Çatalhöyük 1996 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 1996 ARCHIVE REPORT

The excavation of Building 1, North Area

R.J. Matthews

Introduction

The 1996 season's efforts in the North Area were entirely devoted to the excavation of Building 1. The building was first exposed during surface scraping in 1993 and its excavation began in 1995. This year we had hoped to complete its excavation in all respects but in the end were defeated by the quantity of human burials within the building. The excavation of Building 1 has provided us with a wealth of data concerning the construction, use and abandonment of a Neolithic structure at Çatalhöyük.

Through the course of the season, as last year, much time and attention was given to the attainment of a satisfactory working methodology which, on the one hand, was detailed and rigorous enough to conform with the modern scientific milieu within which the fieldwork is situated and, on the other hand, was not so exhaustive as to preclude the completion of all but a tiny portion of the site even over a 25 year period. The road to a universally agreeable methodology was not an easy one, but in the course of discussion and practice a plausible compromise was probably arrived at.

Excavation was carried out using single context planning as the basic approach. After initial experiments with various forms of electronic recording, it was decided to proceed with the simple and straightforward use of single context planning and use of dumpy levels, techniques which proved more accurate and faster than their electronic equivalents. Again as with last year, the evolution of a satisfactory sampling strategy was not a painless process. Archive samples were collected from all units to serve for future reference. Set volumes of earth, up to 40 litres if available, were taken for flotation from all units and the density of sampling was significantly increased when removing deposits directly overlying floors, for example. Samples for chemical, physical and micromorphological analyses were taken at 1 m intervals above and across floors.

This report treats the phases of Building 1 in chronological order, commencing with the earliest, thus reversing the sequence of excavation.

Phase 1 (Figure 1)

The basic architectural shell of Building 1 remained constant throughout all phases of its use. That is to say that walls F1-F7, F8 and F10 were laid down at the start of the building's history and were still there at its abandonment. The original laying of these walls appears not to be an adaptation of an already existing structure, but rather a new foundation started from scratch. The only hint of what underlies Building 1 came from a sounding through the sub-floor packing in the NE corner of Space 70. At the base of the ashy packing we exposed a plaster line running N-S and to the W of, but parallel to, the W face of wall F3. The curving top to this plaster line suggests it may belong to a plastered step rather than a wall face. If that be so, there may be another series of plastered floors and steps awaiting excavation at no great depth below the earliest floors so far excavated in Building 1. In other words, the structure underlying Building 1 may be severely truncated. In any case, the walls of Building 1 were laid out as a discrete act, or series of acts, along the following lines, as determined by excavation to levels below the bases of the walls at several points:

i) the clearing of an area for building, perhaps involving the levelling of an abandoned structure;
ii) the construction of walls F1-F2 and F4-F7 forming the outer shell of the building. The lowermost two to three courses of bricks were denser in texture and slightly stepped out from the upper course, providing a solid foundation;
iii) the filling of the shell of the building with a fairly uniform spread of ashy packing, probably midden material brought from old rubbish dumps;
iv) the construction of wall F3 overlying the ashy packing. The fact that wall F3 is constructed of bricks and mortar identical in every respect, except the depth of their laying, to those of walls F1-F2 and F4-F7 strongly suggests that steps ii) to iv) were carried out within a very short space of time. It is also notable that from the start the ashy packing was more thickly deposited in the N and E of the building, possibly to form a base for the platforms which were located along the N and E sides;
v) the laying throughout the building of a uniform layer of dense orange-brown material over the ashy packing. The basic shapes of the platforms were formed in this material;
vi) the laying of the first plaster floors throughout the building.

The plan of phase 1 is depicted in Figure 1. The layout comprises two basic spaces, a small N-S oriented room to the W (Space 70) and a larger, roughly square room to the E (Space 71), with a stepped or crawl-hole access between them at the S end of wall F3. Phase 1 features in Space 70 include a circular hearth, F33, only partly surviving under the later oven, F11, a low rectangular platform or installation, F16, adjacent to the W face of wall F3, and a strip of wooden planking set into the plastered floor in the N part of the room, probably as part of a storage bin. Traces of red-painted white wall plaster were recovered in the SW corner of the room, underlying the later oven, F11. It is noteworthy that the floors of Phase 1 in Space 70 already slope markedly down from N to S, respecting the thicker ash and packing deposits underlying these earliest floors. In both Spaces 70 and 71 a single recess had been dug into the sub-floor packing and carefully plastered. These irregularly shaped pits, F34 in Space 70 and F43 in Space 71, are of unknown function but may have been connected with the storage of liquids or liqueous matter.

