Aims And Objectives

Considering the implications of social transformations in the Neolithic, and despite the numerous Neolithic decorated buildings, tools and small/portable items potentially designed for symbolic purposes, studies to date have failed to cross-reference the symbolism displayed on such items. The

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present study aims to follow on from the work of Kozłowski (2005), by using a systematic approach of broad level data collection, to address the poor methodological development which characterises this area of study. To do this, I have incorporated data from 52 sites across the region into a multi- faceted database. This database includes information on several aspects of each site including its landscape, environment, the level of sedentism, the range of architecture, type of subsistence strategy, plant and animal taxa consumed, etc. The full details of my methodology are presented in Chapter 4, which addresses the main research questions and, therefore, includes the rationale behind the specific database construction.

My main questions are:

1. What are the decorative motifs which appear in the Neolithic? 2. On what range and type of items do these motifs appear?

3. Is there a relationship between specific motifs, types of items, and particular periods of time?

4. Is there a relationship between specific motifs, types of items, and particular regions? 5. How exactly do regional developments inform chronological patterns identified, and how

does this change the overall relationship between these patterns?

6. Accounting for chronological and regional patterns, in what contexts do these motifs and types of items appear, and is there a specific relationship between the motifs, types of items, and these contexts?

7. Based on this contextual relationship, is there a relationship between specific motifs, types of items, and particular locations, size, and types of sites?

8. Is there a relationship between subsistence strategies and specific motifs? 9. Is there a correlation between taxa consumed, and what are used as motifs?

At this point, I must clarify the implications of ‘connection’, ‘correlation’, and ‘causation’. The concurrent chronological changes seen in the Neolithic point to some connection. The aim of this thesis is to assess if these connections represent a correlation between those changes, namely where one factor is a clear consequence of another. However, correlation does not imply causation and the limited chronological precision of much of the data available results in a tenuous attempt at true causation. Future detailed dating and phasing of sites should enable testing of correlations identified in this thesis, and thereby more accurately infer on causation.

As many of the questions that I plan to explore with this dataset deal with questions regarding the social function of the symbolically elaborated material, such investigation requires good contextual detail. What will become apparent is that a limitation of my thesis is the lack of published contextual detail. As such, a specific study of sites with good contextual information is needed to validate any overarching theories which may become apparent in the analysis. Four main case studies and six

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subsidiary case studies were chosen for closer examination, and the reasons for these choices can be found in Chapter 5. These are:

Main Case Study Sites Subsidiary Case Study Sites

Boncuklu Höyük Göbekli Tepe

Çatalhöyük Gilgal I

Sha’ar Hagolan Hacılar

Tell Sabi Abyad I Operation I Hayonim Cave Tell ‘Abr

Tell Sabi Abyad II

Chapter 6 deals with the interrogation of this data to identify and define any potential relationships, whilst Chapter 7 presents the stylistic analysis and application of this analysis to the case studies. The analysis will consider the main subjects below, using a range of analyses and statistical approaches to more clearly define how symbolic material was created, used, and discarded; and more specifically, how these processes differ between the regions and through time and whether there are overarching similarities. Briefly, this analysis will deal with:

Main subject In relation to Rationale

Artefact types Motif type,

complexity, and density

Main Motifs

Despite the rich of Neolithic elaborated materials, studies to date have failed to cross-reference the symbolism depicted on these various items.

Site sizes Artefact type

Motif type, complexity, and density

Main Motifs

If broader social identities facilitated or maintained, the creation of previously unseen very large communities (Benz & Bauer 2013:20), one would expect a correlation between artefact type, complexity, and/or motif range and site size (as the simplest, though ultimately problematic, a marker for population size).

Simplified Subsistence Site size Artefact type Motif type, complexity, and density Main Motifs

If the accepted scenario that larger settlements depleted local resources to sustain larger populations, then we would expect a correlation between increased site size and new subsistence strategies. Secondly, if symbolically elaborated material points to fundamental changes in human understandings of the world, that may have allowed, or promoted sedentism and farming; then one would expect a correlation between artefact type, complexity, and/or motif range and specific subsistence strategies (potentially in tandem with site size).

Contextual analysis And Site size Artefact type Motif type,

If there were new conceptions of property, territoriality, household and group identities maintained by the use of ‘art’ to promote social cohesion (Akkermans & Schwartz 2003:76), then one would expect

34 Stylistic examination complexity, and density  Main Motifs

distinct contextual patterns which differentiated between private and public contexts, as well as between different regions.

Raw material  Artefact type

 Artefact type by context  Main Motifs  Artefact type by Main Motif

Raw material is both a symbolic component (adding elements of texture and colour to the physical properties of the artefacts) and an economic one ( the relationship between locally sourced or long distance exchange and, therefore, potential regional interaction). As such, patterns of use or selection could be found.

Geography and Ecology  Artefact type  Raw materials  Main Motifs

If the potential consequence of subsistence change resulted in new conceptions of territoriality (Benz 2004:28), then potential patterns could arise from the choices regarding site location.

Subsistence species

 Artefact type If there were psychological changes in human perceptions of their position in the environment, and, as a result, their relationships with the landscape, plants and animals changed; then the specific motifs employed could correlate with changes in subsistence strategies and taxa consumed. These specific motifs, then, could also have the added dimension of correlating with specific contexts, which then may or may not be related to distinct private or public rituals.

Detailed Motifs  Simplified

subsistence  Artefact type  Context type  All subsistence species

The rudimentary changes commonly attributed to the Neolithic such as the emergence of farming, are far more complex than often described. Indeed, the mechanisms and systems which enabled and promoted such subsistence changes are multifaceted and expertly interwoven. Increased population, sedentary behaviours, and changes in architecture, manipulation of mortuary practices, the explosion of symbolic behaviour, adoption of new subsistence strategies: these differing systems in the Neolithic paradoxically explain each other whilst relying on each other for their existence. With the analysis of Chapter 6 and 7 (incorporating this larger range of data), alongside a broader anthropological viewpoint, Chapter 8 then presents the evidence with which to challenge the theories, statements, and presumptions of the role of ‘art’ within the Neolithic and be able, with greater validity, to assess the factors involved in the florescence of ‘art’.

chapter 9 evaluates the results of analysis and the inferences drawn from the datasets presented and places them in the context of methodological and regional debates.

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