Çatalhöyük 1996 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 1996 ARCHIVE REPORT

The Summit Area

Kostas Kotsakis

1. The area

The area designated "the summit" lies between Mellaart's Areas A and E at the south west of the site. The area chosen overhangs the cliff separating A and E (fig. 1) and the exposure of the long stratigraphy shown on figure 2. West of the "summit" area lies building VI 31, characterised by Mellaart as a "shrine", while building VI 30 and 33 lies to its north. The particular area was not excavated by Mellaart, and was selected for offering a suitable check on the succession of building episodes in this part of the site. To this end a trench measuring 9 x 6 m was plotted, following the 40 m grid of the site, oriented S-N. A narrow balk, 0.50 m wide, was left across the trench, and the main effort was concentrated on the southern of the two areas thus defined (fig. 3). The work was carried out by 4 persons, including the trench supervisor and lasted from the 1st to the 23rd of September.

2. The method of excavation

The basic recording unit employed in the summit area is the stratigraphic layer or stratum, which is given a unique number, within the trench. However, as the distinctions between strata are often difficult to recognise or strata are too large to be dug in one day, it is often useful and convenient to split the "natural" entity of the stratum into arbitrary units, each one corresponding to one unit sheet of the excavator's notebook. The units thus produced are uniquely numbered and their number subsequently identifies all the finds contained in each one of them. In this way, each unit represents either a "natural" or a flexible arbitrary entity, depending on the situation, the only limit to this flexibility being the absolute restriction on crossing a natural stratigraphic boundary, either vertically or horizontally. The integrity of the stratum thus split into separate units is maintained by the stratigraphic layer number which is recorded as a number preceded by a # symbol. A running section of excavation units (fig. 4, fig. 5) and the harris matrix of units (fig. 6) complete the information that restores the excavation procedure for each trench and relates the steps taken by the excavator to the stratigraphy of the particular area. The method has been applied to a number of complex tell sites with success.

3. Architecture and stratigraphy

Immediately below the surface, the excavation revealed the remains of a mud-brick building measuring approximately 6 x 6 m. Building 10 is defined by walls 102, 103, 104, and 113, which seem to be contemporary (fig 3). Wall 105, which runs at an angle to 113, could be a later feature, but the exact stratigraphic position of this wall was not investigated further, partly because of a big bell-shaped pit of the late Hellenistic period, which was sunk here, obscuring their association. In any case, the area north of walls 105 and 113 was tentatively designated as building 12. Again, future investigation is needed to define whether the area north of wall 113 belongs to a separate building, or to a separate space of building 10, a common arrangement in Çatal Höyük. In this last case, wall 113 could represent an internal partition wall, which would explain its seeming narrow dimensions. Wall 105 is related to a platform of considerable dimensions, constructed of carefully laid mud-brick. The upper face of the platform, although very near the surface, still preserved traces of white plastering, concentrated mainly in its middle. At least two separate episodes were discernible in the construction of this platform. The north face of wall 105, against which lied the mud-bricks of the platform, preserved traces of plastering, presumably indicating that initially this side of the wall was exposed. The thickness of the rest of the walls could not be precisely established, as the main effort was concentrated on the inside of the building. It seems, however, that at some parts they exceeded 1 m of width.

Three main episodes of re-use of the floors of building 10 were identified. They were designated as floor 107, 116 and 117, and were all associated with the same single building phase of the walls. Floor 107 was found immediately below the surface, in a very poor state of preservation. Its largest part had already been destroyed by a later pit (F 101), dated to the Chalcolithic, which occupied the eastern half of building 10. Floor 107 was a plain construction, made of hard packed clay with no plastering. The remains of a mud-brick platform (F 106) were also identified against the eastern wall 102, destroyed for its most part by pit 101.

A slightly better picture was presented by floor 116. The stratigraphy was to a large extent still disturbed, owing to the presence of the pit and to the proximity to the surface. It proved impossible to recognise the distinction between the strata associated with the two successive floors 107 and 116. The latter, however, was clearly defined by the scatter of thin and badly weathered plaster which was preserved in various spots, mostly at the centre. Fallen plaster, presumably from the surrounding walls or constructions, was found here in some quantity. Some pieces preserved traces of red colour. Related to this floor was a plastered bench (F118), jutting from wall 102.

