Painted map / town plan
Mapa o plano pintado (mural de Çatalhöyük)
- Date
- c. 6200 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Çatalhöyük, Konya, Turkey
- Credited to
- Neolithic communities of central Anatolia
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A wall painting with a grid of rectangles beneath a mottled shape, interpreted as the town plan beneath erupting Hasan Dağ volcano. It would be the oldest cartographic representation.
An alternative interpretation: a leopard skin with geometric motifs. The eruption's dating is confirmed (Schmitt et al. 2014), but the reading as a map remains open.
What it led to
- Abstract representation of inhabited space from above
- Collective memory of events (the eruption of c. 6900 BCE)
- A distant precedent for Mesopotamian plans and cadastres
Built on
- Rectangular house with stone foundationsc. 8600 BCE
- Mural painting
Made possible
- Cadastral plan
- Cartography