When did people first settle at Çatalhöyük?
Let’s take a journey back 9,000 years to 7,400BCE when people first settled at Çatalhöyük. In this period, the site was situated in a wetland where the climate was moist and rainy. A wide range of resources were available including fish, water birds and their eggs.
What is Çatalhöyük?
Is one of the rare archaeological sites dating back to the Stone Age. This archaeological site is considered the largest building constructed by the human hand at this time. Çatalhöyük is located in the Turkish province of Konya on the south-east side, and researchers believe that the name of Catal Hoyuk may mean the “forked mound”.
How was Çatalhöyük excavated?
Çatalhöyük was excavated in the 1960s in a methodical way, but not using the full range of natural science techniques that are available to us today. Sir James Mellaart who excavated the site in the 1960s came up with all sorts of ideas about the way the site was organized and how it was lived in and so on ...
What happened to Çatalhöyük research project?
Çatalhöyük Research Project under Ian Hodder's direction ended in 2018 although publications are still in preparation. The data remain available on this website. The physical archive of the 25-year-project is stored and accessible through Stanford Library Special Collections.
What is the Neolithic town Catal Huyuk famous for?
What is Çatalhöyük known for? Catal Huyuk is known for being one of the first permanent human settlements. It provides insight into how people lived many thousands of years ago.
What is catalhoyuk known for?
Çatalhöyük or Çatal Höyük (pronounced "cha-tal hay OOK") is not the oldest site of the Neolithic era or the largest, but it is extremely important to the beginning of art.
Why did people settle in catalhoyuk?
A River's Alluvial Fan Made Çatalhöyük. a Good Place to Live "In the Neolithic, this would have been quite a nice place to live. You would have had water for drinking, for washing. Animals would have been drawn to the river-ideal for hunting.
What happened to the settlement of Catal Huyuk?
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.
Who lived in Catal huyuk?
The 3000 to 8000 people that lived in Catalhoyuk at a given time were farmers and herders of cattle. They venerated bulls and worshiped a mother goddess; they produced paintings of hunting scenes and shaped object from obsidian quarried hundred of miles to the north, indicating long distance trade.
What was life like in Catal huyuk?
In Catal Huyuk, there were no panes of glass in windows and houses did not have chimneys. Inside houses were plastered and often had painted murals of people and animals on the walls. People slept on platforms. In Catal Huyuk the dead were buried inside houses.
How old is the first settlement at Çatalhöyük?
about 9,500 years agoBy the time Catalhoyuk was first settled—about 9,500 years ago, according to a recent round of radiocarbon dating at the site—the Neolithic epoch was well under way. The residents of this huge village cultivated wheat and barley, as well as lentils, peas, bitter vetch and other legumes. They herded sheep and goats.
When was Çatal Hüyük settled?
October 29, 1923Çatalhöyük / Date settled
How was Çatalhöyük founded?
Founded over 9,000 years ago on the bank of a river that has since dried up, Çatalhöyük is believed to have been home to an egalitarian Stone Age society who built distinctive homes, arranged back-to-back without doors or windows. They went in and out through openings in the roof.
How would you describe Çatalhöyük?
What does Çatalhöyük mean? Çatalhöyük means 'forked mound' and refers to the site's east and west mounds, which formed as centuries of townspeople tore down and rebuilt the settlement's mud-brick houses. No one knows what the townspeople called their home 9,000 years ago.
Where is the oldest known Neolithic settlement?
Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs.
How would you describe Çatalhöyük?
What does Çatalhöyük mean? Çatalhöyük means 'forked mound' and refers to the site's east and west mounds, which formed as centuries of townspeople tore down and rebuilt the settlement's mud-brick houses. No one knows what the townspeople called their home 9,000 years ago.
Is Çatalhöyük the first city?
Well, at the moment, Çatalhöyük is the first known city in the world – the first place where surrounding villages came together and formed a central location and began the sort of urban civilization that dominates the modern world.
Why do scientists believe that the people of Catal Hoyuk were equal?
Due to the similarity of the buildings and the houses on the site, scientists believe that the people of Catal Hoyuk were equal, where the social strata disappeared among them; there is no great class, rulers or even clergy.
Where is Catal Hoyuk located?
Çatalhöyük is located in the Turkish province of Konya on the south-east side, and researchers believe that the name of Catal Hoyuk may mean the “forked mound”.
Where did the Neolithic people live?
Around 7,400 BCE, people first settled in Central Turkey at the site of Çatalhöyük. By 6,500 BCE, the site was a Neolithic urban center. Several construction phases of tightly packed mud brick houses led to the formation of a tall mound at the site. The excavation of the mound and the examination of discovered features and artifacts led to the understanding of what life was like in the Neolithic community and how it developed over time. The site provides great insight into how early farming communities functioned and what activities and items they valued.
What was the most abundant form of art found at the site of the ruins of the ruins?
One of the most abundant forms of art found at the site was clay figurines. They were found throughout various areas of the houses, but usually in garbage pits.
What did the art, organization of houses, and presence of agriculture suggest?
The art, organization of houses, and presence of agriculture suggests that the residents of the Çatalhöyük site were in a position in which they could stay in one spot and hold territory. They had stable enough resources to devote time to the arts, but used paintings and installations to connect them to the memories of the past way of life. Çatalhöyük was one of the largest settlements of its time, and by examining the ancient structures and artifacts we can gain insight into how humans lived during the beginning stages of farming and crop cultivation.
How many people lived in the mud brick houses in the mud bricks?
It was not a large enough settlement to be considered a chiefdom or state, but still had up to 9,000 residents. Inside the mud brick houses, there were cooking spaces with ovens and hearths. As agriculture was beginning to become the dominant way of life, food preparation was developing.
