Domestication and inequality? Households, corporate groups and food processing tools at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

Abstract

Questions about the early Near Eastern Neolithic include whether domestic groups were autonomous and self-sufficient; whether they had access to similar goods; whether households were competitive; whether specialization existed; and how domestic units articulated with corporate groups. Feasting models emphasize household competition and complexity, but wide-ranging ethnographic studies show that hoe-farming societies in areas of land abundance are usually egalitarian, with little material wealth, little inequality, and little wealth transmission (inheritance). This paper explores inequality at Çatalhöyük East (Turkey), via ground stone artefacts, which were central to food preparation and craft production. Analysis of 2429 artefacts from 20 buildings and 9 outdoor yards reveals a mix of egalitarian features and emerging social complexity. Households had private property and relatively equal access to cooking features and some ground stone tools, but ground stone toolkits do not indicate self-sufficiency. In particular, large millstones (querns) were expensive to procure and were possibly shared between households. Most were deliberately destroyed, suggesting taboos on transmission (inheritance). Lorenz curves for features and ground stone artefacts suggest that storage units, unbroken querns and unfinished quern roughouts were the most unequally distributed food preparation facilities. There are indications of subsistence intensification, craft specialization, and emerging factional competition.