Limits to a public archaeology? Two new books about Çatalhöyük

Abstract

On 18 May 2001 Science magazine ran an article by Robert Koenig titled 'Creationism takes root where Europe, Asia meet'. It documented the increasing success of an anti-evolutionist lobby in securing changes to the Turkish national curriculum and marginalizing scholars who adhere to a secular, Darwinian view of biological change. Many scientists in Turkey, wrote Koenig, 'fear they are losing ground to Turkish creationists in the wider court of public opinion especially in provinces where Islamic fundamentalism is strongest'. One such region is Konya in central Turkey, home to the prehistoric site of <:;atalhoyiik, a key resource for understanding the development of early farming communities and the westward spread of Neolithic economies and lifestyles from their locus of origin in the Middle East. Since 1993 <:;atalhoyiik has been the site of a widely publicized archaeological proj ect, led by Ian Hodder of Stanford University, which has attracted an international team of experts and technical resources that far exceed those available to most prehistoric excavations. The site and Hodder's activities have also attracted the interest of another Science correspondent, Michael Balter, who first covered <:;atalhoyiik in 1998 with,an article titled 'Digging into the life of the mind'. This was followed by a succession of short pieces in the same magazine (a vaila ble at http://www.michaelbalter.com/ articles. php) that raised the profile of the <:;atalhoyiik Research Project, as well as bringing current archaeological debates over the origins of farming and the spread of Indo-European languages to a wider readership. Balter further brought to public attention the sea-change in archaeological interpretation initiated by Hodder under the banner of 'post-processualism', and the importance of <:;atalhoyiik as a pilot project for a new kind of archaeology. While embracing the latest scientific techniques, this new kind of archaeology was to be less confined than its 'processualist' predecessors by the stringencies of evolutionary theory, more open to the symbolic worlds of prehistoric societies and better attuned to the biases and uncertainties of modern interpretations. Perhaps most ambitiously, it was seeking to break down the barriers that traditionally separate fieldwork from interpretation, by housing a large team of specialists on-site and engaging them directly in the decision-making processes of daily excavation an exciting methodological departure, but also a potential source of tension between professional excavators and full-time academics, who are often drawn to fieldwork for quite different reasons. Balter, sensing the makings of a larger story, became a regular fixture at <:;atalhoyiik over a period of six years, during which he conducted extensive interviews with staff members. Some divulged to him highly personal information about themselves, their families, their early careers and professional motivations, which Balter clearly felt would lend necessary human interest to an otherwise dull story of ... well ... 'the dawn of civilization'.