Does not lie, unfortunately, with yet another stela with sehematic facial features in

51.£

Relief, discovered in one of the houses at Hacilar layer VI of the late Neolithic.

Significantly, excavators have been unable to identify any places for making saeri-

Fiees in the above-described structures.

'/.; 1

Neither have they discovered such piaces in any of the rctore than 40 units from

layers VII and VI of the village in Qatalhöyük, which James Mellaart interpreted as

‘shrines,’ distinguishing them from ‘houses,’ in view of their inferior architeeture and

the small finds.’’" The point is that they were architecturally no different than the

Neighboring houses. Moreover, there is clear evidence that even the most elaborate

of ‘shrines’ contained a wide ränge of activities associated with food preparation,

Consumption, obsidian working, hone tool production, etc. All buildings acted as

53 1

Domestic houses with varying degrees of symbolic elaboration.

The houses were the foci of art and ritual. 04 The walls of the dominant, more

Elaborate houses had gypsum plaster rnouldings and paintings, both of which were

Refreshed on several occasions. BuIFs and ram’s heads with prominent horns were

Hauptmann 2000,

Hauptmann.2003.

48 Goren -- Sega.1 1995.;|

Grissom 2000 with referenees.

Cf. Cauvin 2000a: 2000b: 240ff.

Mellaart 1961: PL Vd; cf. Haas 1994a: Fig. 20.

Mellaart 1967: 77ff. See. however, Cutting 2005: 164: “Recent excavations have shown that Mel-

Laart’s interiors were likelv to have been composites of several occupation stages rather than

Snapshots in time, making the ranking of buildings hy riebness of decoration unreliahle/’

Hodder Cessford 2004: 21.

Last 1998; 2005. I

Neolithic 15

Frequent motifs, either present in the wall decoration or mounted on clay benches.

The heads were painted red at times in symbolization of the vital forces. Provalent

Among the moulded decoration are representations of animals, mostly bulls, but also

Leopards depicted antithetically, she-bears(?), mountain goats, and deer. The male

Figure is not present in the rnouldings, but female motifs have been recorded. In one

of the ‘shrines,’ a woman giving birth was depicted above three bucrania. Female

Breasts are accorded the same symbolic meaning. Some had boar’s mandibles or the

Skulls of vultures, foxes and weasels concealed under a layer of stucco, obviously

Bearing a magic-symbolic Import in this context. Mellaart was of the opinion that

Neither the themes nor the position of particular motifs on the walls were acciden-

Tai.“ He found that scenes connected with death were always on the east and north

Walls where the dead were buried, while motifs connected with birth occupied the

opposite, west wall, Bulls were presented solely on the north wall.' 11

Numerous murals depicting ritualized hunting by a large group of humans can

Be linked to hunting magic. The painting from the north wall of room V 1 shows

A dominant figure of a wild bull surrouxided by hunters and dancers dressed in ani

Mal skins. ’ 8 The small figure of a jumper on the bull’s back immediately bringe to

Fiiind numerous bull-leaping scenes from Grete, Syria and Egypt of the second

millennium BC. A representation on an Old Hittite relief vase discovered at Hü-

Seyindede in 1998 indicates that bull-leaping was known also in Anatolia;

Moreover, it testifies to a later connection of bull games with the cult of storm-gods

(see 3.1.3).

As said above, paintings of vultures and headless bodies were connected with

Burial rites and ancestor cult, in similarity to the human skulls found in some of

the rooms. Other Images, like the scene of a volcano erapting,'’ 9 probably refer to

Real events, although a mythological implication cannot be mied out.

55 Hodder 2005: 20; Türckan 2005; cf, also Meskell - Nakamura - King - Farid 2008: 141.

Cf. Last 2005: 200: “The relative seareity even of simple designs suggests that paintings were of

Great symbolic importance, appropriate only to certair, occasions or spaces.”