ÇATALHÖYÜK 2003 ARCHIVE REPORT

POTTERY REPORT

Nurcan Yalman, Serap Özdöl

Abstract

This report covers the pottery recovered in the 2003 season investigations only and mostly concentrates on the 4040 Area. This area produced 6,488 ‘unstratified’ surface pottery sherds of which 4,186 are Neolithic with 29 paint decorated sherds which appear Chalcolithic. 2,273 sherds belong to Late Periods (Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine or Islamic). The spatial analysis indicated that Neolithic sherds were increasing to the south of the 4040 Area and possibly relate to Late Neolithic deposits, probably not earlier than Level III. From the South Summit Area, although the collected sherds are definitely Neolithic, there is little to indicate from which Level at this stage of the excavations. In the TP assemblage, although most of the units still contain some late period material, the purity of the Neolithic sherds seems to be increasing.

Özet

Bu rapor yalnizca 2003 yilinda ele geçen keramik kalintilarini ele alarak, çogunlukla 4040 metrelik yüzeyi kazinan alan üzerine yogunlasmaktadir. Bu alanda 4186’si Neolitik ve 29 boyali parçasi da Kalkolitik olmak üzere, toplam 6488 parça “stratigrafiye dahil olmayan” keramik parçasi bulunmustur. 2273 parça geç dönemlere (Helenistik, Roma, Bizans ve Islam) aittir. Mekansal analizler, Neolitik parçalarin 4040 metrelik alanin ve olasilikla, III. evreden daha öncesi olmamak üzere, geç Neolitik kalintilarin güneyine dogru arttigini göstermektedir. Güney Zirve Bölgesinden gelen parçalarin, Neolitik olduklari kesin olmakla beraber, hangi evreden geldiklerine dair kazinin bu asamasinda pek az belirti bulunmaktadir. Ne var ki TP buluntularinda, birimlerin çogunun hala geç dönemle karisik malzeme vermesine ragmen, Neolitik buluntularin safliginin arttigi görülmektedir.

Introduction - Çatalhöyük East

In previous reports and publications (Last 1994; 1996), pottery investigations at Çatalhöyük were explained in detail by making evaluations and comparisons between different areas across the mound. This report covers the pottery recovered in the 2003 season investigations only and mostly concentrates on the 4040 Area, south of the 1995 scraped area (1030-1070E/1135-1175N See Fig. 4). This area produced a large amount of surface pottery sherds, and therefore most have been recorded as “unstratified”. Stratified sherds were however recovered from the BACH, TP and South Summit Areas.

This year a database established for the pottery used a two tier recording system. The first was to record the “unstratified” (4040 surface collections) material for total number of prehistoric and late period sherds. The prehistoric sherds were recorded for external surface colour, texture, and a form code for diagnostic sherds. The second recording system for “stratified” (TP, SUMMIT) material was recorded in more detail with descriptions for each sherd for abrasion, dimension, production details (paste, surface treatment, firing etc) and form details for the diagnostics. Although a large amount of work was carried out TP, South Summit and BACH Area sherds were not all entered on to the database by the end of the season.

South Summit

Most of the sherds recovered in this area were retrieved from cleaning since the last excavations took place in 1997. Many stratified sherds were left in situ as their phase was not released for excavation although they were visible. The collected sherds are definitely Neolithic, but little more can be said at this stage of excavation.

TP

Neolithic pottery continued to be recovered in the TP area this year. Although most of the units still contain some late period material the purity of the Neolithic sherds increases as earlier deposits are excavated such as units (7810), (7813), (7814), (7815) and (7881), (7882). A brief analysis suggests these are Late Neolithic, probably not earlier than Level III as we see some interesting elements like organic tempered sherds especially in units (7881) and (7882) which may indicate even later periods (Levels II-I/0). These sherds are generally coarse and belong to jars but they are different from Level VII or earlier as they contain mineral inclusions as well as organic temper. This type is mentioned by J.Last (1999 Archive Report) as he reports of their presence in KOPAL the trench. This pottery-type was not mentioned by Mellaart which suggests a characteristic of the ‘latest’ periods of the Neolithic which is not yet understood.

4040 Area

The pottery analysis mostly concentrated on the material from the 4040 Area this season. Most of the sherds recovered in this area are unstratified and they were recorded with the first database system as we mentioned above. We also took 4 of 5 x 5 m squares and evaluate them as 10 x 10 square meters because of the similarities and also some of the groups were so small and it was quite hard to be able to get a meaningful results statistically and visually (Figs. 51 & 52).

Figure 51: Evaluation of material by grid squares

6,488 ‘unstratified’ sherds were recovered and registered this year. 4186 of them are Neolithic and there are 29 paint decorated sherds which seems like Chalcolithic. 2,273 sherds belong to Late Periods (Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine or Islamic, Table 9).

Figure 52: Sherd counts from 4040 Area

According to this analysis, Neolithic sherds increase towards south of the scraped area and also the proportion of the Neolithic sherds are quite high in squares 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (highest-1050E-1135N) and 16, where the disturbance of later period occupation is less over this part of the mound (Last also mentioned a high percentage of Neolithic sherds in the northern eminence in general, but also he points out that square 1045/1125 indicated an increase in Neolithic pottery). Despite the large late period construction, Building 41, to the west of the area (1030/1155; 1040/1145, 1155) there are relatively more Neolithic sherds than late material, this is probably because the sherds derive from the Neolithic midden deposits through which the late structure is cut. The northern part of the area (1030-1070E/1165-1175N), especially square 4, contained the highest score for late material and may indicate unidentified pits of late dates not visible because of the loose surface soil. The NE sector of the area where there are small spaces and mostly walls have more or less the same proportion for the late and Neolithic sherds. Chalcolithic sherds which are recognised by paint decoration, were quite rare and did not show any meaningful distribution.

The Neolithic sherds have been studied to be able to identify the indicative or representative forms or technologies which may indicate approximate dating levels.

The inclusions, surface colour and basic forms as dating indicators were studied. Organic inclusions are dominant in the earliest levels (XII-VII) and mineral inclusion appear in Level VII – VI along with a change to open squat bowls to holemouth and thin walled wares (Last 1996:115). In summary:
• Level XII-VIII: Light coloured, thick sided shallow bowls with organic temper are found.
• Level VIII-VII: Thin walled mineral tempered with closed forms (holemouths) begin to appear.
• Level VI-IV: Thin walled, holemouthed and mineral tempered sherds are dominant.
• Level III-II: The holemouthed dark coloured mineral tempered vessels decrease.
• Level II: Light coloured bowls but with mineral temper instead of organic, become dominant. (Last 1996 and study on Mellaart’s collections).

Mineral and Organic Inclusion
When we evaluate our data according to the summary given above, we see that in the 4040 Area the organic temper percentage is quite low while the mineral inclusion is dominant in all squares (Fig.53) and the mineral tempered sherds percentage in all Neolithic sherds are never lower than 96 %. The mineral tempered sherds are generally well made, fine wares; there are rarely coarse grits but quite often, sand, mica or quartz, calcite or shell pieces used as inclusion or these inclusions were already in the clay naturally.

Figure 53: Mineral versus organic inclusions

This evident result indicates that none of the scraped squares pertain to levels earlier than Level VII. However, although the organic tempered sherds’ percentage is quite low, they are still present. The reason may be attributed either to the fact that these sherds some how relate to the early levels or, this indicates a new tradition of the latest Neolithic levels as indicated by the presence of some organic tempered sherds recovered from the late Neolithic deposits in TP.

The External Surface Colour
The external surface colours were determined visually not by Munsell charts. The colours and indicative surface treatments are arranged in four groups: Dark (dark grey, dark brown and rarely black), light (heavy to light buff, cream, yellowish cream), mottled (red/dark grey, orange/buff or cream), slipped/painted (cream, red or dark brown slipped and paint decorated ones). All the paint decorated body sherds have been taken as diagnostic.

Figure 54: Distribution by surface colour

The distribution of the colour groups from the 4040 Area assemblage (Fig. 54) shows that light colored sherds are dominant on the northern part of the 4040 Area (1030-1070E/1150-1175N) except square 5. Although the dark coloured sherd ratio gets higher at the southern part, the difference between the dark and light colour percentage is not sharp; only square 13 has a high proportion of dark coloured sherds. As we mentioned above the light colour sherds are represented as buff colour and variations; which is a common element up to Level VI and the dark colour is a characteristic of Level VI-IV.

