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Alas, it has been a voyage that has not received the attention it should have had. Alas, it has been a voyage that has not received the _ these structures contain depictions of bulls. Some attention it should have had. people have gone so far as to suggest that there is likely a common origin between Catal Héytik and the Minoan Pushing back the birth of civilisation civilisation on Crete, despite the fact that 3,000 years The discovery of the biblical town of Jericho and its —_ separate the two. stone walls, dated to c. 8000 BC, was the first to push Catal Hoéytik was the first of several discoveries to back the date of the birth of "civilisation". ‘Ain Ghazal is slowly unveil the Turkish region's ancient history. Gdbekli often seen as a sister site of Jericho and, with its 15- Tepe is but one of several extremely old sites and is the hectare area, is the largest Neolithic site in the Middle oldest discovered so far. However, the existence of these East and four times as big sites has only been as Jericho. American Gary reported within the O. Rollefson, its principal specialised press, archaeologist, was able to although each site has a date the town to 7250 BC, wow factor. and there is evidence of The site of Cayéni, agriculture in the area located around 96 dating back to c. 6000 BC— kilometres from Gébekli ater than the Tepe, conforms to a establishment of the town design that is known as a itself. In its heyday, 2,000 “grill plan", as it looks like people lived at ‘Ain Ghazal. a grill. This reveals that However, by 5000 BC the careful planning went into town was completely its construction. deserted. Thirty statues Americans Linda and ave been found there, Robert Braidwood, measuring between 35 and together with Turkish 90 centimetres; they are archaeologist Halet uman in appearance but Cambel, began to may represent deities or the excavate Cayénii in 1964 spirits of ancestors. and found that the floors Jericho's discovery added of the buildings were weight to the argument that made of terrazzo (burnt the Bible is history, not crushed lime and clay), myth. But when it was next although at the time of learned that there are even the discovery it was older sites than Jericho, thought that this had first "unfortunately" not located been used by the Romans. in Palestine but further The site also revealed the north in Anatolia, southeast use of metals and the Turkey, media interest in earliest evidence of the these new discoveries smelting of copper, seemed to wane. though some nevertheless The most famous of these argue that the copper was sites is Catal Hdyiik. It was originally cold-hammered discovered in 1958 by rather than smelted. The British archaeologist James —_ oo use of copper should not Mellaart, who began A frieze from Gobekli Tepe. come as a total surprise, excavations in 1961 and Source: http//www.turkishforum.com.tt/ as the site is within range eventually dated the site to 7500-5700 BC. It isthe — of copper ore deposits (as well as obsidian) at Ergani in largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date. nearby Diyarbakir Province. And all of this in a site dated Mellaart described it as "a Neolithic Rome", and it is to 7500-6600 BC. Cayénii is often seen as the site that indeed worthy of the name "town". Its constructions began the epoch that would culminate in Catal Héyiik. show clear signs that its inhabitants possessed a Cayédnii presented evidence of the first farmyard pigs, religion—labelled by some to be a Mother Goddess cult, but it also revealed a hoard of human skulls, one found although this theory has been the subject of much — under an altar-like slab and stained with human blood. controversy. What is known is that the dead were buried | Some have concluded that this is an indication of human beneath the floors of the buildings, and that several of sacrifice, while others have been unwilling to go that far 36 ¢ NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com