Excavating one of the earliest cities, 9000-year-old Catal Hoyuk on the Konya Plain of Turkey

The site continues to fascinate and startle. Here are varied figurines discovered there over the decades since archaeologist James Mellaart walked the hills/mounds on Turkey's Konya Plain that gave the site its name. In English, the site name means forked hill. In Turkish, the site is, Catal Hoyuk. Our story of Catal Hoyuk, Turkey, begins at the beginning, well before written words, so words pause here.