Posted on 07/10/2006 2:40:52 PM PDT by blam
Çatalhöyük excavations unveil very dawn of human civilization
Monday, July 10, 2006
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
A total of 130 houses have been unearthed to date during excavations at the 9,000-year-old site of Çatalhöyük in Konya's Çumra district, excavation assistant team leader Shahina Farid has said.
The first excavations at the site -- considered one of the oldest settlements in the history of mankind, dating back to the Neolithic Age -- were conducted by British archaeologist James Mellart, who uncovered 80 houses during excavations between 1961-1964, according to the Anatolia news agency.
Work at the site resumed in 1993 after a long hiatus.
“Fifty new houses have been uncovered since that date," said Farid. "We are trying to shed light on an obscure period of mankind through these excavations. The excavation findings reveal that there was a river and small lakes in the region 9,000 years ago. We also found buildings were located one above the other. The oldest houses were destroyed after a period of habitation and new structures were built over them. These structures consist of two rooms and a larder. We assume that Çatalhöyük housed a population of around 7,000-10,000 at that time.”
He said the community built their houses of oak and poplar and that wooden columns were brought in by river from a distance of 40 kilometers, adding that research also suggested that these columns were re-utilized in the building of new houses.
“We also found more than 60 human skeletons in mud brick houses built side by side. The inhabitants of that period buried the dead underneath the house with a sense of being close to their ancestors. In other words, Çatalhöyük inhabitants were born, died and buried in these houses.
“We also traced in our research that the community here engaged in farming and animal husbandry and hunted wild animals. Small cattle had been kept before then, while we assume that cows were domesticated during that period,” he said.
He also said they had not come across clothing on the skeletons, adding, “Yet pieces of leather we found near the skeletons suggested that they wore skins from deer they hunted.”
“This year's excavation, which is currently under way with a 45-strong team from different countries that will likely reach around 100 in July, will continue until the end of September,” he added.
Alt+154 = Ü
☻
OOPS
Alt+129 = ü
Very interesting.
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Very cool! Thanks for the post & the ping.
:')
Re: limerick -- Catal is sort of pronounced "chattal" and huyuk is "hoo-yook".
And, uh, good luck with the rhyme. ;')
Which, coupled with the idea that they floated their building materials downriver from 40 miles away, suggests a rather high level of sophistication and specialization.
Also, the idea that newer houses were built on the remains of older ones, suggests to me the possibility of organized warfare, including the destruction of the older city.
Burying your loved ones under the floorboards, Alfred Hitchcock would be impressed.
I wonder if that's really true. If so, it's quite interesting on a number of levels.
Ah, but Poe does it so much better:
The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more. If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence.I took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly, that no human eye -- not even his -- could have detected anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out -- no stain of any kind -- no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that.
Ah, The Tell-Tale Heart, one of my favorite Poe stories. BTW, look for new biographies of Poe to come out in the next few years leading up to the bicentennial of his birth in January 2009.
A fellow from Çatalhöyük
Had his forearm replaced with a hook
He said with a smile
"I've got Iron Age style,
"And a Paleolithic outlook!"
Yeh, I know - I won't be giving up the day job...BTT...
How about "in my kayak" or in your kayak, or in a kayak.
Mark
I'm afraid I'd be tempted to run that into a prurient reference to Selma Hayek and SunkenCiv would cyber-thrash me...
And here I thought FR was a place for living dangerously. Ah disillusionment.
Actually not bad. :'D
Prurient is good... maybe not in a public thread though. I've been cyber-thrashed a few times in my day, and it isn't as glamourous as it sounds. :')
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