Çatalhöyük Analysis

In central Turkey, on the Konya plain, lie two tells in what is today one of Turkey’s main agricultural centres. Today the area suffers from periodic droughts, but 9000 years ago the Eastern tell, Çatalhöyük East, was a bustling village, or as James Mellaart claimed, a city (Anatolia News Agency 2008: 1). In November 1958 James Mellaart returned with two British archaeologists, David French and Alan Hall, to search the Konya plain for the tell-tale mounds that would signify early human settlement (Balter 2005: 8). Despite having only found settlements dating to the Chalcolithic, Mellaart and his colleagues were convinced that Anatolia held the secrets of early Neolithic civilisations. On the afternoon of the 10th they were proved right
The first excavation led by Mellaart lasted from 1961 to 1965. Despite uncovering less than four percent of the Eastern mound the excavations confirmed the settlement as preeminent in the establishment of early settled farming and urban life. Consequently proving that settled villages existed outside of the Fertile Crescent (Hodder 2007: 107; Shane & Küçük 1998: 44). In accordance with a long held European practices Mellaart used a culture historical approach. His interpretation of the figurines and symbology found at the site as being part of a “mother goddess” cult relied extensively on analogies drawn with European mythological figures, therefore following a direct historical
50) his description of the research programme at Çatalhöyük inspired me to start thinking about the site as if looking through a series of lenses. This started a thought process on how each person views the world from a unique perspective, or through a unique lens. Despite a plethora of lenses being available, each offering a different angle or perspective of the object being photographed, we tend to choose a favourite lens when taking a photograph even if another lens may be more suitable. The same holds true for archaeologists. Most archaeologists choose the theoretical perspective they are most comfortable with, despite the various theoretical perspectives available that may change not only how a research project is approached but how the data is interpreted. One of the most admirable traits of Hodder is that he has consistently stepped outside the comfort zone and has, as a result, contributed to the discipline as a