Hacılar
Hacılar Höyüğü · Hacilar · Hacilar Hoyuk
Late Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic·Burdur Lake Neolithic (Hacılar culture)·🇹🇷 Burdur Province, Lake District, Turkey
About
About Hacılar
Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic tell (5700–3500 BCE) in the Burdur Lake District, where James Mellaart uncovered nine aceramic and ceramic Neolithic levels with lime-plaster floors and spectacular anthropomorphic pottery, 'Mother Goddess' figurines, and destruction by fire (Level VI). Hacılar VI (5700–5600 BCE) burnt mudbrick houses yielded well-preserved painted pottery and is a reference for the Late Neolithic lakes region.
Why it mattersNeolithic-Chalcolithic boundary; famous pottery sequence and figurines.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Fire in Level VI — invasion or accident?
- 02Goddess figurine cult meaning
Theories
- 01Mellaart 'fertility cult' vs social marker
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.7040–3500 BCE (Level IX–I)
- Period
- Late Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic
- Culture
- Burdur Lake Neolithic (Hacılar culture)
- Builders
- Lake District farmers
- Purpose
- Farming village, pottery and figurine production
- Abandoned
- c.3500 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 1956–60 Mellaart excavations
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1957
Mellaart discovers Hacılar
c.5700 BCE
Level VI fire destruction
On the ground
Structures & features
37.6020° N · 30.3720° E · 940 m · 3 mapped features
Level VI burnt village
settlementFire-destroyed painted pottery houses
37.6022° N · 30.3721° EFigurine workshop
workshopGoddess figurine production
37.6019° N · 30.3719° EFortification wall (Level I)
wallEarly Chalcolithic enclosure
37.6021° N · 30.3723° E