EXHIBITION AND PUBLIC PROGRAMMES
by Orrin Shane
A major goal of the Çatalhöyük project is to realise the potential of the site as an attractive and educational place to visit. The ultimate aim is to provide the Turkish Ministry of Culture with a well-planned heritage site complete with a Visitor Centre and Museum housing interpretive exhibits, films, models, and other educational displays.
Working in collaboration with Turkish museums, including the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations at Ankara, and the Konya Museum, Daryl Fowler of the Conservation Practice, London, is coordinating with Dr Orrin Shane and an exhibition development team from the Science Museum of Minnesota in order to develop exhibitions for a new museum at the site. Exhibits and displays will be enriched by film, video, and computer animation created by the Zentrum fur Kunst- und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe. Preliminary discussions indicate that the museum will be incorporated within the Konya Museums and will thus be able to hold artifacts from the site.
Exhibit plans are being developed in two stages so as to provide both for ongoing interpretation of research and for a major exhibition ready for installation by the beginning of the new millennium. Final design and panel production in Turkey have been achieved with the help of the Ida Ajans Agency, Ankara.
Stage 1. Until the Çatalhöyük Museum is completed, temporary displays have been installed in the new dig house at the site. The display constructed in 1994 includes a title panel, two silk-screened interpretative panels outlining both earlier work at the site and future work, and a photomural of a previously unpublished mural painting of two deer. These panels are bi-lingual (Turkish - English), and were designed by the Science Museum of Minnesota and produced by the commercial graphics house of Ida Ajans in Ankara. Production was co-ordinated by Orrin Shane, with the assistance of Mine Kuçuk, who also prepared the Turkish text. Special acknowledgement is extended to Dr Ilhan Temizoy, Director of the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, for his assistance in providing images for the photomurals.
In 1995 we have added four new panels introducing the Çatalhöyük research team and summarising the archaeological work accomplished in 1993 and 1994. The new panels focus on the results of surface scraping, geophysical prospecting and section cleaning at Çatalhöyük East, as well as results of the regional survey and excavations at the site of Pinarbasi. One panel presents preliminary results of the local and regional palaeoenvironmental and geomorphic studies of Drs Neil Roberts and Romala Parrish.
Conservation and restoration of buildings, wall paintings and sculpture is fundamental to the Çatalhöyük project. Therefore, the displays for 1996 and 1997 will concentrate on the conservation efforts directed by Constance Silver, Preservar, Inc. and Dr Frank Matero, University of Pennsylvania. Interpretative panels will also present results of the 1995 excavations. In 1996 we will give special emphasis to the new exhibit facilities in the dig house under construction north of Çatalhöyük East.
Stage 2. As new discoveries are made and interpreted, a second phase of exhibition development will involve planning, design, and implementation of a 5,000-8,000 sq ft. international travelling exhibition interpreting the art and archaeology of Çatalhöyük. This exhibition will feature full-size reconstructions of two painted rooms, a model of a mud-brick village mound showing how the 'höyüks' were formed, interactive exhibits about scientific archaeology, and interpretative presentations of the mural art and sculpture from the site. The exhibit is planned to open at the Science Museum in Minneapolis in 2002.
After its international tour, the exhibition will be re-installed in the museum at the site. In this way, the project will fulfil that part of its mission to promote the site for visitor access