Press Release 2008

Exciting new discoveries at Çatalhöyük

160 people from all over the world have assembled at Çatalhöyük again this summer. The team has come from Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Canada, Serbia, Australia, Poland – in fact 21 different countries. All these people have come to join Turkish colleagues working at the site. There are three Turkish teams, from Istanbul University, Selcuk University and the University of Thrace. The team as a whole has made some exciting new discoveries that are changing interpretations of this 9000 year old site in the Konya region.

Çatalhöyük is an important Neolithic site near Çumra, Konya. It was inhabited by up to 8000 people who lived in a large ‘town’. There were no streets and people moved around on the roof tops and entered their houses through holes in the roofs. Inside their houses people made wonderful art – paintings, reliefs and sculptures – which have survived across the millennia. The art was first found by James Mellaart in the 1960s. New excavations under the direction of Ian Hodder started in 1993 and will continue to 2017, under the auspices of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara and with permission from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The new excavations use modern scientific techniques to reconstruct the ways that people lived at Çatalhöyük.

Figure 1 & 2. The new shelter constructed at Çatalhöyük. Photo: Jason Quinlan.

A new shelter has been constructed over a new area of excavation (see Figure 1 and 2). This was designed by Atölye Mimarlik in Istanbul and has been wonderfully successful in protecting the archaeological remains. It is also pleasant to work under and its design fits into the mound and the landscape very well. The ends and sides of the shelter will be covered in the winter months. Over the long term 40 buildings will be placed on display beneath the shelter, allowing visitors and tourists to see a 9000 year old town frozen at a moment in time.

Figure 3. View of Burned Building 77. Photo: Jason Quinlan. Figure 4. Wild bull horns on pillars in Building 77. Photo: Jason Quinlan.

Beneath the shelter we have found a very exciting and impressive burned building that we are calling Building 77 (Figure 3). Because this building was burned, there are many finds preserved within it. In particular, around the northeast platform in this building we found wild bull horns set in pillars (Figure 4). These seem to be ‘protecting’ the human burials beneath the platform. On the wall by these bull horns was a plastered sheep head with horns removed, and below the sheep head there is a small niche. This evidence shows that very elaborate buildings like those found by James Mellaart in the 1960s occur in parts of the site well away from the areas excavated by Mellaart. Also, it is clear that the building was a domestic house – it was not a non-domestic shrine.

Figure 5. Painting around the edge of a burial platform. Photo: Jason Quinlan.

Some wonderful wall paintings have been found in a smaller building – Building 49 also under the new shelter. Around the platforms within which people were buried in the north part of the house, we found several layers of geometric and spiral painting (Figure 5). These paintings seem to mark out the place where people were buried.

Some of the designs on the paintings are similar to designs found on Neolithic stamp seals from the site. These year some lovely examples of these stamp seals have been found (Figure 6). These were probably used to stamp designs on human or animal skins. We have also found small figurines (eg Figure 7).

Figure 6. Stamp seals such as this example were probably used to stamp designs on human or animal skin. Photo: Jason Quinlan. Figure 7. Small figurine found at Çatalhöyük in 2008. Photo: Jason Quinlan.

In other parts of the site large ovens have been found, and in the southwest part of the site a team from Istanbul University completed the excavations of another burned house. On the nearby Copper Age West Mound, teams from Edirne, United States and Germany continued excavating the very different types of building that emerged on this slightly later mound.

Gülay Sert has continued the educational program that she runs at the site so that Turkish children can learn about the importance of, and protection of, Turkish heritage. An active community outreach program has also continued. For example, a feast was held at the site for the local community and their views gathered on how the site should be developed in the future.

Acknowledgements

An international team now based in London University (UK) and Stanford University (USA) has undertaken archaeological research at Çatalhöyük since 1993, with a permit granted by the Ministry of Culture, and under the auspices of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. We are especially grateful to the General Director of Monuments and Museums, and to our temsilci Lütfi xxx.

The main sponsors of the project are Yapı Kredi and Boeing. Other sponsors are Shell, Thames Water, and Merko.

Funding for the project in 2008 has also been received from the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, Stanford University, the Global Heritage Fund, Selcuk University, University College London, the Turkish Cultural Foundation, the American Embassy, the University of Poznan, and the Polish Heritage Council.