Çatalhöyük – Konya, Türkiye
Çatalhöyük (Çatalhöyük East and West mounds) is a major Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement (c. 7100–6000 BC) on the Konya Plain. The densely packed mudbrick houses lacked streets; people moved across rooftops. Interior walls bear vivid wall paintings, reliefs, bucrania (bull skulls), and installations, revealing ritual life within domestic space. Burials beneath house floors, obsidian tools, and long-distance exchange (Mediterranean shells, Anatolian obsidian) show complex social networks.
Significance:
- Key site for understanding early farming communities, symbolism, and household-based ritual.
- UNESCO World Heritage (2012) for its outstanding testimony to early settled life and social complexity.
- Extensive excavations (Mellaart; Hodder and successors) pioneered reflexive archaeology and interdisciplinary methods (bioarchaeology, paleoenvironment, GIS).
Sources
- UNESCO – https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1405
- Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Çatalhöyük
- Çatalhöyük Research Project (Stanford/Cambridge-led archives)