Unwanted Inhabitants?

The Neolithic of southwest Asia is a critical time inhuman history; it saw the emergence of agriculturethe beginning of prolonged sedentism a change incultural and ritual practices and the advent ofcomplex societies. With this came not only apractical change in resource management but also anideological shift in how these resources were viewed.By comparing microfaunal assemblages from two verydifferent sites in Anatolia Çatalhöyük andP?narba?? Emma Jenkins explores how microfauna canbe used to provide information about thepalaeoenvironment the effects of sedentism onmicrofaunal communities and past ritual and culturalbeliefs. The results show that while the Çatalhöyükassemblage consists predominantly of house mice nocommensal species were found at P?narba?? indicatingthat sedentism does lead to commensalism. Thediscovery of dense concentrations of microfaunaderived from carnivore scats and incorporated intohuman burials at Çatalhöyük suggests that smallmammals or their predators had a role in the rituallife at the site. These findings are useful to otherresearchers studying the Neolithic and to thoseinterested in the field of microfaunal analysis.