Professor Ian Hodder of Stanford University, one of the world's experts on archaeological theory, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder Jan. 26 on the archaeology and artwork of a renowned 9,000-year-old site in Turkey.
Sponsored by the CU-Boulder anthropology department and funded by a department alumnus, the Seventh Annual Distinguished Archaeology Lecture will be held at 6 p.m. in room 270 of the Hale Science Building. The free public event will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.
Hodder will focus his talk on the famous Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk in Anatolia, now present-day central Turkey. The site has been described as the first urban center in the world and contains what are believed to be the world's first wall paintings and sculptures discovered inside prehistoric homes.
"Our goal is to bring in world-class archaeologists for these distinguished lectures, and Professor Hodder certainly is in that group," said CU-Boulder anthropology Assistant Professor Arthur Joyce. "Catalhoyuk is one of the world's most intriguing Neolithic sites."
The excavations provide a window on life at 7,000 B.C., and are important to help understand the origins of agriculture and civilization, he said.
Discovered in the late 1950s and first excavated in the 1960s, the site is famous due to its large size and once-dense human occupation. The spectacular wall paintings and sculptures found inside Catalhoyuk houses by archaeologists have heightened its visibility among scholars and the public.
Since 1993, an international team led by Hodder has been carrying out excavations at Catalhoyuk. Hodder will address the challenges of communicating and collaborating with a wide range of groups, including local villagers and politicians, the National Turkish Ministry of Culture, universities, Goddess worshippers and a number of international corporate sponsors.
The goal of Hodder's team has been to engage the various groups in helping to formulate research strategies, analyses and publications regarding the site. Since the intricate artwork provides a snapshot of life 9,000 years ago in an urban area, it is an important key to understanding the origins of agriculture and civilization on Earth, said Hodder.
The primary objective of the Hodder-directed excavations -- which are expected to last 25 years -- is to provide the Turkish Ministry of Culture with a major heritage site. Visitors will be able to see conservation laboratory technicians at work on Catalhoyuk.
Items including wall paintings, sculptures, textiles and wooden and ceramic artifacts will be displayed at an on-site museum. The facility also will be equipped with virtual-reality software and interactive video in the near future.
Hodder and his team also have reconstructed a 9,000-year-old house at Catalhoyuk, complete with an internal oven, storerooms and sleeping quarters.
He has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Great Britain and Italy and ethnographic studies of material culture in Keyna and Sudan. Hodder currently is chair of the cultural and social anthropology department at Stanford.
Hodder has authored or edited more than 20 archaeology books and monographs, including "The Present in the Past," "The Domestication of Europe and Theory" and "Practice in Archaeology." He is a fellow of the British Academy and the McDonald Institute at Cambridge University, and has been awarded the Oscar Montelius Medal by the Swedish Society of Antiquities.