ÇATALHÖYÜK 1996 ARCHIVE REPORT

Konya basin Palaeoenvironment research (KOPAL) programme 1996, end of season report

Neil Roberts

Introduction

A successful geoarchaeological and palaeoecological survey of the Konya and Aksehir basins took place between August 19 and September 7 1996 under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Culture, and with the financial support of the National Geographic Society and the Leverhulme Trust. We are indebted to both of these, to the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, to Loughborough and Ankara Universities, to Çumra Belediyesi, and to our representative from the General Directorate of Monuments and Museums in Ankara, Yücel Kiper. Our thanks also go to the Çatalhöyük representative, Baykal Aydinbek, who very kindly assisted us during the first week of our survey when our intended representative was ill. The field season involved the following personnel:

Dr C. Neil Roberts (Loughborough University)
Dr Hakan Yigitbasioglu (Ankara University)
Dr David Twigg (Loughborough University)
Mr Peter Boyer (Loughborough University)
Dr Jane Reed (Loughborough Universities)
Mr Warren Eastwood (University of Wales, Aberystwyth)

In addition, the KOPAL programme was visited by Dr Henry Lamb (University of Wales, Aberystwyth), and worked alongside Jamie Merrick (Dept. of Archaeology at Cambridge University) on site formation processes, the results of which are described below. Our work was also preceded by a two-week long modern chemical and biological survey of the lakes of central and southwestern Anatolia undertaken by Dr Jane Reed, Dr Sabri Kilinç (Biology Department, Sivas University) and his wife Claire.

Coring equipment was driven overland from the UK to Turkey in a Toyota Pickup belonging to Loughborough University. The KOPAL team was based at the new Çatalhöyük dig house, along with the Çatalhöyük excavation team directed by Prof. Ian Hodder, and the archaeological survey team directed by Dr Douglas Baird. Our geoarchaeological fieldwork was carried out in close relation to the work of these archaeological teams. After fieldwork, sediment and water samples were stored in core boxes, taken to the Konya Museum where they were sealed and export documents organised. The Pickup, with samples and equipment, departed from Çumra on September 7 and returned to UK on September 14.

Objectives

The prime object of the 1996 season was to complete the geoarchaeological and geomorphological survey of the area around Çumra (Konya vilayet) in order to establish a three-dimensional lithostratigraphic sequence for the Çars¸ amba alluvial fan. Fieldwork in 1994 and 1995 had indicated that Holocene alluviation on the fan partially or completely buried many archaeological sites, including Çatalhöyük. We sought to extend our work at Çatalhöyük itself by examining the relationship between on-site mound-forming processes and off-site alluviation, and we also aimed to obtain additional sediment cores from residual lakes in the Konya region, for pollen, diatom and isotope analysis.

Methods

Geoarchaeological investigations were carried out at six archaeological sites, listed in table I, and shown in figure 1 alongside those studied in 1995. At each site the depth of post-occupation burial by alluvium was obtained by coring near the edge of the mound. The coring continued below cultural levels in order to establish the nature and thickness of the underlying 'natural' alluvial and lacustrine deposits. Coring was carried out by Cobra vibro-corer with exchangeable open gouge and lined sample heads from which were recovered samples for sedimentological and palaeoecological analyses, and dating by radiocarbon and luminescence. The periods of human occupation at these mounds is being established by archaeological survey currently undertaken by Dr Douglas Baird. Further stratigraphic information was obtained from irrigation ditches and other sections which were cleaned, recorded and sampled.

Topographic survey data were obtained by Dr David Twigg using high precision Leica GPS (Global Positioning System) System 200 receivers, together with a Leica TC1010 total station, and were processed using SKI, LISCAD and Star*Net software.

