ÇEVRE HIGHLIGHTS - 29. SAYI

49 OCAK 2026 Interview with Çatalhöyük Deputy Excavation Director Dr. Gözde PARLAK andHer Team Hello, I’m Elif Nas Yüksel from Çevre College. Thank you for accepting this interview and for taking the time to speak with us. Thank you as well. Could you tell us about Çatalhöyük? Could you give us information about the archaeological work here? As Pamukkale University, we took over the Çatalhöyük excavation work together with my professor, Professor Dr. Ali Ozan. We continue our work here with teams from various universities and with my other colleagues. You also saw the areas at our visitor reception center that we toured together. In short, as you know, this place was discovered in the 1950s. From 1960 onward, excavations were carried out at certain intervals by esteemed scholars. Starting from this year, we have taken over the work. The roofed area we visited is in the North Shelter. This is referred to as the “East Roofed Mound,” and this year, the other main area where we worked is across from this mound—the “West Roofed Mound.” We carried out most of our excavations there. The East Mound consists of about three hills. The roofed area we toured is one of them. The other roofed area that you couldn’t visit is what we call the southern corridor. And the area you saw along the walking path, which is covered with a white surface, is also referred to as the eastern area. Work is currently continuing in these three areas. Next year, we will expand these activities further. The East Roofed Mound is classified as Neolithic. You may know the Neolithic period to some extent—it represents the transition to the first settled life for me. West Çatalhöyük continues more as the Chalcolithic Period. Thisplace is important because it represents thehouses thatwere inhabited after the Neolithic. This year we focused our work there, because we needed to better understand the transition after the Neolithic period, and since the work there remained more active, it was a period we prioritized. But that doesn’t mean we stopped working here. Within the roofed area we call the North Shelter, we carried out restoration work under what is called basic conservation and repair. Likewise, in the white area you see covered over there, the team conducted work to reach the Neolithic layers. When we begin excavating, we have certain questions. We also conduct preliminary studies to determine which areas we can work on. For this, if we can, we carry out ground-penetrating radar (georadar) scanning to see what exists in the lower layers—whether there are stone alignments and so on. These scans are one of the major factors in selecting an excavation area. Or we can walk on the surface, collect material there, and make an assessment accordingly, then choose a working area. In fact, the reason excavations began on this mound was the pottery and some oxidized pieces of information obtained during surface surveys. The site was discovered by JamesMellaart. In the 1950s, it became a settlement that was covered by the world press. There are many excavations in the surrounding area. The Konya Plain is very rich in mounds. If you look around as you travel from here, you’ll see many small hills. All of those are actually living areas. We call them “höyük” (mounds). If you think of excavation like slicing a cake, each phase represents a different building layer. Here, for example, in the roofed area we visited, there are close to seven building layers. In East Çatalhöyük—on this side—the Neolithic layers are mostly a single-layer settlement made of mudbrick and entered from the top. In the west, in the Chalcolithic period, we see more two-story structures. This year, in our work, we opened burial layers belonging to later periods. These are dated to the Roman and Byzantine periods. Starting next year, we think we may be able to answer some questions about the transition from east to west. Not everything ends in the field— there is also the “home economy” of this work. When our fieldwork ends, our laboratory work at home begins. There is a long process: washing all the pottery we find, washing the bones, cleaning small finds such as flint tools, figurines—preparing them and making them ready. Likewise, if something is broken or damaged, we hand it over to the restoration team. Every type of find has its own specialist. What are themain elements thatmust be consideredduring excavations? Especially in terms of protecting and documenting finds, what method do you follow? First of all, when any find is discovered, the first thing that must be done is to document it: photograph it, carefully clean around it, and, if necessary, draw it on site. Also, if restoration is required, you should call the relevant specialists, listen to their recommendations, and from that point on, hand the find over to the appropriate people. How have the excavations here affected previous knowledge about the Neolithic Age? Did they change it? In general, before the excavations at Çatalhöyük, it was thought that the Neolithic Age was located in the Fertile Crescent—on the Mesopotamian side. You can think of southeastern Turkey and the regions of Syria, Iran, and Iraq. But the studies here determined that this process had also begun in these regions and goes back even earlier. That’s how archaeology works: when you find something, you can’t say “this is the first” in an absolute sense. We say “the earliest known” or “the earliest known evidence,” because there are still many places that have not been excavated. In that respect, Çatalhöyük is important. It is one of the earliest known settlements in the world—one of the earliest known Neolithic settlements. What was the find that surprised you the most in the Çatalhöyük excavations? A fossil, for example. This year we found a starfish fossil. That surprised all of us a lot. We gathered around it and examined it. What kind of work are you doing to protect this area? As the restoration team, this year we especially worked on conservation and repair projects on the northern side. Because of damage to the walls on the northern side caused by temperature, humidity, and water, there is a risk of collapse. For this reason, we proceeded by following the basic ethics and principles of restoration—using original materials and original methods and techniques. For repairs, we particularly needed to use mudbrick material. For that, mudbricks were collected from damaged, collapsed mudbrick houses in the nearby village and cut according to the dimensions of the original mudbricks. After that, repairs were carried out using the original mortar used at Çatalhöyük. In addition, due to deterioration and cracking in the walls, various works were carried out on plaster repairs.