One of the best preserved neolithic civilizations is Çatalhöyük, dated between 7500BC and 5700BC in southern Anatolia, the ancient name for much of the area that is Turkey today. It was a planned society with streets, intersections and houses. However, the houses were rank peculiar – none of them had any doors or windows. The only way to enter was to clamber into a hole on the roof and climb down a ladder. It seems strange that people learnt to put up walls and not make doors in, especially after migrating from caves which have natural entrances. Maybe that’s where the phrase – I’ll drop by – originated.
The museum of Anatolian civilizations has interesting finds from this and more.
The primary deity at Çatalhöyük was a form of Mother Goddess. Excavations show a figurine of a plump woman with full breasts and stomach seated on a chair that has the heads of two beasts carved out as hand rests, now on display at the Anatolia museum at Ankara. The figurine seems to indicate that she was a fertility goddess, which is not surprising considering how many societies had
deities for fertility, including Hinduism. This was a time the early artists arose – the museum has some cave murals that show deer being hunted; the color of the murals still fresh more than 8000 years later. Continue reading Anatolian museum and Ataturk memorial – Ankara
Shrinath V 