Çatalhöyük 2003 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 2003 ARCHIVE REPORT

THE EXCAVATION OF THE BACH 1 AREA 2003

Mirjana Stevanovic & Ruth Tringham

BACH (Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük) Team

BACH Project Director: Ruth Tringham
BACH Field Directors: Mirjana Stevanovic, Ruth Tringham
Site Assistants: Predrag Dakic, Katarina Hager, Branislava Lazarevic, Dragana Milosevic, Slobodan Mitrovic, Tatiana Stefanova
Archaeobotany: Meltem Agçabay
Human Remains: Basak Boz, Lori Hager
Chipped stone: Heidi Underbjerg
Site Media specialists/Photographers: Jason Quinlan, Michael Ashley-Lopez

Abstract

The focus of the 2003 season was the excavation of the Building 3 walls to the level of the midden below the building and understanding the relationships between the building, the midden and possible traces of other earlier buildings (Fig. 21). Another aim was the excavation of the adjacent rooms to the south of Building 3 (Spaces 87, 88, 89), and establishing their relationships to each other and to Building 3.
By the end of the 2002 season, five major phases (1 (earliest)-5) of occupation of Building 3 (dimensions 6m x 5.5m) had been identified (see 2001, 2002 Archive Reports). In phases 1-3, Building 3 comprised a single large open space or room (Space 201). Even in these earlier periods, however, there was some partitioning of space by a small wall in the north (F.772) and low screen wall (F.601) in the center. In the previous seasons, floors and packing of different phases were exposed in different areas of the Building 3. During the 2002 season excavation of Building 3 we completed removal of the floors and features down to the midden levels below the building. This was followed by scraping the plaster layers from the wall faces and detailed recording and description of the wall bricks and mortars

Özet

2003 sezonu kazilari, 3 nolu binanin duvarlarinin yapinin altinda bulunan çöplügün seviyesine kadar kazilmasina ve bu bina, çöplük ve olasi daha eski binalarin izleri arasindaki iliskilerin anlasilmasina odaklanmistir (Figür 21). Diger bir amaç ise 3 nolu binanin güneyinde kalan bitisik odalarin (87, 88 ve 89 nolu mekanlarin) kazilmasi ve hem birbirleriyle hem de 3 nolu bina ile olan iliskilerinin çözülmesi olmustur.

2002 sezonunun sonunda, boyutlari 6m x 5.5m olan 3 nolu binanin, birincisi en eskisi olmak üzere bes temel evresi tanimlanmistir (Bkz. 2001, 2002 Arsiv Raporlari). 1-3 evrelerinde, 3 nolu bina tek bir açik mekan ya da odadan olusuyordu (mekan 201). Ama bu erken evrelerde dahi, mekanin kuzeydeki küçük bir duvar (F. 772) ve merkezdeki alçak bir duvar (F. 601) ile bölümlenmis oldugu görüldü. Önceki sezonlarda, binanin farkli bölümlerinde tabanlar ve farkli evrelerin dolgulari ortaya çikarilmisti. 3 nolu binanin 2002 sezonu kazilarinda, bu tabanlar ve dolgular binanin altindaki çöplügün seviyesine kadar kazildi. Ardindan duvarlarin yüzlerinden siva tabakalari kazildi ve duvarlardaki tuglalar ile harç detayli sekilde kaydedildi .

Results of the 2003 excavation season

Figure 21: BACH Area 2003

During the 2003 season, Building 3 was completely excavated as were the rooms (Spaces 88 and 89), which were taken down to the earlier buildings below them. The room (Space 87) was not excavated further during this season. This room is only partially within the Bach 1 area and its further excavation will continue as soon as a larger area can be opened and the room can be excavated completely. Thus its excavation will be continued in 2004. In 2002 the excavation of Space 87 produced numerous burials. Nine complete skeletons have been excavated so far from Space 87 in at least 5 burial events recorded in the space so far (see Lori Hager, Human Remains, Archive Report 2002). An important element of Space 87 is that its East and South walls are both painted in phases earlier than the latest preserved plaster. During the 2003 season, the painted walls were sampled for the pigment and binder analysis by conservator Ina St. George.

