1988). Thesesoil samples werethen systematically cleanedin mechanizedwaterflotation systems by a team ofarchaeobotanists (Hastorf 2005a). To complete this task, the project builttwo water-pump flotationmachinesthat processed over 3,000 samples (French 197 1 ; Pearsall 2000:49; Watson1 976; Williams 1973). Artifactclasses in additionto the botanicals,shell, beads,bone, andlithics were cat- alogued and weighed for analysis and curation. Threehundredand fifty five units were chosen for detailedand intensive analysisby the project. This discussioncomes from detailed species iden- tificationsand taphonomicanalysis for these chosen excavationunits (Hodder2005a). The plans for buildings fromwhichthesematerialscome areseen in Figure 3, includingBuildings 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24. This selected study universe provides a temporal and spatial cov- erage of the east mound, including detailed contexts within building divisions called spaces and specific contexts like storage bins,ovens, and hearths.This type ofcontextualidentificationis illustratedin Figure 4 of Building 1. Regional Landscape and Local Paleoclimatic Conditions The current understanding of the Neolithic atal- hoyiiklandscape is of a marsharea stretching across Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 287 Figure 3.PlanofSouth Arealevels VIII,IX, andIX (Buildings 2,4,6,7,9,16,17,18, 21,22, and 23).Copyright (âtalhoyiik Research Project. 288AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Figure 4.PlanofNorth Area Building1,illustrating internal features and spaces.Copyright atalhoyuk Research Project. the Konya Plain, as the large lake thathad filledthe basinin the Pleistoceneretreatedinto patchy lakes andmarshes (Figure5). Thisold lakebedthen began siltingupby theintermittentriversthatenteredfrom thesouthernTaurusmountains.Theseriverscreated alluvial berms, which providedperiodicpatches of higherground(Asouti 2005; Robertset al. 2006). One of these higherdry stretchesholds the settlement,sittingalong the permanentarsamba River, surrounded by marshy wetlands.These wetlands Figure 5. Environmental Reconstruction of atalhoyuk during a spring flood. Illustrated by John G. Swogger. Copyright gatalhoyiik Research Project. Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 289 and marshy areasextendedfarout to the northand as much as 13 km southeastward, where a higher rise provided continuous dry landfordifferent styles of farming and grazing(Asouti and Hather 2001; Robertset al. 1999; 2006). Althoughsmall, local gardens for fresh greens, cereals, and pulses could have grown at the edge of the settlement, and the risesthatemanatedoutfromthe marshy areaswould have providedpatchydryfarming for the cerealsas well as clustersof trees.Further afield, the moun- tainsand uplands were more thickly forestedwith deciduous trees, predominantlyoak, but also fruit and nut trees including pistachio, almond, wild apple, and pear(Asouti2005; Fairbairnet al. 2005). Melting snow fromthe surrounding mountainsfed into the lowlandareain the arsamba River, creating frequentspringfloodingduring the occupation of the site (Roberts et al. 2006). The landscape of atalhoyuk was not static.It underwent both long-term and smaller-scale changes, before and during human occupation. Wateras well as sedimentwere important in daily life. The changing seasonsand passingyears would have brought transitionto those living at atalhoyiik, most likely through increasedsedimenta- tion. Throughout a single year, seasonal changes transformedthe local hydrologicsetting, withrains and flooding,possibly quite severe, in the spring, a dry almostrainless summer, and ending withcold wet wintersand severalinches of snow accumula- tion (Roberts et al. 2006). Food Items in their Seasonal Cycle Overall, the diet of atalhoyuk residents was healthy; the most ubiquitous ailmentwas anemia (Molleson et al. 2005). People were omnivorous, gainingprotein and carbohydrates from both animals and plants(Richards andPearson 2005). The availablefoodstuffs changedconsiderablythrough- out the year, freshfood especiallycycling with the seasons. With autumn-planted domestic crops maturing in the spring,harvestingcycled with the springequinox floods and the startof the warmer, out-of-doorstime of year. Wall plastering evidence shows that sooting ofthe interiorwalls stopped periodically,suggesting that there was a move to prepare food andeat out of doorswhenthe weather warmed (Matthews 2005).Carbohydrates were gatheredseasonally, with fresh tubersand greens in the spring, grains in early summer, and sweet fruit into the autumn.Animals were slaughtered throughout the year. During the cold, snowywinter, people ate stored grains, legumes, dried fruit, nuts, wine or syrup sweetener, driedherbaceous plants, andbothdried and fresh meat. Therewas little fresh food except meat providedby sheep, fish, the winterbirdsand their eggs, including the greatbustard,coots, some geese, andducks.Thesebirdsandfishmake up only a small part of the overallfaunal assemblage, however, and appear to have played a limited role in the daily diet (Russell andMcGowan 2005; Sidell and Scudder 2005). Storage and use of fruitsand nutsis suggestedby seed clusters especially found in the earlier deposits (space181). Grains and pulses are ubiquitousthroughout the deposits, but surely were eatenmore intensivelyduring the winter monthswhen other ingredients were less available. Spring broughtmany wild fresh items, leafy greens (like Chenopodium and LabiataeJ, fresh club-rushtubersfrom the marshes {Scirpus maritimus [Hillman1989:209] alsocalledBol- boschoenus maritimusin Fairbairnet al. 2005), netted fish from the riverand marshes (including carp Cyprinidae and loaches Cobitidae, Russell 2005), as well as permanent,migrating and summer resident water birds (ducks, grebes, cor- morants, and coots; Russell andMcGowan 2005). By May and June, the winter cereals and pulses would be ready for harvesting and the fish were spawning, providing maximal yields. The most commonly harvestedwheat was emmer (T. dicoc- cum) among the three types of wheat thatare present; second isTriticumaestivum/durum types (nakedwheat). Therewas also a new glume wheat, einkorn {Triticummonococcum), as well as thewild progenitor ofeinkorn wheat, a crop follower {Triticumboeoticum)(Martinoli in Fairbairnet al. 2005). Wheat ranges in presence between25 to 84 percent. Both wild anddomestic barley{Hordeum distichum/spontaneum-types) were less common than wheat, with Hordeum vulgare var. nudum types produced and consumedmore in the earlier levels of the settlement. Barley was less common over time, suggesting that wheat became the pre- ferredcereal (after level VIII, Figure 3.8 in Fair- bairn et al. 2005). Small amountsof rye {Secale cereale) were identified by Martinoli,but, with 290AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 only 7 percentubiquity, this grain was notcommon. Legumes thatcould have sharedthe winter planting cycle with the wheat were lentils {Lens culi- naris) and peas (Pisumsativum). The wildedibleseedtaxa shepherds purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) and Erysimumsisym- brioides (also called Sysimbriumtype in Fairbairn et al. 2005) were foundin clustersin Level VI and in one storage bin (Helbaek 1964:122). Fairbairn et al. (2005) report that about 62 percent of the herbaceousannualsmaturedwhen the crops did in May/June,making it easy for themto enterthe set- tlementwith the harvest, if not as freshediblesear- lier in the spring. Few wild seed taxa ended up in the storagebins, however.Thisdistribution suggests thattheir consumption was more likely to be as first harvest food, beforethe processing for storage was undertaken, if they were eaten at all. Summer foodscontinued toinclude marsh plants with freshherbaceous plants, fish, andclub- rushnutlets.These edible nutletsare present more regularly acrossthe settlementthan any otheredi- ble plant, with 100 percentubiquity. These nutlets were likely harvestedfor food, although thereis no solid evidence that they enteredthe site expressly for food, andno clusteredstoresof these seedshave been uncovered. They could have been eaten raw when young and fresh in the spring or processed via pounding and grinding for later consumption. Their stalks were commonly used for mats and coiled baskets (Fairbairn et al. 2005; Rosen 2005; Wendrich 2005). The wild protein-richpistachio nutlets (Pistacia cf teribinthus, also called lentisk) andacorn (Quercusspp.) nutsfromthe drierlands andhillsideswere ripeby the end of July(personal observation; Asouti 2005; AsoutiandHather2001 ; Helbaek 1964:122-123), making them available for collection in late summer.A range of summer- maturing annual seeded plants could have been harvestedandeatenfirstas leafygreens in the spring months, which were also eaten by the domestic animals throughout the summer.Across the landscape, bees could have been visited or tendedfor theirwax and honey,especiallyduring the summer months. Many animals spent the summeracrossthe plain or in the hills. The large animalsthatwere hunted includeaurochs (Bosprimigenius), red deer (Cervuselaphus), and the equids (European wild ass [Equus hydruntinus],onager [E. hemionus], and wild horse [E. caballus] [Russell and Martin 2005]). How nearthe settlementthese were killed is difficultto