Culture · c. 7500–5600 BCE
Çatalhöyük, an early proto-city
Çatalhöyük, near Konya (central Türkiye)
On the Konya plain of Anatolia, farmers built a tightly packed settlement of mudbrick houses with no streets: people walked across the rooftops and climbed down into their homes by ladder. Houses were plastered and decorated with wall paintings and bull horns, and the dead were buried beneath the floors.
Older estimates put its population at 5,000 or more; recent excavations suggest perhaps 600–800 people in a typical year of its middle phase.
Why it mattered
Çatalhöyük shows early farmers living together in large numbers for some 2,000 years without palaces, temples or obvious rulers, making it a key site for understanding the step from village life towards towns.
Related
- The world in 3000 BCE: The First Kings chapter
- Farming begins previous moment · c. 9500–8500 BCE
- Copper smelting begins next moment · c. 5000–4500 BCE