Thread: Looking for a book

Hi.
I've been reading The Leopard's Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Catalhoyuk by Ian Hodder and I'm trying to track down one of his references.

Gebel, H. G. K. 2002. Walls loci of force. In Gebel, H. G. K., Hermansen, B. D. and Jensen, C. H. (eds) Magic practices and ritual in the near eastern neolithic, pp. 119-132, Ex Oriente, Berlin.

I'm interested in the whole book, not just the particular story, article, whatever, but I can't seem to find it for sale on the internet...? Amazon turned up nothing. The only hits I do get are listings in references.

I searched for Ex Oriente and found a site that's in German. It doesn't seem to be a publishing company though... some sort of project from what I gathered...

Anyone know anything about this?

*nudge nudge Skinwalker*

I'd also be interested in other references of this type. I'm particularly interested in early symbolic practices.

World Cat returns 13 libraries worldwide that have the book. If you have a library with access to inter-library loan, you could get it easy enough.

The closest library to the Washington State area was in L.A., Calif at Uni of CA.

Magic practices and ritual in the Near Eastern Neolithic :
proceedings of a workshop held at the 2nd International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE), Copenhagen University, May 2000 /

Hans Georg Gebel; Bo Dahl Hermansen; Charlott Hoffmann Jensen
2002
English Book Book 173 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 30 cm.
Berlin : Ex Oriente, ; ISBN: 3980424197 (pbk.)

It's probably a limited quantity print of the papers presented at the workshop, which is why you can't find it on Amazon.

You can, however, get a copy printed and sent to you for a "nominal" fee: https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_1VM16EQM2.HTM

I put in an ILL request with my Uni library for the paper you listed "Walls. Loci of forces." Sometimes with papers like this, I'll get a pdf version from ILL. If so, you'll be in luck. I'll know in a day or so.

Ah. That explains it.
13 libraries, eh? No wonder I couldn't find it.

Interlibrary loan? Just from a regular public library, yes? I don't have access to a university library, but Snohomish County Libraries should have ILL. I'll look into it.

I would appreciate the pdf if you can get it.

Thanks much.

How about another one for me, Skinwalker? This one is from a journal and would be easier. (Are these requests... proper, by the way?)

Lewis-Williams, J.D. 2004. Constructing a Cosmos: architecture, power, and domestication at Catalhoyuk. Journal of Social Archaeology 4, 28-59.

This one sound really interesting. It's a comparison of some of the behaviors at Catalhoyuk with those of modern-day hunter-gatherers such as the San Bushmen.


What is interesting to me from what's mentioned in the book is the idea that the Shaman draws his power from the wild rather than from the domesticated world.

It seems simple, but has a lot of connotations.

In the modern day, we worship the social. Our culture. Our society.
But, in the art at Catalhoyuk, domesticated animals are not represented although they are more commonly found in the midden heaps (aside from feastings) than wild animals. Also, plants are never represented.

The ritual leaders had to go beyond the human world.

....

I'm not saying this well. The thoughts are still kinda topsy turvy in my head and it's rather late.

This all seems rather important though.


Also.
Another thing that strikes me as interesting (on a slightly different subject) is the use of figurines for daily rituals. They are used to strengthen walls and commemorate new hearths or retire old ones, etc... (All conjectured, of course.)

But, there seems to be a prevalence of the removal of heads. The head of the figurines are almost always broken off. Also, many relief figures on the wall have had their heads and hands removed. For the longest time, it was thought that some of the figures on the walls represented an earth mother goddess, but it's been recently found that they are actually animal figures instead.

This removal of heads reminds me of Joseph Campbell's version of the original murder myth. That is, in the "dream-time" (varies by culture) man was immortal and knew neither death nor hunger. But, there came a time when a murder took place in this golden age. Generally, the victim is decapitated. The head is buried to try to hide the crime. But, a plant grows from the spot where the head was buried to give away the crime. The plant varies by culture, but is the staple plant of the region.

After this murder, man is mortal. And must eat. But there is now the staple plant to feed him.

From death life. And from life death.


This somewhat contradicts the obsession with the wild animals in the art at Catalhoyuk though. Plant domestication was altogether ignored.

Anyway.
A muddled morass of thoughts. I know.

Thanks for your help.

Originally Posted by invert_nexus

How about another one for me, Skinwalker? This one is from a journal and would be easier. (Are these requests... proper, by the way?)

Lewis-Williams, J.D. 2004. Constructing a Cosmos: architecture, power, and domestication at Catalhoyuk. Journal of Social Archaeology 4, 28-59.

This one sound really interesting. It's a comparison of some of the behaviors at Catalhoyuk with those of modern-day hunter-gatherers such as the San Bushmen.

I've just put that article in my Read Next folder (there's quite a few there!). I'm going to have to check out the Ian Hodder book as well. I've been fascinated by Çatalhöyük since my very first archaeology class.

Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always check the article title in Google. You'd be surprised how many times it'll pop up. Often the author wants to be able to link to it and will put it up on a personal or academic site.

Constructing a Cosmos: Architecture, Power and Domestication at Çatalhöyük

Enjoy!

Sweetness.

Thanks a lot. I should have googled it, but I guess I was so disappointed in my lack of results on the first, I gave up without even trying on the second.

If you still need the "Walls. Loci of Forces" article, let me know. My ILL request came in today but I'll still need to scan it to a pdf image for you. I've skimmed the article... pretty interesting stuff. I have the other one on my reading list too.

Thanks, at least, for turning me on to the "Constructing Cosmos" article. That one is right in-line with my general research interests.

Missed your post. Now it's some 10 days later?
Do you still have it? I'd like to read it.

Yep! PM me with an email address and I'll send you a pdf file.