Building 3 (Space 201)

During the 2002 season, after the completion of excavation of the earliest floors in Building 3, the wall plasters on all four perimeter walls were scraped. The wall plasters on the West wall were much thinner than those on other walls because of modifications made to this wall already in the first sub-phase of Phase 1. On the second house floor (#12) a shoring wall (F. 635) was added. Since it abutted the West wall (F.636) only the wall plaster from the very earliest plastering events was found behind the shoring wall. The thickness of this plaster varied from 0.7-1 cm. contrasting with the thickness of 2 to 6 cm of the multiple layers of plasters on the other perimeter walls that had accumulated during the full length of its history. The plaster of the West wall also differed in material, being made of white clay that was much greasier than the later plasters. This gave important information on the nature of the plasters used in the earliest phase of Building 3. A similar difference was noted in the floor plasters. The plasters on the North and especially the South walls (F.174, F.763) had obvious traces of soot. The plasters on the North and East walls (F.174, F.762) had traces of poorly preserved paint, noted in previous Archive Reports.

A real surprise in the 2002 season was our discovery of a door opening or large crawl-hole (F.633) in the northern part of the East wall (F.762) of Building 3 that dated to the early phases of the house (Fig. 22). In the subsequent phases of the house the opening was blocked. There are no traces of a later opening in the house walls. The house entrance then must have been in the roof. The wall opening is not completely preserved because its top portion has been truncated at the time when all the walls of Building 3 were truncated. The bottom part of the wall opening (F.633) comprises a series of gray floor layers. The floor colour most likely indicates where the house inhabitants were stepping as they moved in and out of the building. Originally the opening was plastered with white clay, which can be found in traces at the bottom brick, and along the vertical sides of the opening. This plaster is made of lumpy, greenish, greasy clay. The opening was blocked with small-size bricks and mortars and layers of very hard brown clay.

Figure 22: Feature F.633

The walls and floors of Building 3 were built directly on the midden. The remains of the house walls were drawn, photographed and sampled before they were excavated. Sampling of bricks and mortars continued throughout the excavation. All the walls were first excavated down to the foundation segment, which comprised the four bottom rows of bricks and mortars. The next step was to excavate the top three rows of these foundation bricks and mortars, and to leave in place the very first row of bricks in all four walls. And finally the first row of bricks was excavated. This gradual taking apart of the walls gave us an opportunity to carefully follow the prehistoric method of construction.

The bricks and mortars used in the construction of the walls were of three different kinds, which appear in all four-perimeter walls. There are up to 13 courses of bricks preserved in the North and South walls and up to 10 courses of bricks preserved in the East and West walls. The higher parts of the walls were truncated in prehistory.

The bricks placed directly on the midden foundation soil were made of fine sandy clay of light beige color. There are four rows of such bricks with mortars consisting essentially of the underlying midden deposit. On top of the fourth bricklayer there was a mortar made of very hard lumpy clay, whose purpose most likely was to stabilize the overlying courses of bricks. These overlying courses of bricks were made of coarser sandy clay of brown color with mortars made by combining two types of clay: hard, lumpy clay and brown clay. The third and latest type of bricks was made of dry brown clay with mortar made of a very similar material.

The southern element of the double wall along the southern edge of Building 3 was designated in previous seasons as a single feature (F.1006). After the removal of the South wall (F.763) of Building 3 itself in 2003 we could see that the wall behind it comprised two walls joined together as a continuous structure. Thus, this wall has now been designated as two features (F.1006 and F.1026). One wall (now feature F.1006) comprises the North wall of Space 89. The other wall (now designated feature F.1026), which is built as a continuation of F.1006, creates the North walls for both spaces 88 and 87.

In the course of the excavation we were able to conclude that the Building 3 walls were built before or at the same time as the walls of the side rooms (Spaces 89, 88, 87). Also, the North and South walls of Building 3 were built on foundations provided by the walls of earlier buildings below them. Below the North wall (F.174) we can see at least 2 courses of bricks that belong to a wall of an earlier building which most likely extended to the north of Building 3. The alignment of this row of bricks and the North wall (F.174) was not perfect. In this case, as in case of the South wall (F.763), the first layer bricks of the F. 174 wall were somewhat differently aligned so that they rest only partially on the old wall and partially on the midden under building 3. Because of this the earlier wall could not be seen until we had excavated the Building 3 walls (Fig. 23).

Figure 23: Spaces 87, 88 and 89

Below the South wall of Building 3 (F.763) we can also see an earlier wall on which our two walls (F.1006 and F.1026) were built. In this case the bricks of the earlier wall were prepared to receive the bricks of the new walls (F.1006 and F.1026). This preparation consisted of making a longitudinal groove in the bricks of the earlier wall. Placing the bottom bricks of the new walls (F.1006 and F.1026) in the groove meant also that the new wall was only partially resting on the remains of the earlier wall and partially on the midden. At this point we can only hypothesize that the earlier walls belong to a truncated building. On the other hand, the East and West walls of Building 3 are not resting on the walls of an earlier building. They were built on the remains of the midden under Building 3. It will be interesting to see in later excavations, whether these two underlying walls are part of the same or entirely different buildings.

