RITUAL

One feature which makes Qatal Hdyiik rather unique is that there are no specifically “dedicated” ritual buildings or spaces. All the houses are of more or less equal size, and all seem to have domestic and ritual appurtenances but not dedicated spaces.

Rather than being a separate domain, ritual seems to have been “built in” in the houses in Qatal Hdyiik, from the time of their planning and construction to their use and abandonment. Thus, infant burials below thresholds, animal bones beneath walls, tools built into floors, and figurines inserted into the construction material of ovens and walls all indicate how the construction of houses was “carefully planned and ritually sanctioned” (Hodder 2006: 117). In the course of “the life” of a house, figurines and bones were inserted into the walls of ovens or under the floors, perhaps as brief “acts” for “achieving or effecting wishes” (Hodder 2006: 194). Also surrounding the abandonment of a house were specific practices - cleaning floors, often placing cattle scapulae near hearths, removing posts, truncating bins, feasting on wild animals such as bulls - before setting fire to the house (Hodder 2006: 130). It is assumed that there were ritual specialists, although they do not need to have been proper shamans (Hodder 2006: 170; Hodder & Meskell 2010: 61).

Remarkable at Qatal Hdyiik are the wall decoration and the plastering of the walls. It would seem that in all of the houses, some walls and floors were decorated at some point with “unusual” decoration - paintings in colour - but only temporarily. Afterwards, the wall was replastered, and whatever motifs had been painted were hidden behind a new layer of plaster; any plaster appurtenances were removed or buried. Replastering, that is white-washing the walls, seems to have been done regularly, perhaps every month or every season. religion or dogma in Qatal Hoyiik. Thus, there may be a basis for suggesting a development in the religion from a more material form in the earlier levels to a more discursive form in the later levels (Hodder 2010c: 346).