From about 7100 BC, farmers on the Konya plain of central Turkey built Catalhoyuk, a town of up to 8,000 people in which mud-brick houses were packed together without streets, entered by ladders through the roof. Inside, plastered walls were painted with hunting scenes and bulls' heads, and the dead were buried beneath the floors. The site was discovered in 1958 and first excavated by James Mellaart, and from 1993 by a team led by Ian Hodder. It shows how early farming communities lived before the rise of cities, with little visible hierarchy.
Before and after
- from c. 7,500 BCE to 5,700 BCEConstruction of Çatalhöyük
- c. 7,460 BCEEruption of Pinatubo
- c. 7,420 BCEEruption of Fisher
- c. 7,350s BCEConstruction of Cueva de las Manos
- from c. 7,101 BCE to 5,701 BCECatalhoyuk grows into a large Neolithic town
- from c. 7,090s BCE to 4,950s BCEOrigins of Jarmo
- 8th millennium BCEOrigins of Athens
- from 8th millennium BCE to 4th millennium BCEOrigins of Khirokitia
- 8th millennium BCEDiscovery of copper
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- from about 12,000 years ago to 7th millennium BCEConstruction of Göbekli Tepe
- from c. 7,000 BCE to 586 BCEConstruction of Tel Megiddo
- from c. 7,000 BCE to 2,600 BCEOrigins of Mehrgarh
- from c. 3,600 BCE to 2,500 BCEOrigins of Megalithic Temples of Malta
- c. 3,501 BCEPeople first tame horses on the steppe
- from c. 3,500 BCE to 2,500 BCEOrigins of Brú na Bóinne
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.