Çatalhöyük

The proto-city of Neolithic Anatolia

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Çatalhöyük is a tell of a large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, Turkey, which existed from approx. 7500 BC to 5600 BC.

Incredible Artefacts

Excavation of Çatalhöyük has revealed a broad range of incredible artefacts, from tools to personal ornaments.

Çatalhöyük necklace

Necklaces in burials frequently combined beads with different degrees of ware. Possibly beads were contributed by different people from different necklaces to create burial goods with complex biographies.

Stamp seals

These artefacts often use the same motifs that had earlier been used in house wall paintings but are now placed on mobile objects – perhaps used to decorate human bodies or skins.

Obsidian mirror

They used to think these were used for ritual purposes, like telling the future or something, but now they think they might have been used to do hair, and apply makeup and jewellery, like how we use beauty mirrors today.

Çatalhöyük Artwork

Wall paintings tell us a huge amount about this society and what they believed was important.

Images of Hunting

Predominant images include hunting scenes, red images of the now extinct aurochs (wild cattle) and stags, and vultures swooping down on headless figures.

The Oldest Depiction of a Settlement?

A mural painting believed to depict Mount Hasan, volcanic hill rising behind the town of Çatalhöyük. This would make it the oldest image of a settlement in the world.

Or perhaps it's a stylized leopard skin with geometric patterns.

Watch my video about Çatalhöyük here