Çatalhöyük Neolithic Art

Çatalhöyük is a Neolithic site located in what is now modern Turkey, where families packed their mud-brick houses close together, sharing walls and traipsed over the roofs to climb into their rooms from above. One of the world’s first cities, Çatalhöyük was first founded 9,000 years ago and saw mankind’s transition from a hunting and gathering society to an agricultural one. While neither the oldest nor the largest Neolithic city, Çatalhöyük is a very important site for Neolithic art. The painting shows a hunting scene. Two stags flank a group of ten men. Some of whom are carrying bows. All of the men appear to be wearing highly stylized leopard skins for clothes that seem to emphasis form over function. I can’t decide if this is a fashion statement or just artistic license.