By contrast, the third and lowest in succession floor was well preserved. It was carefully plastered and covered the whole of the excavated area of building 10. Two platforms were associated with the floor, one along wall 102 (F 120) and one on the opposite, west side, along wall 112. Both platforms were plastered. The west platform (F 112) was low, and preserved six successive phases. The last phase was related to floor 117 and was standing approximately 10 cm higher from the floor. Its face was painted red. Two additional features were related to this floor, an oven and a hearth. The horse-shoe oven was built in a shallow recess of south wall 103 with mud-bricks standing upright at a height of approximately 30 cm. Internally, the oven preserved three successive floors. The uppermost floor was based on a thin spread of lime, which also covered partially the walls of the oven, indicating that it was used at this stage as an open hearth. It is probable that this phase is related to floor 107, on which no other features were uncovered. The middle floor was made of plaster mixed with gravel, its surface being burnt hard, exhibiting many cracks. Lastly, the lowest floor, clearly associated stratigraphically with floor 117, had less evidence of burning and it remained moderately soft and sandy.

The second feature on floor 117 was a circular hearth that occupied the area in front of the oven. The hearth was defined by traces of a badly preserved rim. It was sitting on a low podium, which was connected to platform 112 and was likewise plastered and had a face painted red. A pot-stand was found on the hearth. Two more pot-stands were associated with the oven and again with floor 117.

The arrangement of building 10 during the floor 117 episode seems quite regular: an oven on the south side with a hearth in front of it, platforms and benches on the east and west sides, and possibly on the north as well. Less careful is the arrangement of the later episodes, although the information for that is not as secure. Notable, however, is the absence of the hearth and of the west platform for floor 116, and the modification of the oven to a hearth, in the last floor 107.

The place of building 10 in the chronological sequence of Çatal Höyük is tentatively assigned, on stratigraphical evidence, in Mellaart's level V or later.

4. Finds

The quantity of pottery from the summit is small. A total of 585 sherds were inventoried, of which 278 come from the Chalcolithic Pit 101. Examined in stratigraphic context, the frequency of pottery shows a steady decline towards floor 117, on which only 23 sherds were found. The decline is observable in both the mean quantity of pottery and in the weight/count ratio (fig. 7 ) This could indicate that the breakage index was also higher in the earlier strata. On the other hand, the difference is not so marked between floor 107 and stratum 4, possibly as a result of the stratigraphic contamination of these two features.

Technologically, the pottery is fairly uniform, and there is no notable variation in the proportions of coarse to finer pottery. Most of the pottery is heavily tempered with quartz, but there is very little true coarse pottery. The surface is almost always burnished, but rarely slipped. The surface of the pottery is fired to a grey-brown colour and the cores are very often grey. Shapes are simple and open, and there are no handles or lugs, except in the Chalcolithic context. Ring bases are also absent.

The knapped-stone assemblage is very different than the assemblages recovered from other areas of the excavation. The most striking difference is seen in the higher quantities of blades found on the summit, which form approximately 56% of the sample examined. This is broadly comparable to the proportion found from surface contexts on the southern mound, but differs from the low (perhaps 10%)from both the surface and the excavation of the north mound and the excavation of Mellaart's area. At Çatal Höyük the major change in technology occurs around the equivalent of Mellaart's level 5, with a gradually increasing emphasis on blade (particularly pressure-blade) debitage. In all, 396 stone artifacts were recovered from the trench and the flotation machines.

The repertoire of the rest of finds includes ground stone artifacts (20), bone artifacts (9), beads (8), and various clay objects (7), among which 2 clay balls.

