Humanization of buildings. The Neolithic ritual of burying the sacred

Description

One of the striking aspects of the Neolithic Period is the excellent state of preservation of the architectural remains, particularly cult buildings. It has been astounding to consider mud brick buildings, for example at Çatalhöyük, standing up to 2 meters high with no sign of degradation of either plastered surfaces or painted decoration, or of revetment walls at Göbeklitepe, in places preserved over 5 meters, with loosely placed monoliths still standing upright. With these and other similar cases in mind, we scrutinized the architectural remains at Çayönü for the modalities of their excellent state of preservation. Taking into consideration indicators such as blocked doorways, rebuilding at the same location without using stones of earlier buildings, and selective patterns of finds left in the buildings, we concluded that almost all buildings related to communal practices or cult, or those that served as prestigious homes, were intentionally buried, some initially by burning....

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