Çatalhöyük 1995 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 1995 ARCHIVE REPORT

Regional Survey

Douglas Baird

Çatal Höyük has long dominated our view of the archaeology of the Konya plain. The survey in the region around the site is attempting to put the site in its contemporary and historical context. If we are to understand the site as some sort of centre then we must gain some knowledge of putative subsidiary or dependent settlements. If we can assert with confidence that no such settlements exist then we will require a different view of Çatal Höyük. In addition we would like to know more about the antecedents of Çatal Höyük and those development,,; that immediately follow the decline of this particular community on the plain. Only intensive survey can reveal the necessary information about any sites that may be relevant to these issues.

In addition the survey will attempt to address the questions that relate to the long term development of settlement on the plain. This will include the influence of the environment of the plain on such development and the impact of such developments on the environment. In what ways did the earliest agricultural societies develop? Did they emerge in such alluvial settings or on the hilly flanks of these plains? Was the rapid expansion of agricultural societies .elated to the colonization of such plains? ]low much did population growth or redistribution, or the emergence of key centres have to do with the rise of urban societies? When do these appear on the alluvial plains? How dense was settlement in different periods? What sort of settlement systems existed under regional and imperial states from the Hittites to the Ottomans and how did these externally based powers affect settlement in such areas?

Because the Konya plain is small survey can hope to cover a significant proportion of the plain, allowing us to offer a meaningful interpretation of its settlement history. The plain is flat making interpretation of the interrelationships of settlements and the working of past settlement systems simpler, because we do not have to consider the role of topography in the development of settlement. Models allowing us to infer tile economic structure underlying settlement distributions were first developed for such plains. The deposition of several metres of alluvium in some areas of the plain is the major factor limiting the viability of such an approach to the reconstruction of past settlement history, particularly that of the earliest periods of occupation.

The density of sites, which will allow a meaningful interpretation of past settlement history, has been appreciated for. some time. The first full season of survey in August-September 1995 has confirmed this potential and in particular our ability to recover the component of settlement buried under the alluvium of the plain. In an area, 12xl0 kms, to the NE of Çatal Höyük in which we worked, 15 tell sites were indicated on topographic maps, only three the subject of previous, brief visits. By walking irrigation canals and areas adjacent to known sites, in only a small part of this area, a further 5 buried or non-tell sites, not shown on the topographic map, were located. A site density of 1 site per 6km2 is indicated for such areas of the plain as a bare minimum. The value of walking the irrigation canals to locate buried sites has been demonstrated. This is particularly important for revealing earlier, prehistoric sites, some that may be contemporary with Çatal Höyük.

The creation of a detailed contour plan, and record of the distribution of artifacts across the site, the result of systematic and intensive sampling, has informed us about the presence and size of the different occupation episodes on each site, including the presence of prehistoric settlements masked by later occupation. Thus every Iron Age-Byzantine site inspected in this year's survey had a buried prehistoric component. There can be quite radical differences in settlement size at different periods of occupation of individual sites. We have large Early Bronze sites with small Iron Age components, for example. We have also been able to document the growth of some sites through time. In particular a number of sites started out as smaller Iron Age or Hellenistic settlements and then expanded considerably in the Roman or Byzantine periods. We can distinguish the special role of some sites. A low, unusually square, Iron Age site may be a small fort. The presence of human bone, slag, architectural elements and tiles allowed us to distinguish distinct components on some sites.

Certain patterns worthy of more detailed scrutiny are already apparent from the first reconnaissance and survey seasons. Evidence of new Epipalaeolithic, and Early Chalcolithic sites will help put prehistoric occupation in context. We documented relatively numerous Late Chalcolithic sites but more densely distributed Early Bronze Age sites including some of a very large size. This probably represents the development of an urban system in the 4th Millennium BC. The disappearance of this system in the latter part of the 3rd and absence of sites in the 2nd Millennium BC is noteworthy. Large numbers of sites appear in the 8th-6th centuries BC. Rapid growth occurs at certain sites from the Iron Age/Hellenistic into the Byzantine period. There is more limited settlement evident in the later Byzantine/Medieval periods. In addition there are clear differences in the density of settlement of particular periods in different areas of the plain, most notably in periods at which settlement flourished e.g. we see particular concentrations of EB I-II sites in some areas, Iron Age sites in others.

Agricultural intensification is destroying sites on the plain at an unprecedented rate. Our survey may be the only record of these sites in future years. In addition we are able to identify sites most under threat. Our Turkish hosts appreciate this information and may act upon it.

We will continue development of the project for the remote sensing of sites using satellite imagery. Since we have now located sites not on the topographic maps, including partially buried and non-tell sites, a study of satellite imagery may reveal diagnostic criteria for these sites. We can test these criteria by checking for sites, putatively identified from satellite imagery, in the field in the 96 season. Subsequently we will be able to apply this method to other settings in the plain, in Turkey, and possibly elsewhere in the Near East.

We are actively in helping to reconstruct environmental developments on the plain. By locating sites stratified between different episodes of alluvial deposition we have been able to date such episodes and thus clarify the depositional and environmental history of the plain.