Abstract
Çatalhöyük needs little introduction to students of Eurasian prehistory. Situated on the Konya Plain, Turkey, the 21 m depth of densely-packed, superimposed house remains – replete with wall paintings, cattle-horn installations, and underfloor burials – that make up the Neolithic tell settlement of Çatalhöyük East Mound (ca.7100–5950 BC) have caught the imagination of archaeologists and laypeople alike, ever since they were first excavated by James Mellaart in the 1960s. Much less well known, however, is the nearby West Mound (ca. 6100–5600 BC). A little smaller, a little later, and considerably less thoroughly researched, Çatalhöyük West is at best a footnote in accounts of the site. This chapter describes my experience as the zooarchaeologist for the Çatalhöyük West Mound Project (WMP) from 2006 to 2016. My role was to provide specialist support to a field project – a loose remit allowing me to refine a research agenda in response to developments in the field. As such there is no tidy, hypothesis-driven research design to set out here. Likewise, analysis is still underway so there are no neat conclusions. Instead, this chapter focuses on challenges encountered along the way.
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