FAUNA LAB

Wall paintings, figurines, pottery, and bucranium reliefs inform us that a large variety of animals held a prominent place in Çatalhöyük’s symbolic universe. So, what animals had infiltrated their worlds? During the Neolithic Age, we find enduring traces of humankind’s dominance over nature. The domestication of animals is the foremost among these.

The zooarchaeologists of Çatalhöyük, in other words the specialists of animal bones, have examined more than a million bones to date, which is just a small fraction of the excavated material. It should be noted that only about 7% of the site has been excavated so far.

Sheep, goats, and dogs were domesticated, while the pig was still wild, and the question of whether or not bovines were domesticated is still discussed. Wild donkeys, wild sheep, goats, gazelles, foxes, wolfs, cats, rabbits, leopards, and birds are represented among hunted animals. Fishbones and fish hooks made of bone clearly show that fishing was practiced as well