discern, but Russell and Martin suggest that these largergame would have probably been killed fairly close to the settlementsince all bodyparts are represented in themiddens.Wildcat- tle, especially bulls, were differentially consumed at feasts. These feasting remainsare less heavily processed thanthe bone from daily meals, which is mostly from domestic sheep and goats (Russell and Martin 2005:39, 51-56). This differentuse is seen most clearly in the auroch bones, which were regularlyincorporated into the architecturalfea- tures of buildings,suggesting an active, transfor- mative interrelationship with these larger animals. Hodderthinksthatthese animalshad a connection with the ancestors, whose bones are also buriedin these rooms (Hodder andCessford 2004). Thereis a seriesof medium-sizedcarnivoresthatwerecon- sumed occasionally throughout the occupation. These include fox (Vulpes vulpes) and badger (Meles meles) (Russell and Martin 2005). These carnivoreswouldhavebeen trapped andbutchered nearthe site andthen transported onsitefor further processing and consumption. The smallerandless- common herbivores, suchas thehare (Lepuscapen- sis), were most likely snared and caught in the nearby fields and dry ridges. These animalscould havebeen capturedthroughout the year so it is dif- ficult to place them in a specific season. The dominantmeat sourcewas sheep, however (Russell and Martin 2005). These animals were domesticated, penned, and herded throughout the occupation ofthe settlement, as recordedin the animalbones (Russell and Martin 2005) and penning evidence at the edge of the early settlement (Matthews2005). Ritual and special meals seem to stress the wild taxa, aurochs, and equids;daily meals relied on the domesticates, further supporting Hodder's hypothesis thatboth plant andanimal domesticates, while being eaten regularly, werenot the highly chargedbeings in the residents, imagi- nation.In the earlier phasesespecially,feasting evi- denceincludedthe largest animals possible, focusing on male aurochsand equids(Russell and Martin 2005). This trend has been identified by RussellandMartinin primary contextsthatinclude concentrationsof dense bone thatcome from only a small numberof animals, which received less processing than is typical at the site. The animal Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 291 bone reflects differentfood practices for the dif- ferenttaxa. Asautumn arrived, more wildfruit became available, continuallydrawingpeople off the set- tlementout into the hills and mountains.This was especially trueaboutthe hackberry fruits (Celtis L. cf tournefortii) and the wild almond (Amygdalus type), with 67 percentpresence across the settlement. These two fruits were surely collected for storage and year-roundconsumption. The less- commonfruitsarethewild plum(PrunusL), whose shrubbytypes grow widely, fig (Ficus sp.), sumac (Rhuscoriaria), berries (e.g. Rubus sp.), and perhaps wild apple (Malm sp.), found in one burial (Mellaart1963). The applepips have not been ver- ified, however, so it is betterto concludethatfruit was storedin the bowls and boxes of one burial, but not to specify the species. Some pulses were also gatheredduring the August fruit harvest, the chick peas(Cicer cf. Arietinum), peas, Pisum elatius (an edible crop weed), Vicia ervilia and Lathryus sativus/cicera, the last probably collected wild. This was the time to harvesttubers (Scirpus maritimus) for immediate consumption (Woll- stonecroft, personal communication 2002). Wild boar (Sus scrofa), like the juniper wood for house construction, nutsand hackberries, were brought back from the mountain forests, further supporting that some from the community ven- turedto the mountains periodically(Asouti 2005; Richardsand Pearson 2005; Russell and Martin 2005). The only consumeddeer species seems to be the red deer (Cervus elaphus), with all body partsrepresented in the KOPALarea.This part of the settlement, just at the edge of the buildings, is thought to representearly deposits in the overall occupationsequence of the site (Figure 1). Russell and Martinnote that later (after level Pre-XIIB)only antlerand hides got into the site's deposits, suggesting that if these forest-dwelling deerwere hunted, thenthe meatwas butcheredand probably eatenoff site, as the hunters only brought the hides and antlers home, or that these antlers were curatedfrom an abandoned practice. Deer evidence supports the suggestion that there were autumnal forays to the mountainsin searchof the cool weatherand a range of wild food. Now thatwe have describedthe range of foods available throughout the seasons, weturn more specifically to buildings and spaces at the site and the daily acts of food practices that are evidenced by the materialsfound within these buildings. atalhoyiik'sBuildings and Spaces The structuralform remains remarkablysimilar, with rebuildingoccurring on top of previous rooms throughoutatalhoyiik'soccupationhistory.Fig- ure 3 illustratesa numberof levels and theirexca- vated buildings (with spaces) excavated in the SouthArea (examples of the NorthArea buildings arein HodderandCessford2004: Figure3), while Figure 6 illustrates Building 1 fromthe North Area, displaying the common floor plan of atalh6yiik buildings. Also illustratedin this figure is how the people of (Jatalhoyii k dividedtheir buildings inter- nally into distinct spaces using wall construction and platforms.During excavation, buildings and spaces were given discrete numbers, using a site- wide consecutive numberingsystem, starting with Building 1 and Space 1. The numbering of the levels or phases follows Mellaart's originalsequence, decreasingthrough time (XII is the earliestandVI is the latest building excavatedin this project). Full descriptions of the architecturaland internalfea- tures and complete excavation history ofthese buildings, are published in great detail elsewhere (see Hodder 2005a, b, c). Household Food Practices at Qatalhoyiik From the features and materialculture found in atalhoyuk'sbuildings, it is clear that a range of domesticactivitiestook place withinthem including food preparation and cooking, as well as tool production(Carter et al. 2005; Underbjerg1998), woodworking (Matthews 2005), and sleeping (Matthews1999; Rosen 2005). People"performed" these activitieswithinthe buildingsduring the cold winter months, and also on the roofs (Matthews 1999; Stevanovic andTringham1998), most likely during warmersummerand autumnmonths.The spaces and pathways are placed such thata person sitting at the oven can see most of what is going on, further suggesting that the central platforms nearthe oven was the focus of daily activities (Has- torf 2005b). The settlementis consideredremarkabledue to its early, continuous, and dense occupation,suggesting householdcohesionovermorethana thou- 292AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Figure 6. Bin and Ceiling Storage. Illustrated by Kathryn Killackey. Copyright gatalhoyiik Research Project. sand years. Such sociality couldhavebeennurtured in a numberof ways. Many anthropologists(and mothers) have found that it is the meal that most repeatedly brings people together, allowing for social renewaland sharing as well as a venue for small-scalefamilial politics to be played out (Curtin 1992; Kahn 1986; Meigs 1984; Weismantel 1988). fatalhoyiik therefore provides a range of material with which to envision daily food use and its role as social glue. Cessfordcalculatedthe population Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 293 size to range between 3,500 and 8,000 people, with a minimum estimate somewhere around 1,500- 2,700. Each household, thought to be associated with a building, had between 6 and 8 people associatedwith it (Cessford2005). Even the lower cal- culationof 2,000 permanent residentswill allow for a fairly intensiveuse of the local area as well as regular encounters and knowledge ofone's neighbors'daily lives. When looking at the atalhoyiik food evidence, we gain an overall sense of community and family maintenance, with gener- ally good nutrition gained froma broadinteraction with the landscape. Both wild anddomestic plants andanimalswere consumed throughout the settlement'sexistence. Geographically and artifactually, thesettlement suggests the importance of lacustrine gathering and hunting, while the floraland faunal evidence shows regular agriculturalproduction, along with a steady use of the mountains. Withthe domestic cereals, pulses, and animals, tending and control was part ofthe inhabitants' lives.These productive activitieswouldhave occurredoff of the settlementcore.Theirworldwas an island within rich marshand riparian life, dot- ted with copses, dry fields, and forage areas, rather than the expansiveannuallycropped fields or the vast grazing lands we see today.People therefore were often away fromthe buildings,eating off the land and bringing back foods to the household storerooms.Food processing was completed on andoff the settlement, with muchconcernoverthe preparation offood for storage. While there is strongseasonality in the fresh food gleaned from the environment, storedfood equilibrated some of this seasonality. The data suggest that the styles of cooking changedthrough time but the ingredients did not, illustrating a shiftin meal forms, and perhaps meal styles. The earlierhome cooking