Home, annex or pied-à-terre? Assessing the socioeconomic dimension of small-sized built environments at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia

Built environments provide valuable information on domestic and group activities, the development of household identities, and the changing use of space. In the case of Neolithic communities in the Near East, interpretations have often been articulated around the concept of autonomous households as the principal elements of social and economic organisation, each occupying discrete buildings that showed a high degree of spatial standardisation. However, a strong research focus on the architectural homogeneities of domestic buildings may have masked differentiations promoted by variable economic and social practices. This paper aims to draw attention to the multiple forms in which buildings occurred at the clustered settlement of Çatalhöyük (Türkiye) by focusing on the insufficiently studied small-sized built environments, those under ca. 10m 2 in extension. Assumed to be socially and economically dependent on larger houses, the functional role that these small constructions played in the constitution of the large settled community at Çatalhöyük has been seldom explored. This study uses thin-section micromorphology to examine the stratigraphic sequence of a small built environment, Space 87, observed in the field to display a complex life-history spanning multiple phases of occupation and architectural renovation. Micro-contextual analyses have contributed to unravelling formation processes, transformations, and use and concepts of space in this structure. Results highlight the great degree of dynamism and symbolic evidence of Space 87, akin to that observed in larger buildings, as reflected by multiple burials, recurrent floor refurbishments and fire installation replacements. The micro-stratigraphic history of this small built environment points to the repeated restructuring of its living space as a means to balance the architectural standardisation traditionally displayed by Neolithic buildings at Çatalhöyük with the adaptations to changes in its socio-economic function and risks to its constructional integrity.