Catal Huyuk: A prelude to civilization

Neolithic Catal Huyuk challenges prevailing theories that attribute the origins of civilization to the third millennium B.C.E. To gain a comprehensive portrait of this prehistoric proto-city, I categorize the cultural inventory according to V. Gordon Childe's still relevant 1951 subsystem criteria. This study employs systems-ecological and social models to analyze these subsystems and their interactions with the environment through positive and negative feedback mechanisms. Based upon criteria including population density, population founded on residence and not kinship, monumental public works, technological knowledge, long-distance trade, and symbolic expression, I attempt to demonstrate that Catal Huyuk represents a proto-civilization. Although full-time labor specialization and surplus product seem likely, research cannot definitively prove either, and while this study demonstrates ranking, stratification seems improbable. Although Catal Huyuk lacked the maturity of Sumerian civilization, it contained the seeds of all that the Mesopotamian civilizations were to become.