style, notedin the southernarea excavationsof the settlement (Fig- ure 3), seems to have been primarilyboiling by placing oven-heated clay balls in basketsor skins and grilling or roastingdirectly in the oven. Later, afterlevel VII, illustratedin NorthArea Buildings 1 and5 (Figure4), therewas theadditionof ceramic cooking vessels, concomitantly with fewer clay balls.Thisreflectsmore boiling of meatsand plants by directfire cookingusingpottery and perhaps less emphasis on toasting and drying. While some of the activitiesassociatedwith food preparation are more visible than others, we have foundthatthere is quite a completepicture of "foodway s" atthe settlement, which we now turnto. The Food Activities The majority of the food consumed by theresidents could have been produced, hunted, or gathered locally, although some food could have been peri- odicallybrought intothe settlement by traders along the known trade networks. There was a steady amountof nonlocal plant and animalfoods enter- ing the settlement, ifone accepts that foodstuffs beyond 20 km areexotic.This is surely the case for salt. Arlene Rosen (2005) identified palm frond basketsin Building 1 thatcouldhavearrived empty but are more likely to have been full of an exotic treat. Some ofthe rarermeats also might have arrivedas gifts or tradeitems. Unlikethe inorganic materials suchas obsidian, white marble, or seashells, foodstuffs are less easy to source. It is also possible that long-distance foodstuffs were brought in by the residents returning from wan- derings,suggestedby the variability evidencedin the life-long diets ofsome residents when com- pared to the group, as illustratedin the stable iso- tope results (Richards and Pearson 2005). Withcareful study we can see thetracesof many commensalactivitiesat atalhoyuk. To examineas many food practices as possible, we found it most useful to divide these activities into five primary categories:production and procurement,processing, cooking,presentation, and eating. These daily activities varied, depending on the season as well as on who was completing thetasks required to feed the people at home; activities were not the same for everyone. We think that these food activities took place at the household scale, with children learning individual procedures and distinctive recipes and procedures from parents and relations throughout the annual cycle. Production and Procurement Farming and herding are evident from the start. While it is still being debated among the project members, the most likely place for the dry farming of the cereals and pulses was along the higher banksof the arsamba Riverin additionto the allu- vium hillock-coveredsand dunes scatteredacross 294AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Table 1. Productionand Procurement-RelatedActivities. Indirectand Ethnographic Activities Description DataSite Data Seasonality Plant gath-Hackberries,acorns, almonds, General plant taxa listTubers - end of Fall-early ering and other nuts and Scirpus with fruit pieces and nut spring. Nuts in late tubers.shell in certain locations spring-early summer.Fruitsin late summer-early fall. Tending Wild trees, herbaceouswildGeneral plant taxa list Spring-early summer, autumn. plantsplant stands, Scirpus tuber clusters in the marshes. Planted crops, both local gardens and further away Planting Local gardens and crops fur- Dry farmingphytoliths Both winter and springplant- ther away (up to 12 km)ing. Harvesting Plants from gardens and crops General plant taxa list.Both spring and autumnhar- and trans- vesting portion HuntingLarge mammalsMurals ofLithics and animal bones Spring or summerbefore fall huntingslaughter(?) Fishing Fresh water fish fromUnits with high fishLate winter-early spring and CarsambaRiverbone. Bone fishing when available hooks. Animal Eggs from wild birds andHatched eggshell inLate winter-early spring gatheringgeese. Honey from wild bees. space 105 and 1 15 TendingLocally kept sheep and goat,Penning unitsYearround animals possibly Bos and bees. Trapping Birds and small mammals the plain (Table 1). These raised "islands"would have provided patches of dry, arable land for autumn sowing. Spring sowing, restrictedto the legumes, was also possible on the renewed, retreat- ing riverbanks directly adjacent to the site (Fair- bairnet al. 2005; Rosen 2005). Suitableareasacross the plain and in the hills and mountainsto the east also existed, based on the geography ofthese hillocks, andevidenceof herding as well as thewild plant andanimal species thatwere steadilybrought to the settlement (Roberts et al. 1999, 2006). Such patchy use of the seasonallychanging environment does not alterthe evidencethat suggests a remark- able stability in food procurement over the cen- turies. Crop production isevident by the rachis and glume chaff found ubiquitously throughout the excavatedunits (between 43 and 100 percentpresence, Fairbairnet al. 2005). Since few culm nodes are present in the living quarters and surprisingly few blades with sickle gloss have been uncovered (Carter et al. 2005; Fairbairnet al. 2005), removing the grain heads was probablycompleted by beating as well as cutting the stalks. While Mel- laart found very fewsickles on site (1964:105), Carternotes that they do occur but with variable distribution (Carter et al. 2005). Carteret al.'s analysis shows that lower, pre-XIII levels (at the edge of the early community) do indeed have many sickles, while they are rare or completely lacking in otherareasof the site.This suggests a specific form of curationof sickles in the laterlevels. Burnt dung fuel reflectswinteranimal foddering as seen in the mudbrickevidence that is ubiquitousthroughout the settlement (Matthews2005). More symboli- cally, Mellaartnotesthatminiature greenstone axes Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 295 and celts are found in female burials and storerooms (Hamilton1996:248; Mellaart 1964:94). We mightpropose these as being symbolic reflections of farming tools with an associateddesirefor success in these activities, illustrated by the cached grinding stones found in one storage bin and oth- ersfoundin severalstorerooms (Bay sal and Wright 2005). Animalswere penned andfodderedat the edge ofthe settlement, most likely during the winter months.This is suggested in the early dung layers uncoveredat the site, where there is evidence of trampleddung (Fairbairn et al. 2005; Matthews 2005). In one unittherewerebotanicalremainsthat were dominated by chaff and strawas from dung, suggesting the stored winnowing remainsfromthe cerealharvestwere fed to the penned animalsdur- ing the wintermonths.Another sample contained many late summer maturing seeds, suggesting a summer grazingcomplex. Rosenfoundwild leaves and grassphytoliths in some of the burnt dung, dis- tinctly showing that some animals grazed oppor- tunistically in the autumn.It is likely thereforethat sheep were penned on and near the settlementat least periodically, but they were also herdedout on the plain as well. While the site was clearly made of clay, it also was madeof rushesandreeds (e.g., Arundo donax, Phragmites,Scirpus), as well as fish, birds,tubers, and eggs, reflecting the regular use of the nearby riverand the vast marshes extending out from the settlement (Matthews2005; Rosen 2005; Wendrich 2005). The regular marsh evidenceidentified throughout the sequenceprovides a glimpse of how important these wetlandswere both culturally and nutritionally.Every household could have had a punt-like wooden boat, poles, and nets to gather seeds, tubers, and reeds, as well as to hunt birds and fish in the marsh.As Russell and McGowan (2005) surmise, the year-round extractionof water birds clearly illustrates regular marshuse. Marsh plantnurturing,harvesting, and the resultingveg- etative proliferation haveoccurredaroundtheworld for millennia (Hillman 1989:226). This isillus- trated by the Ojibwepeople of north-centralNorth America, who spreadproductive wild rice to every lakeshoreacrossthousandsof miles. There people beat the grain into the up-curved boats and then poled home to process and store the grain (Reg- guinti 1992). This technologyrequiresonly a boat and a pole. While we might not think that living next to marshesis ideal for a farminggroup, their settlement location suggests that these residents saw themselvesas lacustrine gatherers as much as if not morethanas agriculturalists. Theirfoodstuffs also suggest a healthy amountof wild marshfoods in theirdiet. The wild nuts,fruits, and pig remainsfound on the site would have been collected mainly in the late summerand autumnat the edge of the Konya plain as well as up into the hills and mountainsto the southandwest.Woven rush,reed, and grass baskets could have been carriedthereandfilled up for the trip home.These trips wouldhave required several days if not severalweeks and might have been when most of the family went together to ancestral collecting grounds for the cooler temperatures as well. These uplandnuts, berries, and wild meats would then have provided a mountaincuisine on these outings, with grilling and raw foodcon- sumption. The gathering parties wouldhave returnedhome with what could be carriedin bas- ketsoronrafts floatingdownstream, tobe processed and stored through the winter. The most prevalent of these upland foodstuffs is the hackberry, which has excellent