Theme:
4. People of the Present – Peopling the Past
Session format:
Discussion session (with formal abstracts)
Title:
Between the East and the West. Çatalhöyük’ Contribution to the European Neolithic and European Archaeological Thought
Content:
60 years of research at Neolithic Period Anatolian Site Çatalhöyük have had an unprecedented impact on European archaeology, probably on World archaeology. The early years of Mellaart Era yielded spectacular discoveries that have yet to be surpassed as the iconic Fat Lady figurines, paintings, and reliefs on the walls of elaborated shrines showed a different and more developed phase of the Neolithic universe and triggered the development of different theories pertaining to egalitarian and urban society. These included the birth of matriarchy proposed by Gimbutas and Mellaart, "Obsidian Theory" advocated by Jacobsen, and the birth of Indoeuropean language systems pursued by Renfrew, to mention a few. The Çatalhöyük Research Project through time marked the transition in a way from modernism to postmodernism theories in many debates. It is manifested by numerous theoretical and epistemic underpinnings explicitly laid down by Ian Hodder, including theory of domus and history houses, the idea of microhistory, the role of religion, as well as the reflexivity and multivocality of contextual archaeology.
The purpose of this session is aiming to examine many questions and debate on research agenda as the impact of distinct and influential schools of thought on European archaeology by Çatalhöyük studies. How has it progressed beyond the simple collection of a wide range of rich data or periodical documentation via Internet and databases so far? How far has the Çatalhöyük settlement influenced the character of European Neolithic? The session will also present current work at Çatalhöyük, which is deeply rooted in the history of settlement research and the rapidly changing modes of archaeology practice today.
Keywords:
ÇATALHÖYÜK, NEOLITHIC, EUROPEAN ARCHAEOLOGY, RESEARCH HISTORY
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Ali Umut Türkcan (Turkey) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Arkadiusz Marciniak (Poland) 3,2
Affiliations:
1. ANADOLU UNIVERSITY
2. ÇATALHÖYÜK RESEARCH PROJECT
3. ADAM MICKIEWICZ UNIVERSITY
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT