Editing Çatalhöyük (section)

==Archaeology==
[[File:MUFT_-_Catal_Höyük_Modell.jpg|left|thumb|200px| Model of the neolithic settlement (7300 BC) of Catal Höyük]]

The site was first excavated by [[James Mellaart]] in 1958. He later led a team which further excavated there for four seasons between 1961 and 1965.<ref>J. Mellaart, Excavations at Çatal Hüyük, first preliminary report: 1961. Anatolian Studies, vol. 12, pp. 41–65, 1962</ref><ref>J. Mellaart, Excavations at Çatal Hüyük, second preliminary report: 1962. Anatolian Studies, vol. 13, pp. 43–103, 1963</ref><ref>J. Mellaart, Excavations at Çatal Hüyük, third preliminary report: 1963. Anatolian Studies, vol. 14, pp. 39–119, 1964</ref><ref>J. Mellaart, Excavations at Çatal Hüyük, fourth preliminary report: at 1965. Anatolian Studies, vol. 16, pp. 15–191, 1966</ref> These excavations revealed this section of Anatolia as a centre of advanced culture in the Neolithic period.<ref name=gard>{{cite book | first = Fred S. | last = Kleiner |author2=Mamiya, Christin J.  | year = 2006 | title = Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective: Volume 1 | edition = Twelfth | publisher = Wadsworth Publishing | location = Belmont, California | isbn = 978-0-495-00479-0 | pages = 12–4}}</ref> Excavation revealed 18 successive layers of buildings signifying various stages of the settlement and eras of history. The bottom layer of buildings can be dated as early as 7100 BC while the top layer of the later West Mound is from 5600 BC.<ref>[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/tale-of-two-tells-dating-the-catalhoyuk-west-mound/01F804089ECB6CC4AA6E47D452E3B9D1/core-reader] David Orton et al., A tale of two tells: dating the Çatalhöyük West Mound, Antiquity, vol. 92, iss. 363, pp. 620–639, June 2018</ref>

Mellaart was banned from Turkey for his involvement in the [[Dorak affair]], in which he published drawings of supposedly important Bronze Age artifacts that later went missing.<ref>Kenneth Pearson and Patricia Connor, The Dorak affair, New York, Atheneum, 1968</ref> After this scandal, the site lay idle until 1993, when excavations began under the leadership of [[Ian Hodder]], then at the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref>I. Hodder, Çatalhöyük, Anatolian Archaeology, vol. 4, pp. 8–10, 1998</ref><ref>I. Hodder, Getting to the Bottom of Thing: Çatalhöyük 1999, Anatolian Archaeology, vol. 5, pp. 4–7, 1999</ref><ref>I. Hodder, Çatalhöyük, Anatolian Archaeology, vol. 8, pp. 5–7, 2002</ref><ref>I. Hodder, A New Phase of Excavation at Çatalhöyük, Anatolian Archaeology, vol. 9, pp. 9–11, 2003</ref><ref>[http://www.catalhoyuk.com/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Archive_Report_2008.pdf] Çatalhöyük: Excavations of a Neolithic Anatolian Höyük – Çatalhöyük Archive Report 2008</ref> The Hodder-led excavations ended in 2018.<ref>Hodder, Ian, ed., "Çatalhöyük Excavations: The 2009-2017 Seasons", British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, 2023 {{ISBN|978-1912090204 }}</ref> Hodder, a former student of Mellaart, chose the site as the first "real world" test of his controversial theory of [[post-processual archaeology]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.11141/ia.42.7 | issue=42 | title=Analog to Digital: Transitions in Theory and Practice in Archaeological Photography at Çatalhöyük | year=2016 | journal=Internet Archaeology | last1 = Morgan | first1 = Colleen | last2 = University | url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/107945/1/Internet_Archaeology_final.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/107945/1/Internet_Archaeology_final.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live | doi-access=free }}</ref> The site has always had a strong research emphasis upon engagement with digital methodologies, driven by the project's experimental and reflexive methodological framework.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.11141/ia.47.1 | issue=47 | title='The Rise of the Machine': the impact of digital tablet recording in the field at Çatalhöyük | year=2018 | journal=Internet Archaeology | last1 = Taylor | first1 = James | last2 = Issavi | first2 = Justine | last3 = Berggren | first3 = Åsa | last4 = Lukas | first4 = Dominik | last5 = Mazzucato | first5 = Camilla | last6 = Tung | first6 = Burcu | last7 = Dell'Unto | first7 = Nicoló| doi-access = free }}</ref> According to Mickel, Hodder's Çatalhöyük Research Project (ÇRP) established itself as a site for progressive methodologies{{dash}}in terms of adaptable and democratized recording, integration of computerized technologies, sampling strategies, and community involvement."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mickel |first1=Allison |title=Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent |date=2021 |publisher=University Press of Colorado |location=Louisville |isbn=9781646421152 |pages=6–7}}</ref>

New excavations are being directed by [[Ali Umut Türkcan]] from [[Anadolu University]].