Genomic Study Reveals Both Matrilocal and Patrilocal Patterns at Neolithic Catalhoyuk

A genomics study published in the journal Science examined DNA from 131 individuals buried beneath 35 houses at Catalhoyuk and concluded that female offspring remained connected to specific buildings between 70 and 100 percent of the time. The 46-author study screened 395 skeletons recovered from house floors and found that the individuals were more likely to be related along maternal lines.

Young females, including infants, were buried with up to five times as many grave goods as boys, while the overall proportion of girls and boys among the children was roughly equal.

Catalhoyuk, located about one hour southeast of Konya in Turkiye, was occupied for roughly 1,000 years from about 7000 to 6000 BC. The settlement, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, consists of two large tells formed by 18 successive layers of construction in which new homes were built directly atop older ones.

Houses lacked streets and front doors; residents entered through ceiling hatches above hearths and buried their dead in pits beneath clay platforms inside the dwellings.

Some buildings contained wall paintings and bull’s horns set into alcoves, benches or platforms, and these structures tended to contain larger numbers of burials. Polish archaeologist Arek Marciniak, who participated in the study, said his team discovered a plaza on the east mound in 2022.

“We managed for the first time to identify sex or gender of all these children’s skeletons there,” he said while standing in the shade on the plaza.

“It turned out that the children were more or less the same proportion, girls and boys. ” The genomic data set is more extensive than any prior genomic research on Neolithic settlements in Anatolia, Marciniak stated. Earlier isotope studies had found no dietary difference between females and males.

Ian Hodder, who directed excavations at the site for more than 20 years and is a professor of archaeology at Koc University in Istanbul and professor emeritus at Stanford University, said the results indicate females played a central role but not a dominant one.

” he asked. Current excavation lead Ali Ozan noted that several female figurines have been recovered, including the Seated Woman of Catalhoyuk found in an 8,500-year-old grain bin in 1961 and now displayed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.

Two similar figurines were discovered at the site in 2016. The east mound was deserted by 5700 BC. No signs of organised violence have been identified across the centuries of occupation, Ozan said. Population estimates for the settlement range from 3,500 to 8,000 at peak periods.

Archaeologists have observed that the equality in physical condition documented at Catalhoyuk resembles patterns found in some present-day matrilineal communities, such as the Mosuo in China, the Minangkabau in Indonesia and the Khasi in India.