Entity · Concept
History houses
A reference page linking a name, group, or concept to the materials that discuss it.
A modern concept for certain Çatalhöyük houses accumulating rebuilding, burials and elaboration over time. It concerns a place’s history and group, without making the house a temple or every building identical.
Text
A house accumulating memory
Ian Hodder and Peter Pels proposed history houses to understand variation in elaboration, burials and architectural continuity at ÇatalhöyükÇatalhöyükA Neolithic site in central Anatolia where domestic houses combined dwelling with burial, symbolism and social memory.Glossary · Click to read the explanation. Buildings had domestic uses, while some accumulated histories that may extend their role beyond one generation’s residential group.[1]
A research concept, not an ancient name
This is a modern analytical name; no Neolithic writing establishes that inhabitants used it. Continuity and rebuilding alone prove neither sacredness nor kinship among all the buried. The excavation image illustrates architectural layers contextually, without identifying the pictured building as a history house.
References and notes
- Ian Hodder & Peter Pels (2010). History houses: A new interpretation of architectural elaboration at Çatalhöyük. In Religion in the Emergence of Civilization, 163–186. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511761416.007. Publisher summary and excerpt only: domestic use and variation in accumulated history, burials and elaboration. The full chapter was not read; “history houses” is the researchers’ concept. Return to the text ↑
Research history
Substantive changes are retained here. Minor copy edits remain in the internal operational log.
-
Substantive record update
Suggest a correction · Suggest a source for this record
Cite this record
IL Archive, «History houses», Edition 2, https://ilarchive.com/en/entities/history-house