The Burnt Burial: the black patch as it began to reveal its contents- somestray bonesand a bundle wrappedin cloth. Textiles from Catal Huyuk By Hans Helbaek National Museumof Denmark In the course of a very few years ancient Anatolia has emerged from oblivion and taken its place in the ranks of the earliest food-producing cultures. Even in the first campaign Çatal Hüyük yielded remarkably large quantities of carbonized remains of Early Neolithic crop plants. Since this aspect of the life of the ancient Anatolians is my particular field of study, I accepted James Mellaart's invitation to spend the summer of 1962 on the Konya plain and joined the excavation camp when the dig started. The study of the geomorphology, ecology and flora of the environment was my principal goal, but as it turned out, re- covering the deposits of plant remains became one of my major tasks. The Burnt Burial When a room in Level VI was excavated in 1961, a black patch appeared in the northeast corner under a low platform. This patch seemed to indicate a pit filled with a black substance. Since black material in such situations usually consists of plant remains, I took over its further exploration. It quickly became evident that the pit (which was irregular in shape, about one square meter in area and ca. 40 cm. deep) 39