Space 71 is clearly the main focus of the building throughout its history. In Phase 1 this space has a distinctive and carefully laid out plan. Three plastered platforms were neatly arranged around the room, in the NW and SW corners and in the middle of the E face. This last platform was especially marked by the presence of two sturdy walls or benches, F8 and F10, on its N and S sides, these walls having been constructed at the original laying out of the building. The NW platform, F13, was associated with red paint in its early phases, both in terms of washes of red paint on the adjacent faces of walls F3 and F5 and in terms of occasional coatings of red paint on the low walls of the platform itself. There were also suggestions of red painted flooring in the early phase of the main E platform, F37. The interior of the room was clearly demarcated by low but well-defined steps, two of which ran E-W across the centre of the room while another N-S step defined the extreme NE corner of the room. In addition there was a narrow step against the S face of the main N wall, F5, and both the main N and S walls, F5 and F6, had protruding brick and plaster features, F24 and F26, at approximately their mid-point.

Other features in Space 71 include a large oven, F39, set into a cut-out opening in the main S wall, F6. The cut for this oven reached right through the wall and abutted the main N wall of the adjacent building to the S. Immediately to the E of oven F39 there were indications of access from the roof at this point. Firstly, the wall plaster on the N face of wall F6 curved outwards as if originally to accommodate a feature such as a ladder and secondly, the flooring in this area was heavily puddled and reworked as from frequent trampling.

The full significance of the Phase 1 plan of Building 1, with its careful and discrete demarcations of interior space, lies in its compatability with structures excavated at Çatalhöyük in the 1960s. Both in its general layout and in many of the details of its fittings and features Phase 1 of Building 1 bears close comparison with structures designated as "shrines" by their excavator. The closest parallels are with Shrine 10 of Level VIA-B (for illustrations of this building see Mellaart 1967, Figs 8-9, 38-40, Pl 28). The Level VI shrine and Building 1 share many attributes in common: ladder access in the SE corner of the main room; an inset oven in the N face of the main S wall; platforms and raised steps along the N, E and SW sides; plastered protruberances at the middle of the S face of the main N wall; red painted walls adjacent to the NW platform; elaborate relief and moulded decoration on the E face of the main W wall. In the last instance the precise nature of the parallel is unclear, for the E face of the W wall, F3, had been robbed of most of its decoration after the abandonment of the building (see Phase 4 below), the only vestiges being truncated plaster lines, stumps of relief features and a single large cattle horn set into the E face of wall F3 near the crawl hole access to Space 70. A curving stretch of plastered wall, possibly collapsed and re-used during Phase 3, may also be a remnant of wall decoration in this part of the room.

Phase 2 (Figure 2)

The second phase of occupation of Building 1 saw some alterations to the internal features of the structure. Firstly, a significant reorganisation of cooking/heating facilities was implemented. This restructuring involved the complete closure of the main Phase 1 oven, F39, which was bricked in and plastered over to give a smooth level face to the interior of wall F6. The Phase 1 small circular hearth in Space 70, F33, now fell out of use and was built over by a low platform upon which a new and more substantial oven, F11, was constructed. This oven, whose clay walls survived to some 40 cm in height, was oval in shape with an opening at its E end. Immediately to the N of the oven F11 two discrete clumps of carbonised acorns were found, lying directly on the floor. Parts of a sheep foot and lower leg were also on the floor nearby. During Phase 2, then, there was a marked shift in cooking/heating facilities, with the closure of such features in Space 71 and their amplification in Space 70.

