


In the previous two months, archaeologists working on Building 42 had uncovered the remains of several individuals under its white plaster floors, including an adult, a child and two infants. “It looks like something really important this time,” he said.īuilding 42 is one of more than a dozen mud-brick dwellings under excavation at Catalhoyuk, a 9,500-year-old Neolithic, or New Stone Age, settlement that forms a great mound overlooking fields of wheat and melon in the Konya Plain of south-central Turkey. The archaeologist standing in the lab doorway shuffled his dusty boots apologetically. To researchers, who have documented more than 400 human burials at Catalhoyuk, the find is evidence of a prehistoric artistic and spiritual awakening.īasak, they need you in Building 42 again.”īasak Boz looked up from the disarticulated human skeleton spread out on the laboratory bench in front of her.

"It's a plastered skull!" shouted anthropologist Basak Boz (with the artifact).
