Project Overview
Çatalhöyük is a 9000 year old town, one of the earliest in the world, with rich art and sculpture in its houses. A Site Management Plan has been written (see www.catalhoyuk.com) and the site is on Turkey’s application list for UNESCO World Heritage status.

Threats. The houses at Çatalhöyük are all made of unfired mudbrick and so offer a major challenge for conservation and site presentation. The walls are plastered and the plasters are a soft lime-rich mud (not fired or hardened), and there may be up to 450 thin layers of such fragile plasters on any wall, only some layers having been painted. The site was first excavated by James Mellaart in 1961-1965.

His excavation ended abruptly and large areas of housing (about 220 houses) and high profiles (up to 10 m high) were left exposed. These areas have suffered intense erosion and the loss of buildings, wall paintings, wall sculptures, burials with high-value objects. There has also been much change in land management in the area over recent decades leading to a major drop in water table and changes in runoff and erosion. These factors have also caused gullying and loss of buildings in some areas of the site.

Methods and scientific techniques. Conservation research over the period since the new project began (1993) under my direction, has been conducted by the University of Pennsylvania (Dr Frank Matero) and by the University College London Conservation Department (Dr Liz Pye). The end result has been a program of work that has involved, as its most important element, covering the exposed areas, and filling in eroded zones.

Since the Site Management Plan calls for opening up the site for display, conservation under shelter of newly excavated houses has been undertaken, involving a range of consolidants for wall plasters, grouts for keeping them on walls and for stabilizing walls, methods for separating and lifting wall and plaster segments, and careful monitoring of humidity, temperature, and wall movement. A detailed recording system has been set in place involving digital photography and a computer database of information about each wall.

Areas conserved in 2005. In 2005, funding was contributed by GHF to the Çatalhöyük Project for conservation and public presentation work at the site in the Konya region of Turkey. The areas conserved are shown on the attached map. 3 houses were conserved within the South area shelter, and 25 houses in the North area.

Conservation progress. The larger-scale conservation made possible with the help of GHF support in 2005 has now allowed large areas of buildings in the North area to be conserved. The aim over the next two years in the North area is to provide a permanent cover (like that over the South area) and to complete excavation and conservation of another 25 houses. These can then be stabilized and placed on long-term display.

In the South area itself, further work is needed as the pressure of the mound on the deep trenches causes additional conservation challenges. These issues are being explored by careful monitoring of changes in micro-environment throughout the year, and by careful monitoring of the interventions that have been made. The end result will be a further 30 houses at different levels within the mound conserved for the long term. The success of this work is having a major impact on the way that such sites are managed and developed in Turkey. Above: New display panels in the South Shelter.

Above: New display panels in the South Shelter.

Above and Below: South Area before and after conservation.

Above and Below: South Area before and after conservation.

Site Presentation. GHF funds were used to enhance Çatalhöyük as a heritage site that can attract tourists. The numbers of visitors to the site each year have increased from about 100 in 1993 to 11,000 in 2004 and 13,000 in 2005. But the amount of information available to visitors has been minimal, with little site interpretation or facilities. The GHF funding in 2005 allowed improvements to be made so that the project can move towards its goal of 50,000 to 100,000 visitors a year.

The Visitor Center was totally redesigned and repainted. Funding from GHF provided support for Dr. Nick Merriman and three students from London University to work with local laborers and firms, and to purchase materials. All the 25 panels in the Visitor Center were redesigned and remade. The space was redesigned with a central video area screened off from the display area. Older exhibits were dismantled and the whole space and entry area were repainted. New display panels were installed in the North and South shelters.

Above: New Visitor Center and Site Interpretation Panels were funded by GHF in 2005.

Training. Three Turkish students received conservation training in 2005 as well as six international students. The training was provided by the University College London team. Because of the large areas of wall plaster that need conserving, we have also trained six women from the local community near the site to remove the 100s of layers of plasters on the walls looking for wall paintings under the guidance of trained conservators. These will be employed again in future years, and their expertise will be expanded and added to.

