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Neolithic
Age
Neolithic Age
( The New Stone Age) ( 8000-2700 BC) This period reveals
a new step in the history of mankind with the development
of the established and settled societies and production
of food. Anatolia once again gives the most comprehensive
sites in the world mfor this age with Cayonu, Hacilar,
Catalhoyuk and Koskhoyuk excavation sites.
The Cayonu settlement which is not far from the city of
Diyarbakir has been unearthed by the expedition teams
under the leadership of Cambel, Braidwood, Mehmet
Ozdogan, Wulf Schirmen and it is dated back to 7250-6750
BC. In the middle of the settlement is a center and
around it are monumental, rectangular structures and
houses. The foundation of the structures is stone and
above is sun-dried brick. The inhabitants of Cayonu are
the first farmers of Anatolia. They raised sheep and
goat, and domesticated dog. The woman figurines among the
finds discovered are the earliest traces of the Mother
Goddess cult.
The Hacilar Settlement, brought to the daylight by James Mellart,
located on the 25 km southwest of Burdur, is dated back
to 5700-5600 BC. The walls and the floors of Hacilar
houses which are made of mud-brick on stone foundations
are lime mortared and red painted. Wooden poles for
supporting flat roofs and ladders to suggest that some
structures had two
stories are discovered. In every house, there are goddess
figurines made of clay, in standing and sitting postures.
Different from other settlement areas, the dead are
buried outside the cities. The pottery in Hacilar is well
fired and comes in red, brown and yellow colors.
The Catalhoyuk settlement, on the 52 km southeast of Konya
and north of the town of Cumra is, dated back to
6800-5000 BC and it is the most developed center of the
Near East and the Aegean. The excavations have shown that
the city with ten different settlement levels was built
according to a designed plan. This is achieved by
arranging the rectangular planned houses next to one
another around the courtyards. There are no stone
foundations in Catalhoyuk and all the houses carry flat
roofs. Houses were made up of mud brick and they all were
built according to the same ground plan. They have no
doors. Instead the entrance to them is through windows on
the ceilings by using portable ladders. The windows for
air and light are placed on the topmost part of the walls
near the roofs. The houses are composed of wide living
rooms, storage rooms and kitchens. In the rooms there are
seats and furnaces. The dead are buried under the seats
in the houses after having been dried in the sun.The
walls of the houses are decorated with bull heads and
paintings. These paintings which signify the rituality in
the community are placed in a corner in the houses rather
than in a special separate location within the settlement
area. Bull heads are formed in high reliefs, like
statues, and some of them are made by the covering of
original bullheads with clay. In the formation of the
wall paintings, red, brown, black, white and pink dies on
top of the gray mud brick are used. Among the motifs used
are geometrical designs, flowers, stars, circles and in
some parts depictions of life as well as human hands,
deities, human figures, hunting scenes, bulls, birds,
vultures, leopards, wild deer and pigs, lions and bears.
A depiction of the eruption of a volcanic mountain ( very
likely, the Mount Hasan, near Cappadocia) is the oldest
known scenery painting. In Catalhoyuk, we can also trace
the early stages of farming. This is also accompanied
with the worship of the Mother Goddess along with the
holy animal, the bull. The Mother Goddess stands for
fertility and multiplication of man. In the excavations
carried in Hacilar and Catalhoyuk, hundreds of Mother
Goddess statutes have been found. She, with her sexual
organs in exaggeration is almost always depicted nude and
lies down in the postures of crouching, and specially in
the process of birth-giving . The fact that similarly
designed Mother Goddess statues could also be found in
the Near Eastern and Aegean cultures signifies the
existence of matriarchal societies in these regions in
the same time periods. The Goddess Kybele comes into
sight around the 7000 BC. ( Most of the finds from this
period are on display in Ankara Museum of Anatolian
Civilizations.
As for Koskhoyuk; during the excavations carried by Ugur Silistre
in Koskhoyuk, near Nigde, ornate pottery pieces and
statues have been discovered.
Turkey
Turkey
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