Çatalhöyük — Çatalhöyük
Çatalhöyük Wikimedia Commons contributor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 3.0

Site · Turkey

Çatalhöyük

7400–5600 BCE

Çatalhöyük is the large Neolithic town on the Konya plain, occupied from about 7400 to 5600 BCE by up to eight thousand people in houses entered from the roof, with shrines, figurines and burials under floors. It is a key site for early farming and art.

CountryTurkey
State / provinceKonya
Dates7400–5600 BCE
StatusArchaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site
Managed byTurkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism
AccessOpen to the public with shelters over the excavated areas
Coordinates37.667, 32.828 (public site)

What was found

Excavations by Mellaart and Hodder recovered wall paintings and bucrania, the 'seated woman' figurine, obsidian mirrors and tools, burials beneath house floors, plastered skulls, pottery and textiles. Finds are in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara and the Konya museum.

Rules

Nothing may be collected, dug, moved or removed at Çatalhöyük; it is a protected archaeological site managed by Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and taking artifacts, stones or samples is an offence. Turkish law vests all antiquities in the state, and removal or export is a crime. This article is for study and context only and is not a collecting locality.

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Çatalhöyük" (Site). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/sites/catalhoyuk. Accessed 2026-09-21.

@misc{stratum-catalhoyuk,
  title        = {Çatalhöyük},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/sites/catalhoyuk}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Site article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

Sources for this article: Stratum editorial (Stratum editorial);Wikidata (CC0);Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-4.0). As of 2026-09-21; Study pack 2026.09. Data reproduced under the licences shown; text in Stratum's own words unless a section names its source.

Found an error? Write to drew@tyr.ac with the article id site:catalhoyuk.

Stratum is the inventory, provenance and certificate system for fossil, mineral and shell collections. Study is its open reference: every fact cites its source, and the credits page lists each one with its licence.