People of Çatalhöyük: Shrines to the Mother and the Cow (7,000 BCE)

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Çatalhöyük is also in Turkey, and is the site of the earliest known town at the hub of the first complex civilisation that we have evidence of. Archaeologists believe that it functioned as a trading centre for nomadic hunter-gatherers as well as a residential town for a population of around 6,000. Apart from houses, there were other buildings with specific purposes such as grain stores, animal enclosures, markets, workshops, and shrines. There is also evidence that the earliest known economy developed here, based around trading in livestock, particularly cattle, and an early form of writing was developed to keep track of the ownership of cattle and other property.

The depiction of cattle is prevalent throughout ancient art and had been a repeated feature of cave paintings. It appears that to the people of Çatalhöyük, cows were holy. Here again, we also have the obese female figure being worshipped, this time in a purpose built temple, probably as a mother goddess of fertility and abundance. At the time when Çatalhöyük was established, the world human population had increased into the millions and agriculture had begun to develop as a result… some of the goddess figures found here are depicted in the process of giving birth, and share their shrines with stylised carvings of cows and the horned heads of cattle. This leads some commentators to believe that the people saw a correlation of the two, mother and cow, as essential elements for survival.

The mother figure is very obviously required for the continuation of the human race. Even with no knowledge of biology, it is quite clear where the baby is physically produced! It is theorised that this observation would lead to a belief that all, or most, acts of creation were from the feminine principle. It is the female of the species that literally births the next generation, be that human, goat, bird, or cattle. This would lead to a general understanding that the feminine principle is more dynamic than the masculine, and so fertility and creativity became associated with, and attributed to, the mother figure. This resulted in all known prehistoric religions having a matriarchal focus, with the worship of goddesses as a central feature.

image from Wikimedia Commons

The reverence for cows would have stemmed from this general belief system, but the cow would also have been seen as an essential survival tool for other obvious reasons. A hunted cow could render up meat, leather, horn, bone and so on, but if you have access to a domesticated cow, you have a source of milk, manure, warmth and of course more cows. A cow can eat grass and straw, which are indigestible to a human, but turn these into milk, which is nutritious and could well make the difference between surviving through lean periods or not. In cold weather, the cow would also provide heat for your dwelling. If you have cows to spare, you can have meat, or trade calves for other food, goods and labour… Anyone with ‘cattle to spare’, would have been considered rich.

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