Results

Altogether over 31 m of sediments were cored at archaeological sites in the Çumra region and a further 15 m recorded and sampled from adjacent sections. 12 m of the cores were retained intact for export to, and analysis in, the UK; the remainder were sub-sampled into bags. The maximum thickness of Holocene alluvium was recorded in the central part of the Çarsamba fan, with a thinner alluvial sediment cover near its edges. The detailed pattern of alluviation, on the other hand, does not appear to be a simple thinning of the Holocene sediment cover away from the fan apex. One reason for this is that the underlying marl surface is itself irregular rather than sub-horizontal. The two principal alluvial units of Holocene age on the Çarsamba fan identified in 1995 appeared to be confirmed at most of the sites investigated in 1996. On the other hand, local variations did appear in some cases. At Musalar hüyük an additional unit comprising heavy dark brown clay was found overlying the younger red-brown clay-silt, while at Boyali tömek the sediment sequence included important fluvial sands, testifying the former presence of a course of the Çarsamba river at this locality.

One core was taken at the edge of the West (Chalcolithic) mound at Çatalhöyük, and this encountered ca.650 cm of cultural fill overlying ca.80 cm of alluvium. As with the main (East) mound, it is clear that a very substantial thickness of in situ prehistoric deposits lie buried below the modern level of the plain here. A number of cores had been taken in previous years on the East mound, and it was decided that to obtain a fuller picture it would be desirable to work with trenched sections. These would permit an evaluation of the relationship between post-occupation mound-forming processes and alluviation, which would also aid in understanding the distribution of pottery, animal bone and chipped stone over the surface of the mound. The density and nature of these artefacts at Çatalhöyük (East) had been assessed by systematic scraping, sieving and collection in 1993 and 1994. This work, which was undertaken primarily by Peter Boyer and Jamie Merrick, involved clearing a 100 x 1 strip from near the top of the northern eminence to the site edge on the northern side of the mound. Within this, a series of end-on 9 x 1 m trenches were excavated down to in situ Neolithic cultural levels where possible. The tenth metre square in each downslope strip was excavated in 10 cm spits and the resulting sediment dry sieved. In the upper 35 m of the strip, slope deposits were thin and in situ Neolithic deposits consequently lay close to, and parallel with, the ground surface. Between 35 and 43 m, in situ prehistoric levels started to dip below the level of the mound surface, and from 43 to ca.63 m they plunged abruptly to more than 3 m below the ground surface. A probable Neolithic surface at 3.5.m was only found by hand augering through the base of trench 7. This and lower trenches were initially dug by mechanical excavator, which was generously provided by the mayor of Çumra municipality. In several of these trenches the slope deposits were cut by later, mainly Byzantine, pits and graves. The northernmost trench, close to the site limit, encountered a red-coloured alluvial floor of probable Neolithic-Chalcolithic age at a depth of 2.5 m. This was overlain by slope colluvium, partly mixed with an alluvial component which increased with depth, and it was underlain by dark grey-brown alluvial clay, similar to that found beneath Neolithic cultural fill elsewhere on the site. The west-facing section of the trenches were recorded and bulk, monolith and micromorphological samples were taken at several places.

In addition to the work on the Çarsamba fan a preliminary visit was made to the Aksehir lake basin on the northwestern edge of Konya vilayet. Like the Konya basin this was occupied by an enlarged Pleistocene lake, the shoreline ridges of which are clearly visible on the northeastern side of the lake. However, unlike Konya, the Aksehir basin has contained a substantial permanent brackish water lake during most, if not all, of the subsequent Holocene period. There is therefore a good likelihood that its sediments will contain a record which covers most of the last 10,000 years. With this in mind a 865 cm core was taken from a site on the marshy western edge of lake, from which lake water had recently retreated. This comprised stiff grey clay with salt crystals interbedded with shelly silts. Water and sediment samples were also collected from Lake Aksehir.

Conclusions

The sediment cores and samples obtained during the 1996 field season have completed the immediate objectives of the KOPAL field programme, and it is planned to follow this with a season of consolidation. Once laboratory analyses have been undertaken these data will provide the basis for reconstructing environmental changes in the Konya basin during the late Quaternary period. However, it is intended to continue fieldwork in 1997 on the relationship between mound-forming processes and alluviation as part of the Çatalhöyük and archaeological survey teams. This will include excavating trenches off the mound itself at Çatalhöyük, and assessing the evidence for cultural impact on 'fields' in the immediate vicinity of this and other sites in the region.

Table I: List of archaeological sites studied in 1996

© Çatalhöyük Research Project and individual authors, 1996