While Çatalhöyük stands on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the world's most famous Neolithic settlements, very few people know the name of a village that lived on the same plain a thousand years earlier: Boncuklu Höyük. Founded on a low, once reed-fringed wetland mound in Konya's Karatay district, this 10,300-year-old settlement carries the earliest traces of humanity's shift from a nomadic to a settled life — and is part of the story of how farming spread from Anatolia to Europe.
A Thousand Years Before Çatalhöyük: The Discovery of a Village
Boncuklu Höyük was found during surface surveys carried out on the Konya Plain between 1995 and 2002 by Prof. Douglas Baird of the University of Liverpool. The settlement takes its name ("boncuk" means bead) from the beads uncovered in the excavations. Analyses show that this village — which may be regarded as the forerunner or ancestor of Çatalhöyük — was founded about 1,000 years before it, making it one of the oldest known villages in the world. Soil analyses around the mound indicate that this was once a fertile wetland surrounded by reeds and marshes, close to lakes.
A House Among the Reeds: Architecture and Daily Life
Unlike the adjoining rectangular houses of Çatalhöyük, the houses at Boncuklu Höyük were oval and free-standing, built from mudbrick, reed, cane and timber together. Inside, platforms raised above the floor divided the space in two, while the hearths used for cooking and heating stood in a separate part of the house — an arrangement suggesting a deliberate separation of dirty and clean areas. On the walls of these houses, home to families of roughly two to six people, animal heads, red pigments and reliefs were found; these are counted among the oldest known examples of wall painting and relief. Perhaps the most striking detail is that dead family members were buried in graves cut into the floor of the house — in one case an excavated skeleton was found buried inside a basket.
Farming's Journey From Anatolia to Europe
The people of Boncuklu Höyük were essentially hunter-gatherers, yet finds of the primitive wheat species emmer and einkorn show that small-scale farming was also practised here. Being one of the first traces of cultivation outside the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia) makes Boncuklu Höyük a key site for understanding how farming spread. DNA analyses have revealed that the people who lived here shared similar genes with the first farmers in Europe — meaning farming may have spread westwards through communities connected with Boncuklu Höyük and Çatalhöyük. National Geographic Türkiye summed the finding up like this: "From Konya to England, wherever farming first appears, the genetic trace of the Anatolian farmer is there."
Raw Materials From Distant Lands
Since there was no natural stone source near Boncuklu Höyük, every stone its people used had been brought from somewhere else. The black volcanic obsidian used for cutting tools came from Cappadocia, 190 kilometres away; the grinding stones were carried from Karadağ near Karaman. The seashells used for decoration reached here from the Mediterranean coast, 250 kilometres off. These distances show that even 10,000 years ago communities did not live in complete isolation but were part of long-distance exchange networks.
The Settlement Named After a Bead: The Finds
No pottery has yet been found at Boncuklu Höyük; instead there are objects made of unfired clay, some marked with reed impressions — thought possibly to have served as seals. Beads made of stone, clay, bone and seashell, packing needles and awls, and bone knives set into their handles with resin are also among the finds. But the most striking are the beads that gave the settlement its name: made from grey-red limestone, from green and red stone and from Mediterranean seashells, these ornaments show that even 10,000 years ago people were not content merely to survive but also cared about beauty and identity.
The Guide's Note
On the flat soil of the Konya Plain, Boncuklu Höyük — which today greets its visitors with restored mudbrick huts — is a stop overshadowed by Çatalhöyük yet every bit as valuable. As you travel towards Karatay, picture a person carefully buried inside a basket ten thousand years ago, or a hand working a piece of obsidian carried from 190 kilometres away. The silent witness to humanity's first steps into settled life stands right here.