Neolithic in Anatolia

SEDENTARISM, AGGREGATION, AND AGRICULTURE

IN ANATOLIA, ÇATALHÖYÜK

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU (retired)

University Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, dondaine@orange.fr

ABSTRACT

The first question is about the language or languages spoken in Anatolia before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans who will only come and mostly go through two or three millennia later when Çatalhöyük will no longer be an active center. Agriculture and herding are very important if not dominant in this period when the population stops roaming around and when it establishes sedentary dense agglomerate cities. All the more so with the spiritual center of Gobekli Tepe which is about one millennium older. What came first? Spirituality and spiritual centers, or sedentarism and agriculture? But this sedentarism and agriculture developed in Anatolia long before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans. We need to see that the 8 or 10 millennia of the peak of the Ice Age were a long period when Homo Sapiens had to learn how to exploit nature intensively to survive the harsh conditions of that time. The second problem is the status of women in a society where the birth of 10 to 12 or even 13 children per woman is essential for the community, hence the…