Unique And Unusually Large 8000-Year-Old Building Discovered At Çatalhöyük Site, Turkey

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - A team of Polish archaeologists working on the Çatalhöyük site in southern Turkey has discovered an unusually large building for its period - over 8000 years ago.

Image credit: PAP

Image credit: PAP

Çatalhöyük is a tell, a mound made of several subsequent settlements, belonging to a Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city in southern Anatolia - today's southern Turkey.  It has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The site was inhabited from 7100 BC to 5950 BC, reaching the peak of its activity in around 7000 BC. The building being investigated by the Polish team has been dated nearer the end of the period in question - 5950 BC, informs PAP.

See also:

Fascinating Neolithic Society Based On Equality – Catalhoyuk, Turkey

Mysterious Ancient Site Of Çatalhöyük: Remains Of Early Structures May Shed More Light On Its Obscure Past

Mysterious Ancient Site Of Çatalhöyük: Remains Of Early Structures May Shed More Light On Its Obscure Past

8000-Year-Old Prehistoric Çatalhöyük: Residents Were Buried In Their Homes

The Polish team is headed by Professor Arkadiusz Marciniak from the Department of Archaelogy of the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań.

Archaeological work in Çatalhöyük PAP/Abaca

Archaeological work in Çatalhöyük PAP/Abaca.

At the present stage of research the team is not sure of the purpose of the "new" building. Professor Marciniak says: "The construction was decidedly larger than usual for buildings of this period."

He does not rule out that it had a religious purpose, but at present is more inclined to attribute a social role of the construction. "The hearth in the centre suggests that people gathered here."

Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer