Çatalhöyük 1997 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 1997 ARCHIVE REPORT

1997 Bone Tools by Nerissa Russell

During the 1997 season, I recorded 96 bone tools, bringing the total analyzed to 187. All tools recognized in the field or encountered while studying the animal bones were recorded. More will no doubt be found in the animal bone as the rest of it is studied. Most of these (107) are from the Mellaart area, with 58 from the North area and small numbers from the Summit, Bach, and Kopal excavations. Taxonomic and other standard animal bone information was recorded for the tools, as well as morphological and microwear information about their manufacture and use.

In terms of tool types, the pattern seen in 1996 has generally been maintained, with just over half of the tools being points, and most of the remainder ornaments, especially bone rings (see Table 1). The pattern of distribution of bone ornaments has changed, however. While pendants are still much more common in the North area, rings are now proportionately more common in the North as well, largely due to a single burial with five rings. The greater proportion of pendants in the North is also due to the four specimens found in burials. So far, the burials excavated in the Mellaart area have not contained bone tools. Several new tool types have been recovered this year as well (see Table 1 and below).

Tool Types

Points

The bone points continue to be made mainly on sheep/goat (usually sheep) metapodials (see Tables 2 and 3). They are the most common tool type throughout the site, but are most common in the Mellaart area, where they form more than half the bone tool assemblage. The manufacturing technique is fairly casual. The bones are usually split by fracture (only one point shows possible signs of the groove-and-splinter technique, in which a longitudinal line is incised with a burin or similar tool before striking), then ground or scraped with obsidian to form the tip. Only 28.1% of the points have any modification to the base beyond the splitting itself, and most of these have only very slight modification. There seems to be little difference between the points from the North and the Mellaart areas in this respect; there are too few points with preserved bases from the other areas to tell, although there is some indication that the Summit bases may be more modified: two out of three have quite heavy modification. On the other hand, effort was expended on splitting the long bones to make the points (90% over all; 100% in the North area), and on resharpening the tips (81% with no substantial variation among areas). This suggests a concern to conserve raw material, but less concerned for standardized bases that may facilitate certain kinds of hafting. Wear indicates that most points were hafted or bound at the base in some fashion, however.

As seen last year, the tips of the points are mostly slender and sharp, especially those from the Mellaart area (see Figure 38). The distinction between the North and Mellaart areas in the proportion of complete points seen in 1996 no longer holds, however, with about half the points being discarded while unbroken in all areas. This is still a high proportion of apparently usable tools found mostly in 'rubbish' deposits. Either the users were very careless (seemingly at odds with the high rate of resharpening), or there were factors other than the state of the working end that terminated the use life of these points.

FIGURE 38: TIP ANGLES OF BONE POINTS

Rounded Points

No rounded points were found in 1996, but three were recovered this year. The term covers pointed objects with rounded rather than sharp tips. Two of these, one from a Byzantine burial in the Bach area and one from the North area, resemble ‘hairpins', are very carefully finished but show no signs of use in piercing, and are probably ornamental. The rounded point from Bach (2226.F1) was found beside the torso, along with a large needle, hence either an offering or used to hold clothing rather than hair. It is quite long, with a very regular circular cross section, and seems to taper toward both ends (one end is missing due to a modern break). The 'hairpin' from North (2562.F1) is smaller, also circular in cross section except at the base, where it flattens as it flares out to a rounded diamond shape. The third rounded point, also found with a burial in the North area, seems to be a rather different tool. It is quite small, with a shape reminiscent of a sturdy modern-day needle, but without the perforation. The shape and size suggest it may have been part of a composite tool. It is highly polished, especially at the tip end, and also becomes more polished again at the base end. The tip end clearly indicates extensive use on soft material; the base end shows considerable use, but is less rounded and very slightly battered, as though pushed against a haft or struck occasionally with a hard object. Possibly it was a weaving or basketry tool, passed through loose strands, as the tip is too dull for use as an awl.

Needles

I term these six tools needles because they have perforations at one end and many taper somewhat toward the tip end. However there are no preserved finished tip ends, so it is not certain that they actually had pointed tips. In any case they are so large and broad that they could not have been used in sewing, but rather perhaps to pull fibers in weaving or netting. The one complete example, from the Mellaart area, appears to have broken through the perforation during manufacture. Repair was attempted by perforating the other end, and beginning to thin down the end with the broken perforation, but it was abandoned before completion. Or perhaps it was intended to have perforations at both ends, and was discarded when one end broke. Like most of the fragmentary examples, this is made on a flat piece of split rib. A partial large needle, missing its tip through a modern break, was found with the 'hairpin' in a Byzantine burial in the Bach area. This needle was made on a long bone shaft fragment and has a circular, rather than a flat, cross section.

Chisel/Gouge

These two artifacts represent another bone tool type not found in 1996. The complete example, from the Mellaart area (1873.X1), is made on an unsplit distal sheep tibia, with a heavy beveled end. There are large chips off the beveled tip, which has been resharpened, suggesting use on a relatively hard material. The microwear does not support use in the soil, but it is consistent with use as a gouge to make the boxes and bowls of fir and other soft woods recovered by Mellaart (1967). The base is not particularly battered, so it was probably not used as a chisel. A tip fragment of a beveled tool from the Summit area (1715.F4) appears to derive from a very similar tool.

Pottery Polisher

This is the first example of a pottery polisher from the site, found in the Mellaart area (1889.F1). Common at later Neolithic sites, the rarity of pottery polishers at Çatalhöyük is no doubt related to the very limited pottery industry. Indeed, this tool may have been a more general burnisher only occasionally used on ceramics, as in addition to the area of pottery polish, there is a larger area of polish from contact with a softer material.

Plaster Tools

See the 1996 bone tool report for a discussion of these tools. In addition to those found last year, a fragment of the edge of such a tool was found in 1997 in the Summit area.

Spoons

In addition to the rather elaborate antler spoon found last year in the Mellaart area, in 1997 a simple antler spoon or scoop was found in a burial in the North area. This artifact does not have a separate handle, but consists of a thin, concave blade with slight use.

Handle

An elaborate carved bone handle was found in situ with a flint dagger in house 3 in the Bach area, but shattered from burning. It was made on the proximal shaft of a very large cattle metacarpal, carved in relief very thoroughly so that none of the original surface remains. The inner cavity, however, is virtually untouched. It seems to be depicting an animal head. Several opinions have been offered: lion, horse, and boar prominent among them. The consensus (and my personal favorite) is the boar, with the equid in second place. The mouth, at the base, is open, with a top suggesting a pig's snout (or else the lip curled back). There are two elongated holes on the side and one more elongated hole on the bottom. Forming the front of the side holes are carved features that may be interpreted as tusks. An alternative reading sees these as eyes. On the top back are raised semicircular features that would be eyes in the boar interpretation, but are in fact rather ear-like. Behind this a flange protrudes (lost on the left side) with two notches presumably for binding around the dagger. Thus these flanges would probably not be visible with the dagger hafted, although otherwise they could be long ass-like ears. The hole on the bottom may be meant to suggest the space between the mandibles. The carved features are beautifully executed and quite rounded. It is hard to imagine how this could have been done with stone tools; perhaps it was finished by rubbing with sand and a piece of cloth or leather. There are traces of flint cuts here and there, but no sign of sandstone. The central cavity is much larger than the dagger, so it would have had to be packed with something and then bound with fibers around the flanges. The surface has been damaged by the burning, but shows a slight trace of polish in one area. The dagger blade itself received little or no use. In fact the handle seems too short to be held comfortably in most adult hands. As Mellaart (1967) thought of the similar flint dagger with a carved bone handle in the shape of a snake, it may have been ceremonial.

Ornaments

This is a general category that covers assorted artifacts that seem to have a decorative function but are not classifiable as pendants, beads, or rings. Two of these are conjoining pieces (old breaks, with different colors suggesting they were separated in the ground) of a single artifact from adjoining units in the Kopal trench. Even together, the artifact is still fragmentary, and may be the base of a handle of some tool such as a hairpin. They form a cylinder with four incised rings, carefully finished. From the Mellaart area there are an antler toggle, roughly rectangular with a perforation in the middle, and what was originally a triangular pendant made of split boar's tusk. The pendant broke longitudinally through the perforation. It was then repaired by grinding the broken edge, but was not reperforated.

Pendants

Five new pendants were recorded this year. A particularly interesting piece was recovered in the flotation from unit 1921, a child's burial. It conjoins with another pendant found in this burial last year. The original pendant, which was carefully finished, broke longitudinally through the perforation. The two halves were repaired by regrinding and repiercing into two smaller pendants, less well-finished than the original. One can imagine an adult's pendant breaking and being repaired for a child to wear. Or perhaps the child repaired it, hence the relative crudity of the work. In any case, it is interesting that the two halves were kept together. This half is also burnt very evenly a deep black, strongly suggesting this happened prior to the break and thus is deliberate; unless falling in the fire caused the fracture. This side seems to preserve more of the original surface. The original was a rather elaborate pendant, perhaps a stylized figurine. The perforation was near the top, there was a raised knob in the center surrounded by an oval incision, two horizontal incisions define a ‘waist', and the base is marked by diagonal incisions. This half was reperforated somewhat lower, and reground on the broken edges, back, and bottom to reshape it slightly. There seems to be some wear in the new perforation.

A small pendant from the Mellaart area (2798.X1), found as part of a necklace of stone and shell beads in a burial, is vaguely reminiscent of the unit 1921 pendants in that it has two incised grooves across the front that create a waisted effect. Also from the Mellaart area is a perforated incisor from a very old large (wild?) pig. Two shell pendants were also recovered in 1997, one from Mellaart and one from a burial in the North area. The latter had broken through a perforation and been repaired by grinding and probably reperforation (unless there were originally two perforations) in a fashion similar to that applied to some bone pendants.

Beads

The only bone bead recorded in 1997 is a fragment of a tube of hare-sized long bone shaft.

Rings

Sixteen more bone rings and ring fragments were recovered this year. Most are very similar to those found last year. There appears to be a very standardized method of manufacture that involves cutting segments from a sheep-size long bone shaft (usually or always a femur), smoothing the outside and edges slightly with sandstone, and scraping the inside quite heavily around the circumference with an obsidian tool to thin and smooth it. The ring is then probably deliberately polished, as well as acquiring still more gloss from use. In 1996 I was in some doubt that these were actually worn as rings, but this year's excavations brought dramatic confirmation that at least some were indeed worn on fingers. A burial in the North area (unit 2119) included five bone rings: one was in place on the thumb, the others seemed to have slipped in two pairs from the index and middle fingers. All five were cut in sequence from a single bone. Two of them had been worn on the same finger extensively in life (this could be seen by matching wear and staining, and by the edges wearing into each other); these were not on the same finger of the skeleton, however. The others had less wear. Thus they had been rearranged on the dead body for the burial. Indeed, it would be very difficult to do anything wearing five bone rings, so they were probably rarely worn all at the same time in life.

Last year a ring with a large raised knob on a pedestal was recovered; the wear patterns, while ambiguous, seemed to suggest use as a pendant rather than a ring. A fragment of a very similar artifact was found this year, but was clearly worn as a ring. Because of the raised knob, these have to be made in a different way from the ordinary rings, by cutting them lengthwise out of the shaft of a large mammal long bone. Unlike the example from 1996, though, this ring is scraped with obsidian around the inner circumference, like the ordinary rings. As noted previously, it would be difficult to engage in most manual activities with such a ring on the finger; this one would have projected fully two centimeters from the hand.

