ÇATALHÖYÜK 1998 ARCHIVE REPORT

Ground Stones from West Mound of Çatalhöyük

by Adnan Baysal

In the season of 1998, Çatalhöyük excavations were partly concentrated on the West mound area. These excavations were taking place for the first time since Mellaart left the site behind him and since the second phase of excavations began in 1993. However, in the early years of the project, this west mound was also of equal concern to the research project and as a result surface collection was applied to this Chalcolithic mound. This was based on a systematic collection from 1metre square in every 10 metres square. As a result this surface collection method produced a large quantity of ceramic shards. These painted ceramic shards mainly had geometric designs which were typical of the period for central Anatolia and this region in the Chalcolithic era. These surface collections not only yielded ceramic shards but also pointed out the existence of the other artifacts, hardly mentioned in Mellaart's reports, on the west mound. Excavations on the west mound have been based on the analysis of the surface material collected on the site. In 1997, preparations began towards a new investigation on the west mound in order to throw a stronger light on Mellaart's discoveries. This idea is largely based on the ceramic and architectural analysis and investigations.

In 1998, the west mound was excavated mainly by a team of three led by Dr. J. Last, who is also the ceramic specialist on the site. Excavation areas mostly targeted Mellaart's old trenches which he excavated in 1961. Mellaart reported that he did find a large courtyard within his excavation areas and a significant number of ceramic shards. However, this new investigation of his old excavation areas, evidently shows that there was more than a ceramic shard population within the layers and that the surfaces could be mainly identified as external areas rather than as living areas by Mellaart.

Excavations on the west mound have yielded a number of worked stones. The term ‘worked stones' means shaped by human for certain functions or found in nature and used in certain duties by humans depending on their shapes. Therefore, within this text worked stone terminology will be associated and linked with the above description. Any stone showing traces of having being used, shaped by drilling, polishing, pounding, pecking, flaking etc. will be categorized within the group. Similarly, the stones which are entirely natural and with no traces of the above description will be described as unworked stones.

A comparative analysis of natural and worked stones will be very important in order to at least find out the behavioural pattern of tool production and answers to the following questions: did the people bring the raw material to site in order to use later or were the tools produced at source? How much of the river Carsamba can be considered as a raw material source ? Is there any evidence that people used river rolled stones carried by the Carsamba river and their density in comparison to the other tools produced/found on the site ? Therefore, unworked stones can be as important as worked and as nicely shaped material, which are generally the main interest of artifact typologists. This leads the study of the grinding stones to consider a bigger picture in order to understand more about certain aspects of the study. In 1998, in relation to the ground stone study of Catalhoyuk , a type of geological survey was developed in conjunction with the geology department of Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) . (Baysal1998). The aspect of the study aims to find geological sources of stone tools that have been used by the settlers of Catalhoyuk East and West.

Due to Catalhoyuk's geological situation, in the flat alluvial plain, searching out useful stones to produce effective ground stones has been persistent until modern period. Catalhoyuk west mound settlers must have the exactly the same problem. Catalhoyuk west mound settlers as well as Neolithic and modern day village settlers all shared the same problem : absence of a nearby raw material source. The modern village settlers pointed out that they used or sourced their grinding stone from the village called Sille, near Konya. Even today, in the village most of the old people name the pinkish coloured andesite (volcanic rock) as Sille stone. This evidently indicates from where the stone came and was worked. According to villagers today this region is still being used as a stone quarry to supply building construction work or for other purposes. However, ancient sources of Catalhoyuk's Neolithic and Chalcolithic people are not clear. Karadag volcanic region could have been the first place, due to its proximity to the site. The source analysis is still to be carried out but visible information suggests that this is a strong possibility because Karadag region contains very similar colours (grey in its shades) and textured (fine) volcanic rock in the surrounding area.