preservation and92 percentpresence in all of the analyzed samples (355 flotation samples). Aseries of specific unitshaveclustersof Celtis (hackberry) stonesthat can be interpreted as specific human deposition (Fairbairn et al. 2005). While these mineralized pericarps are clearly not directly comparable to charred remains, they remindus thatthe othernon- mineralized plants are underrepresentedthrough- out the settlement deposits. We can safely say from this evidence that hackberrieswere a regular if small part ofthe diet. Almonds were also quite ubiquitousthroughout the settlement.This wild food component, in additionto the marshandfield foods, is suggested in the humanbone stable iso- topic data, the plant and animal evidence, as well astheteethevidence (Molleson etal. 2005; Richardsand Pearson 2005). Processing for Storage Processingpractices at (Jatalhoyuk varied by season, with the majority ofthe work completed between spring and autumn (Table2). In cold and snowy winter months, freshanimalsandevenfewer 296AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Table 2. Processing for Storage Activities and Data. Indirectand Ethnographic Activities Description DataSite Data Seasonality Drying Thin meat, fruit and vegetable Local ethno- Filleting cut marks on Summer-fall, before rains and slices laid on roof or use of graphic discus-boneafter spring flooding, wooden drying rack sions, personal observation Butchering Use obsidian tools for cutting Faunalbone evidenceLate fall, after kill-off or as to divide animal portions andshows processing and hunted/trapped on small-scale, to removing meat from bone consumption butchering cuts Smoking Similar to drying but doneFall, after kill off of sheep/goat above a smoky fireor after large hunt, as they occur. Similar timing to drying. Salting Meat placed in skins or pits Local ethno-Saltsfoundin foodSummer-fall (dependent on and covered with salt for sev- graphic discus- preparation and cooking tradeof salt and its availability) eral weekssionsareas (Bldg. 17, Sp.170) ParchingClay balls/objects heated inLocal ethno- Large amountsofLate spring-summer harvest, and toast- fire, seeds, grains, pulsesgraphic observa-charred grain in binsbefore storage, with further ing thrownonto woven trays that tion, comparison and oven rake-out toasting as needed for con- sit over the clay balls.with hearthsat may indicate parching,sumption Asiklihoyuk See Mathews 2004, unit 5299. Pickling Fresh fruits and vegetables Local ethno- Spring-fall, when fruits and added to salt, water, fruit juicegraphic discus- vegetables are fresh & chick peas - allowed to fer- sion, personal ment in the sun, then placed inobservation skins plants were scarce. We can envision household members workingdiligently in warmermonthsto process not only food for daily consumption, but also enough excess meatand plantproducts to store through at least threeto four lean wintermonths. There were a number of processing techniques practiced at atalhoyuk, and, although archaeological evidencefor some of these activitiesis difficultto identify, we feel a discussionof the possible practices is important to present a more complete picture of the foodways. We know thatfood hadto be processed andstoredfor winter consumption in some manner; whatremainsunsubstantiatedis the exactnatureandextentof the processing activities. Butchering A certainamountof processing is required before meat can be consumed from animal resources, especially cattle, sheep/goat, fowl, or fish.Butcher- ing is an importantstep in preparing meatfor both immediate consumption and cooking, as well as for storage. Russell and Martin's (2005) recent butchery report includesadiscussionofthe butcheringpractices identifiedat (Jatalhoyuk. We highlight here the key points thatrelateto our discussion of processing meat for storage. The range and type of cut markson the faunalremainsillus- trate thatvariousformsofmeat processing occurredin preparing the animalresourcesfor storage. Further, these marks indicate that the residents were expert butchers.Most cut markswere the resultof cuttingduringconsumption. The min- imal evidence of roasting or otherforms of cooking on the faunalremainsindicatesthatmeat was most often filleted off the bones before heating, presumably forimmediate cooking and consumption as well as for drying, smoking, or salting in preparation for storage. The greatest amountof sheepbutchering would have probably taken place in the late autumn, as Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 297 part ofherd management. Some meat from this autumnalcull would have been cooked and consumed immediately, but most would have been processed and storedfor use throughout the win- terand earlyspring.Butchering of smalleranimals such as hare, goose, and other small mammals could have taken place withinthe buildings; however, the size of the rooms and rooftopsrequired thataurochs/cattleandother large animals undergo preliminarybutchering in open areasoutsideof the buildings, or in off-site areasbefore being brought into the buildings. Furthermore, the underrepre- sentationof certain bodyparts, suchas ribsandver- tebrae, indicatesthat butchering was done outside as pieces were selectivelybrought indoorsfor further preparation,cooking, and consumption. The faunalbones also illustratethatall parts of the ani- malwere brought ontothe site, indicating thatwhile there might have been preferentialbutchering for certainanimal parts, all parts of the animalswere utilizedin some fashion by the residents. Preliminary Grain Processing In addition to preliminaryprocessing ofanimal products, residents also processed cereal grains, seeds, pulses, nuts, and other plant resourcesfor storage. Plants require a certainamountof cleaning before cooking and consumption, and especially before long-termstorage. The sequence of steps that transformcereals from the field to edible grain storesis well known (e.g., Hillman 1984). These steps include grain threshing,winnowing, sieving, and finally hand cleaning. The first stages of this processing,threshing and winnowing, took place off-siteor at the edges of the settlement (Fair- bairnet al. 2005; Helbaek 1964). All of these oper- ations require a flat surfaceand a certainamount of equipment. At atalhoyuk, this initial processing was most likely completed with baskets and skin sieves using a tossing motion aided by the wind to remove the straw remains, little pebbles, and heavy wild seeds.Initial cropprocessing is evident at the edge of the settlementin the KOPAL area (Fairbairn et al. 2005; Matthews 2005; Rosen 2005). Silicified awns, spines, hairs, and glume beaks, results of winnowing and threshing, were densely distributedin that area (Hastorf,personal observation 1999). This winnowing locale has the same orientationto the site as are the threshing fields of the currentlocal residentsof Kiiciikkoy, takingadvantage of the lively spring winds. In the South Area, excavations along the side of the buildings have high densities of chaff, indicating that crop processing stages took place outside of the buildings and on the roofs. From both the earlier excavationsat atalh6yiik andthecurrent work, the majority of the chaff on site was found to be from the later stages of crop processing(Fairbairn et al. 2005; Helbaek 1964). It seems unlikely that any- thing but the final fine sieving, hand cleaning, and storage of grain took place on theroofsand indoors, due to the low amountof strawand only moderate densitiesof glume fragments foundin the samples. Final grainprocessing occurredon a smallscale insidethe buildingsprior to cooking. This situation isassumed for a bin found in Building 1, in the North Area (Figure 4). Fairbairnetal. (2005) believe this bin to have been for temporarystorage becauseof thewild seedsandsticksfoundin among the domesticseeds. Final graincleaningcompleted in the buildings is also supportedby the evidence left in the in situ fires, which containdense cereal grainassemblages with little strawand chaff. Drying and Smoking At (Jatalhoyiik, both plant and animal resources were likely dried for future consumption. In an effortto extendtheir edibility, the most likely pro- ceduresinvolved drying fruits,berries,leaves, other plant parts and meat fillets on rooftops or open areas during the dry, hot summer days. Wooden drying racks may have facilitatedthis process. These constructionsneed not have been complex, and might have simply been makeshiftwooden sticks or reed stalksbound together to form a temporary drying rack. Meat smoking couldhavetaken place on a small scale any time there was a kill or slaughter. The organization of dividing the meat resources for immediate consumption and storage is unclearfrom the data we have. It may be that when an animal was slaughtered, a certainamountof meatwas consumed that day while the remainderwas dried.In addition, winter stores may have been composed ofmeat from the autumnalkill-offs. Drying or smoking couldnothavetaken placeduring thelater autumn rainy months, butwouldhaveoccurredear- lier in the season when the optimal hot and dry weatherwould have dried meats faster than near the ovens in the snowy, cold winter. 298AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Presently, the inhabitantsof the nearbyvillage of Kuciikkoydry fruit, vegetables, and herbs for futureuse in the early autumn. According to Yasji et al. (2001), ripe fruitsare often sliced or depitted and placed flatto dry on cloths in open areas. Veg- etables such as eggplants and peppers are commonly slicedand strung from interior kitchen rafters (Atalay,personal observation 1999). In winter months these dried fruits and vegetables are addedto boiling waterfor use in stews or are consumed directly. It is quitepossible thata wide range of drying activitiestook place at atalh6yiik throughout the summerand into the autumn. It is difficultto identifydrying activitiesor their associated plant and animalresources archaeologically, although at atalhoyuk we do have a numberof cut markson the faunalremainsthatindicate filleting of meat, which is the best cut for drying (Russell andMartin 2005). While it is not possible to determinefromthesecutmarksif themeat pieces filleted from the bone were thin enough to suc- cessfullyundergodrying treatment,they couldhave been. Similarto drying,smoking is best done with thin slices of meat, but requires a smoke produc- ing fire, overwhichthemeatis placed. This process would also adda rich,smoky flavorto meats.After drying or smoking the plants and meat, the foods would have been storedin skins or basketsin the smallerside rooms, or hung from the ceiling roof beams (Figure6). Salting Anothereffectivemethodof meat preservation that has left some evidenceat atalhdyiik is salting. To preserveby salting, fresh meat pieces would have been placed in skins or pits and covered with salt for severalweeks. Salt preserves the meat, essen- tially by removing moisturefrom it, allowing the meatto be stored through a season, thus extending its uselife. According to Yasji et al. (2001), in recent memory saltwas brought to the local village by salt vendorsfromtheTiiz Golii (SaltLake)region about 100 km to the northeast.We know that obsidian from this same region was brought to atalhoyuk regularly and it is very likely that salt was also obtained along this same tradenetwork (Carter et al. 2005). Because salting activities dependupon the availability of salt, we can assumethatmost salting was done during summer-autumnwhen travelbetween these two regions was most easily undertaken, beforethe rainy or snowy wintermonthsand after the spring rains had slowed. However, if salt was on-hand, salt processing wouldhavebeen possible any time throughout the year. At atalh6yiik, we have a numberofareas where concentratedsalt deposits were foundin food preparation andcook- ing areas (Matthews1996), andin at leastone case, salt deposits were found in oven rake-out (Build- ing 17, space 170 on the northeast platform)along with charred plant remains (Matthews2005). As with smoked/dried meats and plant foodstuffs, saltedmeat would have been storedin a skin, bag, or basket, until needed. Pieces of the salted meat couldbe boiledin waterwith grains or pulses,using storesof wild nuts and seed oils to createa flavor- ful stew or gruel mixture. Pickling Pickling is anothereffective methodof preparing foods for storage. In Kuciikkoytoday,pickling is done seasonallythrough the summerand autumn, as fruits and vegetables are harvested. According to Yah et al. (2001), freshfruitsand vegetables are added to a mixtureof salt, water, fruit juice, and chickpeas. These materialsare allowedto ferment in the sun for several weeks to captureyeast and thenare putaway in a dark place for winteruse. As with the salting methoddescribed above, pickling requires the use of imported salt anda skinor other watertight container.In some cases, storagemay have been for several months, until the pickled foods were consumed.We have no directarchae- ological evidence to support pickling at atal- hoytik; however, given the ease of preparation and the limited resources required(including less salt than the salting procedure described above), it is very possible that pickling occurred.In additionto extending the life of fruitsand vegetables,pickling would have added a unique flavorto these foods, making them important flavorsinthewinter Neolithic cuisine. Parching and Toasting As alreadymentioned, the majority of the seedsand grains foundin storage bins, particularly in Build- ing 1 in the North Area, had alreadyundergone early stages of processing, and would have only requiredhand-sorting before further pre-storage Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 299 processing,cooking, and consumption.Parching or toasting is a method of processing grains, seeds, and nuts to prolong their storage life, to inhibit pests and rodents, and to help remove the glumes fromsomehulled crops(Hillman1984).Ozbaaran (1998) describes a method of parching that she believes may have taken place at Aikhh6yiik, in which grains weretoastedon heatedflatstonesthat lined the base of each hearth.At atalh6yiik hand- fuls of grains, seeds, and pulses would quickly have been parched when placed onto heatedoven roofs or clay balls inside the raised arms of a hearthor oven. Possible evidence of this practice exists in several buildings in theexcavatedSouth Area, most notably in one building where two grinding stone slab fragments were found at the base of an oven, and in another building wheretwo slab fragments were associatedwith bones, wood, and clay balls (Bay sal and Wright2005). There are also several examples of broken clay ball fragmentslining the base ofovens in the South Area (Atalay 2003, 2005) - a set-up thatwould have also allowed for effective parching and toasting of grains. Erkal (2006) notes thata similar toastingprac- tice existsin local villages near atalh6yiik. Erkal's ethnographic observationsdescribe how heated pieces of ak toprak(whiteclay) were addedto barley, which were then stirredinside a shallowmetal tray. This process toastedthe barleygrain, resulting in a barley mixturethatlocalresidentsdescribed as particularly sweet. In additionto added flavor, roasting and toasting are known to increase the storage life of grains and inhibitthe infestationof bugs and other pests, therebyincreasing the "bin- life" of the grains. At atalh6yiik parching and toasting would have taken place aftereach harvest by individual families within their homes, using interiorand/or exteriorovens andhearths.Once winnowed, grain may havebeen set asidefor thisheat-treatment step before the bin or basket storage. Every time the hearthwas fired up, a family wouldhavebeen able to parchportions of their stores. Alternatively, a family could have toastedthe entireharvest plants at one timefor storage.Archaeological evidenceof firetreated grains is abundantat atalh6yiik; however, it isdifficult to determineifthis scorched grain was intentionally heated during parching activitiesor if its deposition was the resultof over zealous cooking activities.In certain early levels of the South Area (space 181) there was a dense accumulationof wild pistachio nutletsandalmond and acorn shell, which may be the result of processing these itemsbefore roasting or drying them. Matthews (2005) has evidencein severallocations for cereal grainparching,particularly in one context of the SouthArea. This suggests thatthe particularly dense cereal grain concentrationscould have entered the rake-outs,floors, fill, middens, and even mudbrickmatrices as a result of pre- storagegraincharring(Hillman 1984). Storage Food storage is architecturally evidentin the buildings at atalhoyiik(Table 3). Bins and/or store- roomshavebeenidentifiedinalmost every excavated building (Cessford 2006; Farid 2006, Mellaart 1963; Figure 3). These storage areasare locatedin little side rooms thathave in situ basket and/or skin evidence and/orbuilt in mud/plaster bins (Figure 6, Building 5 space 157). The micro- analysis of artifactualevidence suggests thatthese little, "dirty"(i.e., organicallyrich) rooms were filled with portablestoragecontainers, most likely baskets, as well as a range of wooden, stone, and bone tools (Hodder andCessford 2004:28). A side room in Building 1 (space 186), for example, had a wooden storage bin containing cleanlentils (Matthews2005). Another centrally locatedbin in that same building containedlentils (in space 71). Ismael Yali of Kiiciikkoy notedthatthereweretwo types of storage containersin his grandmother's house (2001). One containerwas a reed basket, the other was made of clay and wood. This movable clay containerhad a wooden cross base that was clay lined. It was then built up of mud-sediment. This containerwas used specifically for grain, and is most like the plastered bins we recoverat âtal- hoyiik (Figure6). The "binroom"in Building 5, for example, was kept clean (Hodder and Cessford 2004:23). These bins have especially thick clay packing to keep down miceand insect robbery (Jenkins 2005; Matthews 2005). Rosen's phytolithanalysis shows thatwheat phytoliths were foundin frontof one of the larger bins.Onthe floorin frontof another large bin was a high density of barleyphytoliths as well as organic chemical traces (Rosen 2005; Middle- ton et al. 2005). A smallersixthbin containeda mix 300AMERICAN ANTIQUITY[Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Table 3. Storage: Related Activities and Data with Data/UnitNumbers. ActivityDescription Indirectand Ethnographic DataSite Data In roomsMud brick storage bins, clus-Local ethnographic discus- Building 5, space 156, 157 ters of baskets, organic rich sions, personal