Cyber Archaeology Being Used at Catal Hoyuk Continuing Excavations

This is one of those "wow" articles -- really cool!



I also learned, for the first time since hearing about Catal Hoyuk perhaps 20 years ago (or more), how the name is actually pronounced!  It is "Sha-tal" or "Cha-tal" with a soft "c" sound, similar to an "s" sound.  Now that brings a whole new meaning of the place name to me.  All these years, I was pronouncing the name with a hard "c" (a "k" sound)!!! 

Where are the board games -- will any of those ever be found at Catal Hoyuk?  Professor Forte spoke of the people at Catal Hoyuk as the first "modern" type of civilization that we (today's people) could relate to -- the first to settle into one place, plant and reap, domesticated sheep and evidently attempted to domesticate cattle as well, with a civilization that lasted for "thousands of years."  [Note:  According to an article on the site at Wikipedia, Catal Hoyuk existed from approximately 7500 B.C. to 5700 B.C. -- so, if these dates are approximately correct, less than 2,000 years.]

There is a great site online, the Catalhoyuk Research Project, that has project reports available dating back to 1993, when excavations of the large mound area were restarted, including a searchable data base. 

Mommy Dearest:

"Seated woman with two lions" - excavated in one of the
later layers at Catal Hoyuk. 

Description (English): Seated Mother Goddess flanked by two lionesses from Çatalhöyük (Turkey), Neolithic age (about 6000-5500 BCE), today in Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.  Wikipedia Commons - source.