The Goddess and the Bull by Michael Balter

Compounding interest in the site was Mellaart's subsequent expulsion from Catal Hoyuk due to his mysterious involvement in the Dorak affair which supposedly involved looted antiquities.Ĭatal Hoyuk then lay dormant until British anthropologist Ian Hodder became interested in it thirty years later. Since then, the location has been a popular destination for New Age goddess tours. The earlier dig was led by British archaeologist James Mellaart, who caught the world's attention with fabulous finds including vivid wall paintings, ' goddess' figurines and bull horns mounted on the walls. A new dig started in the early 1990's and is still ongoing.

It has been the focus of two major archaeological investigations, the first in the late 1950's/early 1960's. Dated to as early as 9500 years ago, Catal Hoyuk is one of the oldest and largest of known early Stone Age settlements in the world. Science writer and long-time Science magazine correspondent Balter has written an eloquent and extremely interesting account of the excavations at the early Neolithic site of Catal Hoyuk in central Turkey. But while the sub-title ' Catal Hoyuk: An Archaeological Journey into the Dawn of Civilization' should quickly clarify the true subject matter, this book turns out to be just as fascinating as anyone could want. The title of The Goddess and the Bull may attract the attention of all kinds of audiences, including feminists, New Age goddess worshippers and possibly those seeking a kinky thriller. There have been decades of excavation by the.The Goddess and the Bull by Michael Balter So too is this book, which provides a great deal of information: about archaeological theory, methodology and traditional interpretations of Çatalhöyük, one of the famous (or infamous) sites that inspired the concept of the Neolithic revolution. He added that archaeologists 'move backwards and forwards between theory and data, trying to fit or accommodate one to the other in a clear and rigorous fashion, on the one hand being sensitive to the particularity of the data and on the other hand being critical about assumptions and theories.' Post-processual archaeology is a dialogue, not a diatribe. In its early formulation, Hodder suggested that the best way to approach archaeology is 'characterized by debate and uncertainty about fundamental issues that may have been rarely questioned before'. Post-processualism is a concept developed by Ian Hodder, a Cambridge-trained archaeologist who now works at Çatalhöyük in Turkey. After much thought, I believe this is actually a post-processual book about archaeology. Indeed, The Goddess and the Bull is not really about the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük either. This book is about neither a goddess nor a bull, unless Michael Balter is using a metaphor too subtle for me to appreciate. The Goddess and the Bull: Çatalhöyük: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilizationīy Michael Balter Free Press: 2005.