Çatalhöyük
Türkiye · Konya
In brief
The East Mound contains Neolithic settlement layers, while the West Mound contains Chalcolithic layers. Adjoining houses entered through the roof, with no streets between them, are the settlement's distinctive feature.
What was found?
- 1Adjoining houses entered through the roof
Houses built against one another, with entrances in their roofs, form a settlement layout without streets. They show how a densely populated community shared space.
- 2Wall paintings
Paintings found in the Neolithic settlement layers document visual expression within buildings. They help us understand the artistic and symbolic aspects of settled life.
- 3Reliefs
Reliefs found in the buildings show that wall surfaces were also arranged with three-dimensional depictions. They are tangible examples of symbolic practices at the settlement.
- 4Figurines
The small figures recovered during excavations are among the settlement's portable representational objects. They allow us to examine people's visual world; they should not be interpreted as definitive evidence of a single belief.
What does it point to?
Çatalhöyük allows us to examine together the homes, shared spatial arrangements and symbolic expressions of people adapting to settled life. Paintings, reliefs and figurines show that everyday living environments were intertwined with visual production.
What did it teach us?
- Documented a dense settlement layout that functioned through roof connections without streets.
- Provided important evidence for examining the transition from settled villages to larger settlement communities.
- Showed changes in cultural practices over more than 2,000 years of settlement at the same location.
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Analyses announced in 2024 identified organic remains found during the 2021 excavations as leavened bread dating to approximately 6600 BC.
Record
- Culture
- Central Anatolian Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities
- First modern dig
- 1961
- Team / historical
- Ali Umut Türkcan / Anadolu University
- Coordinates
- 37.6667°, 32.8281°
Sources
Nearby excavations
- Boncuklu Höyük 10 km
- Can Hasan I 63 km
- Acemhöyük 121 km
- Aşıklı Höyük 145 km
- Side 162 km
- Aspendos 167 km
- —
- —
- 12.000
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