Asikli Hoyuk

Aşıklı Höyük was a Neolithic site located in the center of present day Turkey. It is a site with a rich habitat that supports a variety of plants and animals, so the original inhabitants were hunter-gatherers in a small community who took advantage of the abundant resources. They were also located near a source of obsidian, which would become important for trade. It was first settled around 8,200 BCE. Over time, the inhabitants at Aşıklı Höyük began experimenting with cereal grains, mostly wheat, first just by collecting seeds of favored plants. Over time, this developed into purposefully growing wheat and lentils.

Big changes at Aşıklı Höyük started around the 8th millennium BCE (7000s BCE). Hunting and fishing lost importance, and emphasis was placed on the domestication of sheep and goats. The management of sheep and goats became a central objective for the community, and these animals were probably kept within the settlement, corralled near clusters of homes. There was a marked increase in population towards the beginning of the millennium, and at this point, the settlement pattern and buildings began to change.

All the buildings now became rectangular instead of circular, with one or two rooms, and densely grouped in clusters rather than spread out. All of these building also became almost identical in size and layout, and there was very little space between buildings/homes. There were also collect trash heaps between buildings. Activities that used to be conducted outside--such as fires, cooking, and tool making--were now moved to the rooftops (likely because there was not sufficient room at the ground level). The variety of tools and other goods indicates specialization among individuals (when people concentrate on certain skills/jobs) These new styles of homes also no longer had ground level entrances and were instead entered from windows or the roof. The production of obsidian tools (also done outside) was central to the community, and obsidian was brought to the community from miles away.

Reconstructions of Asikli homes and narrow alleyways between buildings

Aşıklı Höyük also had buildings much larger than domestic homes and with multiple large rooms and courtyard spaces. These are interpreted as public buildings or 'building complexes' that could fit several hundred people at a time (only a fraction of the population, since the settlement had grown into the thousands by this point). Many archaeologists have concluded these buildings were monumental spaces used exclusively by an elite or for practising different social initiation rites or other rituals. These special buildings also seemed to be used for social events like feasting, as is indicated by the evidence for the communal consumption of cattle. Such collective ceremonies could have been intended to reinforce the collaborative way of living by easing some of the many stresses that inevitably came with a sedentary lifestyle (essentially, offering large feasts to distract people from the stresses of a changing way of life).

Asikli Hoyuk also has he first evidence of of "surgery": the skull of a young woman was purposefully drilled with an obsidian drill. After the hole was drilled, the cells in the skull regenerated. So it seems that the woman lived after the procedure for some time. The site also features stone mortars and pestles; tools such as blades, knives and mirrors made of obsidian; pendants made of stone and bone; fishing rods and buckles; and elaborately made bracelets.

The skull of a 25 year old woman, drilled to treat a medical condition

A positioned burial at Asikli

After more than 400 rooms had been excavated, the total number of individual found to have been buried within the settlement did not surpass 70. All these burials were under building floors. There is a variety of skeletal body postures, from burials in a hocker (fetal) position to extended skeletons facing upwards. Others are lying on one side, occasionally with the legs bent at the knees. The deceased men were usually in their 50s, while women were only in their 20s. The women found also had skeletal deformities indicating hard labor. 70 burials in over 400 rooms suggest that some form of selection took place of who was buried at the site, implying that these were people influential in terms of both economy and political power.

The general picture of the way of life around 7000 BCE gives the impression of a community that was focused on learning to manage the new circumstances brought on by the sedentary way of living. The appearance of the settlement from the outside – with its clustered layout and buildings without ground-level entrances built so closely to each other – also suggests an enclosed and introverted settlement that was turning in on itself.

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