Çatalhöyük 1993 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 1993 ARCHIVE REPORT

Late Quartenary palaeoecology and geoarchaeology.
Preliminary field season

Neil Roberts

The object of this research programme is to investigate the environmental history of the Konya plain, in relation to the new excavations at Çatalhöyük and an archaeological survey of the western part of the plain. Our primary objective is to establish the role of geomorphological, climatic and vegetational changes in the emergence of Neolithic agriculture in this region. The Konya plain has been subject to important environmental changes during the late Quartenary, with the creation and subsequent shrinkage of a large lake, alluvial fan sedimentation at the basin margins and volcanic eruptions.

A preliminary field visit was made to the Konya basin between September 1 and 8 1993. The research personnel involved were Dr Neil Roberts (Geography Department, Loughborough University, England), Dr Henry Lamb and Mr Warren Eastwood (both of Institute of Earth Studies, UW Aberystwyth, Wales). Most archaeological sites, including Çatalhöyük, lie on shallow alluvial fans and have been subject to post-occupation burial by alluvium. Geoarchaeological study is needed to assess the geomorphological conditions which prevailed prior to, during and since occupation. Although full coring in and around Çatalhöyük was not possible in 1993 due to lack of time and suitable equipment, two preliminary cores were taken using a hand auger with an exchangeable small diameter Dachnowsky sampling head, and the elevations of the core tops surveyed in. These cores came from:

the base of the old (1963) excavations, in order to establish the depth of archaeological deposit at Çatalhöyük East. The core (ÇHE.93-1) commenced at 15.6 m and ended 21.2 m below the top of the mound. It encountered 412 cm of cultural fill with charcoal, burnt bone and plaster fragments, including a light grey clay between 173 and 185, which may correspond to a clay layer described by Mellaart, and interpreted by him as a "flood deposit". The depth of cultural fill is rather less than was reported by Mellaart from his 1963 deep sounding. Below the cultural fill lay 118 cm of alluvial clay and >30cm of lake marl, neither of which appeared to contain cultural material. Significantly, this demonstrates that Çatalhöyük was originally located on the outer segment of the Çarsamba alluvial fan, which today supports rich irrigation agriculture.
between the mounds at Çatalhöyük East and West, at an elevation of 16.92 m below the top of the East mound. This recovered 460 cm of fluvial clays, silts and sands above coarse gravel. A fragment of burnt bone was found at 352-370 cm. This core (ÇH.93-2) confirms that the mounds have been buried by a substantial thickness of alluvium, and shows - perhaps surprisingly - that the river has flowed between the two mounds during much of the Holocene, at lest episodically. This core also clearly refutes Cohen's claim that lake marl lies at the ground surface between the two mounds. The very different sequences recorded at these two core sites indicates that close interval coring will be needed in future years to trace the sediment stratigraphy off the main mound. In 1994, we propose to undertake such systematic coring and sediment sampling using a Cobra vibro-corer which penetrates to a maximum depth of 10m.

A second objective of our work is to investigate the broader climatic and vegetational changes during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene via palaeoecological study of the sediment "archive" in residual lakes. During 1993 season, a number of potential lake sites in the Konya basin were appraised. The most promising of these is a small relict lake at Suleymanhaci near the base of the volcano Kara Dag. This has a maximum water depth of ca. 5 m and is weakly saline. It is planned to core this site in 1994, with the resulting sediment cores being the subject to palaeoecological analysis (pollen, diatoms, tephra etc) and dating.

Permission for our work was kindly granted by the General Directorate of Monuments and Museums. Thanks are also due to the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara for the loan of the Dachnowsky corer, and to Dr Catherine Kuzudoglu.