The Neolithic Age saw humanity’s great leap forward in its history. Agriculture, animal domestication, and sedentary living developed building the foundations of future civilizations. In Asia Minor, Çatalhöyük have been the most famous example of Neolithic settlement in the region.

Unearthing of Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük meant fork mound in Turkish and served as a time capsule revealing the life during the Neolithic period. Located in Konya, South Central Turkey, 2 mounds covered the historical site. The excavation of Çatalhöyük or Çatal Hüyük began in 1961 until 1965 under the direction of the British Archaeologist of the Institute of Archaeology of the London University James Mellaart. The whole site spanned around 32 acres. It revealed that the city flourished between 7,400 and 5,700 BCE and showed the lives of men and women of the New Stone Age.

History of Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük traced its origins as far back as 7,400 BCE. The people of Çatalhöyük had the task to survive and build their future in a rainy and marshy land. They initially survived though fishing, but later developed agriculture in the nearby dry lands and supplemented it with herding cattle or raising sheep and goats in their pens near their homes.

By 6,500 BCE, Çatalhöyük grew into a self-sufficient and thriving place. The population of Çatalhöyük stood at 3,500 – 8,000. They also developed new tools to use such as cooking pots and potter’s wheel. They enjoyed a supply of milk from cattle and goats. Their burial traditions continued to evolve alongside their religion. Their arts became a popular expression of worship and a mirror of everyday lives in Çatalhöyük.

By 6,000 BCE, Çatalhöyük population growth caused migration to the surrounding plains. Some inhabitants moved west to the nearby mound and established an extension of Çatalhöyük.

Around 5,000 BCE, however, the people abandoned Çatalhöyük. As for the reason, it remains a startling question.

Living in Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük reminds us the great advances of mankind made by revealing the simple and dangerous life of early civilizations and cultures. It gave a glimpse of Neolithic standard of living, economy, housing, and even worship. It demonstrated mankind in its baby steps of progress towards the future.

The people of Çatalhöyük lived in a time when death always lingered around the corner. They suffered from high infant mortality rate alongside with low survivability rate for mothers during childbirth. Their male and female, on the other hand, seemed to share equal treatment as demonstrated by veneration of both male and female deities.

They also enjoyed food that came from various sources in Çatalhöyük. They started from fish from the nearby river which has now dried up. Then, they developed agriculture with irrigation coming from once again the now-dried up river. They planted grain crops such as barley and wheat and then added the cultivation of lentils and peas. They also produced oil seeds and obtained supplies of nuts such as acorns, pistachios, and almonds. Moreover, they domesticated animals generating additional supply of meat and dairy. They raised sheep and goats in pens within Çatalhöyük and herded cattle in the nearby plains. As Çatalhöyük progressed, they developed cottage industries of weaving, dying, and pottery making. They made textile made out of linen and wool and decorated it by stamping pieces of potteries with carved patterns. Developments in the economy of Çatalhöyük and surplus production facilitated trade with regions both near and beyond. They exchanged their produce for shells, metal ores such as copper and minerals like lead. Obsidian from Cappadocia also became a widely imported good alongside cowrie shells from the coast of Asia Minor and even the Red Sea.

Housing in Çatalhöyük made the site extremely remarkable and showed the long history of high rise living. Çatalhöyük’s inhabitants experienced high population density with families living in an apparent honey-comb structure. Çatalhöyük had been a Neolithic mega apartment complex rather than a city. It had little to no streets or alleyways and even lack common areas and community buildings like a temple or a center for gathering. People moved around the massive complex through the roof where the entrance to the houses found as they do not have doors – a remarkable element of Çatalhöyük architecture. Sundried mud bricks and oak wood formed the dwellings of Çatalhöyük. Mortar then covered the walls to make it smooth and sometimes decorated by the occupants. From the rooftop they descended down into a central rectangular room with sizes varying with 5x6 meters the largest. They had ovens for cooking fixed below the entrance stair or ladder making the entrance above to serve also as an opening for the smoke to rise up. Some houses had a hearth in the middle to provide heat and lighting. They also had platforms in the central room for working and sleeping. In addition to a hearth, some houses had smaller rooms that provided storage for the family. Houses lasted for decades and when renovations required, they burned the houses and rebuilt it.

The people of Çatalhöyük also dedicated areas in their homes to be shrines. The “mother goddess” as dubbed by Mellaart occupied the top pantheon of the most venerated deity in Çatalhöyük and honored with a small statue that looked a voluptuous goddess sitting on a chair with lion or leopard armrest and seemed in labor. Each house had a shrine and seemed to have venerated their own respective gods with some female other male deity. Bull heads adorned many of these household shrines and called bucrania shrines from the Latin word of ox skulls.

Many more figurines and statuettes adorned the houses of Çatalhöyük. These sculptures depicted a male riding a bull or leopard. As whether the statues held religious significance or just plain arts remains a mystery.

Besides sculptures, drawings also decorated the plastered walls of Çatalhöyük houses depicting various scenes such as hunting of a deer or a vulture pecking on headless corpses which provided a clue on Çatalhöyük’s burial practices.

Inhabitants of Çatalhöyük honored their dead by living with them. The ritual began with corpse placed in the open for the vultures to eat the flesh until only the bones remain. They then tied the bones into flexed position and sprinkled it with red-ochre pigment. After which they placed the colored fetal positioned bones beneath the platform of the deceased’s home and the family lived. Some wealthier household placed copper and turquoise tokens alongside the dead. After bones filled the whole floor of the house, the house either became a shrine to the family – a form of ancestral worship – or filled with dirt and a new house built above it.

The people of Çatalhöyük also left evidences of tools they used to survive leaving behind a glimpse of the period’s available technology. They used bones and polished stones to make their farming tools such as a plow or a rack. In some cases, some tools also utilized obsidian. They also used it to make weapons such as maces, arrows, lances.

Summing Up

Çatalhöyük provided a mirror to the lives of men and women during the Neolithic Age. They grew from the site through developing agriculture and animal husbandry. From this they began to develop their technology, their homes, and their culture. As a Neolithic site, Çatalhöyük may provide an answer to a great mystery of humanity – how did humanity developed agriculture? Understanding the concept of the answer to the question may bring about new inspiration for mankind’s continuous progress.

See also:
Early Babylonian Empire
Hittites
Olmecs

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