How is the name "Catalhoyuk" pronounced?
Its name means "fork mound" in Turkish, and it is spelled in a variety of ways, including Catalhoyuk, Catal Huyuk, Catal Hoyuk: all of them are pronounced rough ly Chattle-HowYUK.
What are the mounds in the ruins of the ruins of the ruins?
The two mounds are made up of den sely clustered groups of mudbrick buildings arranged around open unroofed open courtyard areas , perhaps shared or midden areas. Most of the structures were clustered into room blocks, with walls built so closely together they melted into one another. At the end of their use-life, the rooms were generally demolished, and a new room built in its place, almost always with the same internal layout as its predecessor.
What are the two groups of buildings that Mellaart classed as?
Mellaart classed the buildings into two groups: residential structures and shrines, using internal decoration as an indicator of a given room's religious importance. Hodder had another idea: he defines the special buildings as History Houses.
When did Mellaart work at the East Mound?
Mellaart conducted four seasons between 1961–1965 and only excavated about 4 percent of the site, concentrated on the southwest side of the East Mound: his exacting excavation strategy and copious notes are remarkable for the period. Hodder began work at the site in 1993 and still continues to this day: his Çatalhöyük Research Project is a multinational and multidisciplinary project with many innovative components.
What is non-portable sculpture?
The non-portable sculpture is associated with the benches/burials. Those consist of protruding molded plaster features, some of which are plain and circular (Mellaart called them breasts) and others are stylized animal heads with inset auroch, or goat/sheep horns. These are molded or set onto the wall or mounted onto the benches or at the edges of platforms; they typically were re-plastered several times, perhaps when deaths occurred.
Who were the two main excavators of the Mounds?
Excavations at the mounds represent one of the most extensive and detailed work at any Neolithic village in the world, largely because of the two main excavators, James Mellaart (1925–2012) and Ian Hodder (born 1948). Both men were detail-conscious and exacting archaeologists, far ahead of their respective times in the history of the science.
Who discovered copper smelting?
Excavator James Mellaart believed he had identified evidence for copper smelting at Çatalhöyük, 1,500 years earlier than the next known evidence. Metal minerals and pigments were found throughout Çatalhöyük, including powdered azurite, malachite, red ochre, and cinnabar, often associated with the internal burials.
Who illustrated the reconstruction of the settlement in its wider landscape?
Reconstruction of the settlement in its wider landscape. Illustrated by John Swogger.
What was the East Mound used for?
One of these was the West Mound. Interestingly over the millennia, surrounding communities continued to use the East Mound for burial and other activities. Clearly this remained a special place in the landscape.
Who illustrated the East Mound?
Illustration depicting the East Mound. Illustrated by Kathryn Killackey.
Current excavations at Çatalhöyük
Current excavations at Çatalhöyük Continued excavations at Çatalhöyük are being directed by Ali Umut Türkcan from Anadolu University. The website of the new project is under construction. However, you can reach out to the director through the following link: https://akademik.anadolu.edu.tr/aturkcan
Çatalhöyük Physical Archive- Special Collections
Çatalhöyük Research Project under Ian Hodder's direction ended in 2018 although publications are still in preparation. The data remain available on this website. The physical archive of the 25-year-project is stored and accessible through Stanford Library Special Collections.
The Curious Case of Çatalhöyük Online Exhibition
The content of the first major exhibition about archaeological research at Çatalhöyük, which opened at Koç University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Gallery in 2017, is now available online: http://curiouscaseofcatalhoyuk.ku.edu.tr/
The City
Rossella Biscotti, The City, 5-channel video and 8-channel audio installation, 50 minutes, 2018. This preview is for documentation purpose only.
Overview
Çatalhöyük was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 6400 BC, and flourished around 7000 BC. In July 2012, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Çatalhöyük is located overlooking the Konya Plain, southeast of the present-da…
Archaeology
The site was first excavated by James Mellaart in 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 laye…
Culture
Çatalhöyük was composed entirely of domestic buildings, with no obvious public buildings. While some of the larger ones have rather ornate murals, the purpose of some rooms remains unclear.
The population of the eastern mound has been estimated to be around 10,000 people, but the population likely varied over the community's history. An avera…
Religion
A striking feature of Çatalhöyük are its female figurines. Mellaart, the original excavator, argued that these well-formed, carefully made figurines, carved and molded from marble, blue and brown limestone, schist, calcite, basalt, alabaster, and clay, represented a female deity. Although a male deity existed as well, "statues of a female deity far outnumber those of the male deity, who moreover…
Economy
Çatalhöyük has strong evidence of an egalitarian society, as no houses with distinctive features (belonging to royalty or religious hierarchy, for example) have been found so far. The most recent investigations also reveal little social distinction based on gender, with men and women receiving equivalent nutrition and seeming to have equal social status, as typically found in Paleolithic culture…
See also
• Boncuklu Höyük
• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Cucuteni–Trypillian culture
• Göbekli Tepe
• Kamyana Mohyla
Sources
• Bailey, Douglass. Prehistoric Figurines: Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic. New York: Routledge, 2005 (hardcover, ISBN 0-415-33151-X; paperback, ISBN 0-415-33152-8).
• Balter, Michael. The Goddess and the Bull: Çatalhöyük: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization. New York: Free Press, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7432-4360-9); Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2006 (paperback, ISBN 1-59874-069-5). A highly condensed version was publishe…
External links
• What we learned from 25 Years of Research at Catalhoyuk - Ian Hodder - Oriental Institute lecture Dec 4, 2019
• Çatalhöyük — Excavations of a Neolithic Anatolian Höyük, Çatalhöyük excavation official website
• Çatalhöyük photos