observation floors In ceilingsOrganicbags hung from rafterLocal ethnographic discus- Building 1 with bags to keep from pestssions, personal observation In skins Liquid kept in sewn-up skinLocal ethnographic discus- Building 1 with greasy surfaces. Sheep feet bagssions, personal observation space 187 also other skin grease evidence On ledges Local ethnographic discus- Building17, spaces 182 and 170. sions, personal observation In bagsstoring in skins from ceiling Local ethnographic discus- Building 1 sheep feet and grease (units or on floor sions, personal observation1314, 1344). Also anotherarea Building 1, spaceace 7 1 , feature215 over lentil bin as if grease bag had leaked. Also Building 17 space 182 furs for storage. In binsMud brick shaped enclosuresLocal ethnographic discus- Building 1, spaceace 71, feature215 against walls with small aper- sions, personal observationLentil bin, Building 5, spaceace 157, phy- tures, plaster linedtoliths associated with Bin 4 unit 858 (Rosin 2004 notes barley near bin suggesting storage). On floorsDense organic plant matterLocal ethnographic discus- Organic rich deposits on floors, Building found on floors sions, personal observation 1, space 186, Building 1, space 71, Building 5, space 155, Building 5, space 157, Building 17, space 182. In basketsWheatLocal ethnographic discus- Building 5 space 156 unit 3253 and space sions, personal observation155 unit 3801. Also B1.3 space71 1349, 1259, B1.3 space 187 unit 1291 (surrounding lentil bin), B1.2C space 71 unit 1423, B 1.4 space 111 unit 1357 1248 On roofsLocal ethnographic discus- sions, personal observation In pottery Fat stored in small ceramicLocal ethnographic discus- Organic residues. One insitu pot in pots sions, personal observation Building 17 spaceace 182, unit 5226, 5231, 5240; from southernend of organic rich room. Level VIB, spaceace 160, units 3343 3344; antechamberto shrine, spaceace 171, Building 6 Mellaartbackfill In pitsSloped floor surface, withLocal ethnographic discus- Building 17, spaceace 170 sions, personal observation of wheatand barley,suggesting that during its uselife it heldbothcereals.Thesedata suggest thatbins held domesticates, at least in Buildings 5and 1 during levelsVI-VIII.While Wendy Matthewsand ArleneRosen believe thatthis room was mat covered and the bins lined, there are micro-tracesof food grinding evidenceon the floor, the only place thatsuch traceswere identifiedin all of the micromorphological samples (Matthews etal. 1994; Matthews 2005). Thisevidenceforwhatwas stored in these well-maintainedbins suggests harvested plant foodstuffs.Mellaartdidencounterone binthat had Capsellabursa-pastoris and Erysimumsisym- brioides, both edible native seeds high in oil con- Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 301 tent (Helbaek 1964:122). These seeds could have been cookedas is, or perhapsprocessed for this oil. We know that domestic lentils, wheat, barley, as well as two nativeoil-rich plants were storedin the bins at atalhoyuk(Helbaek 1964; Rosen 2005). One importantaspect of thebinsis theirstor- age capacity. The bins at atalhoyuk are quite small - about 70 by 80 cm by 1 m high (Cutting 2005). Cessfordhas calculatedthe volumesfor the four large andtwo smallbinsin Building 5 as 2,424, 3,739, 3,758,4,633, 702, and 1,050 cm3 (2006). The capacity of these six bins however only adds up to 16,316 cm3, or (.016m3). When interviewed, the women of Kiiciikkoyagreed that these well-built bins were best for grainstorage because they keep out pests.Hatic,eYas,h and Mavili Tokyagsun thought these bins could not cover the full needs of a family for one year, however. They notedthat the volumeof the Building 5 bins could storeabout 2 monthsof grain(Yah2001). According to Yali and Tokyagsun, thesebinscouldhavestored enough grain for a family to get through the winter, but they arenot largeenough to feed six to eight people for 12 monthsif grain was eaten as a sta- ple. If they did grow enoughgrain for seed as well as a full year'ssupply of food, therehadto be quite a few portableclay andwooden bins, whichwe can- not substantiateat this time. The residentscould have built more and larger bins in each building, but chose not to. While we agree to some extent with Fairbairnet al.'s (2005) interpretation of the diet having hada strong domesticfood component, we do not place the same emphasis on the domestic foods as they do. Rather, we think the yearly diet was more a combinationof wild and domestic crops. Our interpretation is basedon the bin fre- quency and size, tooth evidence, the continued symbolicemphasis on wild food items in the site's imagery, and the geographical locationof the site. In general, the archaeology of (Tatalhoyiiksug- gests a world of gathering and hunting. Its placement, painted imagery, and wildanimal bone sculpting look to the marshesandtheirwild beasts. In parallel, however, domesticationwas also part of the residents'worldview.Some grain and pulse bins contained clay female "goddess"figurines, foundbothin the upper levels at atalh6yiik as well as atHalcilar (Mellaart 1963 :95). Mellaartrecorded thatseven out of the 58 figurinefragments within the buildings were found in bins, storerooms, or among storedfood plants(Hamilton 1996: 2 17-2 1 8). Amulets placed withinthedomesticfood storeswould suggest a link betweentended things, regeneration, female fertility(power), and human reproduction.Bins, ubiquitous in every excavated building, filled with domestic crops, cached food processingtools, andoccasional figurines, all suggest a symbolic link and perhaps transference betweenthe wild andthe domestic, however large or small the cereal portion was in any given meal. The adjoining storage room, Space 156in Building 5 (Cessford2006; Hodderand Cessford 2004:23, figure 3a), containedevidence of finely coiled baskets/platters, skin bags, and perhaps even woven bags for grain, fruit, nuts, and even liquid storage (Helbaek 1963; Rosen 2005; Rus- selland Martin 2005; Wendrich 2005). Arlene Rosen notes thatsome of these basketshavecereal phytolith evidence. These could have been used for winnowing and did not have to store grains. This room also containsalmondsand hackberries, supporting our suggestion that these side rooms would have stored many other plant and animal products (including dung fuel), as wellas tools used for collecting and processingthroughout the year (Figure 6). These storage rooms tend not to have a well-formed floor, made up ofa darker, more organic rich sediment, and often were not plastered(Matthews2005). These floorsalso con- tainbits of objects,suggesting theirlack of upkeep except for curationor storage. Basketswere probably themostcommon portablestorage containers.Wendrichrecords at least two types ofbaskets (2005). Based on the shape ofthe preserved basket bases, wehave learnedthat the basketshave small bases and are tall and thin, not wide and broad.Mellaart reports on a range ofbasket sizes and shapes, not only from the burialsbut also used throughout the site as storage containers (1964:85). Phytolith basket traces are present in many buildings at the settle- mentandin every storage room.These basketsare usually made of local marsh plants and tend to be concentratednear bins, in the side rooms, andnear the ovens (Rosen2005, Wendrich 2005). The most dense and securely linkedto storage arethe above- mentionedbasketremainsin space 156 and those that surroundthe lentil bin in Building 1, further suggesting that the areas were used for food processing and transitional storage. 302AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Ismial YasJU and Mavili Tokyagsunreport that those living in the mountains dig holes to store grain, which arethensealed (Yah2001). This was also a common storage form in manyplaces in the world.Once such a pit was sealed, the outer layer of grain would sprout and by so doing would take up all the oxygen, thus sealing the pit contentsfrom further decomposition. In the contemporaneous Pre-pottery Neolithic B regions to the southeast, storage areas and stone lined bins were placed against house walls, just inside or outside of the house entrances (Wright 2000: 106). Previously, in the Pre-pottery NeolithicA and Nautufian phases, food storage was in pits. One or two stone bins or pits occurredinside houses against the walls, at sites like Gilgal and Iraq ed-Dubb (Colledge 1994; Wright 2000:98). At âtalhoyiik and alsoat Aiklihoyuk, we do not have regular evidence for storagepits insidethe buildings,suggesting thatthis eastern storagestyle did not occurin theAnatolian region. Thereweresome irregularlyshapeddepres- sions in the southern storagespace of Building 1 andone pit in Space 170 of Building 17 where clay balls were stored.This pit might have held food or food-relateditems at some point, but even this is more likely to have been only a clay ball basin (Cessford2006; Farid 2006). Skins may have been used for waterand other liquids. In Buildings 1 (space 187) and 17 (space 182), thereare suggestions of hide containers hang- ing from ceiling beamsor sitting on the floor (Rus- sell and Martin 2005:77). Russell identified sheep feet and greasydeposits nearthe wall in Building 1 , which she suggests could have been a hide liquid containerthatfell with the buildingconflagration. In Building 17 thereis evidencefor a furry leather bag. Suchcontainershavebeen