The west mound excavations (Last 1998) have raised particular issues which can also be used / help to understand ground stone study. These aspects will be outlined in a wider spectrum later in this paper. Although the analysis of the ground stones from west mound is not yet complete, still, there are several units which show the density of worked stones within them.

Diagram 1

These units are 2910 and 2959. Both units contain a high quantity of worked material in comparison to the other units. The above diagram based on the processed material on the site. However, this processed and identified material more or less only 1/3 of the total amount of the material. By outlining the basic cluster and the density of the processed material, units can be individually analysed. These units,2910 and 2959 can be described as follows;

West Mound / Unit 2910 : This fairly large unit, is divided into two. This unit is possibly composed of major depositional fine layers and lenses(Last 1998). Overall, this dark coloured layer contains dumped and burnt architectural remains such as brick and brick pieces. It has been separated from unit 2911 with a thin layer of ash and Last describes this as almost two layers of the same phase or layer. This unit, although it sounds like a large pit or a midden area by its description (Last 1998), contained a large quantity of fragmented and weathered animal bones, lithic and ground stone artefacts as well as a high density of ceramic sherds. Animal bones revealed traces of low temperature burning. These bones are recorded to be belong to cattle, equids, sheep, goat and dog. All the ashy lenses, exposed and weathered animal bones, suggest that this unit was possibly a midden. Paint remains are also reported from this unit (Last 1998) Part of the paint remains stained some of the animal bones found within this unit. Lithic data also reported flint blades from this unit, beside the other tools. However; this unit also contains the highest number of stone objects which are used in grinding activities. Processed, worked and unworked stones, total 22 with 13 of them being worked stones. However, unit 2911 is comparatively well below these numbers. Stone tools that were discovered within this unit, are not complete and small size fragments which are measured are between 2 - 8.5 cm. Mostly broken tools consist of hand stones, quern pieces, pestle and a small axe. In general, they are made of volcanic rocks. Apart from this unit , interestingly, unit 2959 also contained a high quantity of ground stone objects.

Diagram 2

The diagram above shows the type of the rocks identified and tools made from these rocks types within Unit 2910. This diagram represents only processed material from this unit. Further information about the tools is as follows;

Hand stones (Figure1): In total 7 hand stones were counted from this unit. These are grouped into two categories by the raw material that they have been made from. The basaltic group, (total of 5), represented by grey coloured vesicular rock and the Andesite group, (total of 2), is a slightly different pinkish and light grey colour. The dimensions of the hand stones vary between 3 - 11.5 cm. These dimensions represent the artifact as it was found. All the hand stones found within this unit consist of broken pieces. The edges of the stones suggest that they are old breaks. Possibly these tool pieces were discarded and redeposited within this unit. The total weight of the hand stones was 1948 gr. The form of the tools appears in two types i.e. turtle shape, and both sides flattened. Turtle shaped forms represent slightly bigger sizes and the other ones represent smaller sizes. This feature points out their differentiated use which is evident by their size.

Querns: In this group only five pieces were identified and classified as querns or lower parts of grinding tools within the processed material from unit 2910. They were formed volcanic rocks such as andesite (3) and basalt (2).Their raw material can roughly be identified as fine textured, vesicular pinkish and dark gray coloured andesite and grey coloured basalt. The total weight of these tools was 1252 gr and their dimensions vary between 2.8 - 9.2 cm. They are all broken pieces and were possibly discarded after breakage from the main part. All the pieces had traces of usage and concaved surfaces.

Axe (Figure 4): There is one stone axe which represents this group found in unit 2910. This small axe made of green stone weighs 38 gr. Its dimensions are 4.5 x 2.8 x 1.7 cm. It is broken and has traces of heavy use on both sides and on the broken sharp edge of the tool. This suggests that it had been re- sharpened and reused several times before it was broken and discarded. Traces of flaking visible on both sides and on the sharp end might be due to the constant use of this tool on a hard surface. It might have been used as a chisel rather than as an axe.

