Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Around 7400 B.C., a contingent of nomadic people abandoned their itinerant ways at the western edge of the Fertile Crescent. Their settlement at Çatalhöyük in modern day central Turkey represents the transition from hunting and gathering to farming and animal domestication. Crucial to the origin of civilization in Turkey and the Middle East, Çatalhöyük is home to some of the earliest known wall murals, featuring lozenges and zigzags as well as human hands, hunting parties and wild leopards, boars and bears painted in red or black pigments. Bull horns placed on platforms or affixed to walls inside these unfired mud brick homes likely served as offerings while small clay figurines may have functioned to ward off evil spirits.

A focus of archaeological investigation since 1993, Çatalhöyük was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2012, the first Neolithic site selected from the Middle East. In between, Global Heritage Fund helped to transform Çatalhöyük into a major conservation site. Our work began in 2006 by addressing the site’s significant natural threats including winds, snow and erosion. To prevent further exposure, Global Heritage Fund underwrote the design and construction of a state-of-the-art shelter, along with a visitor center and interpretative panels. This innovative covering protects the delicate remains and offers an example to other early mud brick sites. For the first time, visitors could explore the 9,000 year-old Neolithic archaeological site and appreciate the art in context.

To engage the community, we collaborated with the nearby village of Küçükköy to develop an integrated heritage park around Çatalhöyük where tourism grew from zero to 6,000 visitors annually during our tenure. Global Heritage Fund sponsored training and capacity building for structural and mural conservation, as well as guide training, site employment and school programs. We sought to move beyond education at Çatalhöyük as well, to identify residents interested in developing joint projects with archaeologists. Among them, Sadrettin Durai came from a farming family in Küçükköy and worked a taxi driver before securing a position as a Çatalhöyük guard. Sadrettin taught himself English by practicing with our staff and asking to learn about Çatalhöyük. As Sadrettin got to know the site, he wanted to write a book offering his unique perspective. We gave him a computer on which he wrote the engaging Protecting Çatalhöyük: Memoir of an Archaeological Site Guard, with a forward by Ian Hodder, Director of the Stanford Archaeology Center. Published in the United States to critical acclaim, Sadrettin’s insightful memoir is available to this day on Amazon.

Some images courtesy of Catalhoyuk Research Project