Thousands of years ago, residents of Catalhoyuk buried some of their dead with pigments on their bodies, and then dug up and reburied their bones. What prompted them to do so?
Catalhoyuk, in Türkiye’s Konya, is a “Neolithic settlement known as the world’s oldest city,” Dr Eline Schotsmans tells. “It covers an area of 13 hectares and features densely aggregated mudbrick domestic structures.”
since 2012, Catalhoyuk was excavated for 25 years by an international team led by Prof Ian Hodder from Stanford University. “In those 25 years of excavation we learned a lot about this early settlement,” Schotsmans says. “But there is still a lot to learn because only five percent of the site was excavated over 25 years. That gives an impression of the extent of the site.”
“Cinnabar commonly forms in veins and small impregnations associated with volcanic activity and hot spring action. The region around Konya is rich in lead, iron, copper and mercury oxide sources.” She writes that “the stripes have most often been observed on individuals from primary depositions , which suggests that cinnabar was put on a fleshed head and not on dry skeletal remains. Over the years, the soft tissue of the deceased and organic matter of the headband degraded, leaving a coloured stripe on the cranium.
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