Knucklebones

I use this term to refer to astragali that have been abraded on one or more sides, most often the dorsal. Such artifacts have been used in gambling games and divination the world over, rather like dice. These artifacts were rather common on the surface (Martin and Russell 1996), but none were recorded in 1996 from excavated contexts. This year, three were recorded from the Summit area, in fact in the general area in which they were concentrated on the surface. This restricted distribution is intriguing, raising the possibility that their use was restricted in some fashion.

Fish Hooks

Last year a fish hook carved from boar's tusk was found in House 1 in the North area. This year another such hook, somewhat smaller, was found in the ashy sub-floor foundation packing for this house. With barbs and notches for attaching the line, these seem quite clearly to be fish hooks. They remain somewhat of a mystery, as the only fish bones recovered from the site are of minnow size, too small to catch with a hook.

Pressure Flaker

One possible pressure flaker was found in 1997: an antler tine with the tip cut or worn off to form a broad, dull bevel, and what appear to be faint gouges from the obsidian leading away from it. Antler being softer than bone, it preserves microwear less well, so that such pieces are often difficult to identify with certainty.

Soft Hammer

In addition to the two tentatively identified last year, a third probably antler soft hammer for obsidian working was recorded this year (1873.X6). The tine, with a little beam attached, has considerable battering and some stray obsidian marks along its length.

Preforms/Waste

Beside the unfinished ring described last year, four artifacts found in 1997 are included in this category. An unfinished distal tibia point from unit 1889, a deposit just above the floor in house 2 in the Mellaart area, has been snapped and shows some longitudinal scraping with obsidian to form the tip. The tip was broken off in antiquity; this may have terminated manufacture. In fact, the tibia closely resembles several others in this unit in terms of breakage and the portion present. It may be that this unit includes the debris from raw material selection and manufacture after primary consumption (i.e., after meat removal and marrow fracture, but before smashing for bone grease or broth production). These are quite expedient tools, involving simply whittling a tip on a bone snapped for marrow, so this may have been a rather casual activity, as opposed to the majority of bone points, which are made on carefully split metapodials, usually with more extensive shaping. From unit 1873, which overlies 1889 in space 117 of House 2, there is further manufacturing debris in the form of two pieces of cut antler that are probably waste from the production of other antler tools.

From unit 2165 in the sub-floor packing of House 1 in the North area comes a cut piece of antler that is most likely a rough-out for a tool. It has been cut to form a strip, and the inner spongy bone has been slightly flattened.

Indeterminate

Some or all of the three indeterminate tools recorded in 1997 may also be rough-outs. A rectangular antler plaque (1511.F312) is cut on three sides and has a modern break on the fourth. It seems quite rough and may be unfinished. 1889.X21 could also be a rough-out, but is more extensively worked. It is stick-shaped, with two rounded ends. It could be a pressure punch for obsidian blades, but the tips seem too thick, and the wear does not support it. 1889.X119 is a mysterious flat object carved from bone (aurochs scapula?) in the shape of a bow tie: a rectangle with indentations on the two long sides. The manufacturing wear is very fresh, and certainly there is no sign of wear from use, so it may not be finished. It might be a rough-out for a toggle, pendant, or belt hook, for instance.

Discussion

In general, the bone tools recorded in 1997 conform to the patterns seen in those recorded during the previous season, with a few new tool types added with the increasing sample size. As can be seen in the descriptions of the tool types above, the 1997 season brings further confirmation that bone tool manufacture did occur in the area of Mellaart's earlier excavations), contra Mellaart (1967), who argued that the sector he excavated was a residential area for priests because craft manufacture did not occur there.

References Cited

Martin, Louise, and Nerissa Russell 1996 Surface Material: Animal Bone and Worked Bone. In On the Surface: Çatalhöyük 1993-95. I. Hodder, ed. Pp. 199-214. McDonald Institute Monographs.

Mellaart, James 1967 Çatalhöyük : A Neolithic Town in Anatolia. London: Thames & Hudson.