James Mellaart The Journey to Çatalhöyük Alan C. Mellaart and contributors James Mellaart The Journey to Çatalhöyük Organisation Alan C. Mellaart Editor Emma L. Baysal Graphic Designer Timuçin Unan Print Ofset Filmcilik ve Matbaacılık San. ve Tic. A.Ş. Şair Sok. No: 4, Çağlayan Mahallesi Kağıthane 34403 İstanbul Tel: +90 212 295 86 01 Sertifika No: 45354 Contents Preface Alan Mellaart, Emma L Baysal 9 Prologue: The Skeleton Cleaning Club: Childhood Memories of Çatal Hüyük Alan Mellaart 17 James Mellaart Alan Mellaart 33 Arlette Mellaart: A Journey to Archaeology Alan Mellaart 103 Bohemia on the Bosphorus Arlette Mellaart 123 Safvet Pasha Sinan Küneralp 143 Kadri and Ulviye Cenani Alan Mellaart 161 Notes on the Çatal Höyük Excavations Ian Todd 303 James Mellaart: A Man Addicted to Archaeology Mehmet Özdoğan 189 Letters from Çatalhöyük Grace Huxtable 319 Extracts From The Interval: A Life in Near Eastern Archaeology Seton Lloyd 241 Memories of Jimmy and Arlette Mellaart from 1955 to 1958 David Stronach 271 James Mellaart and Hacılar Maxime Brami 277 James Mellaart, ‘Jimmy Bey Of Hacılar’ and some Memories of Fifty Years Refik Duru 293 Mellaart’s Notebooks: The Story of Çatalhöyük’s First Days Emma L. Baysal 347 Working With Arlette and James Mellaart at Kanlıca in 1964 Peder Mortensen 393 Jimmy And Arlette Mellaart at Çatal Hüyük John Ingham 409 James Mellaart and Çatalhöyük: An Evaluation Ian Hodder 413 One of archaeology’s great mysteries: Dorak Seton Lloyd, Kenneth Pearson, Patricia Connor, David Stronach 431 Gordon Square Donald Easton 445 Memories of Jimmy and Arlette Ian Hodder 451 Tribute to James Mellaart John Carswell 455 Tribute to James Mellaart Trevor Watkins 463 Bibliography 468 Index 474 6 7 James Mellaart at work in Preface his study in London (Paul Mellaart) T The quay of the Safvet Paşa Yalısı, Istanbul, with family members and pets (Mellaart family archive) his book explores the life of an archaeologist, James Mellaart (universally known as Jimmy), who both revolutionised the way we think about the prehistory of Turkey and became the centre of great controversy. Until now scholars have stayed away from this subject for this very reason, while journalists and sensation seekers have been keen to find new angles on old stories. We entered into this book project under no illusions about how difficult it would be to do justice to such a complicated character and those places and people with which he was – and still is – associated. While Çatalhöyük (Çatal Hüyük or Çatal Höyük as it was known when Mellaart worked there) is undoubtedly the archaeological project which brought him international fame, Mellaart’s story is much more complicated than might be implied by the narrative of great archaeological discoveries, pioneering exploration and the Dorak Affair. Jimmy’s character was influenced by a troubled youth, difficult family circumstances in which the Second World War also intervened, and a brilliant, precocious mind eager to absorb information on many subjects. As a result of his complex family life and repeated changes of location, identity was important to Jimmy and he put much energy into exploring his own past, creating his persona and adding new languages to his repertoire. A combination of his facility 8 9 for languages and a desire to explore the world resulted in his career in archaeology, a field which left him plenty of space for adventure, discovery and eccentricity. He arrived in Turkey as a young academic to carry out field research and soon found that the best way to explore was on foot, using his own initiative and quickly learning to speak Turkish. He was successful in his work, drawing the attention of those senior to him and winning more work and funding. During this time he realised just how much there was to discover in what remained a largely unexplored landscape. He went on to survey and excavate extensively -Mellaart the archaeologist was responsible for numerous history-changing discoveries in Turkey, but it was the site of Çatalhöyük that came to define him, and indeed by which he defined himself. Controversy came in the form of the Dorak Treasure, published in the Illustrated London News, from which point onwards Jimmy never left the news headlines, appearing up until the present in various guises both academic and sensational. The extent to which he deliberately courted controversy is unclear, it is certain that these events were the product of a highly intelligent mind that lapped up information and sometimes found outlets for it that may not have been entirely suitable. In some cases, including Dorak, Jimmy has taken the secrets of the events that took place to his grave and we are left to speculate about what really happened. We are lucky that many