Catal Huyuk is now an established UNESCO World Heritage Centre and is widely known to be one of the most critical archaeological discoveries in modern times.It is one of the best examples of an early Neolithic town that had successfully transitioned to a fully settled existence. The excavation of Catal Huyuk signals a reasonably advanced civilization and culture with mud-brick houses and intricate social norms.The town residents buried their own within the settlement, and there were established industries and rapidly advancing technology. The settlement is said to be largely egalitarian with no major distinctions based on gender or any such criteria and thus encouraged the active participation of all citizens in the society.Catal Huyuk LocationLet’s check out some fascinating facts about the location of this famous archeological site.Catal Huyuk is an archeological site in present-day turkey.It, along with Jericho, is one of the world’s oldest cities, dating back to almost 7500 BC.The site, which translates to ‘fork mound’ from Turkish, is located on the edge of a river valley.The site, which thousands of people have inhabited for nearly 2000 years, demonstrates how humanity evolved during the transformation from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) to the Chalcolithic (Copper Age).It also shows the shift from hunting and gathering to herding and farming.It reveals how the town’s oldest citizens provided for both its defense and religion.Catal Huyuk is a massive archaeological site in the southern Anatolian Plateau.It comprises two stories that rise to over 65 ft (20 m) above the Konya Plain.Excavations of the eastern tell have uncovered 18 stages of Neolithic settlement spanning over a millennium, revealing the early adaption of people to sedentary living and agriculture.The Chalcolithic occupancy layers discovered in the western tell investigations ranged from 6200-5200 BC, reflecting the continuity of the cultural traditions seen in the older eastern mound.History And Origin Of Catal HuyukWhat we today know as an excavated site was once where civilization thrived. Let’s find out about the history and origin of this place.James Mellaart first excavated the site in 1958. Between 1961 and 1965, he headed a crew excavated there for four seasons.Because of his part in the Dorak incident, in which he made drawings of apparently major Bronze Age items that afterward vanished, Mellaart was forbidden from visiting Turkey.The site remained inert after the disaster till 1993.In 1933, Ian Hodder, then of the University of Cambridge, undertook an initiative to investigate the eastern village.His goal was to learn more about the Anatolian civilization that flourished during the Neolithic Period.The first excavations revealed this region of Anatolia as a Neolithic cultural hotspot.The excavation found 18 levels, each representing a different stage of the community and era of history.The basal layer of the structures dates back to 7100 BC, while the upper layer dates back to 5600 BC.Culture And Religion Of Catal HuyukBy now, you might be curious about the kind of culture that this site witnessed during its glory days. Let’s find out!The complicated community of Catal Huyuk, according to Mellaart, is the oldest known metropolis.It is better described as a complex village rather than an actual town, city, or civilization.Every house featured three rooms, one of which was the main room.The town seemed to be exclusively composed of single-family dwellings with open areas for waste disposal.Although some houses were bigger and had much more exquisite artwork than others, there have been no obvious public amenities or evidence of labor division. Nevertheless, the role of complex buildings is still a source of debate among scholars.The population of the eastern mounds in Catal Huyuk has been reported to be as high as 10,000 individuals.However, this figure is likely to fluctuate throughout the Neolithic town.The village in south-central Turkey was believed to have a community of 5000-8000 people.Wheat and barley cultivation, and also cattle rearing, all contributed to food production in agriculture.Cattle could have been used as beasts of burden in addition to providing meat and milk.An abundance of food allowed for the development of specialized trades.Pottery and woven textiles then transformed into major industries.It has previously been noted that only a fraction of the overall site has already been excavated.However, it has been in occupancy continuously from a time period of around 6500 BC.The population is estimated to be around 5000 people, who lived in 1000 houses.Catal Huyuk had few or no roadways since the dwellings were closely packed together in a honeycomb-like labyrinth.Roofs built of wood and reeds coated with mud provided access to internal areas.The only source of airflow was through the ceiling openings, which let in fresh air while also allowing smoke from open fires and ovens to escape.Mud-brick homes had plastered interiors with symmetrical wooden stairways or spiral stairs on the floor’s south side, and also kitchen pyres and