Boncuklu Höyük

Boncuklu Höyük is the oldest known village on the Konya Plain, predating the famous Çatalhöyük by roughly a thousand years. Here, around 8300 BCE, people first committed themselves to a single place — and to a practice of keeping their dead beneath the floors of their homes, their skulls curated and displayed in communal buildings as though ancestry itself were an active, living force.

The Konya Plain in Central Anatolia was flat, well-watered, and fertile — a natural threshold where mobile foraging communities could slow down and, eventually, stop. At Boncuklu Höyük, the earliest known village on this plain, that slowing-down became a permanent commitment around 8300 BCE. The site's name means 'beaded mound,' and excavations have confirmed the significance of personal adornment in this community: beads, pierced ears and lips, small decorative objects accompany the dead. But the most arresting practice was spatial. The residents buried their relatives beneath the plastered floors of their houses, and when a person of particular significance died, their skull was sometimes removed, painted with red ochre, and carried to a communal building — where it was curated, displayed, perhaps consulted, as a form of ongoing ancestral presence. The living walked above the dead. Community memory was housed in bone. This is the immediate predecessor to Çatalhöyük's more famous world: what happened at Boncuklu seeded the cultural practices that the later, larger settlement would develop for another millennium and a half. The small scale of the site — modest oval houses, a community that may have numbered in the dozens — makes the intimacy of these practices more palpable, not less.

No written mythology survives from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. The community that built Boncuklu Höyük left behind only material evidence: the outlines of their oval mud-brick houses, the plastered floors repeatedly renewed over generations, the burials cut into those floors, and the post-holes and artifact distributions of their communal buildings. What this evidence implies about belief is inferential. The placement of the dead beneath the domestic floor in a space where the living continued to walk, cook, and gather is not a neutral logistical choice. Across the Neolithic world, this practice appears repeatedly, in contexts that suggest the living wished to maintain proximity to, and relationship with, their dead. At Boncuklu, the additional practice of skull curation — removing select skulls, treating them with ochre, carrying them to communal buildings — suggests that ancestry was understood as an active social force, not a static memory.

Boncuklu Höyük is the probable cultural ancestor of Çatalhöyük. The skull curation practices, intramural burial traditions, and oval-to-rectangular architectural evolution documented across both sites suggest a direct community lineage or at minimum a shared cultural tradition on the Konya Plain spanning from approximately 8300 to 5600 BCE.

The spiritual quality of Boncuklu Höyük is legible in its most fundamental spatial arrangement: the dead are not elsewhere. They are underneath. In a community without writing, without preserved mythology, this architectural choice speaks a theology. The living floor of the house was also the ceiling of the grave. Every domestic act — cooking, sleeping, receiving visitors — took place in immediate physical relationship with buried kin.

But the skull curation practices go further. At Boncuklu, skulls were not simply left in place with the rest of the skeleton. Some were removed after burial, treated with red ochre, and brought into communal buildings — spaces that served the whole community rather than a single household. Here the ancestors became collective, their presence no longer belonging to a single family but to the social group as a whole. The skull in its communal setting was an argument: that the dead persist as social actors, that ancestry is a form of authority, that community identity has roots that go literally into the earth beneath you.

The site also documents rites of passage through body modification. Pierced ears and lower lips, presumably for decorative or symbolic adornment, point to social thresholds being marked on the body — entry into adulthood, perhaps, or particular social roles. These gestures locate the spiritual not in an external sacred space but in the body and the house.

Boncuklu's thinness is quiet. It lacks the monumental scale of nearby sites and the elaborate visual program of Çatalhöyük. What it offers instead is the earliest legible version of a worldview that would shape the Neolithic across thousands of miles: that place, ancestry, and the management of the dead are the foundations of community life.

A permanent village on the Konya Plain occupied by Pre-Pottery Neolithic forager-cultivators transitioning from mobile to sedentary life; the communal buildings served as spaces for collective ancestor veneration practices.

