Take home exam one
Humanities 101
Catherine Hahn

Wahid Maqsood

Q1.) Why did the people of Çatal Hüyük build their city like a honeycomb with entrances in the ceilings, and bury their dead under their beds? What do these things tell you about their daily world and value system? How does their repeated wall imagery, and sculpture help to further tell us about their belief system?

Catal Huyuk is known to be one of the world's oldest civilization. It was built in what is now Turkey in about 5000 BC to 5700BC. The total population was about 10,000. In Catal Huyuk the Mud bring houses were built next to each other and the city was built in a shape similar to that of a honeycomb. Instead of doors in the walls their houses were accessed from entrances built into the roof. There are many theories as to why this was done, it could have been done to avoid enemies or wild animals. It was probably a wild world then and since Humans weren’t advanced enough to fight the predators, the best way to survive was to avoid them, the best way to do it would be to build entrances at a height that is not easily accessible. Human remains have been found in pits beneath the floors and especially in platforms that are assumed to have been their beds or sleeping areas. There are many reasons they might have done this. The one that makes the most sence is that they believed the dead was still a part of their home and the body deserved to stay in its home so they could be still part of the same family., In some cases the skeletens were found with the skull missing. These could have been used in ritual, as some were found in other areas of the “honey comb”. Some skulls were plastered and painted with ocher to recreate human-like faces, this shows that they wanted the dead to be still a part of this world or to creat memories of the deceased. Another great discovery was that of The Seated Woman of Catal Hayuk, which is a baked-clay, nude female form, with a lepord on each side, this shows that they were familiar with leopards and that was probably the predator they were trying to avoid. Having a leopard on each side represents the power the lady had and was probably a goddess. Catal Huyuk appears to have been a City of Shrines and may indeed have been the sacred center for other settlements around that area. Vultures painted on the temple walls could have represented the death aspect of the Goddess.

Q2) How did Akhenaten change the political hierarchy of Egypt and why? What religious changes did he make and why? Were Akhenaten’s reforms problematic and if so why? Akhenaten was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years. He is also known as the rebel pharaoh as he changed the whole constitution of Egypt. He is also known for changing the whole religion that had been followed in Egypt for ages, and introducing a new religion of monotheism.
About 200 miles from the pyramids of Giza, The city Amarna was discovered. It had Palaces, wide streets and everything a civilization is expected to have but There was no imagery of Pharoah fighting his enemies or punishing others and no signs of sacrifices to gods were found either. The statues of Akhenaten show that he could have been misshapen. Akhenatens father, Amenhotep the third lived in the city of Thebes ,home of the god Amun. Statues and family potraits of the family were found with Akhenaten missing in every one of them. The young prince was excluded from temple ceremonies as well. It is assumed Queen tae wanted her son Akhenaten to be king even thought there were other half-brothers. Each Pharaoh added a temple and statues to the city of karnak. Knehatens temple was different, so was his statue, with long fingers, wide hips and a mishappen chest. His temple also showed that Amenhaten had declared that there was only one god. Akhenaten started a new religion, a new world in the city of Amarna. The idea came to him in the fifth year of his reign. The preists were furious with