ovens.Residents of Çatalhöyük buried their dead within the settlement.Human bones have been uncovered below this Neolithic town, especially under hearths, levels in the main rooms, and below the beds.The corpses were firmly bent and placed in baskets or encased in reed matting before burial.Disjointed bones have been found in certain tombs full of human remains, suggesting that corpses were abandoned for a long time before being retrieved and buried.In some instances, graves were disturbed, and the person’s skull was removed from the skeleton.Skulls were discovered in various Catal Huyuk settlements, and they might have been used in rituals.Some Neolithic skulls were cemented and painted with red ochre to imitate human visages.This is a process that was more widespread in Syria and Jericho than in the surrounding Neolithic sites.The interior and external walls of many of the dwelling units in Catal Huyuk were covered in bright murals depicting hunting scenes and female figurines.The village’s wall map is now thought to be among the world’s oldest maps.Crowds of people in hunting scenarios, crimson depictions of the now-extinct aurochs and stags, and vultures diving down on headless individuals are among the most prominent images.Plastered skulls of various wild cattle, such as bull skulls, hung from the interior walls.Furthermore, prehistoric female figurines have been uncovered in the upper layers of the site.Despite the dearth of conspicuous structures, the tombs, paintings, and sculptures suggest a symbol-rich religion among the Catal Huyuk people.The artifacts and paintings that have been found are perhaps some of the ways they used to communicate.Identifiable temples with high quantities of these things might have existed explicitly dedicated to a male deity and female deity along with a mother goddess depicted as a seated woman.The residents resided in mud-brick dwellings crowded into an aggregate construction.No pathways or roadways were utilized between the homes, which were crowded in a honeycomb-like labyrinth.Most were entered by holes in the roof and entrances on the sides of the houses, with ladders and steps used to reach the doorways.There is no evidence to suggest human conflict or animosity; the only enemies that historians assume these people had were wild animals.Significance Of Catal Huyuk As An Archeological SiteIt is considered a particularly significant archeological site. Below you will find out why that is.Catal Huyuk is significant evidence of the shift from established villages to urbanized areas, which lasted for thousands of years in the same place.It has a one-of-a-kind town with dwellings stacked one on top of the other with roof access.The 91 ac (37 ha) big location on the southern Anatolian Plateau is made up of two hills.Starting around 7400 BC, the higher eastern mound has many stages of Neolithic habitation.The evidence for this includes wall murals, reliefs, statues, as well as other symbolic and esthetic elements.They show how humans evolved social structure and cultural behaviors as they adapted to a sedentary lifestyle.The western mound depicts the evolution of cultural norms from around 6200 BC onwards, during the Chalcolithic Period.Catal Huyuk is a rare example of a well-preserved Neolithic hamlet, and it has long been considered to be one of the most significant points in human prehistory research.There is strong evidence of an egalitarian system in Catal Huyuk.This idea is conceived as no houses with distinguishing features (such as those belonging to royalty or religious hierarchy) have been discovered so far.Recent research also reveals little social difference based on gender, with men and women receiving equal nutrition and appearing to have equal social status, as in Paleolithic cultures.It is clear from the upper levels of the site that the people of Catal Huyuk were learning agriculture.They had also domesticated a plethora of wild animals and were moving towards a significantly advanced culture.Catal Huyuk is notable for its huge size and long history of the community.It has a unique arrangement of back-to-back homes with roof access.It also features a significant number of elements depicting the residents’ symbolic world.According to considerable research at the site, the foregoing characteristics make it the most important human settlement chronicling early established agricultural activity.Research conducted in 2014 claims that there could have been some sort of social inequality.These claims are based on some observations that noted unequal amounts of wear and tear of certain tools and implements.The theory has not been widely accepted yet.We know that private property existed in the civilizations, but so did shared tools.It has also been indicated that Catal Huyuk was gradually becoming less egalitarian, with increasing intergenerational wealth transference.There could have been efforts to reverse this trend, but there hasn’t been much proof found.
Catal Huyuk is now an established UNESCO World Heritage Centre and is widely known to be one of the most critical archaeological discoveries in modern times.