in use for millennia andcouldhavebeenextant throughout thewholeset- tlement sequence in these storage areas.We arenot able to confirmtheir regular existencewith present archaeologicaltechnologies. Inthefuturethese types of storage containerswill most probably be found to be commonat manyarchaeological sites. More solid evidence for grease and fat storage is now registered in the small, early ceramic pots scantily found up through levels VIII (Last 2005). Whittle (1996:351) makesacasethat across Europe, as pottery came into use, it was firstused for storage and presentation, ratherthan cooking. This is true in the atalhoyiik foodways cannon. The firstfiredceramic pots aresmall grease(orpos- sibly salt)storage vessels (Copley et al. 2005). One such pot was found in situ in Building 17, space 182, consideredto be a storage area (Farid2006). Only later, in level VII did largerliquid holding ceramicvessels begin to be produced, as part of a major food preparation shift to direct boiling from indirect boiling. Processing for Consumption Meals were preparedusing freshandstoredfoods. The daily activities of processing and preparing these dishes varied by season, with small-scale, daily variations occurringaccording to the specific meal to be prepared. Abrief overview ofthese activitiesand the evidence for theiroccurrenceat atalhoyuk is listed in Table4. Butchering Butcheringpractices at atalhoyiik are discussed by the faunal team (Russell and Martin 2005) as well as previously with the presentation of the evidence for storageprocessing, so we need not reit- erate the same points again here. There were far fewer cut markson the atalhoyuk faunalremains than found at other contemporaneous sites, and since a skilledbutcheraims to hit the bone as little as possible, we assume this indicates that atalhoyiik residentshada high level of skill in butchering. After the kill, animals were butchered, and depending on theirsize and the methodand place of death, the animalwas eitherbutcheredat home, possibly on rooftops or in open areaswith enough space to accommodatethis activity, in off-sitework activity areas such as KOPAL, or early on at the edge of the buildings in the SouthArea.Afterskin- ning and butchering was complete, the butchered sections andcuts of meateitherunderwentfurther processing for storage (e.g., salting or drying) or were brought indoors or onto the rooftop food preparation areafor cooking via boiling in baskets, grilling, or baking. Large cuts of meat may have remainedoff-site for grilling or pit roasting, after which they would have been brought indoorsfor familial consumption or communalfeasts (Russell and Martin 2005). Butchering for immediatecon- sumption would be most concentratedat feasting contexts. These have been clearly identified in Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 303 Table 4. Processing for Consumption: Related Activities with Data/UnitNumbers. Indirectand Ethnographic Activities Description DataSite Data Seasonality PreliminaryUsing basketryequip- Local ethno- Kopal (unit 601 1) and Space Summerfor winter crops crop process- ment off-site graphic discus-181: high incidence of chaff ing (threshing, sions, personal and processing fragments, winnowing, observationStored grains/pulses with sieving)preliminaryprocessing complete in Bldg. 1 (unit 1332) Grinding andStone or woodLocal ethno-In-situ grinding stones onAs needed basis, after poundingmortar/pestle, and/or graphic discus-site (Bldg. 1, unit 1344; also preliminarythreshing grinding stones to sions, personalBldg. 17 in South Area, nextand winnowing was process grains, pulses observationto oven f. 538); also unit complete, and seeds.4808 in South area). Leaching Ground plant materialsin Ethnography Pits: summer-fall pit or skin, soaked withfrom other (ground too wet in water repeatedly(usefulgroups who use spring, too cold/hardin for vetch and acorn) acorn (e.g. Ortiz winter) 1991) Bone grease after butchering,pound Faunalbone fragmentation Yearround as killed and extraction long bones into smallevidence. Likely donealso in fall during kill- pieces, boil using clay indoors (see faunal dataoff for winter use balls in skins or baskets.from Bldg. 17 SE corner, unit 5021 and midden sp. 181 Phase C). Plant greasepound seeds, boil, skimLocal ethno-Bins (f.2 14, f.2 15) and unitsAs seeds in season for extractionoil off topgraphic discus- (1415,1437) with Capsella winter use, on as needed sions, personalbursa-pastoris and sisym- basis after collection and observation brium, also acorn, wild preliminarystorage almonds, pistachio found off-site in level pre-12 Space 181 (5315). ButcheringLargerpieces butcheredCut marks on faunal bones, off site, but all meat cutsdistributionof faunal materi- come to site (discarded inals (Russell andMartin 2005) middens). Smaller scaleEvidenceof lithics in houses butchering on roofs/in (Carter2005). houses. Brewingsproutgrains, mix withLocal ethno-Plant taxa list is ammenable During late spring-sum- water,boil, store graphic discus-to brewing, esp. barley mer harvestas needed sionsfor consumption Fermenting Wild fruits with chick-Local ethno-Summer peas. Cereal grains in graphic discus- brewing process. sions RottingScirpus tubersleft inAutumnand winter, as river for short timeconsumed 304AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Building 3 of the Bach Area (which is just east of the North Area). Animal and Plant Grease Extraction Thereis evidencethat grease extractionfromboth animalbone and oil-rich seeds and nuts was part ofthe seasonal food processing cycle at atalhoyuk. Numerous midden units were rich with smashedfaunalbone fragments(Russell andMar- tin 2005), indicative of grease processing. Plant oils were also renderedfor oil. Helbaek suggests thatalmondstoreswere likely processed for oil at atalhoyiik (1964). He noted that the wild Shep- herds purse(Capsella bursa-pastoris) was probably also collectedforoil extraction (Helbaek1970). Evidencefromrecentexcavationsfurther supports the idea thatwild oil-rich plant taxawere collected fortheiroil (Fairbairn et al. 2005). In theNorthArea Building 1, severalfloor units had concentrations of Capsella bursa-pastoris and Erysimunsisym- brioides, both wild seeds rich in oil. Contexts in both the North and South Areas yielded concentrationsof acornsand wild almondsthat indicate thesecollectedtaxacouldhavebeen utilizedin this fashionas well, in additionto their being driedand consumed throughout the year. Evidence ofoil-rich seeds and nuts near the edge of the settlement, in the South Area, space 181, indicates that at least some amount ofthis processing took place off-site, whiletheconcentrations found within buildings indicatethatsuch processing also occurred indoors, to a limited extent, as well during the wintermonths (Gremillion2004). Buildings 2 and 17 had high concentrationsof nut- shell and hackberry seeds. These contexts, which all contain large amountsof hackberry, a resource best harvestedin the autumn, are all indicativeof wild nut processing. In terms of the actualoil extraction process, it seems most likely thatoil rich seeds were pounded with stonemortarsto open them up andthenboiled in skins or baskets using clay balls. The oil could thenbe skimmedoff the top of the boiling mixture andstoredin the small potteryjars.Although direct archaeological evidence of plant oil extractionis lacking, there is regular evidence for animal fat extraction, as evidenced in the massive highly processed(smashedup) faunalbones throughout the site's deposits.Additionally, the interiorof at least one ceramic jar contained organic residuesof animal fat, indicating that some ofthese small, chaff-temperedpots were utilized for grease storage (Copley et al. 2005). Leaching For certainwild plants found at atalhoyuk,particularly acornsand vetch, the process of leaching would have been necessary for the removalof tan- nins in orderto renderthe food productspalatable. Leaching can be done quite easily in a shallow pit into which pounded or ground flour is placed (Mason 1992). Wateristhen repeatedlypoured overthe flour, andas thewatersoaksintothe ground the tanninsor otherbittersubstancesareremoved. Thereis no evidenceof leachingpits foundon-site at atalhoyuk; however, this does not negate the idea that at least some of the plant taxa found on site wouldhaveneededor benefitedfrom leaching. Leaching would have necessarily taken place during the summer-autumnmonthsbecauseit requires unfrozen ground thatis not watersaturated.Other types of leaching may have also been possible at atalh6yiik, particularly those using skin sieves and/or soaking methods. Grinding and Pounding According to the ground stone analysts,grinding stones at atalh6yiik were small, portable, and reuseduntilexhaustion (Baysal and Wright2005). There is modest evidence for grinding toolkits in the settlement. Grinding slabsandassociatedhand- stoneshavebeenidentifiedin theNorthAreaBuild- ing 1 , insidea burntlentil bin, andin the South Area, where they were associatedwith club-rushtubers. The best in situ example comes from Building 17, space 170 in the South Area, wheretherewas a slab and handstonenext to an oven, accompaniedby many club-rushtubers. Baysal and Wright(2005) do not believe thatthe ground stone evidence supports widespread use in daily food preparation; however, as they aptlypoint