Çatalhöyük household ritual

Overview

Çatalhöyük was a large farming town on the Konya Plain in central Türkiye, not a religion with a name, a founder or a scripture: a dense, streetless settlement of mud-brick houses entered from the roof, where people buried their dead beneath the floor and decorated their walls with paintings, reliefs and sculpture, ritual bound up with the home rather than separate temples; early excavators read the many female figurines found there as proof of a mother-goddess cult, though later study, finding male and animal figurines just as common, has complicated that picture.^{[1, 5–6]}

History

A streetless town on the Konya Plain about 7400–6000 BCE

Çatalhöyük's East Mound preserves about eighteen levels of Neolithic occupation, dated by UNESCO to roughly 7400–6200 BCE and by James Mellaart's original 1960s excavation to about 6700–5650 BCE; Mellaart, a British archaeologist, excavated the site from 1961 to 1965, after its discovery in 1958. Houses were built close together with no streets between them, and people moved around on the rooftops, climbing down wooden ladders through an opening in the ceiling to reach their homes.^{[1, 3–4]}

Life, death and art under one roof about 7400–6000 BCE

Çatalhöyük's inhabitants buried their dead beneath the raised platforms inside their own houses, rather than in a separate cemetery, and decorated the same houses with wall paintings, reliefs and sculpture, including hunting scenes and geometric patterns. Food, tools and other resources appear to have been shared fairly evenly across the settlement, which archaeologists read as evidence of a largely egalitarian community rather than one with a separate ruling or priestly class.^{[2, 5, 7]}

Key moments

1. c. 7100 BCEÇatalhöyük · Konya Plain, Türkiye

Places

Çatalhöyük

TUR · UNESCO World Heritage, 2012

A streetless Neolithic town on the Konya Plain whose inhabitants buried their dead beneath house floors and decorated their walls with painting, relief and sculpture.^[3]

How we know

How we know

Evidence comes from decades of excavation, beginning with James Mellaart's 1961–65 dig and continuing under later university-led research, which documented the site's architecture, burials, wall art and figurines. Interpretation is debated: numerous female figurines were once read as proof of mother-goddess worship, but later study found male and animal figurines just as common, complicating that reading.^{[4, 6]}

Glossary

East Mound

The taller of Çatalhöyük's two mounds, preserving about eighteen levels of Neolithic occupation from roughly 7400 to 6000 BCE.^[3]

Figurine

A small carved or modeled image, found at Çatalhöyük in female, male and animal forms; once read as evidence of mother-goddess worship, a reading later study has complicated.^[6]

Wall painting

Decoration found inside Çatalhöyük houses, including hunting scenes and geometric patterns, alongside reliefs and sculpture.^[2]

Egalitarian

Describing a community, such as Çatalhöyük's, in which food, tools and other resources appear to have been shared fairly evenly rather than concentrated among a separate ruling or priestly class.^[7]