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A journey to 9,000 years ago Thursday, January 17, 2008VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News Çatalhöyük Research Project Director Ian Hodder says goddess icons do not, contrary to assumptions, point to a matriarchal society in Çatalhöyük. Findings in Çatalhöyük show that men and women had equal social status. According to Hodder, who also has been following the Göbeklitepe excavations in Şanlıurfa, meticulous archaeological excavation in southeastern Anatolia can change all scientific archaeological assumptions Clues as to when mankind really began living in urban patterns lie in the Neolithic layers of Çatalhöyük. Çatalhöyük is within the borders of Cumra district...

In was enlightening to read Mellaart's excavation reports from the 1960s [2] as well as other early writings. Contradictions between those texts and the current work indicated more than a runaway kilim theory and an overly fertile imagination at work. Technical and stylistic problems now combined with incriminating disclosures to reveal what seemed to be careless, poorly conceived fabrications -- possibly a deliberate hoax... The current controversy is not the first instance in which James Mellaart has offered flimsy evidence as the sole "proof" of revolutionary archaeological findings. In the mysterious Dorak Affair... Mellaart claims to have uncovered a cache...