The place that caused the Neolithic.

The place that caused the Neolithic. Gordon Childe's ideas about conditions in the Near and MiddleEast directly or indirectly influenced the study of early farming andsedentism the world over. The principle (Childe 1954: 23-4) that socialstructure and organisation were bent to the demands of technology wasfamiliar, of course, from the Industrial Revolution but, considering thesocial organisation Noun 1. social organisation - the people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships; "the social organization of England and America is very different"; "sociologists have studied the changing structure of the family" envisaged, could rapid innovation really haveoccurred among the gatherer-hunter bands of 10 000 and 12 000 years ago?Compare, by contrast, Peru's North Coast or the Mississippi, wherelater monuments were built without full dependence on agriculture. Thediscovery, beside the Euphrates, that sedentism came first made goodsense (Moore et al. 2000). Nor, perhaps, were aquatic resources thenecessary condition for a monument, as witness the excavations by KlausSchmidt (2006) at Gobekli Tepe, in the southern part of Turkey'sEuphrates drainage, where occupation is dated to 9500-8100 BC. TheT-shaped carved pillars that, at the time of writing, Schmidt was stilldigging provided the Leitmotif leit��mo��tifalso leit��mo��tiv ?n.1. A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element.2. A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel. for an exhibition which suggested that,far from causing sedentism, agriculture responded to it. The BadischesLandesmuseum, at Karlsruhe Castle, mounted Vor 12.000 Jahren inAnatolien: the altesten Monumente der Menschheit ('12 000 Years Agoin Anatolia: Mankind's Oldest Monuments') from 20 January,this year, to 17 June (see Figure 1). The gallery was divided in three and each of the parts into two,with the following exhibits and themes: (1.1) full scale reconstructionof one of the settings of pillars--showing ornamentation ornamentationIn music, the addition of notes for expressive and aesthetic purposes. For example, a long note may be ornamented by repetition or by alternation with a neighboring note (“trill”); a skip to a nonadjacent note can be filled in with the intervening discovered asrecently as autumn 2006--on the terrace that they occupied, accompaniedby sculptures found there and a big photograph of the site's longview; (1.2) Cayonu, where Robert Braidwood, Halet Cambel et al.discovered occupation that began earlier and continued much longer;(2.1) the settlement of Nevali Cori Nevalı ?ori was an early Neolithic Pre-Pottery Neolithic (BPPNB) settlement on the middle Euphrates, in the province of Şanlıurfa (Urfa), eastern Turkey. The site is famous for having revealed some one of the world's most ancient known temples and of its oldest , dated 8600-8000 BC, withdiscoveries of Harald Hauptmann's, including a cast, from his'archive', of one of the pillars, like Gobekli Tepe's;and related finds from elsewhere in Turkey, including decorated steatite steatite:see soapstone. pottery from Kortik Tepe; (2.2) Catal Huyuk, including reconstructionsof walls and chambers and information from Ian Hodder's currentproject; (3.1) the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic of westernAnatolia, including Hacdar, and European Turkey; (3.2) theLinearbandkeramik (LBK LBK Lubbock (Texas)LBK Linearbandkeramik (European Archaeological Culture)LBK Landing Barge, Kitchen (US Navy)LBK Lutherske BekjennelseskirkeLBK Location-Based Key ) culture of Europe The culture of Europe might better be described as a series of overlapping cultures. Whether it is a question of West as opposed to East; Christianity as opposed to Islam; many have claimed to identify cultural fault lines across the continent. . (1.1-3.1) comprised some 400exhibits, nearly all borrowed from 11 museums in Turkey, not countingthe reproductions and casts, and (3.2) comprised about 50 pieces, mostlythe museum's own but supplemented from other collections inGermany. At the end of the exhibition were stated 11 issues, from 'Whatwould have happened had the Neolithic not occurred?' to 'Werethere comparable developments elsewhere in the world?' Instructionprevailed over authenticity: three of Gobekli Tepe's pillars wereminutely replicated according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. laser scans of the originals, whichremain in situ In place. When something is "in situ," it is in its original location. ; and, along with the reconstructions of Catal Huyuk,there were casts of sculptures, architectural fragments and ornaments,models of Gobekli Tepe, Cayonu, Nevah Cori and Catal Huyuk, photographsof features, monuments and landscapes, and reproductions of iconographicmotifs. The CD-ROM accompanying the show was available in the gallery.Specimens of stone and other fabrics were provided for handling andthere was a workshop for schools to experiment with stone. The designmitigated the show's size, while the spacing and lighting providedplenty to admire in each part without a sense of busyness. The labelswere in German with selected information in French and Turkish. The wellillustrated catalogue (Lichter 2007) has 45 detailed and thoughtfularticles and notes by experts from around the world (it does not includethe LBK exhibits). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The exhibition's arrangement suggested the following argument.Gobekli Tepe and Nevah Cori were symbols of communities: visits became arite, expressed, in due course, by building chambers into the hillside,laying the roofs on monolithic pillars carved--repeatedly at GobekliTepe--with images of animals, people and perhaps abstract symbols too(Lichter 2007: 269). At Cayonu, in the same region, there was housingfor lengthy residence supported (the exhibits showed) by both huntingand intensive exploitation of plants. To the west, (Catal Huyuk, AsikliHuyuk, Hacilar etc. developed Cayonu's formula, growing larger andpracticing more elaborate ceremonies. Adapting, the pattern then spreadfurther westward. First, thus, came commitment to places and then the farming to letworshippers stay permanently. Fustel de Coulanges and Durkheim argued,long ago, that rites moulded 'early' society, the formerexplaining how critical was the site of worship, 'the symbol of asedentary life', in connection with the respective social group andits property (Fustel de Coulanges 1956: 61). Indeed, Gobekli Tepe had aseries of monumental chambers, so the exhibition begged questions: whenwas the site first so valued and how long was it before the firstchamber was built; how many people took part and how were theyorganised? The show dwelt dwelt?v.A past tense and a past participle of dwell. on iconography (cp. Russell & McGowan2003): Gobekli Tepe and Nevali Cori imply a preoccupation withfertility, both human and perhaps too that of animals; but what wasspecial about these locations, how did the builders subsist sub��sist?v. sub��sist��ed, sub��sist��ing, sub��sistsv.intr.1. a. To exist; be.b. To remain or continue in existence.2. , and how dida sense of belonging or property arise? Did building reflect or evenhelp to form institutions later used to organise the economy? In orderto explain the consequences of--and conditions for--sedentism, theexhibition should have made more of Cayonu's economic evidence.There are implications for more survey in the district, with particularattention to the economy. To complement the exhibition, the museum ran a programme ofassociated events. Vor 12.000 Jahren looked sure, at the time ofwriting, to draw practically 100 000 visitors in all. They will havefound it thought-provoking and memorable. Acknowledgements Prof. H. Siebenmorgen and Mrs U. Richardt exceeded duty inwelcoming me to Karlsruhe Castle and explaining the exhibition; and Ialso benefited from the company of Peter Biehl, David Barrowclough,Shahina Farid, Caroline Malone, Arkadiusz Marciniak and Simon Stoddart.Thanks also go to Dr Stoddart for first alerting me to the exhibition;to Prof. A.J. Legge for comments on a draft of this note (not all ofwhich were used); and to Helen Strudwick for technical help. References CHILDE, V.G. 1954. New Light on the Most Ancient East (5thedition). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. FUSTEL DE COULANGES, N.D. 1956. The Ancient City: a Study on theReligion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome. Garden City (NY):Doubleday Anchor. LICHTER, C. (ed.). 2007. Vor 12.000 Jahren in Anatolien: thealtesten Monumente der Menschheit Karlsruhe: Badisches Landesmuseum. MOORE, A.M.T., G.C. HILLMAN Hillman was a famous British automobile marque, manufactured by the Rootes Group. It was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England, from 1907 to 1976. Before 1907 the company had built bicycles. & A.J. LEGGE. 2000. Village on theEuphrates: from Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press. RUSSELL, N. & K.J. McGOWAN. 2003. Dance of the cranes: cranesymbolism at Catalhoyuk and beyond. Antiquity 77: 445-55. SCHMIDT, K. 2006. Sie bauten die ersten Tempel: das ratselhafteHeiligtum der Steinzeitjager. Munich: C.H. Beck. N. James, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge,Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK