Çatalhöyük 1997 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 1997 ARCHIVE REPORT

Archive report on work by the KOPAL team 1997

Jamie Merrick, Peter Boyer and Neil Roberts

The work of 1997 continued that of the 1996 season, with the principal focus being the study of sediment characterisation and the interpretation of site formation processes.

KOPAL Trench 1:

A section of the 1996 trench on the North mound (see 1996 report) was reopened (1050/1250 - 1050/1260) and the fifth strip expanded one metre westwards. This was designed to facilitate an improved understanding of the top of the in situ archaeological material when encountered. Upslope of the modern waterpipe cut (c.1050/1252) excavation revealed in situ archaeology at a depth of c. 0.4m. This consisted of the top of a mudbrick wall, running approximately north-south, and the associated building fill. Downslope of the waterpipe cut the Neolithic surface comprised of a series stepped midden deposits that may respect underlying structural features. A small sondage of c. 0.5m x 0.4m showed this midden material to be heavily bioturbated and suggests considerable exposure prior to burial by the overlying colluvial sediments. The depth of subsequent colluvial material increased downslope from c. 0.5m to 2m. The profiles were cleaned and detailed field descriptions of sediment type and characteristics made. The westfacing profile was drawn, photographed and sampled for physical and chemical properties. All sedimentary material removed was subject to hand-picking for artefacts.

KOPAL Trench 2:

A second trench was excavated directly to the north immediately outside the site fence with the aim of identifying the nature of off-site colluvial and alluvial processes. Deep coring in previous years has shown a considerable depth of post-Neolithic alluviation in the area around the mounds. As it was intended to excavate this trench to the top of the lake marl which lies at a depth of c. 3m, the trench was excavated in a stepped manner. An initial area 9m x 6m was cleared mechanically to a depth of 1m. Within this it was then intended to clear a smaller area (7m x 4m) to a depth of 2m and a third area within this (5m x 2m) to a depth of 3m. During the removal of the 2m deep area a quantity of Byzantine building rubble and pottery was uncovered, and in order to allow an assessment of the nature of this material the trench was moved c. 5m northwards to avoid disturbance of any more such material. Subsequent analysis of sediments in section revealed that the Byzantine material was non-structural and lay within natural alluvial sediments. Because of the slight change in trench plan the 3m deep area measured c. 5m x c. 1.2m, stretching from c. 20m to 25m north of the edge of the north mound.

Cleaning of the west facing section of the trench revealed an upper c. 2m of homogenous alluvial silt-clay of a type known in the area previously from coring and recorded in irrigation ditch exposures. Below this lay a number of thinner layers which appeared to represent phases of soil development, probably of a late Neolithic date, although further analysis of the sediments is needed to ascertain their exact nature. Below these sediments lay a deposit of heavy backswamp clay, also known from previous work and underlying the East mound. Small sondage were excavated at both the southern and northern ends of this trench in order to locate the lake marl which had not been reached during mechanical excavation. This revealed that the backswamp overlay cultural material, probably Neolithic fill, which filled a ditch or pit-like feature dug into the marl. Thus two phases of prehistoric activity were identified, separated by the backswamp clay, a lower one, probably early Neolithic in date, and a later one probably Late Neolithic in date. These sections were sampled for physical and chemical properties using 5 overlapping monolith profiles, as well as for thin-sectioning, and profiles were photographed and subject to detailed recording.

In addition to this work at Çatalhöyük itself, modern soil and bedrock samples were collected from the drainage basin catchments of the rivers Carsamba and May which flow into the Konya basin, and from alluvial soils in the vicinity of Torundede. These will help to ascertain the origin of the sediments deposited around Çatalhöyük.

A number of soil and sediment samples from this yearís work have been prepared for export to the UK for laboratory analysis. It is hoped to expand the off-site excavation work at KOPAL Trench 2 over a larger area in 1998.