In the mid-1960s, an English archaeologist discovered an enormous and ancient settlement called Çatalhöyük on the Konya Plain in south central Turkey. Wall paintings and figurines of humans and animals revealed a cultured community once lived there around 9000 years ago. Crowded houses and numerous graves revealed a growing and complex society.
Researchers established the Çatalhöyük Research Project in the early 1990s to continue investigating what’s thought to be one of the world’s earliest urban communities. Now, they have discovered the early city had problems familiar to urban dwellers today, such as overcrowding, infections and violence, researchers report Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
