James Mellaart was born in London, England. He is a British archeologist, educator and author. He lectured at the University of Istanbul and served as Assistant Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. In 1964 he began lecturing in Anatolian archeology at Ankara. He recently retired from teaching at the University of London and lives with his wife, Arlette, in north London.
James Mellaart is credited with discovering and bringing worldwide attention to Catalhoyuk , Turkey, which is considered by some scholars to be the world’s first city. The city is estimated to be 8,000 to 10,000 years old, and home to as many as 10,000 people. He directed excavation of the sites in Turkey between 1951 until the mid-1960’s. More than 150 dwellings and rooms were discovered that were decorated with murals, plaster relief’s, and sculpture. Catalhoyuk is an important site for studying the origins of settled farming and the rise of the first cities. An international team of archaeologists and other specialists continue excavating there. James and his wife still visit the site regularly.
James has also written numerous books and articles on his findings, such as The Archaeology of Ancient Turkey, Catalhoyuk a Neolithic Town in Anatolia, Earliest Civilizations of the Near East, The Earliest Settlements in Western Asia: From the Ninth to the End of the Fifth Millennium B.C., Excavations at Hacilar, and The Neolithic of the Near East.
Contemporary Authors. Gale Research Co. Detroit, Michigan, 1986. Vol 188:327.
Shane, Orrin C. III and Mine Kucuk. The World’s First City. 1998 http://archaeology.org/9803/abstracts/catal.html September 19, 1999.
Michael Balter Science. The First Cities. 1998
http://cas.bellarmine.du/tietjen/images/first_cities September 19, 1999.
Written by Lois Pichelmann
Edited by Marcy L. Voelker, 2007