Houses for the 3,000 – 8,000 people who lived in Çatalhöyük were tightly packed together in a honeycomb-like maze, so that there were few or no streets. Areas between houses served as middens – dumps for garbage, including sewage, food waste and wood ash from cooking fires. Access to the houses was across the roofs, which were constructed of wood and reeds plastered with mud, and down stairs.
Individual households of five to ten people seem to have been the primary social unit of the culture, as there is no evidence of public spaces, administrative buildings or elite households, such as dwellings for kings of priests. Each home had its own hearth, oven, storage rooms and workrooms. Each family also seems to have buried its dead under special platforms in the house's main room. The interior walls of the houses were rich with artwork, mural paintings and sculptures. Wall paintings depict hunting scenes and wild animals, including images of the now-extinct auroch (a type of cattle), stags and vultures swooping down on headless human figures. Evidence shows that heads of animals were mounted on the walls.
Although no remains of temples have been found, artefacts suggest that the religion of Çatalhöyük was rich in symbols. Distinctive baked clay figurines, long thought to represent the Mother Goddess, occupied wall niches and were placed in grain-storage bins, probably as a means of ritual protection.
