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| Neolithic Çatalhöyük | |
|---|---|
| Name | Çatalhöyük |
| Map type | Turkey |
| Region | Konya Plain |
| Type | Neolithic settlement |
| Built | c. 7500 BCE |
| Abandoned | c. 5700 BCE |
Neolithic Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük was a large Neolithic settlement on the Konya Plain in central Anatolia notable for dense domestic architecture and rich material assemblages. Excavations yielded extensive data on early farming communities relevant to debates involving Jared Diamond, V. Gordon Childe, Ian Hodder, James Mellaart, and institutions like the British Institute at Ankara and the British Museum. The site connects to wider Near Eastern developments including interactions with sites such as Jericho, Hacilar, Tell es-Sultan, and trajectories leading toward later cultures like the Hittites and Halaf culture.
Çatalhöyük occupies a key position in studies of the Neolithic Revolution alongside Göbekli Tepe, Aşıklı Höyük, Körtik Tepe, and Çayönü. Located near Konya and the Taurus Mountains, it spans periods often framed by scholars like Gordon Childe and compared with models advanced by Mortimer Wheeler and Kathleen Kenyon. Interest from researchers at the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Stanford University, and the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara has produced debates in journals such as Antiquity and Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.
Initial discovery and publicity came through the work of James Mellaart in the late 1950s, followed by controversy involving institutions including the British Institute at Ankara and media coverage similar to The Times reports. Renewed systematic excavations began under Ian Hodder affiliated with Stanford University and the British Museum, engaging teams from Oxford University and the University of Cambridge. Excavation seasons involved collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and produced stratigraphic frameworks discussed at conferences hosted by UNESCO and published in outlets like Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
The tell comprises densely packed, roof-accessed houses with shared walls, voids, and sequences of rebuilding comparable to urbanistic debates involving Lewis Mumford and Henri Lefebvre. Architectural analysis draws on typologies developed by scholars at University College London and the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford. Findings include plastered walls, platforms, and hearths with parallels to room arrangements at Hacilar and posthole evidence at Çayönü. Spatial organization has implications for interpretations advanced by Ian Hodder and contested by proponents of earlier models such as James Mellaart.
Archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence indicates mixed farming with domesticated cereals and barley, pulses, and caprines, linking Çatalhöyük to wider processes explored by Robert Braidwood, V. Gordon Childe, and researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Faunal assemblages show exploitation of sheep, goats, cattle, and wild game paralleling subsistence at Jericho and Aşıklı Höyük. Isotopic studies conducted by teams from University of Cambridge and Leiden University inform models of mobility raised by Colin Renfrew and Barry Cunliffe.
Material remains include elaborately painted wall murals, figurines, obsidian tools, and decorated ceramics linking artisans to long-distance exchange networks involving Anatolia and Upper Mesopotamia. Obsidian sourcing studies reference trade routes connecting to volcanic sources investigated by researchers at University of Edinburgh and University of Liverpool. Artworks and plastered installations invite comparison with ritual material culture documented at Göbekli Tepe, Ain Ghazal, and Khirokitia, and have been subject to interpretation in monographs by Ian Hodder and exhibitions at institutions such as the British Museum.
Interpretations of burial practices, secondary interments, and symbolic installations inform debates over kinship, social complexity, and ritual promoted in works by Marcel Mauss, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and modern archaeologists including Ian Hodder and Sharon R. Steadman. Burials beneath house floors, corpus analyses by teams from University of Cambridge and University College London, and evidence for feasting align Çatalhöyük with ritual phenomena seen at Ain Ghazal and Nevali Çori. Gendered interpretations have engaged feminist scholars at Rutgers University and historians like Caroline Malone.
Chronology relies on radiocarbon dating, Bayesian modeling, and stratigraphic correlation developed by specialists at Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Oxford University, AAK, and the Max Planck Institute. Dates place major occupation phases roughly within trajectories outlined by V. Gordon Childe and modern frameworks used at Göbekli Tepe and Jericho. Dendrochronology, obsidian hydration, and luminescence studies by laboratories at Leiden University and University of Cambridge complement C14 series discussed in journals like Radiocarbon.
Çatalhöyük remains central to debates about sedentism, social organization, and the emergence of complex societies addressed by scholars such as Lewis Binford, Ian Hodder, Clive Gamble, Colin Renfrew, and Steven Mithen. Its legacy appears in museum displays at the British Museum and in heritage initiatives by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and UNESCO dialogues. Ongoing reinterpretation connects Çatalhöyük to comparative studies of Neolithic sites including Aşıklı Höyük, Çayönü, Hacilar, Göbekli Tepe, and Tell Abu Hureyra, ensuring its continued prominence in archaeological theory and public outreach.
Category:Neolithic sites in Turkey