Mysteries of Catalhoyuk.

This is a great interactive site detailing the excavations at Çatalhöyük . Approximately 9000yrs ago this township had a population of around 10000 people.

My kids are having a great time exploring the site and checking out the 'skeletons' and other 'really old stuff'.

Link to intro

Was this the world's first city

At a time when most of the world's people were nomadic hunter-gatherers, Çatalhöyük was a bustling town of as many as 10,000 people.

Link to pictures of the murals found on the walls

Link to artifacts page

They buried their dead beneath the floors of their houses

"While people talk of the 'houses' of Çatalhöyük, they can equally be talked of as tombs. People lived their lives walking, eating, and sleeping on the bones of their dead ancestors."

Enjoy!

mojo

I posted about it somewhere before (blog, maybe)? but I like the links you've found! I also like the museum's website.

I volunteer at a museum, and I have to say that it's a fun and ever-changing experience!

They buried their dead beneath the floors of their houses

so did a lot of cultures in the ancient world
when the belief was prevalent that disturbing the sleep of the dead was bad news it was the easiest way to ensure grandma got left alone
heres No 4 gay street (no laughing please) in the city of Ur


youre looking at the ground level
the arch at the front and centre is the family burial vault

Royalty and the Aristocracy could not be buried beneath the floor of family homes, so Cemetaries were used
but these were continually robbed
in Egypt because of this reason tombs were built, occupied and then hidden
if you look at a picture of the kings chamber ceiling of the great pyramid you see this design


its the same basic design used at Ur
its called corbelling
its one way to ensure that while walking across the living room you don't accidentally go through the floor and end up in whats left of Grandma

Originally posted by Byrd
I posted about it somewhere before (blog, maybe)? but I like the links you've found! I also like the museum's website.

I volunteer at a museum, and I have to say that it's a fun and ever-changing experience!

Normally when i'm checking out archaelogical web sites my kids cant leave the room fast enough, but they played around on that site for ages. I thought it was really well put together, particularly for amateurs like myself.

Thanks Marduk, i realised some other cultures did it, but wouldnt this predate them? (I'm thinking of changing my will. i told the kids they'll have to bury me under the T.V in the lounge room!!)

Originally posted by mojo4sale
Thanks Marduk, i realised some other cultures did it, but wouldnt this predate them?

Ermmmmmmm... yes, but no. This is the largest earliest town where it's found, but I do know in other cases (at least in caves) family members were buried in shelters that the group used.

(I'm thinking of changing my will. i told the kids they'll have to bury me under the T.V in the lounge room!!)

ROFL!!!

Tell 'em that you want the remote in your hand, too!

[edit on 11-6-2007 by Byrd]

this is why as we have become more civilised we have moved our dead stinking relatives more and more away from us into areas away from our family food preparation area while at the same time moving their posessions into our back room cupboard (just by the sideboard) for of course (decontamination).

and of course why no one gets cholera and a variety of other life shortening illnesses these days


I'd like to forward this as a hypothesis for the invention and demand of mass scale graveyards
or did someone do that already

A heap of great photo's from the catalhoyuk dig

The pictures of the wall reliefs and the paintings are particularly impressive and intricate. Also lots of pics of the site, other artifacts, skeletons and the archeaologists at work.
This is the link to the first page of pictures theres a heap more at the bottom of the page.

Wow! Lots of neat stuff there!

I did get a chuckle out of the "filling out paperwork" photo. Yeah, that's an important part of the process.

It's a good "tour" for folks who are interested in how archaeology is REALLY done!

I actually thought of you when i found that site Byrd, shows the hard work that really goes in to alot of these digs. What did you think of the wall reliefs, they looked quite intricate for an older culture.
Try imagining what that place looked like in its heyday, with all the bustling activity and colorful murals and walls.

Marduk, once again you're right on the money...I'm surprised you haven't heard about how suburban large-scale graveyards came to be, London (I understand you live near there) was a big player in this relatively new development. Up until the mid-1800s, it was common practice to bury the dead in densely populated areas, in London's case, in centuries-old churchyards. Then came the cholera epidemics of the 1800s and these inner-city graveyards simply got too crowded and unhealthy. Parliament wisely outlawed churchyard burials and large-scale suburban burials for the sake of health and economy became all the rage.

I find it interesting that they buried their dead beneath the floor of the house. It infers that they revered and respected their ancestors. By keeping their ancestors close, they would be included in the families daily life.
This would also place a duty on the dead to keep evil spirits and devils away from the home. Kind of a spiritual symbiosis.
Our society started putting the dead in graveyards when we stopped revering our dead and began to look at them as a body to be disposed of. Church yard burials were a matter of convenience and a way for the Church to raise money. Much the same way that Cemetaries do now, by selling a grave and care for it.
It would be very interesting to see what their burial rituals were and how they veiwed the after life.

reply to post by Direwolf


I'd reckon disease would probably have something to do with our change in how we dispose of our dead. But social change may well have influenced this as well.
I'd still like to be buried beneath the t.v in the lounge room though.