Çatalhöyük figurines symbolize ‘elderly women, not Cybele’

Two plump woman figurines unearthed in the 9,000-year-old Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük represent elderly women, not the Anatolian mother goddess Cybele as was earlier believed, according to an expert.

“These figurines symbolize old women that have high status in the society instead of goddesses,” excavation supervisor Professor Ian Hodder of Stanford University said about the figurines that have distinctive bellies, breasts and hips.

After Çatalhöyük’s discovery in 1958 in the Central Anatolian province of Konya by James Mellaart, the ancient settlement was excavated in 1961, 1963 and 1965. After a long break, excavation works restarted in 1993 under the supervision of Hodder.

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