Çatalhöyük in brief
Çatalhöyük (pronounced roughly “chat-al-hoo-yook”) is a mound on the Konya Plain in central Turkey. It was a town of mud-brick houses built over each other for about 1,400 years, from around 7100 BC to 5600 BC, and it is one of the largest and best-preserved Neolithic settlements known. At its peak, several thousand people may have lived there (estimates vary widely, from a few hundred at some times to several thousand). UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 2012.
Excavations
The British archaeologist James Mellaart discovered the site in 1958 and dug there from 1961 to 1965. His finds, including wall paintings and figurines, attracted worldwide attention. After his work stopped, because of a political dispute, the site was left until 1993, when Ian Hodder, then at the University of Cambridge and later at Stanford University, began a new, long-term project, with an international team and modern methods.
What was it like?
- Houses with no streets. The houses were rectangular, built wall to wall, so that the town was like a honeycomb. People walked on the roofs and entered their houses by a ladder through a hole in the roof, which also let out smoke from the hearth.
- Inside. One main room, with platforms for sleeping and working, an oven and a hearth. Walls were plastered, and often replastered.
- Burial under the floor. The dead were buried beneath the platforms inside the houses, often with their heads or bones taken out later.
- Art. Some houses have wall paintings in red and black: hunting scenes with aurochs, geometric patterns, and the plaster heads of bulls with real horns, set into the wall. A well-known painting of vultures and headless bodies.
- Figurines. Small clay figures, among them a seated woman between two big cats. Mellaart interpreted it as a “mother goddess”, but many experts consider this uncertain.
Food and trade
The people grew wheat, barley and peas, kept sheep and goats, and hunted wild cattle. Obsidian, volcanic glass, was brought from Cappadocia, about 150 kilometres away, and was made into tools and mirrors. Shells came from the Mediterranean.
Why it matters
Çatalhöyük shows what life was like in a large community, when people had only recently begun to farm. It has no obvious palace or temple, and few signs of rank, which suggests that the community may have been relatively equal, though this is argued. The reasons for its abandonment about 5700 BC are unknown, and may include climate change.
Visiting
The site has a visitor centre, a roof over some excavated houses, and a reconstructed house. Some of the finds are shown in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara and the Konya Archaeological Museum. See also Jericho.
Sources
- Hodder, I. (2006). The Leopard’s Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Çatalhöyük. Thames and Hudson.
- Mellaart, J. (1967). Çatal Hüyük: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia. McGraw-Hill.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük.