Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük(English: Chatalhoyuk/ˌtʃɑːtɑːlˈhuːjʊk/cha-tal-HOO-yuhk;Turkish pronunciation:[tʃaˈtaɫhœjyc]; alsoÇatal HöyükandÇatal Hüyük; fromTurkishçatal"fork" +höyük"tumulus") is atell(a mounded accretion due to long-term human settlement) of a very largeNeolithicandChalcolithicproto-citysettlement in southernAnatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 5600 BC and flourished around 7000 BC.In July 2012, it was inscribed as aUNESCO World Heritage Site.
Çatalhöyük overlooks theKonya Plain, southeast of the present-day city ofKonya(ancientIconium) inTurkey, approximately 140 km (87 mi) from the twin-coned volcano ofMount Hasan. The eastern settlement forms a mound that would have risen about 20 m (66 ft) above the plain at the time of the latest Neolithic occupation. There is also a smaller settlement mound to the west and aByzantinesettlement a few hundred meters to the east. The prehistoric mound settlements were abandoned before theBronze Age. A channel of the Çarşamba River once flowed between the two mounds, and the settlement was built onalluvial claywhich may have been favorable for early agriculture. Currently, the closest river is theEuphrates.
The site was first excavated byJames Mellaartin 1958. He later led a team which further excavated there for four seasons between 1961 and 1965.These excavations revealed this section of Anatolia as a centre of advanced culture in the Neolithic period.Excavation revealed 18 successive layers of buildings signifying various stages of the settlement and eras of history. The bottom layer of buildings can be dated as early as 7100 BC while the top layer of the later West Mound is from 5600 BC.
Mellaart was banned from Turkey for his involvement in theDorak affair, in which he published drawings of supposedly important Bronze Age artifacts that later went missing.After this scandal, the site lay idle until 1993, when excavations began under the leadership ofIan Hodder, then at theUniversity of Cambridge.The Hodder-led excavations ended in 2018.Hodder, a former student of Mellaart, chose the site as the first "real world" test of his the controversial theory ofpost-processual archaeology.The site has always had a strong research emphasis upon engagement with digital methodologies, driven by the project's experimental and reflexive methodological framework.According to Mickel, Hodder's Çatalhöyük Research Project (ÇRP) established itself as a site for progressive methodologies – in terms of adaptable and democratized recording, integration of computerized technologies, sampling strategies, and community involvement."
New excavations are being directed byAli Umut TürkcanfromAnadolu University.
Çatalhöyük was composed entirely of domestic buildings with no obvious public buildings. While some of the larger rooms have rather ornatemurals, the purpose of others remains unclear.
Initial estimates suggested an average population of between 5,000 and 7,000. However, more recent work using revised ideas of the distribution of residential buildings, and employing archaeological and ethnographic data exploring building use, suggests that between 600 and 800 people would have lived at Çatalhöyük East during an average year during the Middle phase (6700–6500 BC).
The sites were set up as large numbers of buildings clustered together. Households looked to their neighbors for help, trade, and possible marriage for their children.The inhabitants lived inmudbrickhouses that were crammed together in an aggregate structure. No footpaths or streets were used between the dwellings, which were clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Most were accessed by holes in the ceiling and doors on the side of the houses, with doors reached by ladders and stairs. The rooftops were effectively streets. The ceiling openings also served as the only source of ventilation, allowing smoke from the houses' open hearths and ovens to escape. 
Houses hadplasterinteriors accessed by squared-off timber ladders or steep stairs. These were usually on the south wall of the room, as werecooking hearthsand ovens. The main rooms contained raised platforms that may have been used for a range of domestic activities. Typical houses contained two rooms for everyday activity, such as cooking and crafting.All interior walls and platforms were plastered to a smooth finish.Ancillary rooms were used as storage, and were accessed through low openings from main rooms.
All rooms were kept scrupulously clean. Archaeologists identified very little rubbish in the buildings, findingmiddensoutside the ruins, with sewage andfood waste, as well as significant amounts of ash from burning wood, reeds, and animal dung.In good weather, many daily activities may also have taken place on the rooftops, which may have formed a plaza. In later periods, large communal ovens appear to have been built on these rooftops. Over time, houses were renewed by partial demolition and rebuilding on a foundation of rubble, which was how the mound was gradually built up. As many as eighteen levels of settlement have been uncovered.
As a part of ritual life, the people of Çatalhöyük buried their dead within the village.Human remains have been found in pits beneath the floors and especially beneath hearths, the platforms within the main rooms, and beds. Bodies were tightly flexed before burial and were often placed inbasketsor wound and wrapped in reed mats. Disarticulated bones in some graves suggest that bodies may have been exposed in the open air for a time before the bones were gathered and buried. In some cases, graves were disturbed, and the individual's head removed from the skeleton. These heads may have been used in rituals, as some were found in other areas of the community. In a woman's grave,spinning whorlswere recovered and in a man's grave,stone axes.Someskulls were plasteredand painted withochreto recreate faces, a custom more characteristic of Neolithic sites in Syria and NeolithicJerichothan at sites closer by.
