Catal Huyuk

 


Following on from Elaine's comment on roof top living (as part of houses in a 'honeycomb structure') in the neolithic town of Catal Huyuk, some more information about the equality of living space:

The interesting fact is thus that the maximum living space possible was not used from the beginning but only when the need arose - and when it declined, living space was reduced again. If all houses had been equally large, it would have given the impression of equality on the outside, but actually individual persons would have been treated very unequally: an individual in a large family would have had less space at his or her disposal than in a small one. The fact that the houses were adapted to real circumstances ensured that each person always had 10 to 12 sqm to him- or herself. The "living houses" of Çatalhöyük (Balter 1998: 1445, Hodder 2002: 5/2) show that the needs of the people were a socially mandatory basis of production. This evidence is confirmed and complemented by the analysis of burial objects and skeletons.

This was a classless, violence less, robbery less, war less society which existed for 3000 years, where less than half of productive time was spent working, and dancing and feasting was used as a means of social cohesion.  So much so that the thigh bones of almost half of the adults showed an anatomical alteration which might have originated from dancing (Angel 1971: 92-94)!  

[ Let's dance like no one's watching, as much as possible!]

This information is from a detailed piece here -  http://www.urkommunismus.de/catalhueyuek_en.html#revolution

a shorter summary of this article can be found here -  http://www.socialismtoday.org/125/neolithic.html , which concludes with these words:

The egalitarian form of society which lasted for more than 3,000 years in Anatolia and the Balkans shows that it does not lie in the nature of human beings to be greedy, to kill and oppress. This is a confirmation of the Marxist thesis that ‘conditions determine conciousness’. Capitalist conditions create the so-called ‘elbow mentality’ (hard competition), but also the realisation that the majority of people suffer under these conditions and that only collective resistance can change the conditions of life.