Wikimedia CommonsCulture
Anatolian Neolithic
Location
Konya Province, Turkey
Key Figures
Great Mother Goddess, James Mellaart (archaeologist), Ian Hodder
The Myth
The story as told by the culture
Çatalhöyük was the dwelling place of the Great Mother — the goddess of fertility, regeneration, and the sacred household. Female figurines found throughout the site, often depicted in birth posture or nursing, suggest veneration of the feminine divine. Clay figurines show women seated or in positions of power, suggesting high status in this community. The most famous figurine, now called 'Venus of Çatalhöyük,' depicts a corpulent female figure seated on a throne flanked by leopards or panthers — an image of divine authority.
The interior walls of homes are covered with hand prints, many from women and children, creating a sense of communal presence in the sacred space of the home. Plaster reliefs depict bulls in profile (possibly a masculine or sky principle) and leopards. Shells were painted red (associated with the feminine and the sea). The homes themselves seem to function as temples — ancestors were buried beneath the floors, and the primary shrine space was the hearth where fire burned continuously.
Mythologically, Çatalhöyük appears to have been a culture where the household was sacred and feminine divine power centered domestic and fertility rituals.
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Myth types
The Place
The physical location today
Çatalhöyük, meaning 'Forked Mound,' sits on the Cappadocia Plain in south-central Anatolia. The site is a large mound (tepe) created by the accumulated debris of repeated building and rebuilding over a thousand years. The excavated area reveals a honeycomb of closely packed rectangular mud-brick houses, some sharing walls, with evidence of over 9,000 individual structures over the settlement's duration.
Houses typically were one or two rooms, with entry through the roof via ladder (no ground-level doors), creating a maze-like streetscape on the rooftops. The houses cluster around small open spaces. Interior walls were regularly replastered with lime plaster, often decorated with geometric designs, hand prints, or figurative reliefs. Houses were typically abandoned or deliberately filled in and new structures built atop — a process repeated so many times it created the characteristic mound shape.
The site covers roughly 32 acres and was the largest known settlement for its era, with population estimates of 5,000-10,000 people. No monumental public buildings have been found, suggesting governance was communal or household-based rather than centralized.
Visit information
Access
Partially excavated — visitor pathways and museum on-site
Nearest city
Konya, Turkey
Notes
Open-air archaeological site with protective structures over key areas. Small museum presents artifacts and explains site significance. Tour guides available. Limited visitor facilities — bring water and sun protection.
The History
What archaeology and scholarship tell us
Çatalhöyük was settled and continuously occupied from approximately 7500 to 5700 BCE, spanning the Neolithic and early Chalcolithic periods. The site was first excavated by British archaeologist James Mellaart between 1961 and 1965, who made the revolutionary discovery that this was a complex, organized urban settlement far earlier than previously imagined.
The community was not agricultural initially — early inhabitants were hunter-gatherers of wild grains (later domesticated). Around 7000 BCE, domesticated crops appeared, followed by domesticated animals (sheep, goats, cattle, pigs). The site represents a crucial transition point in human history: the shift from mobile to sedentary lifeways.
The culture's end around 5700 BCE remains unexplained — possibly environmental change, disease, or invasion. The site was abandoned and remained covered until its rediscovery. Modern excavation by Ian Hodder (begun 1993) has revealed even greater complexity, including early religious ritual, early pottery, and evidence of hunting of wild animals alongside farming.
Sources
Mellaart, James. Çatalhöyük: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia (1967). Thames & Hudson. The original excavation report establishing Çatalhöyük as the world's oldest known city
Tier 1Hodder, Ian. Çatalhöyük: The Leopard's Tale (2006). Thames & Hudson. Modern re-excavation and reinterpretation of Çatalhöyük using contemporary archaeological methods
Tier 1Nearby Sites
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