A second neighborhood was found during the excavations carried out in Çatalhöyük, the neolithic site located in the Çumra district of central Konya province.
One of the most prominent cultural heritage sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Çatalhöyük is accepted as one of the oldest settlements of ancient humanity. After it was discovered by British archaeologist James Mellaart in the 1960s, Çatalhöyük became subject to excavations that began under the supervision of Stanford University Professor of archaeology and British national Ian Hodder in 1993.
Turkish archaeologists working on the ancient site under the supervision of Associate Professor Ali Umut Türkcan have conducted research on various topics, including the social life and culinary traditions of the settlement. According to Tekcan, the head of the excavation, they have excavated just 6% of the place, one of the first urbanization models in Anatolia, to date.
In the new area of the site where the archaeologists have focused their studies more recently, they uncovered the second neighborhood of the settlement. Türkcan said that they revealed a street structure in the newly excavated area, which indicates the existence of an ancient neighborhood.
Noting that Çatalhöyük is one of the prominent ancient sites in the world, Türkcan said: “It has been mentioned as the first city in the history of urbanization since the 1960s. It is possible to say that it is a center that started urban culture with its size, population and assets.”
"We try to discover the underground of Çatalhöyük and introduce the history and structure of the settlement to the public," he added.
