Catal Huyuk: Sacred Architectu

            The ancient city of Catal Huyuk is located on the Anatolian plateau near Konya in modern-day Turkey. The site is considered by some to be the location of the world's first city. As one of the earliest settlements to make the transition from a hunter-gatherer to an agrarian society, development began here as early as 7000 B.C.E. Neolithic inhabitants domesticated sheep, goats and other animals as well as cultivating barley, wheat, peas and beans. Obsidian trade was a major commercial boon for the site. The widespread presence of trade goods and materials from the region in the ancient Near and Middle East provides evidence for extensive trade activity in the city. The interiors of residential and religious structures in the site were organized by gender and function differentiation. Clear distinctions between dwellings and shrines were found in the occurrence of vivid and elaborate decoration, including paintings and wall sculptures. Catal Huyuk was abandoned after a fire in about 5700 B.C.E. and the city was never re-established. Archaeological excavation began in the 1960s by James Mellaart and continues today by an international team of archaeologists each summer.
             As population size increased, the city developed and grew in outward expanding rings of houses, always retaining their surrounding walls. There is no wide variation in objects of wealth or status in the settlement that would suggest a highly stratified society. No large open public spaces were uncovered in the excavated areas of the site though the population could have reached 6000 inhabitants. Of the more than 150 structures currently excavated at the site, sixty percent are dwellings and the remaining forty percent are shrines. Inhabitants entered the structures through openings in the roof of clay, wood and reeds accessed by wooden ladders laid against the southern walls of the buildings. Sheep, goats, fowl and cattle entered the homes of Catal Huyuk using small doors on the ground level.