Burning Çatalhöyük

On Wednesday UC Berkeley Students and Faculty will be burning Çatalhöyük – in Second Life that is.  Colleen at Middle Savagery tells us that Çatalhöyük on OKAPI Island in Second Life is a project developed by OKAPI, the Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük, and the UC Berkeley DeCal program:

In development since 2006, i(t)s an exploration of the past and present of a 9,000 year old site located in present-day Turkey.  In this demonstration we intend to burn the existing models down in order to better understand the use of fire in Neolithic settlements.  In consultation with fire experts Karl Harrison and Ruth Tringham, and architecture expert Burcu Tung, a team of undergraduate apprentices have replicated the burning sequence of Building 77, a structure excavated in the summer of 2008.  OKAPI island also hosts reproductions of modern developments present at the site, including a water tower, Sadrettin’s café, the Chicken Shed and the nightly bonfire.

Here are the details (visit Middle Savagery for more info about where to go and how to get there):

Burning Çatalhöyük: A Virtual Public Archaeology Event
2PM-4:30PM Pacific Standard Time (10PM-12:30AM GMT or Universal Time)
December 10, 2008
Location: Okapi Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/128/128/0
(You must have the free Second Life browser)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 3:41 pm. It is filed under About Archaeology and tagged with archaeology, burning Çatalhöyük, Second Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.