out, the foodstuffsdo not require it. Fromthe portablegrinding stoneevi- dence, it is possible to surmisethat groups of people gathered on rooftops or inside buildings if they wantedto grind or pound a larger thannormal quan- tity offood. When these tasks were completed inside, placement of grinding stones indicatethat this activity was not isolatedfromother projects of the household, but seemedto be in the central part of the building or in the storage areas.This activ- Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 305 ity seems to have been part of the food preparation complex, takingplace nearthe cooking locales. Additionally, humantooth wear indicates that, while thereweresome chips and pitsresulting from paniculate matterin the diet, the wear patterns at atalh6yiik are not what is usually seen among groups with regular stone ground food consumption (Boz 2005). As Baysal and Wright(2005) men- tion, it is possible that wooden implements were also used to grind and pound grains, seeds, and pulses, although no such tools have yet been identifiedin excavation. Pounding oil-richseeds before boiling would have been a necessity if these seeds were to undergo oil extraction. However, for this food preparation, river cobbles or other ground stone implements also may have been used, since the resulting oil extraction process would lose any stone grit as a by-product of the boiling process. Ourbest evidence indicatesthat some of the nuts and tubers were occasionally ground for meal preparation, whereasthe cereal grains and pulses were not traditionallyground. Brewing,Fermenting, and Rotting The processes of brewing,fermenting, and rotting are also preparations that could have occurredat atalh6yiik,although these areactivitiesfor which wehavenodirect archaeological evidence. Neolithic brewingpractices were certainlypossi- ble (Braidwood1952; Braidwoodet al. 1953; Katz andVoigt1986), withthe regularpresence of wheat and barley across the site. These two crops could havebeen brewedto addflavoras well as nutrients to the diet. The resulting brew could have added protein to the diet, providing essentialvitaminsnot availablefromunfermentedwheatand barley. Katz and Voigt(1986) point outtheneedforceramicves- sels in brewingpractices, and thus we might infer that only the upper levels at atalh6yiik wouldhave engaged in this processingactivity if their assump- tion is true.Fruitssuch as apples and pears as well as milk are the most likely to have been subjected to fermentation processes, andclub rushtubersare the most probable candidatesfor fermentation by rotting, as is done regularly in the contemporary Andean highlands(Hastorfpersonalobservation). The hackberrysyrup also could have fermentedin its containers, providing ethanolof up to 5 percent, easilyproviding a tangy if slightlyintoxicating bev- erage (Dudley 2002). More extensive molecular analysis is required to move this aspect of the foodways forward. Cooking Archaeological discussionsof food often focus on the specific plant or animal products from which the ancientdiet was composed.Equallyimportant are the styles and tempos of the cooking process, with special focus on the type of heat. Evidenceis often sought to understandthe processes of food production and/orthe diets of ancient peoples. The methodsof food preparation,specificallycooking, are often not includedin this discussion. Despite this lack of emphasis,cooking methodsand practices arecrucialin forming and reproducing social networksand sociality (Goody 1982; Weismantel 1988),defininggroupidentity(Barthes1979; Dou- glas1997), and in the reproduction ofcultural knowledge and practices in the home (Bourdieu 1977; CounihanandVanEsterik 1997). This limited concernwith pastcookingpractices is not due to a lack of archaeological evidence. In fact, there is a wealthof informationavailablethatcan inform us on the changing and often complex and sophis- ticated cookingpractices of past societies.Ceramic pots, griddles, hearths,ovens, pits, all provide con- crete evidence for past cooking practices. Investigation of the cooking practices at atal- hoytik is an important areaof interestthathas been explicitly addressed by severalteammembers (Fig- ure 7; Atalay 2005; Last 2005; Russell andMartin 2005). In this briefoverviewof foodways at atalhoyiik we have chosen to concentrateon the most prominent and archaeologically visible aspects of food preparation(Table5). As withother aspects of daily life at atalhoyiik,cooking activities surely variedacrosshouseholdsand through time. There aresome commonalities, however.The majority of cooking activitiesoccurredin andaroundovensand hearths (see Figures 7 and8 for two reconstructions of possible cooking practices). The presence of hearthsand/orovens in each building indicatesthat cooking took place at the household level, with periodic-supra household or communitycooking events. Ovens are ubiquitous and could have been usedfor cooking as illustratedin Figure 7. The larger feasting eventsarebest identifiedfromthe KOPAL excavationswherethe aurochs, equid, and pig dom- inate those faunal remains, representing the great- 306AMERICAN ANTIQUITY[Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Table 5. Cooking: RelatedActivities. Indirectand Ethnographic Activities Description DataSite Data Seasonality BoilingUsing pottery directly over a Ethnographic Dental evidence of soft, carbo-Fall after kill off of (direct andfire & using balls for transfer examples usinghydrate diet with little gritsheep/goat. Or after indirectof indirectheat while boiling baskets or skins material, starchesfrom dentalhunt or slaughter of heat) in baskets or skinscalculus, potential for water- larger animals. tight baskets, clay balls with mineralinclusions for repeated heating Grilling Meat placed on heatedlocal ethno-Mandibleswith grill markings, Fall after kill off of (directballs/objects or spitted. Largegraphic exam-bone with human gnaw marks sheep/goat. Or after heat) animals in off-site areas,pies of spitting from marrowextraction (e.g. hunt or slaughter of smaller animals insidemeat to grill, unit 5290), some butcheringlarger animals. oven/hearthinside and out-evidence side of the house Parching/to grains and pulses tossed overErkal (2006) South area midden filled withAs needed basis, after asting heated clay balls/objects tolocal ethno-charredcereal grain and oven preliminarythreshing (direct and prolong storage or for direct graphic data,plaster,throughout the siteand winnowing was indirect consumptioncomparison withcharred grains with ash complete, heat) hearthsat Asiklihoyuk Roasting rhizomes or meat off-site, in ethnographic PitWheneverfresh meat (indirectpits with heated clayroasting exam-or vegetables are wet heat)balls/objects.pies cooked Bakingplants and animal products inlocal and global Wheneverfresh meat (indirect enclosed oven with heat from ethnographic is cooked, possibly for dry heat)clay balls examples breads also est evidencefor grilling(Russell andMartin 2005). The one roof we have excavated, in Building 3 in the BACH Area, indicatesthat cooking also took place in rooftop hearthsandovens (Matthews1998). Cooking in theinteriorovenswouldhavedominated most cooking activitiesfor the coolermonths.Lad- der impressions in wall plaster indicatethatinterior ovens and hearths were advantageouslyplaced below the entranceto each building(throughopen- ings in the roof) to allow the smoke from interior fires to escape (Farid2006). However, the smoke was not entirelydispersedthrough the roof open- ing, as seenin thesootevidencewithinthewall plas- ters (Matthews1998,2005). Cookswouldstillhave been subject to inhalationof varying amountsof smoke in the daily process of cooking. We have chosen to discuss the five most likely types of cooking at atalh6yiik:boiling, grilling, parching,roasting, and baking. At this point we havenot completed a detailed comparison of hearth versusoven contextsin orderto determinetheasso- ciations of certainfood ingredients with specific heatingregimes, northe associationof these cooking activitiesremainswith eitherhearthsor ovens. Furtherresearchis certainlyrequired to create a more nuanced understanding of the cooking practices at atalhoyiik, and was initiated by Atalay in 2004. Boiling Boiling is wet cooking using eitherdirector indirect heat. Boiling was probably the most common food preparation utilizedat atalhoyiik. Dentalevi- dence indicatesthatthe people of atalhoyiik had a fairly soft diet (Boz2005).Grains, legumes, tubers,seeds, and meat would have been rendered soft and palatablethroughboiling without much, if any,grinding.Consumption of gruels and stews preparedby boiling the carbohydrate-richplants with meat and plant or animal grease would pro- Atalay and Hastorf] FOOD HABITUS AT NEOLITHIC QATALHOYUK 307 Figure 7. A reconstruction of a winter meal around the oven. Illustrated by John G. Swogger.Copyright atalhdyuk Research Project. 308AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 71 , No. 2, 2006 Figure 8. Indirect boiling. Illustrated by John G. Swogger. Copyright (Jatalhoyiik Research Project. duce toothwearconsistentwith the limited pitting and modest starchy calculus (seeeating section below) found onteeth from atalhoyuk(Boz 2005). Baysal and Wright(2005) suggest thatwhile some food was ground,

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