Postcard Mural

One of the ways to think about the excavation of the wall paintings of Çatalhöyük is to recreate the process that the archaeologists themselves must use: interpretation and reconstruction.

Try this activity:
You will need:
a sheet of paper - glue - colored pencils - a postcard you can recycle

Find a postcard that you won't mind recycling for this activity. In this case find a postcard of a landscape scene. Photographic postcards work best.

Turn the card over and smear glue from corner to corner. Remember if you have a note on the back you will lose it.

Find the center of your paper and press down and smooth out the card.

Look carefully at the card. Notice any "lines" in the composition. Is there a horizon line? Is there a feature, like a tree that is cut off by the postcard?

Take a pencil and begin to extend the "line" from the picture out into your blank paper.

Follow all of these "lines" of composition from every side of the card

You will notice that the lines begin to "grow" the picture. It may begin to look like a window into a larger composition. At this point you can start to add detail such as shading and more color.

Interpretation:

Looking at the drawing, imagine what might be there. An animal? A mountain? People running? Add whatever makes sense, or even what doesn't make sense. Fish in a desert? Maybe. This is your interpretation.

When you've finished step back and look at your work. What if this was all you had to imagine a scene thousands of years ago; your window into the past. How would you help others to understand something so long ago?