have already penned parts of Jimmy’s story – his contemporaries such as Seton Lloyd, Kenneth Pearson and Patricia Conner by whom he was interviewed for The Dorak Affair, and most importantly Jimmy himself, who was a master of publicity for his projects, ensuring that they gained immediate fame and recognition. After the controversies relating to Dorak, Jimmy was never able to excavate in Turkey again, although he never lost hope that he would be reunited with his beloved site until the new excavations were begun at Çatalhöyük in the 1990s by Ian Hodder. The story of James Mellaart does not stand alone - there are two other characters that take a central role in the following chapters. His wife Arlette, who herself came from an extraordinary background, was a constant presence within Jimmy’s archaeological life, while her family provided the social setting in which much of the archaeological whirl took place. Jimmy and Arlette met on an excavation, Arlette herself 10 being a talented, multilingual, archaeologist. She became a vital part of the functioning of Jimmy’s research projects, providing not only support but also expertise. When Arlette entered Jimmy’s life, so did a major architectural character that set the scene for much of the rest of Jimmy’s research and social life adding an element of exotic romance to the academic world. The Safvet Paşa Yalısı was one of the grand Ottoman wooden summer houses on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus. It provided a background to many of the events recounted here, but more than that it shaped the people that lived in and visited it in a way that we think significantly affected how they viewed the world. We therefore give it a central role in the book just as it took a central role in the lives described in these pages. In this book you will find a mixture of biography, archaeology and social history. As well as recording key historical events we have aimed to capture the atmosphere of the places and times where events took place and to explore their repercussions. The book contains a broad range of perspectives, many original memories from those who shared the events of Jimmy and Arlette’s lives, fascinating insights into a world that now seems both distant in time and quite exotic. To understand what made Jimmy who he was, it is necessary to understand the social world from which he came and in which he lived, and we have included family history and physical settings as more than just a backdrop to events. Further perspectives are offered by archaeologists, all of whom are experts in the prehistory of Turkey and offer their experience of the impact of Mellaart’s work. Indeed, the book presents many experiences that remain very fresh today – the problems of archaeologists dealing effectively with the media, the everyday challenges of research life – finding sponsorship for projects and bringing them to successful conclusion. Other themes are less familiar, and a lot has changed since Mellaart’s days in archaeology. The site he knew as Çatal Hüyük is now Çatalhöyük, in fact throughout the book there are inconsistencies in spelling of some words. This, we feel, respects the different people, times and places to which they refer, so to reflect individual experience we have left them as they are – a somewhat poetic testament to passing time and gradual change. The science of archaeology and digging itself has changed beyond all recognition. What Mellaart achieved in his excavation projects would 11 not be possible in the present day and this contrast in possibilities, in the way the discipline works, provides much food for thought. We are fortunate that Alan, James and Arlette’s son, has a unique combination of his father’s personal and professional archive and his own memories of a childhood in archaeology. A wealth of information and memories also comes from friends of the family and those who worked on the various archaeological projects in Turkey. This has given Alan the exceptional opportunity to explain and explore the events of his father’s life. Jimmy Mellaart’s fascinating archaeological work was the reason that Emma became a prehistorian after arriving in Ankara in 2001, immediately after graduating, and with no idea about the archaeology of Turkey. Her role in this project has been to collate, edit and shape the materials into what we are confident is a fascinating window into the social and intellectual world of a talented and influential scholar. Unless otherwise stated, all illustrations and photographs come from James Mellaart’s personal archive, most of which is now housed in the care of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Alan Mellaart and Emma L. Baysal May 2020 This book is the work of many