We will be hearing from Dr. Ian Hodder, the distinguished British Archeologist and author who directed the excavation of Çatalhöyük, Turkey along with many other contributions to the field..
Dr. Hodder is the Dunlevie Family Professor in the Department of Anthropology and former Director of the Stanford Archaeology Center. He joined the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology in September of 1999.
Professor Hodder has conducted the excavation of the 9,000 year-old Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey since 1993. The 25-year project has three aims – to place the art from the site in its full environmental, economic and social context; to conserve the paintings, plasters and mud walls; and to present the site to the public.
Çatalhöyük is a very rare example of a well-preserved Neolithic settlement, one of the key sites for understanding human prehistory. The site is exceptional for its size and longevity, its distinctive layout of back-to-back houses with roof access, and the wall paintings and reliefs representing the symbolic world of the inhabitants. Due to the extensively documented research, this site in Turkey is the most significant human settlement showing early settled agricultural life of a Neolithic community.