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The houses are separately
planned and another house is built near the existing
house in case of a need. Due to the neighboring walls
of the houses, there is no streets in the city. Transportation
is provided through plain roofs. No findings having
the characteristics of city walls protecting and bordering
the city could be found. The material used in the construction
is sun - dried brick, trees and reeds. The base depths
of the houses is small. There are wooden columns between
the walls. The beams on these columns bear the flat
ceiling. The upper cover of the ceiling is clay soil
pressed on reed. The houses are single - floored and
entrance is provided via a ladder from a hole opened
on the roof. Each house consists of a room and a warehouse.
There are quadruple owens in the rooms, steps having
heights varying between 10 - 30 cm from the floor base
and quadruple niches in the wallls. The walls are plastered.
After painting the plaster in white, paintings in yellow,
red and black tons are made. Holy rooms are bigger than
other rooms. The trophes of original bull head, ram
head and deer heads conserved with pressed clay are
appliqued on the walls. Besides these, human and animal
figures in relief form are also seen. Wall paintings
in Çatalhöyük are found in the 10th layer as the earliest
and in the 11th layer as the latest. The most beautiful
and developed ones belong to the 7th and 5th layers.
These paintings are the continuation of the paintings
made by the Paleolithic man on cave walls. They are
paintings made for the abundance of the hunt. Towards
the late period, it is seen that house scenes become
less and bird motifs and geometric patterns occur.
It is thought that the human figures without head painted
on the walls as being eaten by vultures are related
with the traditions of burying the dead. The bones cleaned
from the flesh being eaten by the vultures are collected
and wrapped to a coating made of mat and buried under
the figures in the house. In the researches made under
the figures, many skeletons have been found. As the
gifts for the dead, tools made of bones, colored stones,
cutter tools, stone axes, beads made of sea shells are
put. The small sculptures obtained in Çatalhöyük excavation
provide us information abut the beginning of mother
goddess culture (worship) and the beliefs of that period.
These small sculptures made of cooked soil and stone
have sizes varying between 5 - 15 cm. they are depicted
as fat women with big breasts and big hips and sometimes
as giving a birth. This is because of their representing
abundance and blessing. Almost all of the tools and
materials obtained in Çatalhöyük are stone, cooked earth,
axes, shallow plates, high relief abundance goddess
motifs and the bracelets and necklaces. Black and tile
red colored pots and cupls having a rough - granule
dough made of cooked earth have been found. Furthermore,
the mother goddess and holy animal figures are made
of cooked earth. The cutter and perforator tools made
of bone and spear and arrow ends made of obsidian are
the most important materials used in Çatalhöyük.
No excavations have been made in Çatalhöyük until 1996;
starting from this year excavations have been continued
by English Archeology Institute, under the chairmanship
of Ian Hodder. The excavation finds are in Konya Archeology
Museum. Some of them are exhibited and the others are
taken under protection in the warehouses.
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