5. Archaeobotanical sampling (by Maria Mangafa)

During this season's excavation 62 samples of soil were collected for archaeobotanical analysis. The sampling strategy which was adopted combined both bulk and scatter samples. All the units were bulk sampled and from particular contexts, such as floors, additional samples were taken from various locations. At the beginning it was determined that the target sample size would be 20 Lt of soil whereas on 9/9/96 it was decided to increase the sample size to 40 Lt where possible. In total 1362 Lt of soil were processed for the recovery of plant remains using two flotation machines. A piece of cloth of mesh size 175 ì was used to collect the flot and another one of ca. 500 ì was used for the heavy residue.

To obtain an overall picture about the sample content, the first step of the analysis was the presence/absence analysis. The >1 mm flots were examined and a rough estimation was made of the relative proportions of the different taxa. Following this, first priority was given to the sorting of a) samples believed, on stratigraphic grounds, to be relatively undisturbed and b) samples rich in plant remains. So far samples from Pit 101, Platform 120 and from Floor 117 have been examined (in total 20 samples). Flots >1 mm were completely sorted while flots <1 mm and >500 ì were randomly sub-sam-pled before sorting, using a riffle box. Plant remains were identified by comparison with fresh material using magnifications of x8 to x40.

Species represented Several species of cereals, pulses, fruits/nuts as well as wild plants other than fruits and nuts were represented in Çatal Höyük assemblages. The cereals identified are einkorn (Triticum monococcum), emmer (Triticum dicoccum), spelt (Triticum spelta) bread/macaroni wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum) and barley (Hordeum sp.) of both hulled and naked variety. The glume wheats are represented by both grains and glume bases/spikelet forks. The distinction between bread and macaroni wheat is impossible based on grains alone. Few rachis fragments of bread wheat were found, indicating the presence of Triticum aestivum.

Only few complete barley grains were found making the identification to species level difficult. The presence of twisted grains indicates the six-row species(Hordeum vulgare). However, on this basis alone the presence of tow-row barley (Hordeum distichon) can not ruled out. The pulses identified are pea (Pisum sativum), lentil (Lens culinaris) and a species of vetch (Vicia sp.). The main crop species for the inhabitants of Building 10 seem to be einkorn and emmer. Pistacio (Pistacia sp.) and hackberry (Celtis sp.) were used also to supplement the diet of Çatal Höyük people. These species thrive in a mountainous environment. Therefore, they must have been collected away from the site.

Apart from the species mentioned above, several wild taxa are also present in Summit assemblages. More than 20 different taxa have been identified so far, not all of them down to species level, however.

Spatial distribution of plant remains and crop processing Pit 101 Four samples collected from pit 101 and their analysis is almost complete. They are homogeneous in their composition, consisting mainly of chaff and weedy seeds and only few grains (ca. 10%). Almost the majority of the chaff consists of glume bases/spikelet forks of einkorn and emmer (with the first being the predominant species). The pit therefore was used apparently for the deposition of the by-products of various crop-processing stages such as fine-sieving (since lots of small, free and heavy seeds have been found). Floor 117 The various samples taken from the floor although similar in terms of their composition, differ in terms of density of plant remains. As in pit 101, these samples seem to represent the by-products of crop processing stages that precede cooking, mainly the by- products of fine-sieving and maybe hand picking. However the richest samples were collected from the area between the oven (F. 111) and the fire installation as well as the area between the fire installation and platform 120. It could be that food preparation activities were mainly taken place in these areas. However, since the analysis of the floor samples is not finished completely, no final conclusion can be reached yet. For the time being it remains a very interesting hypothesis. Oven 111 Only few plant remains were recovered from the samples collected, making any further analysis fruitless. Platform 120 Fairly rich in plant remains. In terms of composition, and consequently in crop processing activities which implies, the assemblage is similar with those described above.

Conclusions

No evidence of cooking or storage have been found so far in Building 10. The assemblages seem to represent mainly the by-products of fine sieving of einkorn and emmer. Spelt, bread wheat, barley, peas and lentils occur as minor contaminants only. It is fairly impossible, at least at this stage, to say whether einkorn and emmer were cultivated as separate crops or grown together in the same field. Hopefully, by the completion of the archaeobotanical analysis more information about crop processing activities and their spatial distribution will be obtained.