Critical Planning

Çatalhöyük is the site of an ancient Turkish city that stands as a timeless reminder of so- cial equality. I visited Çatalhöyük in September 2013, intent on exploring the city and its enduring legacy. What I found was an awe-inspiring Neolithic site that showed no signs of division of labor, specialization, or related social classes. There was also gender equality in Çatalhöyük and, perhaps even more compelling, an almost complete absence of violence during the roughly 1800 years that the city was inhabited.