Catalhoyuk

Catalhoyuk is a large Neolithic settlement mound on the Konya Plain of south-central Turkey, occupied roughly across the seventh and sixth millennia BC and counted among the largest and best preserved Neolithic sites yet excavated. Its mudbrick houses were built directly against one another with no streets between them, so residents moved across the rooftops and entered their homes through openings in the roof reached by ladder, an arrangement that also served defensive purposes. The site was first excavated by the British archaeologist James Mellaart beginning in 1958 and later by long-running projects led by Ian Hodder, whose teams uncovered elaborate wall paintings, plastered animal skulls set into walls, and burials placed beneath house floors. Catalhoyuk has been especially influential in debates about the earliest stages of urban life and about the possible symbolic and religious meaning of its wall art and figurines. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.