Another notable development in Phase 2 was the construction of a storage bin along the centre of the N face of the main S wall, F6, of Space 71. This bin was bounded on its W and E sides by thin clay and plaster walls, F22 and F23, while directly in front of the bin a recessed plaster feature, F27, acted as a grinding emplacement, its stone still in situ. A deliberate deposit of large obsidian projectile point blanks and other pieces had been made underneath the grinding installation. The base of the main storage bin was covered, to a depth of up to 2 cm, in carbonised lentils. Heavily burnt goat horn-cores were also present amongst the lentils. Despite the closure of the nearby oven, F39, then, food processing activities appear to have continued or expanded in this part of Space 71 during Phase 2. At this stage a step was created in the SE corner of Space 71, partly by truncating the thick build-up of plastered floors at this point.

A final alteration was the construction of a free-standing bucranium feature toward the E end of Space 71. This feature, F19, was attested by the upper cranium and horns of a cow set into sheets of applied plaster, the whole lying in disarray on a Phase 2 floor. It is likely that the bucranium originally stood along the middle of the W edge of platform F37, and that it may well have replaced earlier such features in similar locations in the Phase 1 building.

Phase 3 (Figure 3)

A major traumatic event marked the end of Phase 2. A violent fire raged through the S parts of the building, blackening all floor and wall surfaces and searing into the walls to redden the bricks themselves. The effects of the fire were particularly noticeable in the SE corner of the building, in the region of the putative ladder access, where especially heavily burnt debris, including hard-baked roofing clay with reed and wood impressions, filled the room but the burning extended over the entire S half of the building. An almost complete shattered pot lay on the step close to platform F37. The direct cause of the fire is not known, but it appears to have been carefully contained and perhaps therefore deliberately started. The N half of the building remained untouched by the fire.

Following this catastrophic event there was a major reconfiguration in the use of space in Building 1, which again suggests a teleological element in the burning which brought Phase 2 to an end. Rather than shovelling out the burnt and collapsed roofing and upper wall material, no difficult task, the inhabitants chose not to reoccupy most of the S half of the building. In Space 70, however, the oven F11 was rebuilt directly over its Phase 2 predecessor, whose mouth was blocked with small stones, and continued in use although any associated floors did not survive. Ash tip lines, sloping down from S to N away from the top phase of oven F11, attest the use of this oven after the filling of the S part of Space 70 with burnt and collapsed fill.

Otherwise, a new wall, F15, was constructed across Space 70 from W to E, forming a marked boundary against the burnt material to its S. This wall had scant plaster on its N face and none at all on its S face. At its E end a stub of cattle horn, set into the N face of the wall, suggests that wall F15 may originally have been a more elaborate feature. In room fill a little to the N of wall F15 a piece of antler with associated brick or plaster was all that remained of another possible feature in Space 70. Floors along the N edge of Space 70 had been destroyed before its final abandonment, but consistent traces of burning on the wall faces of the NE corner of this room suggest that a hearth may have existed here during Phase 3.

Phase 3 activity in Space 71 to some extent parallels that in Space 70. The S part of the room was not reoccupied after the fire which concluded Phase 2, and a new wall, F18, was constructed on an E-W axis across the middle of the room, with no plaster on its S face and slight plastering on its N face. The lowermost brick course of this wall was set into a cut through the Phase 2 floors. As with wall F15 in Space 70, wall F18 in Space 71 had traces of low-key elaboration on its N face, comprising animal horns and bones set into plaster and other obscure moulded and perhaps red painted additions. To its S, wall F18 acted as a retaining wall for the great mass of burnt and collapsed debris from the fire. The only evidence of post-fire activity to the S of wall F18 took the form of an irregular stretch of laid bricks with associated plaster flooring, overlying the platform in the SW corner of Space 71, and perhaps constructed out of the collapsed upper part of an elaborate feature on the E face of wall F3.

