Catalhoyuk Exploring The Lost City Quiz

Answer: All of these

Catalhoyuk is believed to be one of the oldest sites in the Middle East. Wonderful rock art - painted murals and relief sculpture - is just one of the reasons that Catalhoyuk is such an important site. The dig at Catalhoyuk is huge, covering almost 32 acres in area and is around 69 feet in height.

Answer: Turkey

Pronouned cha-tal-hoy-yuk, Catalhoyuk is 32 miles southwest of the city of Konya in south-central Turkey. It is nearly 3,000 feet above sea level and is on the Anatolian Plateau. There are actually two mounds that are being excatvated at Catalhoyuk, an east mound and a west mound.

Answer: 1950's by James Mellaart

Catalhoyuk was discovered in the 1950's while Mellaart was surveying for sites in Turkey. He began his dig in 1961, and continued excavating Catalhoyuk until 1965. Ian Hodder is the director of the present Catalhoyuk Archeological Project, which is a 25 year project that began in 1993 and will not be completed until 2018. Howard Carter, of course, discovered King Tut's Tomb.

In 1877, Marsh discovered the Stegosaurus (roof lizard) in Como Bluff, Wyoming.

Answer: False

No, the wonderful art found at Catalhoyuk is not found on the landscape, but is the beautiful murals found on so many of walls (pictographs) and its sculptures. Geogylphs are images made on the landscape. The largest collection in the world is found in Chile's Atacama Desert.

There are over 5,000 geoglyphs that range from three feet in length, to the Giant of the Altacama, which is a man's figure that is more than 280 feet long.

Answer: Houses of ordinary people

When Mellaart began excavating the elaborate buildings, and saw that the buildings were full of wonderful art, murals and sculptures, he thought they must be shrines. Household gargage was later found on the floors, so it appears that the residents of Catalhoyuk surrounded themselves with art in their everyday lives. Between the buildings were found garbage dump areas, which were also thought to be used as sheep pens.

In the four years that Mellaart was at Catalhoyuk, he excavated over 150 buildings.

Answer: They were farmers.

Until Mellaart discovered Catalhoyuk in the 1950s, no other farming center had been found outside of the area called the Fertile Crescent. It is a 'crescent' shape area of land in the Middle East covering from Israel and Palestine to the Tigris River and to the Euphrates to the Zagros Mountains of Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Answer: Sheep and goats

At first archaeologists thought cattle would have been the most important animal in Catalhoyuk's economy, but sifting through the soil found more bones of sheep and goats. The courtyards of the houses were full of sheep dung, suggesting they were used as sheep pens.

Answer: People moved to follow trade routes

Archchaelogists theorize that Catalhoyuk was abandoned about 5,000 BC because its location was not good for trade. Its merchants needed better routes for their goods. Catalhoyuk could not compete with settlements on or near trade routes, either.

Answer: They have been plastered over

The walls have as many as 80 coats of plaster which must taken carefully off as to not injure any pictographs that might be underneath.

Answer: How humans used plants in the past

Paleoethnobiologist Christine A. Hastorf oversees the plant remains found at Catalhoyuk. Her team has discovered that Scipus reed was used for mats, roofs, clothes, and basket making. They have discovered that people in Catalhoyuk ate fruit (wild pears), and nuts (acorns, wild almonds and pistaschios), grains (wheat and barley), lentils, herbs, and wild scirpus rhizomes.

The excavation at Catalhoyuk in truly an international one. Archaelogists from Britain, the United States, including the team from Berkeley under Ruth Tringham, Poland, Greece, and Turkey, are working together to uncover the mysteries of Catalhoyuk.