Crop Domestication and Gender j 5757 57
ibexes (see Figure 3.14). This pairing of the “Tree of Life” motif with the (possibly pregnant)
“leopard” relief sculpture suggests that they may be ideologically linked to abundance or
protection.
Today, leopards are largely confined to the rugged Taurus Mountains, but in Neolithic
times they may have also roamed the plateaus and grasslands of central Anatolia, so the
inhabitants of Çatalhüyük may have encountered them with some frequency. The Anatolian
leopard hunted wild ungulates— deer, chamois, mountain goats, and occasionally wild
boar— and would only hunt field mice as a last resort. However, mice are not the only threat
to crops, and the leopard might have been perceived as offering protection against grazing
by deer and other ungulates. Thus, leopards may have had a dual symbolic significance as
fierce carnivores whose skins were worn ritualistically by men in hunting and baiting scenes
and as protectors of the grain crops.
According to Mellaart, most of the elaborate wall art, including the “leopard” reliefs,
begins around level VII, which corresponds to about 8,600 years ago.^61 As noted earlier, a
close relationship between people and cats was already in evidence in Cyprus by 9,500 years
ago. Thus, by the time the feline reliefs become prominent at Çatalhüyük, Neolithic farm-
ers throughout the Fertile Crescent had been using tamed or domesticated cats to protectFigure 3.13 Stone carving of the head of a cat or cat– human hybrid found at the aceramic
Neolithic site of Shillourokambos, Cyprus, ~9,500 years ago.
From Guilaine, Jean (2001), Tête sculptée dans le Néolithique pré- céramique de Shillourokambos
(Parekklisha, Chypre). Paléorient 26:137– 142.