Flora Unveiled

54 i Flora Unveiled

Clay Ball Impressions of Plants

Many of the ovens at Çatalhüyük contain rich deposits of large, spherical objects called “clay
balls.” These clay balls were apparently used as “boiling stones” to cook stews, gruels, and
porridges in containers prior to the advent of ceramic pottery.^52 Sonya Atalay has carried out
a detailed analysis of the clay balls at Çatalhüyük and has classified them according to their
shapes, sizes, conditions, and surface elaborations. Of particular interest are the “intentional
markings” that appear to be too deeply impressed into the clay to have been accidental (Figure
3.12). Among the various types of intentional clay ball markings are impressions of baskets,
mattings, and cordage, all of which are plant- based materials, as well as actual impressions of
plants and seeds. Atalay found that about 18% of the clay balls seem to have been intention-
ally decorated in some way. The two most common forms of decoration were plant and seed
impressions (27%) and basket or matting impressions (21%). Thus, approximately half of all
the intentional markings on the ball surfaces were either plants or plant- based products. As
Atalay points out, the freshly made clay balls may have been set inside baskets or on matted
surfaces to dry. Nevertheless, whoever made the balls was probably well aware of these mark-
ings and used them for aesthetic reasons or for purposes of identification:

[T] he people crafting the balls may have also actively used the drying surface, other

nearby woven materials, plants, grasses, seeds, their fingers, palms, or other devices, to

intentionally elaborate the surface of the balls they made, possibly for decoration or as

a sign of ownership or as a sort of maker’s mark, or possibly, as in the case of the plant

and seed impressions, to demonstrate a symbolic association of the balls with plants.^53

Since it is likely that women were primarily responsible for cooking, the clay ball impres-
sions provide us with another symbolic link between women and plants.

Figure 3.11 A small clay female figurine, 2.8 cm high, with a seed pressed into its back, found in a
midden near the surface layers of the South Area of the East Mound.
From Hodder, I. (2004), Catalhoyuk Research Project.