Mysteries of Çatalhöyük ©2003 Science Museum of Minnesota
http://www.smm.org/catal/introduction/
Introduction
Welcome to Çatalhöyük. Continue reading below to answer some of your questions about Çatalhöyük. Explore
the website to learn even more about this fascinating place.
What are they excavating at Çatalhöyük?
Archaeologists are excavating the remains of a Neolithic town. 9,000 years ago, this place was one of the
world's largest settlements. At a time when most of the world's people were wandering hunter-gatherers, as
many as 10,000 people lived at 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 Çatalhöyük?
The site is in central Turkey, southeast of the modern city of Konya. Archaeologists believe the ancient city
covered an area the size of 50 soccer fields!
Are the excavations going on now?
The excavations began in the 1960s headed by a British archaeologist named James Mellaart but were stopped
due to the technical inability at that time to adequately preserve the findings. The dig restarted in the 1990s and
will continue into the second decade of the 21st century! Archaeologists are on site during the Turkish summer,
but work on the restoring and analyzing findings year 'round.
Can I visit the site?
Yes! The season varies each year but if you are in Turkey between June and August you may be able to see the
excavation in process. The site itself is open year-round. Need directions?
Who is working on Çatalhöyük?
An international team of archaeologists and other specialists work on and off site from countries including (but
not limited to) Turkey and the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Poland, Greece, South Africa, Spain
and Germany.
Why are they studying Çatalhöyük?
To learn more about the Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age, when people settled down to store the wild wheat
and barley grains they collected, eventually beginning to save and plant the biggest seeds, and then raise
animals, too.
How old is the ancient city?
It is 8 ,000 to 10,000 years old.
A WORLD HISTORY ENCYCLOPEDIA
http://www.localhistories.org/index.html
THE PREHISTORIC FARMING REVOLUTION
By Tim Lambert
The Farming Revolution
After 9,000 BC a great change came over the world. Previously humans lived by hunting animals and gathering
plants. Then about 8,000 BC people began to grow wheat, barley, peas and lentils instead of gathering them
wild. By 7,000 BC they domesticated sheep, pigs and goats. By 6,000 BC they also domesticated cattle.
Farming first began in the Fertile Crescent, which stretches from Israel north to southeast Turkey then curves
southeast to the Persian Gulf. However agriculture was also invented independently in other parts of the world
as well.
The invention of agriculture took place over thousands of years but it fundamentally changed human life.
People began to live in settled communities instead of being nomadic or semi-nomadic. When the food supply
improved the population increased. Most of all people developed new skills, first making pottery then using
metals. Finally they invented writing.
Pottery was first made in the Middle East and North Africa about 7,000 BC. Pottery was, of course, no use to
people living a nomadic or semi-nomadic life but it was very useful to people living in settled villages.
The First Towns
About 7,500 BC the world's first town was built at Jericho. It was protected by a 6 meter high wall. Before
6,000 BC a town was built at Catal Huyuk in southern Turkey. It consisted of houses made of mud brick. The
houses had no front doors. Instead they had openings on the roofs with ladders. Inside walls were decorated
with murals.
The Spread of The Farming Revolution
Meanwhile by 5,000 BC Chinese farmers began growing millet and rice. By 5,000 BC farming had also begun
in the Indus Valley. Then, about 3,500 BC people in Mexico began growing maize and beans.
Meanwhile farming spread from the Middle East to Europe. By about 4,000 BC people in central Europe were
using oxen to pull plows and wagons. About the same time people in the Middle East began using donkeys as
beasts of burden. Also about 4,000 BC horses were domesticated on the steppes of Eurasia.
Furthermore about 4,500 BC people began using copper. By about 3,500 they used bronze tools.
Meanwhile by 5,000 BC people had learned to dig canals to bring water from rivers to their crops. As a result
they began to farm the arid lands between the Tigris and the Euphrates. It was here that the world's first
civilization arose.
THE ANCIENT CITY OF CATAL HUYUK
By Tim Lambert
Catal Huyuk was one of the world's first towns. It was built in what is now Turkey about 6,500 BC not long
after farming began. Catal Huyuk probably had a population of about 6,000. In Catal Huyuk the houses were
made of mud brick. Houses were built touching against each other. They did not have doors and houses were
entered through hatches in roofs. Presumably having entrances in the roofs was safer then having them in the
walls. (Catal Huyuk was unusual among early towns as it was not surrounded by walls). Since houses were built
touching each other the roofs must have acted as streets! People must have walked across them. In Catal Huyuk
there were no panes of glass in windows and houses did not have chimneys. Instead there were only holes in the
roofs to let out smoke. 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. (Although they may have been exposed outside to be eaten
by vultures first). Although Catal Huyuk was a true town (defined as a community not self-sufficient in food) as
least some of its people lived by farming. They grew wheat and barley and they raised flocks of sheep and herds
of goats. They also kept dogs. As well as farming the inhabitants of Catal Huyuk also hunted animals like
aurochs (wild cattle), wolves, foxes and leopards.
People in Catal Huyuk wore clothes woven from wool. They also wore jewelry made of stone, bone and shell.
The people of Catal Huyuk wove baskets of reeds. They also made pottery and they used obsidian, a hard
volcanic rock to make tools and weapons. Craftsmen made dishes of wood. They also made carved wooden
boxes for storage.
We do not know what the people of Catal Huyuk believed but religion was obviously important to them. They
made figurines of clay and stone, which may have been gods and goddesses. They also mounted bull's skulls on
the walls of some buildings and covered them in plaster to resemble living heads. It is believed these buildings
were shrines.
Catal Huyuk was abandoned about 5,000 BC. Nobody knows why but it may have been due to climate change.
Catal Huyuk was then forgotten for thousands of years till it was rediscovered by James Melaart in 1958. He
began excavating Catal Huyuk in 1961.