A N AT O L I A T R A N S F O R M E D
Western Anatolia and the Aegean coast
While farmers were establishing themselves in the Konya Plain, other groups had reached the Lake District where they founded settlements like Hacılar, Kuruçay, Höyücek, and Bademag˘ acı.43 Here the display of symbolism is much more subdued than in the Konya Plain. There are no wall paintings or relief sculpture, and cult activities may well have focused on wellcrafted objects and figurines.
An impressive fortification wall with a pair of semi-circular towers, exposed along a 26 m segment, surrounded the Neolithic village at Kuruçay.44 More coherent plans, however, are found at Höyücek where two large rectangular rooms were built with a combination of rectangular (lower wall) and plano-convex (upper wall) mud bricks. The rooms were separated by a pair of smaller storage areas, well furnished with cupboards, bins, and clay benches, and together formed a religious complex and designated the “Shrine Phase” (Figure 4.10).45 Particularly suggestive of a cult function is a large marble basin, filled with pottery vessels, and associated smaller marble containers placed near a staircase of solid clay that no doubt led to an upper story. A pit with thousands of flint blades and a scatter of deer antlers and jaw bones add to the symbolic connotations of the room. After a gap in occupation, Höyücek was reoccupied in the Late Neolithic (ca. 6450–6100 BC), when the inhabitants built five unconnected and parallel stretches of wall. Their purpose is unclear, but concentrations of ample-bodied female figurines, one on a plaster bench, schematized figurines, stone tools, and various ceramic containers, according to the excavators, warrant the term “Sanctuaries Phase.”
Female figurines have been found in considerable numbers at Kuruçay and Höyücek (Figure 4.11: 8–9).46 The Kuruçay examples are generally upright, with arms hanging at their sides or folded across their breasts. Their heads are long and thin with hair shown either braided down the back of the neck or pulled back in a bun. In some cases, the feet are incised to portray toes. Figurines from the Sanctuaries Phase at Höyücek show a greater variety of positions, including seated and cross-legged. Heads are pegged, sometimes with a piece of bone. One figurine bears traces of white paint, whereas others are decorated with impressed dots or incised with lines to indicate clothing and jewellery, or the pubic region. While some figurines are fulsome, others are rather schematic and “sack shaped”—rectangular bodied with stubby arms.
Bademag˘ acı presents something quite different—freestanding mud brick houses supported by wooden beams and posts were separated by alleyways and courtyards (Figure 4.12).47 Each unit was equipped with a round oven, storage facilities, a portable hearth, and grinding stones. This settlement concept did not come from the Konya Plain, with painted red floors comprising the only connection.
The Late Neolithic settlement at Hacılar is roughly contemporary with the end of the Çatalhöyük sequence. Houses had mud walls built of plano-convex bricks, 50 cm2, set on stone foundations, and were arranged neatly in blocks.48 Timber was also liberally used. Twelve houses were uncovered, each with a main room and a kitchen area to the side constructed of wattle and daub, some measuring as much as 10 × 4 m. Residents no longer entered their
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