Detecting individual and collective identities during the Early Neolithic Period: Gender, age, and the intersectionality of identities at Aşıklı Höyük

During the longue durée process of Neolithisation in Southwest Asia, the early sedentary communities underwent socio-economic and biocultural transformations. These include changes in human-space interactions, demography, division of labor, and the emergence of new social roles and identities on individual and collective scales. Through the case study of Aşıklı Höyük (8350-7350 cal BCE) in Central Anatolia, this study aims to unravel the relationship between the daily activities of the inhabitants of the site and identities of gender and age, and how identities were manifested through elements of material culture. Furthermore, this study aims to contribute to the contextual and data-driven methodologies in studying past identities. Thus, the focus is on detecting the intersections between different layers of identities at Aşıklı Höyük with a gender archaeology approach, rooted in feminist theories that understand identity as a concept constituted by the relations between bodies and material culture. Based on comparisons between different datasets (bioarchaeological data, mortuary customs, and grave goods), supplemented with the technological and use-wear analyses of the beads found in funerary contexts, this study suggests that material culture, interaction, spatial relations, and production and consumption practices formed a basis for the construction of multi-layered identities during the Early Neolithic Period.