9.3 Catal Huyuk

Another significant settlement was Catal Huyuk, in Western Anatolia (now Turkey). It was probably settled around 8,000 BC and became the largest settlement of its time in the Middle East, covering some 32 acres and having a population of between 3,000 and 10,000, making it significantly larger than Jericho, but having the same general cultural traits. These two settlements are considered to be the earliest “cities” in the world. Catal Huyuk means “mound near fork” as it was sited near a fork in a main road, making it ideal for trading, as well as being near the then huge Lake Konya. It was very advanced, and the people of Catal Huyuk were responsible for several important inventions. They were the first to weave linen fabric from, possibly cultivated, flax (around 6,500 BC), probably based on the earlier woven reed baskets; the first to use fasteners for clothes – bone hooks and eyes; the first recorded use of carved wooden bowls and to have mirrors made from obsidian (very hard natural volcanic glass from the nearby volcano). The inhabitants produced a large drawing in red paint on clay of the surrounding landscape with the volcano prominent in the background.

Original painting of landscape including
the volcano

They caught fish from the lake and ate marshland water birds and their eggs, herded goats (the main domesticated animal in this area around 7,000 BC) and sheep. They started cattle farming before 6,000 BC and it became their main meat source.

It is likely that metals were first discovered in West Asia (Anatolia) and South East Europe (Caucasus) independently and around the same time. In Anatolia, as early as the 9^th millennium BC, small metal objects were hammered from naturally occurring copper, and the attractively coloured ores were also used for decoration. In Catal Huyuk they were smelting and casting copper, lead and gold around 6,500 BC. These metals were used mainly as decoration, probably showing status, as they were too soft compared with, for instance, stone. Anatolia was also an important source of metal ores, particularly copper, for the developing settlements to the south. As a craft industry and trade centre it supplied flint and obsidian tools and weapons (particularly arrowheads and daggers), pottery, mirrors, jewellery, timber and agricultural products. It also spread this technology, together with the rudiments of philosophy, religion, mathematics and crude writing throughout the region, eventually reaching Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Over its lifetime the settlement was rebuilt several times, each now representing a level in the excavation.

Catal Huyuk dig site

Each level had up to 1,000 buildings. Entry to the houses was via a hole in the roof, and the houses were contiguous, with no streets. This very close proximity of a large number of people made them very vulnerable to disease and life expectancy was only around 30 years. There is evidence that they also suffered from malaria. Surprisingly there appears to be no defensive structures, public buildings or a ceremonial centre. Ritual and religion were carried out in each home, presumably round a “shrine”. The rectangular buildings they lived in were similar to Jericho, and they too buried their dead under the floors. Up to 16 burials were found beneath one dwelling. More recent analysis suggests some bodies at Catal Huyuk were in fact buried intact. Perhaps there were two forms of burial, whole or only bones. They also had wall pictures with vultures, as in Jericho, but they could just depict death and rebirth, so this aspect remains an open question. Again a skull cult was practised. In one case a man’s head with eyes and nose remade with clay and painted bright red was found in the arms of a dead woman – maybe he was a revered ancestor. Such is the difficulty of predicting ancient people’s motives from incomplete evidence.

Inside the houses there was a hearth or oven to bake bread and possibly to make simple pottery. Balls of fired clay typically 125mm diameter have been found, and although used for defence elsewhere, they appear unlikely to have been used for this in Catal Huyuk. They were found near the cooking areas, so alternative theories have been devised. One has them heated until red-hot and used in the cooking process. It is possible they used closely woven, clay-lined waterproof baskets that could not be placed directly on the fire, so the heated balls were placed inside to boil water. Alternatively wheat could have been roasted by tossing it with the hot clay balls in these vessels. However they remain a mystery.