contributors, both those who have written chapters and those who have helped in other ways – through research, conversation, recollections, pictures, sponsorship and moral support. The book should have appeared long ago – the lateness of the research means that some of the voices that should be here do not have their rightful place and it saddens us that so much has been lost. We are deeply indebted to all those who have participated in the making of this book through written contributions, discussion, sharing archives, letters or photographs, research and in many other ways. We hope that what we present does justice to what is available as we write now, and as well as the authors we extend our sincerest thanks to (in alphabetical order), Marcel Aanen, Edip Ağaoğulları, Clare Ajenusi, Aykut Altıneli, Ara Güler Arşiv ve Araştırma Merkezi, Muzaffer Arda, Rifat Bali, Nezih Başgelen, Özalp Birol, Viviane Buchman, Ali Cenani, Şevket Cenani, Gerard Collon, Hasan Ali Çakmak, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Istanbul, Emin Ersen, Nazif and Dieneke Ertekin, Shahina Farid, Minnie Garwood, Günseli Görgün, Murat Günsür, Altan Günaydın, Mehmet Günyeli, Yüksel Güven, Louise Martin, Paul Mellaart, Yvette Odufre, Bahattin Öztuncay, Şükrü Oral, Abdullah Özkan, Viola Pemberton Piggott, Selim Ramazanoğlu, Emin Saatchi, John Scott, Emine Selbes, Tengün Sevinç, Maria Sezer, Zeynep Simavi, Can Süleymaniye, Feyaz Ülku Taktak, Hüseyin Toprak, Turgay Tuna, Turhan Turgut and George Warr. 12 13 Family Tree Cenani & Mellaart Cornelis Mellaart b.1750 - d.1820 Willem Mellaart b.1790 - d.1869 Mehmet Hulusi Efendi b.1815 - d.1883 Iain Jan Mellaart b.1818 - d.1892 Abdurrahman Sami Pasha Governer of Morea b.1792-1881 Mehmet Esad Safvet Pasha b.1815 - d.1883 Abdul Latif Suphi Pasha b.1815 - d.1866 Mihri Hanım Faiz Married Marinus Mellaart b.1865 - d.1940 Fehim Jan Jacob Herman Mellaart b.1892- d.1946 Cenani Zade Mehmet Kadri Pasha b.1834 - d.1884 Refet Bey b.1815 - d.1883 Şevket Makbule Mediha Afife Married Hamdi Simavi b.1870 - d.1928 Aliye Hanım b.1870 - d.1928 Sedat Simavi Saffet Nihat Simavi b.1898 - d.1946 Founder of Hürriyet Newspaper b.1896 - d.1953 Married Beno Coppelovici d.1939 Miep Mellaart b.1929 Jan Mellaart b.1924 - d.1984 Marinus Mellaart b.1939 - d.2005 Seniye Hanım b.1869 - d.1941 Married İsmail Cenani b.1864 - d.1920 Married Married Adolf - Clelia Rosenthal Marie Rosenthal (Ülviye) b.1897 - d.1976 Arlette (Kopelovici) Cenani b.1924 - d.2013 Jacob Herman Jan Mellaart b.1895- d.1972 Married Apollonia Helen Dingena Van der Beek b.1886 - d.1933 Kadri Cenani b.1899 - d.1985 Married 1954 James Mellaart b.1925 - d.2012 Alan C. Mellaart b.1955 14 Elizabeth Johanna Fetter (Mellaart) b.1905 - d.1986 Sinan Mellaart b.1985 Helen Mellaart b.1929 - d.1986 Married Jeanneke Mellaart b.1952 Annemarie Mellaart b.1957 Marcel Aanen b.1982 Johan Aanen b.1984 Annemarie Verwej b.1992 Rob Mellaart & Marie Louise Vincken b.1939 - d.1999 (Married) Eduard Mellaart b.1941 - d.2020 Paul & Anita Mellaart b.1943 (Married) Alex & Emmy Mellaart b.1943 (Married) Yvette Odufre & Edgar Slinger b.1953 Michel Odufre & Liesbeth b.1956 Sandra Klokman & Peter b.1961 Leyla Özuygur (Mellaart) b.1954 Kaan Mellaart b.1989 15 Prologue The Skeleton Cleaning Club: Childhood Memories of Çatal Hüyük Alan Mellaart W hen the Çatal Hüyük excavation project that made my father famous started in 1961 I was only six years old, and when it finished in 1965 I was ten, yet I can still remember well the excitement, and anticipation, before setting off for the Konya plain and in particular the pretty village of Küçükköy. Celebrating Alan’s 9th birthday in 1964 with parents and grandparents at the Safvet Paşa Yalısı, Istanbul (Peder Mortensen) We were living at the time in the Safvet Paşa Yalısı, one of the grand old wooden summer mansions that line the Bosphorus, belonging to my grandparents Kadri and Ulviye Cenani. I had the privilege of being able to wake up and walk no more than a few metres through the main hall to step onto the quay from which I could freely jump into the Bosphorus and swim to my heart’s content, whenever I wanted. I had learnt to swim by having a rope tied around my waist by my mother, and being willingly pushed over the edge of the quay, into the strong and constantly changing currents, so I had to learn fast, and luckily I took to the sea like a duck, just like my mother. My father however, hated swimming because he had apparently, once upon a time, had a bad experience in Beyşehir Lake, and had nearly drowned. He, Kadri Bey and Ulviye Hanım would all prefer to sit on the quay with their six o’clock glasses of rakı, nibbling their mezes, and watch us swim. I always had a fishing line ready, and with the smelly mussels from 16 17