Ancient site · Settlement
Çatalhöyük
A very large Neolithic town on the Konya Plain in central Turkey, home to several thousand people. Houses were packed so tightly that there were no streets: people walked over the roofs and climbed in through holes.
Rooms were decorated with wall paintings, plaster bull heads and horns, and the dead were buried beneath the floors. Houses look much alike, which suggests a fairly equal society. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.
- Dates
- c. 7100–5600 BCE
- Still standing
- Yes
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Yes
- Location
- 37.67° N, 32.83° E
How we know
No writing existed; it is known from excavations since 1958 and radiocarbon dates.
Nearby sites
- Hattusa c. 2000–1190 BCE (Hittite capital from c. 1650 BCE)
- Ugarit (Ras Shamra) c. 7000–1185 BCE; golden age c. 1500–1200 BCE
- Ebla (Tell Mardikh) c. 3500 BCE – 7th century CE; archives c. 2400–2300 BCE
- Arslantepe c. 4000–700 BCE; palace c. 3400–3200 BCE
- Theodosian Walls of Constantinople c. 405–413 CE; defended the city until 1453
- Tell Abu Hureyra c. 11,300–5800 BCE