A major development in Phase 3 was the enlargement of platform F37 into a distinct small room, Space 110. This amplification was implemented by the extension to the W of wall F10 over the burnt debris from the fire and by the construction of a new N-S wall, F9, again partly overlying the burnt collapse. A stepped access to the room was created in its NW corner and a lavish series of white floor plasters applied. Traces of interwoven reed matting were detected in parts on these floors. Another small room, Space 111, was created by the construction of wall F21 in the NE corner of Space 71. The NW platform, F13, was rebuilt in slightly more contracted form. Small fish vertebrae were recovered from the upper surfaces of this platform, perhaps evidence of food processing. Finally, a new circular hearth, F14, was built and used through several phases at the SE corner of platform F13. Three small circular stake-holes, one filled with obsidian working chips, surrounded the hearth, perhaps as cooking supports. At the abandonment of the building a rare macro-artefact was deposited in the Phase 3 building in the form of a cattle scapula lying directly over the cleaned-out hearth F14.

Phase 4 (Figure 4)

The occupation during Phase 3 of Building 1 ended in the abandonment of the entire building. This abandonment appears to have been orderly and planned, for all macro-artefacts were removed from the building prior to abandonment, with the exception of the cattle scapula lying across the circular hearth, F14, perhaps deliberately left in situ for symbolic purposes. The building then filled up with collapsed and decayed material and may have been built over, although any superceding structures have been lost to erosion.

The last act in the history of Building 1, until its excavation by us, was the digging of a large semi-circular pit, F17, against the E face of wall F3. This pit cut through the collapsed fill of Space 71 but respected the face of wall F3. Our interpretation is that the pit was cut in order to get at the E face of wall F3 around its mid-point, with the intention of removing the elaborate wall decoration which almost certainly existed here. The pit also clipped the corner of platform F13, exposing parts of underlying human burials. Discrete deposits of bones, bone tools and obsidian pieces appear to have been made against the E face of wall F3 at this time, perhaps in connection with the removal of the elaborate wall features. Traces of plaster lines, interrupted where mouldings or reliefs had been removed, were clearly visible on the face of wall F3 and there were vestiges of moulded features still surviving.

External deposits

Limited excavation was conducted on deposits lying outside Building 1 on both its W and E sides. In both cases mixed ashy rubbish deposits, rich in discarded animal bone and other refuse, were excavated from the narrow strips between Building 1 and the adjacent buildings to W and E. A pierced stone mace-head came from the deposits to the E of Building 1. These deposits almost certainly had their origin as refuse from household activities, perhaps largely occurring on the roofs of the buildings.

Burials (Figure 5)

A major element in the excavation of Building 1 was the occurrence of human burials in significant quantities. The excavation of these burials consumed a large portion of our time and energies and in the end thwarted our desire to complete the excavation of Building 1 this season. Because of the practice of repeated burial in the same locality, leading to severe disturbance of earlier burials by later ones, it has not proven possible stratigraphically to connect every burial with particular floors or phases of floors and thereby to relate each burial to an architectural phase of the building. Nevertheless, the burials can, on the whole, be stratigraphically related to each other, at least within meaningful groups.

Burials occurred in three major locations, as illustrated in Figure 5. Under platform F13, in the NW corner of Space 71, a minimum total of 14 individuals had been buried, all but one of which were children or babies. The sole adult burial here was the last in the sequence and wore two small pendants around the neck. Most of the bodies were severely disarrayed by later burials and lacked grave goods, but one intact child had several hundred tiny beads about the neck.

In the area of Space 71 to the E of platform F13 a further minimum of 15 bodies had been buried, mixed child and adult, including at least one probable instance of mother with still-born baby. Again many bodies were at least partly disarticulated and grave goods were generally absent. One baby appeared to have deposits of yellow ochre.

Under the main E platform, F37, at least 8 bodies had been buried, and these were all fully adult. The last burial under platform F37 comprised an adult complete in every respect except for a missing head. Around the neck this individual wore a shaped pendant made from the penis-bone of a mustelid (otter, pole-cat, pine-marten).

Significance of Building 1 and its history

We can try to get at the meaning of what happens in Building 1 over the course of its lifespan. The basic assumption is that the layout and decoration of the Çatalhöyük buildings are richly laden with symbolic significance, involving concerns with birth and death, ancestry and descent, male and female, domestic and wild, and so on. Firstly, the layout of Phase 1 suggests a mental template for the initial building, attested by the careful planning and construction of a set layout of shell and interior features. What is the significance of that layout? By looking at Building 1 and at buildings dug in the 1960s we can point to some tendencies.

