Çatalhöyük Archaeological Site

Çatalhöyϋk, one of the earliest Neolithic, matriarchal societies in Anatolia, existed from approximately 7500 to 5700 B.C. It was excavated between 1961 and 1965 by James Mellaart and the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, but looting and unsuccessful conservation efforts caused the Turkish government to revoke excavation rights. Only four percent of the site had been excavated, and all without the benefits of modern techniques and conservation methods. In 1993 a new permit was granted for a 25-year project that trains specialists from the eastern Mediterranean in conservation and site management. The main conservation problems at the site have included the collapse of the high trench walls left at the end of the 1965 excavation and the continuing of loss of plaster sculptures and paintings. The effects of tourism on the site have also caused erosion and collapse. A massive drop in the water table led to drainage in the lower levels of the site, thus causing decay of the earliest organic materials that previously had been preserved in their waterlogged state.