This Leopard relief was created by the people of Çatalhöyük. An ancient pre-historical culture that existed in present day Turkey at the very cusp of the agricultural sciences. Their proto-city was a mass of simple jumbled boxes that utilized the horizontal space of the roof as both public throughway and plaza. Doorways in the settlement tended to be few, low and interior. In this way the construction and demolition of Çatalhöyük was likely ongoing from 7,500 BCE through 5,700 BCE. It resulted in a 20 meter mound facing the Konya Plain. The importance of hunting and agriculture on the social mechanisms and personal lives of the residents of Çatalhöyük is very much unknown. What is known is that the patterns on these leopards is really fascinating. Combined with the marks used to identify the claws this image with it's low relief becomes practically animated. The play at liveliness by elevating simple contrasting elements is clearly an ancient visual strategy. When pu...