62 i Flora Unveiled
a special relationship between felines and women. The woman in whose grave the leop-
ard claw pendant was found was “holding a plastered skull to her chest and face,” suggest-
ing a “special social significance.” According to Hodder, the “claw and its context evoke in
an uncanny way the most iconic image from Çatalhüyük— the woman seated on a seat of
felines. ... Whether she wore the pendant or held the skull wearing the pendant, the cen-
tral role of powerful images of women in the upper part of the site is reinforced.”^68
Unlike the relationship between men and wild animals in the hunting tableaus, the rela-
tionship between women and cats was not one of aggressive dominance. Quite the con-
trary, the relationship appears affectionate and harmonious, as indicated by the gesture of
the leopards’ tails, which are draped over the woman’s shoulders in a kind of embrace. The
protective, “maternal” relationship between women and cats is further reinforced by the
figurine of a seated woman with two leopard cubs on her shoulders (Figure 3.17A).
A mutualistic relationship with cats is also suggested in a figurine from the nearby late
Neolithic village of Hacilar (Figure 3.17B). Hacilar VI, the level at which the figurine in
Figure 3.15B was found, dates from the end of the East Mound sequence at Çatalhüyük
to around 7,400 years ago, making it contemporaneous with the Chalcolithic (Copper
Age) West Mound. The abundance of plant remains relative to animal remains at that
site indicates that agriculture played an even greater role at Hacilar VI than at the East
Mound of Çatalhüyük, and the figurines suggest that cats were held in very high esteem.^69
Figure 3.16 Statuette of Kybele at the Anatolian Museum in Ankara, Turkey, probably dating to
the Iron Age.
Photo by the authors.