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| Catalhoyuk | |
|---|---|
| Name | Çatalhöyük |
| Native name | Çatalhöyük |
| Caption | Reconstructed mound plan |
| Location | Konya Province, Turkey |
| Region | Anatolia |
| Type | Neolithic settlement |
| Built | c. 7100 BCE |
| Abandoned | c. 5700 BCE |
| Epochs | Neolithic, Chalcolithic |
| Archaeologists | James Mellaart, Ian Hodder |
Catalhoyuk
Catalhoyuk is a large Neolithic and Chalcolithic archaeological site in Anatolia noted for densely packed domestic architecture, elaborate wall art, and early food-producing communities; its discovery and study have influenced research frameworks in Near Eastern prehistory, European archaeology, and museum practice. The site has been central to debates involving Neolithic urbanism, Anatolian chronology, and symbolic systems, engaging scholars associated with British Institute at Ankara, British Museum, University of Cambridge, Stanford University, and University of Chicago.
Initial excavation at the mound began under James Mellaart in the late 1950s, with subsequent campaigns paused by controversies involving İbrahim Kafesoğlu and later resumed by an international team led by Ian Hodder in 1993, attracting researchers from institutions including University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of California, Berkeley, University College London, and National Geographic Society. The Hodder project introduced reflexive archaeology and interdisciplinary methods influenced by theoretical debates associated with Processual archaeology, Post-processual archaeology, Lewis Binford, Marxist archaeology, and proponents such as Ian Hodder and Colin Renfrew, while collaborations involved specialists from British Museum, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Konya Archaeological Museum, Getty Conservation Institute, and UNESCO. Fieldwork integrated techniques developed at labs like Wedge Laboratory, Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Harrison Radiocarbon Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and employed specialists in zooarchaeology and archaeobotany from University of Durham, University of Sheffield, University of Liverpool, University of Pennsylvania, and Université de Paris.
The mound comprises contiguous mudbrick houses entered through roof openings with shared courtyards, platforms, and burial deposits, echoing architectural comparisons drawn to sites such as Jericho, Aşıklı Höyük, Hacilar, Ain Ghazal, and Tell es-Sultan. Excavations revealed densely packed floor plans with plastered benches and hearths paralleled in contexts from Nevali Çori, Çayönü, Körtik Tepe, Shanidar Cave, and Göbekli Tepe, and features analyzed using methods from Geographic Information Systems workshops at University College London and Harvard University. Houses often contained built installations and secondary burials analogous to finds at Ain Ghazal and Tell Brak, with mudbrick construction techniques comparable to reconstructions in publications by John Pilcher, Kathryn Gremillion, Paul Bahn, and Andrew Sherratt.
Faunal and botanical assemblages indicate mixed farming, including domesticated wheat and barley alongside caprine herding, supplemented by hunting of wild boar and red deer; parallels inform discussions with datasets from Jericho, Çatalhöyük West Mound comparisons, Aşıklı Höyük, Tell Sabi Abyad, and Kunduzlu Tepe. Analyses by specialists affiliated with Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Cambridge Department of Archaeology, British Institute at Ankara, University of Oxford School of Archaeology, and University of Reading used stable isotope studies, ancient DNA protocols developed at Wellcome Sanger Institute and Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research to explore diet and animal domestication trajectories resonant with models proposed by Gordon Childe, Ian Hodder, and Bruce Smith.
Rich assemblages include painted plaster panels, reliefs, figurines, chipped-stone tools, obsidian blades likely linked to exchange networks involving Melos, Anatolian obsidian sources, Samos, and Lake Van procurement routes, and clay objects comparable to those from Hacilar and Çayönük. Iconography—horned beasts, human figures, hunting scenes, and geometric motifs—has been discussed in relation to studies by Marija Gimbutas, Jacquetta Hawkes, David Lewis-Williams, Mircea Eliade, and modern conservators at Getty Conservation Institute and British Museum Conservation Department. Ceramic and lithic analyses invoked comparative frameworks from Tell Halaf, Tell Brak, Ain Ghazal, Jericho, and methodological standards promoted by International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences.
Burial practices, trophy heads, depositional rites, and domestic shrines have fueled debates about social complexity, ritual specialists, and egalitarian versus hierarchical models with reference to theoretical positions by Lewis Binford, Ian Hodder, Caroline Malone, Renfrew, and Colin Renfrew. Interpretations of figurines, wall imagery, and structural modifications draw comparisons to ritual landscapes like Göbekli Tepe and household cults at Ain Ghazal and involve ethnoarchaeological parallels from studies by Tim Ingold, Alan Macfarlane, Victor Turner, and Claude Lévi-Strauss.
Radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology cross-references, stratigraphic sequencing, and Bayesian modelling conducted with facilities such as Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Leicester Radiocarbon Laboratory, Max Planck Institute, and methods advocated by Christoph Keller, Bayliss, and Bronk Ramsey have refined a chronology spanning approximately 7100–5700 BCE. Comparative seriation with ceramic phases used parallels from Jericho, Hacilar', Aşıklı Höyük, Çayönük, and integration with Near Eastern chronologies promoted in syntheses by Amélie Kuijpers, Paul Mellars, and Stuart Campbell.
Catalhoyuk transformed perspectives on Neolithic lifeways, domestic ritual, and the emergence of complex settlements, influencing exhibitions at British Museum, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and pedagogical curricula at University of Cambridge, Stanford University, University College London, and University of Oxford. Its long-term interdisciplinary program foregrounded reflexive methodologies and public archaeology, inspiring projects and debates involving World Archaeological Congress, European Association of Archaeologists, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and theoretical literature by Ian Hodder, Lewis Binford, Marija Gimbutas, and Colin Renfrew.
Category:Archaeological sites in Turkey Category:Neolithic sites