Çatalhöyük 1997 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 1997 ARCHIVE REPORT

Introduction and Summary

Ian Hodder

Work this year began on 1 August and continued for two months. The team had up to 70 people coming from a wide range of countries to join 35 local Turkish workers and 10 Turkish students. The team members were from United States, Britain, Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece, and South Africa. The Main Sponsors in 1997 were Visa International and Koçbank. The Long-Term Sponsor is Merko, and the Co-Sponsors are British Airways, Glaxo-Wellcome and Shell. Support has also been given by IBM and Pepsi. The official tour operator for the project is Meptur. The project is, as always, enormously indebted to the Turkish 'Friends of Çatalhöyük'. The project operates with a permit provided by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, Directorate General of Monuments and Museums, and under the auspices of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. Our government temsilci Ilhame hanim, Gulcan hanim and Yuksel hanim have given us much help and advice. The Konya Museum and its director Erdogan Erol give us continuous support. Our work is given enormous support by the local community - especially the Cumra Kaymakam and Belediye Baskani.

With the aid of the sponsorship described above, we have this year added three store rooms and a laboratory to the dig house - this now contains three stores, 5 laboratories, and accommodation and eating facilities. The support of the 'Friends of Çatalhöyük' has also allowed us to build a long-term shelter over one of the excavation areas (Bach1) - this will mean that tourists can visit the site and see the excavation trenches throughout the year. Support from Meptur has allowed us to apply for permission to build an experimental reconstruction of one of the Çatalhöyük houses - this will be built for scientific study.

Excavation in 1997 took place in four areas of the East mound. These areas are termed North, Mellaart, Bach1, and Summit (fig1).

In the North area, excavation of Building 1 was completed except for the removal of the brick walls. A large number of burials were found beneath the northwest platform (F13) of the main room (Space 71) and beneath the north part of the room and beneath the main east platform. In all, about 50 individuals were recovered. The bodies had been placed in pits beneath the platforms, tightly flexed and with flesh. Later addition of bodies disturbed earlier bodies. Amongst the mainly younger bodies beneath the northwest platform several necklaces as well as other ornaments were found. The wall plaster surrounding the northwest platform proved to have 4 to 5 layers of geometric painting, in the form of triangles and lattices. The pottery from Building 1 suggests a date comparable to Level VI in the Mellaart sequence.

After removal of the floors in Building 1, sterile packing or foundation layers were excavated in 2m squares. However, within this packing a series of foundation burials were recovered, in particular in front of the doorway between space 70 and 71. Another burial (F211) beneath the northern part of the house consisted of an infant with an adult, with 'figure-of-8' fibre braids surviving as salts or phytoliths.

Beneath the foundation layers, the walls of an earlier building (probably equivalent to Level VII) were found. The main outline of these walls exactly prefigures Building 1. An internal wall exactly underlies the wall between Spaces 70 and 71, with an entrance in the same place. Another internal wall divides off an eastern room. The plasters on the walls of the side rooms are considerably thinner than in the main central room. A test trench dug in the western room came onto floors at 1m below the Building 1 floors.

Building 2 in the Mellaart area is a new building that has been discovered attributable to Level XI. It has plastered walls standing over a metre high. There is remarkable preservation of the plaster walls and there are traces of sculptures and reliefs on them. There is also evidence of paintings which will be uncovered in future years. The eastern room (Space 116) of this building was not excavated this season and our efforts concentrated on the main room (Space 117). Removal of the fill deposits in this room uncovered a destroyed western wall with a large bull's horn which may have been attached to it. In the southwest corner two bins were found attached to an oven (F. 257 and F. 257), one bin containing over 80 clay balls. In the middle of the southern part of the room was found another oven (F. 269). The north and eastern floors and platforms are cleaner. Two niches occur in the middle of the north wall and there are traces of four vertical posts arranges symmetrically around the niches.

Three other Level VII buildings in the Mellaart area were also excavated but since these had been partly excavated by Mellaart less information was obtained than for Building 2. Space 109 had a hearth or oven (F. 82) in the south wall associated with a bulls horn. An infant burial was found close by as was a hoard of 9 pieces of obsidian. Space 112 produced 8 sub-floor burials. Pits against the west and east walls were also found. Space 113 had a sub-floor hoard of obsidian pieces. At an earlier phase it was internally divided into two rooms (150 and 151). In the larger room 151 traces of wall posts were found and a basin in the northwest corner. In this room were two ovens: an earlier one (F 252) cut into the wall and through into Space 150 and a later one (F 87).

In the Bach we have started excavating a large and elaborate building (Building 3). This has thickly plastered walls with red and black paint in the main room (Space 86) and a large set of complete bulls horns and a flint dagger in a small side room (Space 89). There are later Hellenistic and Byzantine burials in this building. In the main room floors were not reached but a bull's horn was found against the east wall. The fill of this room contained midden material. It also contained evidence of sloping layers of plaster and midden which may be a collapsed roof. A collapsed screen occurred along the western side of the room.

In the Summit area work continued on the excavation of Building 10 (Level IV/V) and the midden material to its east. The area proved to have a large number of Byzantine pits. Floors were reached over most of the area of Building 10. On the south wall is a substantial brick oven and there are platforms on the west, north and east sides. In the northeast part of the room was found a basin (F134).

Study of site formation processes was undertaken by a team (KOPAL) headed by Dr Roberts. A trench was dug down the north face of the mound. The aim of this was to examine the depth of erosion. A second and larger trench was dug 20m to 25m to the north of the mound in the adjacent field. In the upper parts of this trench later Neolithic soils were found. Below these were backswamp deposits and there was possible evidence of a ditch, probably relating to the earlier Neolithic. Below these deposits the lake marl was discovered.

Figure 1: Excavation Areas on the East Mound in 1997