Neolithic Art: Catal Hoyuk
In my fifty minutes on Neolithic Art, we did not make it to Catal Hoyuk, which was a shame, for those who work on Catal Hoyuk make the material, including the results of the most recent excavations, highly accessible. The official website provides the most obvious starting point. Among other places, it leads to the photographs of the archaeologists on Flickr and an Image Collection Database at Stanford. It also provides an extensive bibliography.
The Open Knowledge and the Public Interest (OKAPI) team at Berkeley has made great efforts to make the archaeological material from Catal Hoyuk more compelling. You may visit reconstructions in Second Life, although I cannot recommend it, for as I write, I am on Okapi Island in Second Life, stuck outside Catal Hoyuk, unable to climb up the ladder to get into the town. The Berkeley Archaeologists at Catal Hoyuk Research Archive, and its web exhibition, Remixing Catal Hoyuk, overflow with riches, although this abundance overwhelms and it may prove difficult to find something immediately relevant to the class.
If time permitted, I would aim to contextualize the wall paintings from Catal Hoyuk more fully. First, I would show the original painting of the landscape. Gardner’s shows only a watercolor copy of it, but you may find on the web photographs of the actual wall painting. Second, I would show a plan of Catal Hoyuk and locate the room with the landscape. Then, I would introduce other material, such as the Mother Goddess figures included in Art Across Time and The Visual Arts: A History.
But Catal Hoyuk is such a rich site, that it may provide a good opportunity for the students to conduct some guided web-research and to learn more about the site and archaeology more generally.