Çatalhöyük
Catal Huyuk
Neolithic to Chalcolithic (PPNB-derived)·Anatolian Neolithic (Catalhoyuk East/West)·🇹🇷 Konya Province, Konya Plain, Turkey
About
About Çatalhöyük
Largest Neolithic proto-city (7500–5700 BCE) with 18 settlement levels, mud-brick houses entered via roofs, wall paintings, bull bucrania and earliest landscape painting. Population up to 8,000.
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Why it mattersModel for Neolithic urbanism without streets or palaces; Mellaart 1958 discovery.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why house interiors replastered 100+ times
- 02Cause of abandonment and move to West mound
Theories
No theories recorded — post yours below.
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 7500–5700 BCE
- Period
- Neolithic to Chalcolithic (PPNB-derived)
- Culture
- Anatolian Neolithic (Catalhoyuk East/West)
- Purpose
- Dense egalitarian farming village
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c. 7500–5700 BCE
Initial construction
c. 1460 CE
Major expansion
Location
Where it is
37.6670° N · 32.8268° E · 1020 m