In addition, 4 men from the local community were trained in aspects of site presentation, especially the preparation of display panels, and the guiding of visitors around the site. 600 children from schools in the region each spent a day at the site learning about the value of archaeology, the conservation of Turkey’s heritage, and the protection of sites such as Çatalhöyük.

Above: Local women removing plaster layers on walls, looking for paintings. Below: Wall painting at Çatalhöyük which has been lifted and prepared for display in Konya Museum.

Below: Visitors listening to audio guide while walking through site.

Conservation Project Backgrounder

Catalhöyük is an example of the important Anatolian contribution to the development of early societies. A site of this importance for Turkish and global heritage needs careful conservation and presentation to the public. It poses problems of conservation of mud brick and wall plaster, and problems of site management which have a wider applicability to many sites in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Above: Reconstruction drawing of a house or shrine excavated in the 1960s by James Mellaart

Excavated by James Mellaart in the early 1960s, the site has been widely recognized as of unique international significance. The popular Collins guide to Turkey is one of many that describe Çatalhöyük as 'probably the most important archaeological site in Turkey'. It is one of the first urban centres in the world (at 7400BC) and it has the first wall paintings and mural art. The spectacular art provides a direct window into life 9000 years ago, and the site is an internationally important key for our understanding of the origins of agriculture and civilisation.

Above: Map of Çatalhöyük. The GHF-supported conservation took place in the North (including 4040) and South areas.

The aims of the current international project at Çatalhöyük involve full-scale modern archaeological excavation and conservation, and promotion of the site for visitor access. Archaeological excavation and conservation by an international team started in 1993 under the direction of Dr Ian Hodder of the Çatalhöyük Research Project, Stanford University, under the auspices of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, with a permit from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and in close collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley, London University, Istanbul University, Selcuk University, and Poznan University. The work aims at extensive uncovering of new areas of the site and the recovery, conservation and presentation of paintings and sculpture. The work is planned to continue over 25 years.

Above: View from outside the South Shelter. Below: View inside the South Shelter.

View of the mound from the air in 1997

The ultimate aim is to provide the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism with a well planned heritage site. (For the Site Management Plan click here.) Visitors are able to experience the site in a number of ways. A conservation laboratory has been built and the latest techniques applied. The aim is that the conserved wall paintings, sculptures, textiles, wooden and ceramic artifacts will be placed on display in a site museum, enhanced by virtual reality techniques and interactive video.

Replicas of some of the paintings are being placed back in conserved houses on the site, under a range of shelters. Part of the site is being covered so that the ancient houses are protected and so that visitors can walk around a Neolithic village. An experimental house has been built for tourist entry. By providing a range of visitor experiences the full heritage potential of the site can begin to be exploited.

View of the dig house where team members live and work during the excavation season.

The main research direction is to place the paintings and symbolism within a full environmental, economic and social context. Central questions concern the origins of the site and its early development, social and economic organisation and variation within the community, the reasons for the adoption and intensification of agriculture, the social context for the early use of pottery, temporal trends in the life of the community, trade and relations with other sites in the region.

Shelter over Building 5, on display for visitors.

Conservation Leadership

McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Dr. Ian Hodder, Stanford University

Project Members

Ian Hodder Professor Ph.D. Cambridge, 1974 ihodder@stanford.edu Tel: 723-1197 / 723-5038 office: 110-111D office hours: W 12-2	Ian Hodder joined the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology in September of 1999. Among his publications are: Symbols in Action (Cambridge 1982), Reading the Past (Cambridge 1986), The Domestication of Europe (Oxford 1990), and The Archaeological Process (Oxford 1999). He is continuing his research into archaeological theory and has recently published a volume of his collected papers 'Archaeology beyond Dialogue' (Utah 2004).
	Professor Hodder has been conducting the excavation of the 9,000 year-old Neolithic site of Catalhöyük in central Turkey. The 25- year project has three aims - to place the art from the site in its full environmental, economic and social context, to conserve the paintings, plasters and mud walls, and to present the site to the public. The project is also associated with attempts to develop reflexive methods in archaeology. Dr. Hodder is currently the Dunlevie Family Professor of Archaeology at Stanford University.