In 1961, archaeologist James Mellaart cleared a wall at Catalhoyuk and uncovered murals that changed how researchers see the world’s earliest towns
In 1961, while exploring within the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, archaeologist James Mellaart removed layers of packed mud brick. He saw something quite unexpected when one of the walls started collapsing – the bright colors of the painted plaster became visible. This discovery helpe
By Toi Science Desk
In 1961, while exploring within the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, archaeologist James Mellaart removed layers of packed mud brick.
He saw something quite unexpected when one of the walls started collapsing – the bright colors of the painted plaster became visible.
This discovery helped reshape archaeology.
It changed how experts understand the lives of some of the world's earliest farmers.Up until this point, the historians thought that ancient towns were primitive settlements where people led only practical lives.
However, Çatalhöyük turned out to be far from it.
It is a huge Stone Age settlement covered with unusual art, sculptural figures, and enigmatic human burial grounds.
The wall paintings suggest that the people of Çatalhöyük had a rich symbolic life.A city without streetsThe urban design of Çatalhöyük is highly unusual for any modern settlement.
According to a peer-reviewed article in the journal PNAS, this massive site had no streets or public spaces, and houses were tightly packed together.
People walked on the flat roofs of the buildings and entered their homes using roof holes.Due to the absence of street space, the house interior became the primary place for social interaction and community.
The researchers suggest that the dense settlement, burials, and wall decorations point to a complex society rather than a simple village.
This dense layout may have helped families express their identity through the house walls.Rituals in the living roomThis discovery led scientists to rethink the meaning of an ancient house.
It was often thought that people separated agricultural work from ritual practices.
It was believed that rituals were performed mainly in grand or monumental structures.In Çatalhöyük, everything looks different.
Murals have shown that the rituals took place in the everyday rooms.
Cooking, sleeping, working, and burying relatives under the floor all took place in the same rooms where murals were painted.
This suggests that these early farmers combined daily life and ritual practices.
The house was not only a shelter from the weather; it also appears to have had ritual significance for the community.
A historical witness to the volcanic explosionAmong all the paintings discovered at the site, there is a particular mural that has been generating a lot of interest and debate among the international community of scientists.
In the mural, there are several small squares placed below an unusual object, which has two peaks and from which coloured spots are coming out.
As per a scientific study published in UCLA, the geological investigation has provided enough evidence that the image depicted in the mural is actually the historical record of a volcanic explosion that took place at the Hasan Dağ volcano near Çatalhöyük.The study suggests that people in Çatalhöyük were attentive to their surroundings.
They did not draw any abstract images but recorded a natural event in their paintings.The importance of Çatalhöyük todayEven though more than sixty years have passed since Mellaart discovered that painted plaster, people keep researching Çatalhöyük.
It remains an important test case for modern ideas about what constitutes a city because it shows how a complex society could organize itself without civic buildings or open roads.That moment when the wall made of mud brick was uncovered in 1961 was not only an important event in the discovery of ancient painting.
It gave modern researchers a new perspective on history and on the role of ancient homes in human civilization.