good indication of disposable capital. Even the diff ering sizes
of private tombs imply diff erences in rank and status. Th is
evidence serves to correct the notion that everyone in ancient
Egypt was mummifi ed at death and accorded a lavish burial.
Th e truth of the matter is quite diff erent. Th e remains of or-
dinary people were treated simply. A grave furnished with a
few personal possessions was all that the lower classes could
expect. Th e relatively small number of tombs preserved from
all periods in proportion to population estimates off ers yet
another example of the separation between the small upper
class and the much larger lower classes.
When the unlimited expenditure used for a royal burial
is compared with the simple preparation for a common grave,
the disparity between the two major classes in ancient Egypt
becomes even clearer. Th e oft en-cited example of the material
from Tutankhamen’s tomb includes one coffi n of solid gold
that weighed 300 pounds. In contrast, the grave of a work-
man might have contained a bronze razor or a mirror. It is
hardly necessary to add that Tutankhamen was a minor ruler
who died young and was buried in a tomb prepared for some-
one else. It is diffi cult to imagine what would have accom-
panied such great kings as Amenhotep III or Ramses II in
their burials, a reminder of the pyramidal structure of society
in ancient Egypt with the supreme ruler at the apex and a
gradual lessening of responsibility and wealth at each wider
level below.THE MIDDLE EAST
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Th ere are large gaps in modern knowledge of the ancient soci-
eties of the Near East, partly because many did not leave relics
in durable materials such as stone, partly because on occasion
entire peoples were wiped out with few traces of their having
existed and partly because much of the modern Near East has
been and still is very dangerous for archaeologists, with many
important sites having been out of their reach for decades at
a time.ÇATALHÜYÜK
One ancient people whose existence was forgotten for thou-
sands of years lived at Çatalhüyük, in south-central Turkey.
Th e ruins of this large village or small town—its population
was perhaps 5,000 to 8,000—lay undiscovered until 1958. Th e
earliest structures so far excavated date to before 7200 b.c.e.,
predating sites in Mesopotamia that were long thought to be
the oldest urban areas in the world. Th e people at Çatalhüyük
seem to have left no written language, so their social organi-
zation has to be deduced from physical remains.
Çatalhüyük consisted of mud-brick houses built side by
side with no streets or passageways between them, making
it look somewhat like a beehive. It had no defensive walls,
but attackers would have had to fi ght house by house to get
into and through it. In eff ect, the houses themselves were
walls. Th ey had no doorways and rarely had windows. Peoplemoved about by climbing through trapdoors in their ceilings
and walking from roof to roof, sometimes using ladders when
the roofs were uneven.
Many, perhaps even most houses had shrines in them,
suggesting that religious ritual was an important part of ev-
eryday life. Some houses were much bigger than others, and
the burials that are richest in goods tend to be under the fl oors
of the larger houses, suggesting that some members of soci-
ety ranked higher than others, perhaps forming a social elite
group. Th e people of Çatalhüyük oft en buried their dead in
their homes, under large platforms on which people could sit.
Paintings on walls of headless people being picked at by vul-
tures suggests a custom of leaving corpses out to be cleaned
by scavenging birds, but many burials were of completely in-
tact bodies, which seems to contradict the idea that corpses
were picked clean before burial. Perhaps there were divergent
burial customs; perhaps the paintings have another meaning.
Th e dead were segregated by gender into separate graves, w it h
women typically having the larger coverings and the better
burial goods, suggesting that Çatalhüyük had a matriarchal
society, meaning a society in which women were dominant
over men. Many archaeologists believe that early societies in
the region of Turkey were matriarchal.
Th e dwellings of Çatalhüyük are rich in manufactured
products such as ceramic vessels. Excavations have revealed
that these objects were created in homes. A section of each
house seems to have been designated for craft work. At pres-
ent, archaeologists suspect that every member of society
was expected to know basic craft s such as basket weaving
and home building. Çatalhüyük was abandoned sometime
around 5600 b.c.e. Th e cause for its desertion is unknown.
Some of the skeletons that have been recovered show signs of
a mosquito-carried disease that may have killed many people,
but this evidence does not necessarily mean that the settle-
ment was affl icted with an epidemic. Instead, some residents
may simply have come from marshlands to the south, where
the disease and mosquitoes were more likely to be found.JERICHO
Among very ancient remains are those of Jericho, in what was
later known as Palestine. In about 8000 b.c.e. people built a
large stone wall and a 30-foot-tall tower at this location. Ar-
chaeologists disagree over what the tower was for, with some
insisting it was a watchtower, others supposing it was used for
astronomical observations, and still others believing it was a
defensive structure intended to protect either stored grain or
a spring, or both. Th e tower has a sophisticated design and
is not just a pile of rocks. It had an interior stairway, and its
stones were fi tted carefully together. Th e skill shown in the
construction suggests that even earlier stone walls and towers
must have existed somewhere in the area, since the builders at
Jericho clearly were sure of their techniques.
Th e wall and tower are associated with human skulls that
were apparently cleaned and then covered with clay sculp-
tures of human faces, with seashells for their eyes. Th is treat-1018 social organization: The Middle East0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1018 1018 10/10/07 2:30:46 PM