Pestle (Figure 4): This lime stone artifact is also found in the unit 2910. Its dimensions are 8.3 x 4.2 x 3.3 cm and it weighs 140 gr. It is almost pear shaped and white coloured. It has rounded features suggesting that this may be natural or river rolled stone due to the soft characteristic of the limestone. It has been used as a pestle for pounding or powdering paint or used in the production of paint. The flatter end of the tool has pinkish - reddish paint traces on it. This suggests evidence of a type of tool used in paint processes which may possibly be accompanied by a small stone or wooden bowl. The flat end of the tool suggest that it has been only used to crush paint nodules rather than pounding them and may be small rotation may have been applied for same purposes.

West Mound / Unit 2959 : This unit is dark greyish brown in colour, with silty clayish soil, which in comparison to the above unit is greasier and firmer, and more homogeneous than unit 2961. It is roughly 0.45 m. thick. Excavation reports say that the samples taken from this unit are also very rich in ceramic and stone artifacts , almost as much as unit 2910 (Last 1998). However, this unit also yielded sheep size animal bones. These bones also have traces of burning besides mangenese staining. Flake cores and scraps of raw material also represent the flint industry in this unit. This unit, as mentioned above, is rich in stone fragments which are also mainly volcanic in nature. These stones are also worked and typologicaly categorised as hand stones, quern and pestle like tools.

Hand stones (Figure 3): The hand stones unearthed and processed from this unit are made of volcanic and metmorphic rocks , such as basalt (1), andesite (2) and limestone (1) rocks. All the hand stones consist of broken pieces and none of them show fresh breaks. The dimensions of the hand stones vary in size between 3.6 - 10.5 cm. and the total weight is 1089 gr. These hand stones can be classified typologically into two groups i.e. turtle and circular shape hand stones. (see plate) The largest piece, which is a turtle shape, is made of light grey coloured, moderately fine textured andesitic stone. It has rounded edges and a convex back part which is suitable to hold with both hands during the grinding process. The size of the tool suggests that it has been prepared to use with at least a similar size lower part, if not bigger. ¼ of the tool is available. The other good example for hand stones from this unit is again made of volcanic rock which is a dark grey colour. It is broken and a presence of 1/6 of this tool represents its circular shape. The used surface or functional surface is flat and the back part has a convex shape and left comparatively rough in order to supply a firm grip for a hand. The used surface still has striation marks on the surface and porous surfaces are filled with dirt. This dirt may contain remains of the residue from last use. The other interesting piece, which is made of limestone, shows a little bit of a triangular section. It has a very fine flat surface which suggest usage of this tool as a polisher as well as a hand stone.

Querns : The total number of stone identified as quern or lower parts of grinding tools is four. They are made from volcanic rocks. (Basalt : 2 and Andesite : 2). Basaltic stones are fine textured and dark greyish in colour. Andesitic rocks have also a greyish colour but are slightly rougher than the basaltic type. Their dimensions are also varied, being between 3.2 - 10.6 cm and their total weight is 1167 gr. One of the pieces has traces of usage on both sides. This is identified by the concavity on both surfaces. Greenish residue, which can possibly be coprolite, covers the entire surface of the stone all over. The larger piece is reasonably thicker and its shape suggests that it has been used by fixing into the ground, otherwise the convex shaped back part must have been moving or swinging as the upper part moved on its surface. The roughness of the lower part also indicates the fixed or insitu use of this tool.

Pestle (Figure 4)This is a small and broken piece of pestle made of fine grained volcanic rock. The stone is dark blackish grey coloured and partly smoothed. It weighs approximately 115 gr and its dimensions are 5.5 x 4.4 x 3.1 cm. The shape of the this tool suggests that it was a long eliptical shaped pounding tool. Generally these type of tools occur in small amount in comparison to the other typologically classified stone tools. The general tool distribution within this unit can be shown in the following diagram.