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Journal of Social Archaeology
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Constructing a Cosmos

Architecture, Power and Domestication at Çatalhöyük

David Lewis-Williams

Rock Art Research Institute, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa david{at}rockart.wits.ac.za

This article argues that the structures of Çatalhöyük were constructed exemplars of a tiered cosmology comprising three interacting levels: an upper and a lower realm and, between them, the level of daily life. The dimly lit rooms were, in some circumstances, thought of as spaces in the lower realm, the walls being an interface between the people who entered a room and a spirit world of animals and supernatural beings. The domestication of the aurochs can be understood within this cognitive setting. Some ritual specialists believe that animal spirithelpers can become ‘real’ animals and thereby manifest their owners’ status and power. It is argued that the domestication of wild aurochs at Çatalhöyük was implicated in comparable practices of control and status display within a tiered cosmos. The domestication of the aurochs was thus neither a deliberate strategy to maximize labour, nor a fortunate accident, but rather a by-product of social processes.

Key Words: altered consciousness • Çatalhöyük • cosmology • domestication • shamanism • symbolism

Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 4, No. 1, 28-59 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1469605304039849
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