Botanical data by area and building, Neolithic Çatalhöyük.

The number of ‘samples’ representing each building can be considered as the number of independent behavioral episodes or events [132, 228]. Rather than simply reporting the raw numbers of seed, chaff, nutshell etc. items per sample, occurrence is graded as follows: ‘x’ = trace amounts (<30) within any individual sample; ‘xx’ = at least 30 items within any individual sample and ‘S’ = visible, normally pure storage concentration (associated almost entirely with burned buildings). In the context of recent discussion of the quantitative criteria suitable for identifying deliberate collection of a species [229], it is clear quantitatively as well as stratigraphically/contextually that the ‘S’ occurrences provide the clearest evidence. The distinction between low numbers per sample (‘x’ occurrences) and higher numbers (‘xx’) is arbitrary, like other thresholds that have similarly been used to distinguish chance occurrences from deliberate behavior (e.g. [229] which uses 50 items) and is intended simply to illustrate stark patterns of absolute abundance among plant categories.
(XLSX)