Occupied approximately 8300–7800 BCE, Boncuklu Höyük preceded Çatalhöyük by roughly a thousand years and is thought to represent the founding population or direct cultural antecedents of that later, larger settlement. Archaeological evidence suggests that the skull curation and intramural burial practices characteristic of both sites were established at Boncuklu first, then carried forward into the Çatalhöyük tradition.

Boncuklu's most distinctive practices involved the dead. Bodies — particularly infants and children — were interred beneath the plastered floors of houses, often accompanied by beads, stone tools, and animal bone. In some cases, after the flesh had decomposed, skulls were removed from their interment, treated with red ochre, and brought to communal buildings — structures used by the whole community rather than a single household. These skull displays may have served as anchors for collective identity, keeping community memory literally present in physical form. Body piercing at the ears and lower lip was practiced, likely as a marker of social status or rites of passage. Beadwork and personal adornment appear to have been significant, consistent with the site's name: 'beaded mound.'

No active religious or spiritual tradition uses the site. International archaeological fieldwork continues under the joint direction of the University of Liverpool and the University of Queensland, with annual excavation seasons and associated laboratory analysis.

Arrive knowing something about the skull curation practices before you visit — without that context, the subtle landscape of the low mound may not yield its significance. Walk the perimeter of the mound slowly. Notice the agricultural plain on all sides; this is the same landscape that fed the community, providing the wild and early-domestic plants that the site's archaeobotanical record documents. Look for the subtle surface evidence of test trenches and covered excavation areas. If you have the opportunity to speak with a researcher or local guide, ask about the house plan — the oval outline of the earliest domestic architecture here, and how it differs from the rectangular forms that dominated later Neolithic building. Sit with the fact that you are standing above a community whose members walked daily above their buried family members. What does it mean to live on top of your ancestors? What is carried — in the body, in the community — when the dead are that close?

Boncuklu Höyük is not yet structured for casual tourism. There is no visitor center in the conventional sense, and the site lacks the interpretive infrastructure of nearby Çatalhöyük. This can be experienced as a limitation or as a form of access: the site is genuinely, quietly present in its landscape without an interpretive apparatus between you and it.

The Konya Plain is flat and open. Arriving at the low mound that marks the site, the visual field is wide — agricultural land, distant hills, the particular quality of light on an interior plateau. The mound itself is modest: Boncuklu was a small community, and the accumulation of its occupation layers does not produce dramatic topography. What you are looking at is the compressed sediment of 500 years of human life, the oval mud-brick outlines of houses, the layered floors, the infant and child burials that researchers have documented cutting through plastered surfaces.

If local guides are available, engage one. The site's significance is largely invisible without interpretive context — the oval house plans, the burial distributions, the communal building locations are recoverable by trained eyes but require guidance for most visitors. Arriving with prior reading about the skull curation practices will transform what might otherwise appear as a modest earthen mound into something that demands sustained attention.

The proximity to Çatalhöyük (approximately 9 km) makes a combined visit natural. The contrast is instructive: Boncuklu is the seed, smaller and more intimate, while Çatalhöyük is the elaborated form. Visiting them in chronological order — Boncuklu first — makes the developmental logic of Konya Plain Neolithic culture perceptible.

No formal visitor facilities confirmed as of the time of writing. Local guides associated with Konya's tourist infrastructure can arrange access and provide interpretation. Verify current access arrangements before visiting, as the site is in active excavation.

Boncuklu Höyük invites interpretation at the intersection of archaeology, cognitive anthropology, and the phenomenology of grief. Its skull curation practices are among the most discussed ritual behaviors in Neolithic studies — pointing simultaneously toward ancestral veneration, community identity formation, and what it means to manage the presence of the dead within the social world.

Excavations since 2006 by the University of Liverpool and University of Queensland have established Boncuklu as the earliest village in Central Anatolia (c. 8300 BCE) and a direct cultural precursor to Çatalhöyük. The skull curation practices — removal, ochre treatment, communal display — parallel similar behaviors at contemporary PPNB sites in the Levant (Ain Ghazal, Jericho), suggesting a broad Neolithic cultural horizon in which ancestor veneration through skull modification was widespread. The site's excavations also confirmed the earliest known ceramics on the Anatolian plateau — an unexpectedly early pottery tradition for a Pre-Pottery Neolithic community. Archaeobotanical evidence documents the transition from wild to domesticated plant use. Bioarchaeological study of the burials has illuminated rites of passage through body modification.