Typically for Çatalhöyük Building 3 is surrounded by midden deposits. West of Building 3 in Space 85 there is a large midden which is built up against the west wall (F.636), and is later than Building 3. In other words, residents of Building 3 and/or surrounding buildings accumulated the midden by depositing their trash in Space 85. In order to free the West wall and finish its excavation in 2003 we had to excavate the portion of the midden that was most directly abutting the wall. North of Building 3 there is another midden (Space 40) that is abutting the North wall (F.174).This midden was also accumulated after the building was erected. On the other hand the midden below the floors of Building 3 is definitely of an earlier age then the house.

Spaces 87, 88, 89

In the 2003 season it has been established that the three spaces (87, 88, 89) were contemporary with Building 3. Moreover, the three rooms that were built to be used at the time of Building 3 represent the latest modification of a larger building(s) of an earlier age.

Space 89

In Space 89 we had to finish excavating the room fill before we could concentrate on the walls. The bricks of the East (F.1016), South (F.761), and West (F.1017) walls of Space 89 are interconnected in many places indicating that they were built at the same time. The West wall (F.1017) has two phases. The earlier phase wall was made of orange clay bricks with very strong lumpy clay mortar, and was erected on the fill between two buildings. The late wall has only four rows of bricks preserved and they are made of light-brown sandy clay with mortars derived from the midden material. The same combination of materials occurs in the other walls (Features F.1016, F.761, F.1019, F.1024). In addition, the early phase of the West wall (F.1017) belongs to an earlier building, which we designated Space 214. This structure is below the room (Space 89), and is most likely a part of a larger building extending to the east and south.

Excavation and removal of the South wall (F.761) in Space 89 uncovered its abutting wall (F.1021) behind it, which turned out to be plastered. It has only one layer of plaster, which is of a different quality then the wall plasters inside Building 3. This kind of plaster seems to be typical for side rooms at Çatalhöyük.

Space 88

Similarly, in Space 88 we spent much of the 2003 season on finishing the removal of orange clay features and floors before we could focus attention on its walls. There are traces of red pigment on the orange floor in the middle of the space. In previous seasons we had noticed pigment on the floor in the upper layers in Space 88. Also, on the North wall at floor level there are traces of paint on the wall plaster. It is fairly clear that the walls in this space are of the same kind as the walls in Space 89. The bricks and mortars in the walls (F.761, F.1019, and F.1024) are made of same materials- dark brown, moist and soft clay. The mortars are made of midden deposits. In many places bricks from adjacent walls are interconnected.

The East wall (F.163) comprised of 4-6 rows of bricks and mortars, which were built on top of an earlier wall made of black clay bricks, which was aligned in a north-south direction. The earlier wall belongs to a room immediately below Space 88, which seems to be the same size as Space 88. as demonstrated by the fact that two walls of Space 88 (South and East) are built on the truncated walls of the room below.

It is clear now that the South walls of Spaces 88 and 87 (F.1019 and F.1024 ) comprise a single continuous wall. The evidence for this is found in the bricks from the excavated F.1019 wall which continue in the F.1024 wall. The South wall of Space 87 (F.1024 ) has not yet been excavated, since, as explained above, the excavation of Space 87 will not be carried out until 2004. It is interesting that the North walls of Spaces 88 and 87 also comprises a single continuous wall (F.1026). This wall is also as yet unexcavated.

The finds in this year’s excavation are coming mostly from the levels of fill in Spaces 88 and 89 and from the midden in Space 85. The finds are typical for this site: animal bones, obsidian tools, and clay balls. In the fill in Space 88 two small-size clay figurines were uncovered. One is a typical bird-like figurine and the other is a small figurine head. Also, a complete obsidian arrowhead was excavated in this Space 88.
In the SW corner of Space 89 in the fill below the South wall (F.761) we came across a 4 cm long peace of copper that most likely is a fragment of a bracelet. In exposing the bricks of the East double wall (F.1023) we came across a lump of red pigment (4 cm long and 2,5 cm thick). The object turned out to be a fragmented pigment grinder. At about 20 cm below the grinder in the same deposit - that is in the wall mortar - was a bone awl.

Acknowledgements

We are enormously grateful to John Coker, of Hillsborough, California, USA, without whom our excavation in 2003 would not have been possible. We are also grateful to the U.C. Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility for their support.