Ever since the 1960’s this title has been claimed by Çatalhöyük, in Turkey, a massive labyrinth of mud-brick houses, founded in the 7th millennium BC.
However for the last 10 years, new excavations have been taking place with a new theoretical approach by Professor Ian Hodder.
His work has turned up many new and intriguing conundrums, notably: how on earth was the sizable city organised? To date, zero evidence has been found for public buildings or a central authority.
Added to the theoretical questions comes a glut of gorgeous artistic evidence, including the nine thousand year old wall painting featured on the front cover of this issue.
This article is an extract from the full article published in World Archaeology Issue 8. Click here to subscribe