Vividmuralsandfigurinesare found throughout the settlement on interior and exterior walls. Distinctive clay figurines of women, notably theSeated Woman of Çatalhöyük, have been found in the upper levels of the site.Although no identifiable temples have been found, the graves, murals, and figurines suggest that the people of Çatalhöyük had a religion rich in symbols. Rooms with concentrations of these items may have beenshrinesor public meeting areas. Predominant images include men with erect phalluses, hunting scenes, red images of the now extinctaurochs(wild cattle) andstags, and vultures swooping down on headless figures.Relieffigures are carved on walls, such as of lionesses facing one another.
Heads of animals, especially of cattle, were mounted on walls. A painting of the village, with the twin mountain peaks ofHasan Dağin the background,is frequently cited as theworld's oldest map,and the firstlandscapepainting.However, some archaeologists question this interpretation. Stephanie Meece, for example, argues that it is more likely a painting of a leopard skin instead of a volcano, and a decorative geometric design instead of a map.
A feature of Çatalhöyük are its female figurines. Mellaart, the original excavator, argued that these carefully made figurines, carved and molded frommarble, blue and brownlimestone,schist, calcite,basalt,alabaster, and clay, represented afemale deity. Although a male deity existed as well, "statues of a femaledeityfar outnumber those of the male deity, who moreover, does not appear to be represented at all after Level VI".To date, eighteen levels have been identified. These figurines were found primarily in areas Mellaart believed to be shrines. The stately goddess seated on athroneflanked by two lionesses was found in a grain bin, which Mellaart suggests might have been a means of ensuring the harvest or protecting the food supply.
Whereas Mellaart excavated nearly two hundred buildings in four seasons, the current excavator, Ian Hodder, spent an entire season excavating one building alone.Hodder and his team, in 2004 and 2005, began to believe that the patterns suggested by Mellaart were false. They found one similar figurine, but the vast majority did not imitate theMother Goddessstyle that Mellaart suggested. Instead of a Mother Goddess culture, Hodder points out that the site gives little indication of amatriarchyorpatriarchy.
In an article in theTurkish Daily News, Hodder is reported as denying that Çatalhöyük was a matriarchal society and quoted as saying "When we look at what they eat and drink and at their social statues, we see that men and women had the same social status. There was a balance of power. Another example is the skulls found. If one's social status was of high importance in Çatalhöyük, the body and head were separated after death. The number of female and male skulls found during the excavations is almost equal."In another article in theHurriyet Daily NewsHodder is reported to say "We have learned that men and women were equally approached".
In a report in September 2009 on the discovery of around 2000 figurines Hodder is quoted as saying:
ProfessorLynn Meskellexplained that while the original excavations had found only 200 figures, the new excavations had uncovered 2,000 figures, most of which depicted animals, and fewer than 5% of the figurines depicted women.
Estonian folkloristUku Masinghas suggested as early as in 1976, that Çatalhöyük was probably a hunting and gathering religion and the Mother Goddess figurine did not represent a female deity. He implied that perhaps a longer period of time was needed to develop symbols for agricultural rites.His theory was developed in the paper "Some remarks on the mythology of the people of Catal Hüyük".
Çatalhöyük has strong evidence of anegalitariansociety, as no houses with distinctive features (belonging toroyaltyorreligious hierarchyfor example) have been found so far. The most recent investigations also reveal littlesocial distinctionbased on gender, with men and women receiving equivalent nutrition and seeming to have equal social status, as typically found inPaleolithiccultures.Children observed domestic areas. They learned how to perform rituals and how to build or repair houses by watching the adults make statues, beads, and other objects.Çatalhöyük's spatial layout may be due to the close kin relations exhibited amongst the people. It can be seen, in the layout, that the people were "divided into two groups who lived on opposite sides of the town, separated by a gully." Furthermore, because no nearby towns were found from which marriage partners could be drawn, "this spatial separation must have marked two intermarrying kinship groups." This would help explain how a settlement so early on would become so large.
In the upper levels of the site, it becomes apparent that the people of Çatalhöyük were honing skills in agriculture and the domestication of animals. Female figurines have been found within bins used for storage of cereals, such as wheat andbarley, and the figurines are presumed to be of a deity protecting the grain.Peaswere also grown, andalmonds,pistachios, and fruit were harvested from trees in the surrounding hills.Sheepwere domesticated and evidence suggests the beginning of cattledomesticationas well. However,huntingcontinued to be a major source of food for the community.Potteryandobsidiantools appear to have been major industries; obsidian tools were probably both used and also traded for items such asMediterraneansea shells andflintfromSyria. Noting the lack of hierarchy andeconomic inequality, historian and anti-capitalist authorMurray Bookchinhas argued that Çatalhöyük was an early example ofanarcho-communism.
Conversely, a 2014 paper argues that the picture of Çatalhöyük is more complex and that while there seemed to have been an egalitarian distribution of cooking tools and some stone tools, unbrokenquern-stonesand storage units were more unevenly distributed. Private property existed but shared tools also existed. It was also suggested that Çatalhöyük was becoming less egalitarian, with greater inter-generational wealth transmission.
In 2023 a new state-of-the-art museum has opened on the site, constructed by the Konya municipality. In October 2024 a bookshop and cafe was added to the site. Non-Turkish visitors are charged five euros per person for entry. There are numerous visitor-activated information kiosks, some of which provide information in English as well as Turkish. Full information on all aspects of the various discoveries is available in eight rooms, including an underground reconstruction of a typical dwelling used by people of 90 centuries ago.