Yesterday afternoon I wandered through the ancient ruins, sample houses, and museum at Çatalhöyük — a place that quietly shows off just how long humans have been experimenting with community. The site itself feels calm and expansive, while the museum neatly fills in the gaps your imagination can’t quite reach on its own.
Çatalhöyük dates back around 9,000 years and is one of the world’s earliest known settlements. People lived packed closely together in mud-brick houses with no streets and no front doors, entering instead through openings in the roof. The museum brings these details to life with reconstructions, artefacts, and stories of daily routines, rituals, and shared spaces. Walking between the ruins and the museum, it’s easy to connect the dots — ancient life suddenly feels less distant, and a lot more human.
