| | Area: North | | | | Dug in Year: 2013 | | Feature Type: burial | | Feature Subtype: | | | | Related Photo (Click to view larger version in new window) | | | | | Location: North of space 94, within platform 3694 | | | | Grid X: 1048.1 Grid Y: 1172.28 | | | The burial 7127 is distinctive and surprising for two reasons :
First, it is a multiple burial where one adult (an old man? u.30514) was buried along with 4 juveniles of different ages (infants/children : u.30510, u.30511, u.30513, u.30524). The adult was flexed, lying on its back on the bottom of the cut (u.30502). Three infants/children were piled on its left side (u.30524, u.30513 & u.30511). Another one was crossing above its right side (u.30510). Two of the juveniles had their cranium in direct contact with the forehead of the adult (back of the cranium of u.30513 and forehead of u.30511).
This burial is a single event. This 5 individual were buried together at the same moment. Indeed, no disturbance which could indicates several episodes of digging / deposing a new body was observed. The position of the differents bodies, very intricate and often in direct contact, is impossible to realize in several burial without disturbance.
Also, the cut u.30502 of the burial is the only one observed within the platform, and its infill looked bomogeneous.
Although, the existence of a previous burial is not impossible. Indeed, lot of loose bones were found in the infill u.30503. Those could belong to one of the individual of burial 7127 (some of them are very disturbed by rodent activities) but also to a previous individual. In this case the older burial should has been completely destroy by the cut 30502.
The presence of two isolated cranium in the burial 7127 could maybe fit with such a hypothesis. But u.30512 is more likely understood as the secondary burial of a cranium as part of the multiple burial 7127. And the human remain team still has to determined if u.30515 fit with the loose bones. But the possibility that this cranium is also a secondary burial associated with 7127 cannot be excluded.
Finally, it is also possible that both u.30515 and u.30512 are the very incomplete parts of the same cranium (which could be still either a secondary burial or a primary disturbed).
The second reason is the very interesting conservation of the remain. Indeed, this burial has been very affected by the burning of building 52. But if the fire was very destructive for the architecture of the building, the material within the grave, protected by several layers of clay/plaster, in an anaerobic milieu, was not directly affected by the fire. It was "baked", or "steamcooked" (une cuisson à l'étouffée).
Some organic remains were thus preserved : textile (between u.30513 & u.30511, cf. u.30503, and on cranium of 30510), wood ("boat-shaped bowl" covering cranium of u.30513, and small artifact just above its feet), organic tissues (visceras and "flesh" for bay u.30511, brain for all the preserved cranium of the cut), or "fibres/roots" in red-painted shells.
This conservation led to very interresting results : specialists were able to identify linen/flax for the first time on the site. Because seeds of flax are absent in Catalhoyuk, the hypothesis of an imported textile from the Levant is plausible and has to be tested. Concerning the wood, the specialists identify maple which is very rare on site and probably exogenous. Concerning the brains, they are probably among the oldest known in world.
This presence of brain in most of the preserved cranium is also a good argument for a single burial event. Indeed, all these individuals were not completely decomposed when the building was set on fire. | | | | In situ Conservation: No | | Lifted: No | | | | Feature Relationships: | | cuts: (Click to view the record) 3694 | | | | Number of Related Diary Entries: 0 | | Conservation Recorded: No | | Related Photos: 11 (Opens as a group in a new window) | Buildings: (Click to view the record)
| Spaces: (Click to view the record)
| | No. Of Units in this Feature: 9 (Click here to view unit list) |
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