No oral tradition survives from Boncuklu's occupants. The site is documented and interpreted through Turkish national heritage frameworks, with the excavation project maintaining an educational and outreach dimension in cooperation with local Konya institutions.

The skull curation practices at Boncuklu and sites across the Neolithic Near East have attracted significant attention from researchers interested in ancient ancestor communion — the idea that keeping and working with the physical remains of the dead was a form of active relationship, not merely memorial. In some interpretations, the ochre-treated skull in its communal building functioned less like a relic and more like a conversation partner: a condensed point of ancestral presence that the living could address, consult, and draw identity from.

The precise relationship between Boncuklu's founding population and the community that eventually established Çatalhöyük remains unresolved: was it the same lineage, a descendant community, or an independent group that inherited similar cultural practices? The function of the communal buildings where skulls were displayed — whether they served as meeting houses, ritual spaces, or both — is not yet fully understood. How the community decided which individuals' skulls warranted curation and which did not remains an open question.

Located on the Konya Plain near Hayıroğlu village, approximately 40 km east of Konya city and about 9 km northeast of Çatalhöyük. A car is essential; no direct public transport serves the site. From Konya, take the road toward Çumra and then follow local roads toward Hayıroğlu. No formal visitor center has been confirmed; check with the University of Liverpool's Boncuklu Project (liverpool.ac.uk) or Visit Karatay (visitkaratay.com) for current access arrangements. Mobile signal is unreliable in this rural area; download maps before departing Konya. No information was available at time of writing on current admission arrangements.

Konya city (40 km) has a full range of accommodation. For combined Çatalhöyük visits, Çumra (approximately 15 km from the site) has basic facilities.

An open archaeological site without religious requirements; the primary obligation is protecting an ancient and fragile environment.

No dress requirements. Comfortable outdoor clothing appropriate to the season; the Konya Plain is exposed to wind and sun with few natural shelters.

Permitted during non-excavation periods. During active dig seasons, respect any restrictions communicated by the excavation team, and do not photograph researchers or exposed burial material without permission.

Not applicable.

Do not enter active excavation areas or trenches. Do not disturb surface material of any kind. The site's integrity depends on visitors observing these boundaries.

Continue through the atlas by country, tradition, site type, or a focused search that combines this place’s strongest context.

Sacred places within a half-day’s reach. Pilgrims often visit them together: walk one, stay for the other.

Çatalhöyük

Konya, Central Anatolia, Turkey

9.9 km away

Kızıldağ Monuments

South of Adakale / Çumra area, Konya, Central Anatolia Region, Turkey

43.2 km away

Karadağ Monuments

Karadağ massif, Karaman, Central Anatolia Region, Turkey

58.9 km away

Fasıllar Monument

Fasıllar, Konya, Central Anatolia Region, Turkey

85.9 km away

Sources consulted when researching this page. Independent verification by readers is welcome.

1. 01Boncuklu Höyük - Wikipedia — Wikipedia contributorshigh-reliability
2. 02The Boncuklu Project | Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology | University of Liverpool — University of Liverpoolhigh-reliability
3. 03Boncuklu Höyük: The earliest ceramics on the Anatolian plateau — ResearchGate / Springerhigh-reliability
4. 04Boncuklu - Biblical Archaeology Society — Biblical Archaeology Society
5. 05Neolithic Turkey: investigating the transition to settled and farming lifestyles on the Konya Plain — The Past
6. 06Boncuklu Höyük Ancient Village or Settlement : The Megalithic Portal — The Megalithic Portal
7. 07Boncuklu Höyük | Visit Karatay — Visit Karatay
8. 08Boncuklu Hoyuk (2025) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go — TripAdvisor