Ancient Air
Air pollution is a modern problem not an ancient one—or at least at first glance you’d think so.
But maybe the lungs of the Neolithic inhabitants of Çatalhöyük would beg to differ. Çatalhöyük is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Turkey with many layers of inhabitation. However, it is most famous for its extremely early and intriguing buildings and ritual objects. (Above photo of a model room at the site, photo by Elelicht, Wiki)
Firing up the oven at Çatalhöyük
One of the features of the site is a replica of one of the Neolithic houses that visitors can explore. It contains a working model of a domed oven like those the archaeologists excavated.
Some researchers approached the site with a question they’d been thinking about. What are the effects on the humans who live in such small homes without proper chimneys? So, they fired up the replica oven and hearth. Environmental engineers assisted archaeologists to assess the air quality. Not good.
Their findings: “Domestic burning of wood and dung fuels in Neolithic homes would have exceeded modern internationally-agreed standards for indoor air quality, exposing inhabitants to unsafe levels of particulates.”
A study of the human remains showed some signs of this, although not all the direct damage can be observed from skeletons.
Uncomfortably Relevant
When I read about the profound health problems that arise from breathing in hearth smoke, I cannot help but think about the raging wildfires of today. Too often these days we are living in the equivalent of a giant Neolithic hut in terms of air quality. And I don’t think turning on the hepa filters is a sufficient solution. We should be doing the big work that will lead to fewer fires, floods, and all the other “unusual” weather-related problems that are anything but unusual now. I’d prefer not to live with Neolithic levels of bad air.
I do love experimental archaeology. It demonstrates such a wide range of fascinating aspects of human existence.
Here for a post about a female figurine found at this venerable site.
Fascinating! Not too surpring perhaps. The door might have been open sometimes, but not in winter.
Amazing how much we take chimneys for granted. But even today in much of the developing world open fire cooking without effective ventilation is still common.
Comments are closed.