[] [by: Ian Hodder] [Oct-2011]

SEDENTARISM, AGGREGATION, AND AGRICULTURE IN ANATOLIA, ÇATALHÖYÜK
Ian Hodder and his book The Leopard's Tale represent an important step or stage in the field of archaeology and anthropology. It studies the city of Çatalhöyük in Anatolia which flourished from 7,400 to 6,000 BCE in what he calls the Pre-Pottery Neolithic.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic Chronology
PPNA (ca 8,500 to 7,500 BCE) Jericho, Netiv Hagdud, Nahul Oren, Gesher, Dhar', Jerf al Ahmar, Abu Hureyra, Göbekli Tepe, Chogha Golan, Beidha.
PPNB (ca 7,500 to 6,200 BCE) Abu Hureyra, Ain Ghazal, Çatalhöyük, Cayönü Tepesi, Jericho, Shillourokambos, Chogha Golan, Göbekli Tepe.
PPNC (ca 6,200 to 5,500 BCE) Hagoshrim, Ain Ghazal.
This book is essential since it studies a city that flourished some 2000 years after Gobekli Tepe was built, or at least had reached a certain level of achievement, exactly when in this region of the world the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and herding was taking place. In fact, at this time the two developments were arriving from the Fertile Crescent, according to the standard approach. This development goes along with sedentarism and agglomeration for the populations concerned. The question is to know whether the first constructions were ritualistic, religious, or spiritual centers like Gobekli Tepe, and the residential cities developed later, as Ian Hodder states, or if agriculture came first and caused sedentarism and then agglomeration which would state the spiritual development is simultaneous or even posterior. The third solution would be a simultaneous and reciprocal transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture-herding, the former going down and the latter going up over a long period. Ian Hodder does not solve the problem, but he leans towards spiritual development and buildings first, sedentarism and agglomeration second. This debate is fundamental, and we must keep in mind this case of the Fertile Crescent is only one case in the world in the same period, after the peak of the Ice Age (19,000 BCE for the peak itself and the whole top period of this Ice Age covers about 8,000 or 10,000 years from at most 24,000 BCE to at most 14,000 BCE. I agree with Ian Hodder on one essential element. Dates have to be given from one fictitious year ZERO, and it is the beginning of our present era, most often known as the Christian Era. Hence older dates have to be given in BCE terms and in the proper orientation of the timeline, so moving towards the present time. In BCE date the year 3 BCE comes after the year 4 BCE, or vice versa the year 4 BCE comes before the year 3 BCE. Some authors very systematically follow the numbers from smaller to bigger, which is absurd in prehistory and archaeology. Ian Hodder acknowledges that on page 44, he should have used BCE years rather than years ago or YA in illustrations 18 and 19.
But this transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture-herding is essential. I will defend the idea that during the ten thousand years or so of extreme cold, human beings, Homo Sapiens since all other Hominins had become extinct then, had had to regroup south or north according to the hemisphere to resist the cold, and had had to intensify their exploitation of natural resources to simply survive. This intensification of taking care of the natural garden led them to observations and reflections that made the emergence of agriculture possible. We must also understand that before that peak of the ice age, the Gravettians for instance in Europe had developed seasonal permanent residential constructions with wooden skeletons carrying earth packed on top. This back base was for the winter, whereas during the summer they followed the wild herds that went north or south according to the hemispheres. That is to say, the observations and the data collected by Ian Hodder is here essential for a wider approach and I am thinking of the Middle East of course, but also of Asia and the three rivers in Yunnan and Southeast Asia, the Yangtze (Jinsha), Mekong and Salween, or the Indian subcontinent and the Indus and Ganges. But we must also think of the Nile in Egypt, the Congo in central Africa, and some others north or south of the Congo River, plus the lakes and rivers in Eastern Africa. We have to think of the Amazon river in South America (it is not the only one) and the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in North America, and these are not the only ones. Specific forms of agriculture developed autonomously in those various zones at about the same time, between, 14,000 BCE and 3,000 BCE. I choose 14,000 BCE because that's the real beginning of climate change with the thawing of the ice, and then 3,000 BCE because it corresponds to the period when writing is being developed all over the world. Between 14,000 BCE and the year 1 CE, the water went up 120 meters. We do not cope with this phenomenon properly, and the water had to come down the rivers and probably caused a lot of flooding, and repetitive floods before finally getting more or less regular at the beginning of the Christian Era.
So, this book is crucial. I am going to get into it and my reading will be critical not so much on the data collected, but on what I think is missing, and this limits what could and can be said about this transition.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

Lien : https://jacquescoulardeau.me..