There are very clear spatial demarcations. The S area is generally domestic, with an oven set into the S wall. There are also grinding and other food processing facilities here in later phases which also must have existed in earlier phases. The S area is a completely undecorated part of the building, always lacking wall paintings or reliefs. The only possible exception is a brick and plaster protrusion on the S wall. The deposit of obsidian pieces occurs at a clear boundary between the domestic and the decorated regions of the house. This may also be the boundary between the female and male zones of the building, if like most commentators we see the domestic zone as being female. It is worth pointing out that the ladder entry into the building is in the S, domestic/female zone, just as entry to the physical world is via the female.

Death is clearly a N and E thing and can be further subdivided into W for children, E for adults, with a transitional zone in between. W for children fits with the depiction of fertility on the W walls of shrines. There are no burials in the S of the building, even under the SW platform. Sexing of burials may provide more patterns. It seems, for example, that adults under the E platform are all male, as so far identified. Females may be in the transitional burial zone, often buried with children.

In general, concerning Phase 1, we see a rigid layout of internal fittings and decoration, very similar to the 1960s shrines, right at the other end of the mound. This suggests the possibility that the entire settlement comprised buildings originally laid out as "shrines", and later modified through time. There is clearly a rich mix of the domestic and the elaborate within the same building in all phases of Building 1, so that it may be wrong to see a sharp boundary between shrine-like and domestic activities.

Turning to the significance of the burning which ends Phase 2, this is tightly restricted to the S, female/domestic part of Building 1. The burning may relate to the death of the main female of the house, leaving a widower alone in occupation. It is possible that the sole adult burial in the NW platform, which is the last burial here, is that of the last main female of the house. There is then a careful destruction by fire of the female/domestic zone. Occupation continues in the N, male, zone. In this new living space, the previously rigid separation of domestic and decorated breaks down. The new hearth is indeed in the S, domestic, zone of the new layout, but there is now significant decoration along the new S zone in the form of animal parts set into the faces of the new dividing walls both in Space 70 and Space 71. This suggests a sudden break down of the binary opposition in the demarcation of space, again supporting the idea of a single sex/male survivor living in the remnant of the house. Another point is that, in contrast to the immaculately clean swept floors of earlier phases, the new floors have much more rubbish on them and are less well kept, perhaps a sign of a not too house-proud elderly male.

The abandonment of Building 1 is a very interesting event, marked by evidence for several distinctive activities. Presumably the death of the last occupant, the postulated widower, was the cause of the final abandonment. The last adult burial in Building 1 lies under the main E platform, comprising a completely articulated adult, probably male, but with the head missing. The removal of the head may be taken to symbolise the closure of the building, its final abandonment.The head may have been taken elsewhere, as a foundation deposit for a new building, or to a special ancestor cult locality. Another very striking feature of the headless burial is that it is the only one under the E platform to have a grave good. Hanging around the neck was the penis bone of a mustelid, carved in order to be suspended. We see here an emphasis on maleness and on fertility of sorts even in the death of the last occupant of the house.

The other main event is strictly post-abandonment: the digging of the semi-circular pit against the W wall of Space 71. This pit cuts through all the surviving depth of collapsed debris in the room. The exact timing of the cut is unclear: it could be very shortly after the final abandonment or a long time after, but it is likely to be not too long as it was cut presumably when the walls were still visible above ground. The pit was dug deliberately to remove the elaborate relief feature from the W wall. This may just be the desire of a later Neolithic house builder to recover some nice wall fittings for a new housing project. Or, as is well known, in the 1960s shrines decoration on the W wall is generally to do with birth and female fertility. It may be that after the final abandonment of Building 1 it was felt necessary to "kill off" as it were the building by removing its generative and creative essence, the Mother Goddess, or somesuch representation on the main W wall. The destruction of the W wall decoration is very common on shrines dug in the 1960s, much more common than other walls of the same buildings (see Mellaart 1967, Fig 16). It therefore seems likely that there was a systematic removal of decoration from the W wall as part of the abandonment process.

Reference

Mellaart, J., 1967. Çatal Hüyük. A Neolithic town in Anatolia. London: Thames and Hudson.