Çatalhöyük: Artifact 1

Ancient Dwellings

     The ancient city of Catal Huyuk was one giant mass of interconnecting homes. Homes were made of mud bricks and plaster (the plaster was reapplied annually) and the dead were buried in the family house. There were no doors, instead, people gained access to homes through hatches in the roofs. People were able to climb to different levels through the use of ladders. Since all the houses were connected, no roads could weave in between the homes, so roofs essentially acted as streets.
     Walls and floors were covered in plaster and decorated with panels of red. Outside walls of homes had paintings depicting hunting scenes, death (with a vulture picking at a human carcass), and landscapes. Each home had an oven for baking bread, but there was no chimney, instead there were holes in the wall that provided ventilation. Rush matting was used on the floors and furniture was built with brick platforms that was used for sitting, working, and sleeping on. The bull was considered a sacred animal and on outside walls and altars of temple chambers, horns were projecting out.

Works Cited
Information: Gascoigm, Bamber. "A complete Neolithic town." HistoryWorld. 2001-Present. Web.
     11 Sept. 2014.
Lambert, Tim. "The Ancient City of Catal Huyuk." Local Histories. Web. 11 Sept. 2014.
Picture: http://leavingbabylon.wordpress.com/book/being-there/