Konya is a city south of Ankara in Turkey’s Central Anatolia region. It’s a pilgrimage destination for Sufis, focused on the tomb of the founder of the Mevlana order, Jelaleddin Rumi, in the Mevlana Museum. Sema whirling dervish ceremonies take place at the Mevlana Cultural Center, east of the museum.
Catalhoyuk
Çatalhöyük, one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. Since the 1960s, excavations have uncovered a densely packed Neolithic (New Stone Age) settlement which dates back 9000 years.
Today all that is visible on the surface of Çatalhöyük is two mounds: the smaller and more recent to the west of the site and the larger and more ancient to the east. However, scratch beneath the surface and the remnants of one of the most complicated societies of its time are revealed! A team of experts from around the world are currently working together to understand the lives of the people who lived here.
Take a journey back 9,000 years to 7,400BCE when people first settled at Çatalhöyük. In this period, the site was situated in a wetland where the climate was moist and rainy. A wide range of resources were available including fish, water birds and their eggs. On the drier ground there were agricultural fields, and herds of wild animals could be found roaming the plain.
This was a society undergoing continual transformation. By 6,500BCE we can see radical changes in behaviour. More efficient cooking pots were developed, which in turn created time for other activities. Domestic cattle and milk were introduced and there was an increase in housing and population density. Burials and ritual behaviour also became more elaborate. It is at this time that we begin to see the emergence of many of the decorative features that Çatalhöyük is famous for, such as figurative art. At its peak 3500-8000 people lived, worked and died here.
In the later period of occupation at Çatalhöyük, inhabitants of the East Mound started dispersing to the many other sites that grew up on the Konya Plain. One of these was the West Mound. Interestingly over the millennia, surrounding communities continued to use the East Mound for burial and other activities. Clearly this remained a special place in the landscape
Ҫatalhöyük’s most defining attributes was its inhabitants’ gradual, continuous building and rebuilding of their houses. These houses were very important to all aspects of their lives: material, social and ritual. Houses were roughly rectangular and closely built together with no streets in-between. Instead, people moved around on roofs and accessed their homes down a wooden ladder via an opening in the ceiling
All the houses found at Ҫatalhöyük are different in shape and size, yet most follow a general layout. Each central room had an oven below the stairs where people carried out domestic tasks such as cooking. Raised platforms within the rooms were used for sleeping and other domestic activities. Beneath these platforms inhabitants buried their dead. Side rooms were accessed off the central room providing essential storage areas.
Like we do today, people decorated their homes. At Ҫatalhöyük we see white plastered walls and floors, on which elaborate paintings were made depicting hunting scenes and geometric patterns. The walls were constructed of mud bricks. Evidence suggests that the wet clay mixture was either placed directly on the wall between wooden boards or constructed using mortar and sun-dried bricks. This tradition seems to have carried on over time to the present day, as we see similar construction methods used in the local region now. Thick wooden posts were erected in the central room and may have been used to strengthen the structure, as well as create internal divisions of space.