Holemouth and Bowls
Holemouth and bowls are the two main ware forms for the Çatalhöyük Neolithic period (These categories were used by Last with this explanation: “...ditinguishing ‘bowls’(open) and ‘holemouths’ (closed) should not be taken as an indication that vessel forms fall into just two categories; rather it reflects an attempt to use the information from rim sherds to distinguish broad vessel families...” (Last 1996:116), and we will use the same categories to evaluate the existing pottery types for a general view and for comparison with the previous studies. The dominant presence of these forms is identical for the levels as we mentioned above. Thus we looked to the distribution of the holemouths and bowls to be able to compare their proportions in all the diagnostic sherds (Fig.55 and Table 10).

Figure 55: Ratio of holemouth versus bowl forms

The holemouth rim sherds’ ratio is higher than the bowl rim sherds’ from the total diagnostic pieces (%22.41 Holemouths; %14.49 Bowls). According to the distribution of the 4040 Area, holemouth sherds are dominant in squares 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 16 while bowls are high in proportion in squares 1, 13, 14 and 15.

Bases
Mellaart and Last recorded that rounded bases are an earlier element but on a decrease until Level I (Fig. 56:1-3). The angular junction-type belongs to later periods (Fig. 56:4-9) starting from Level VI (Mellaart 1962: Fig.9:15-Level V and Last 1996:117) and the “developed” bases (Fig. 56:10-16) are not found before Level VI and mostly seen in Level V and quite common in Level III (Last 1996:117).

The distribution of the bases in the 4040 Area does not show us a clear picture, according to the general ratio the angular junctioned bases are more dominant than the rounded and the developed bases while the rounded bases have highest proportion in square 7 and 10. For the detailed distribution of the bases with their variations see Table 12.

Figure 56: Base forms

Lugs, Handles and Knobs
According to the perforations, it is clear that the dominant type are single perforated horizontal lugs which evidently points to Level VI-IV. A double perforation is almost non existing except square 8 with a low proportion. This indicates that the rest of the area can not be earlier than Level VII. The other important indicator is the lug shape as there are 3 main shapes: pointed (Fig. 57:2), straight (Fig. 57:1) and flaring (Fig. 57:3).The flaring lugs are dominant in square 6, 8, 10, 13, 14 and 15 while the straight lugs are dominant only in square 9 and the pointed lugs are dominant in squares 4,5,7. But unfortunately this distribution does not indicate a pattern. But more flaring lugs than straight ones may indicate Level VI and later. Knobs (Fig. 57:6) are not common but there is a variation of crescent (Fig 57:8), horizontal, vertical or round ones. But an animal headed one (Fig. 57.7) which is also quite rare, can be indicative of Level V (Last 96:116). The basket handles have 2 variations: one of them is incised on the external surface (Fig.57.4), on both sides of basket handle junction to rim and the other has a straight lug on the junction of the handle to the rim. There is one sample in Mellaarts backfill (Last 1995: Fig.2:1). Basket handles generally occur between Levels VI-V.

Figure 57: Lugs, handles and knobs

Decorated Sherds

Decorated sherds are not common form the Çatalhöyük East Neolithic assemblages but in 4040 Area there are some quite rare samples. One of them has an incised decoration just below the rim of parallel stripes on red slipped ware (Fig.58:4). Two sherds were found in square 11 and one in square 14 in the 4040 Area. These generally occur in Levels V, IV and III (Last 1996:118). The burnishing pattern is not common and we have 4 from the 4040 Area; one in square 2, one in square 7, one in square 11 and one in square 15. Beside these decorations we also have some incised and dotted pieces (sq11, Fig.58:2), incruste decorations (sq15, Fig. 58:1), which are represented by one sherd each. We do not have any other samples from Çatalhöyük East levels, therefore they might be late Neolithic or Early Chalcolithic.

Rare Forms
These are represented as: a miniature vessel (in square 8, 12 and 14, Fig.58:6,7), twin bowl (square15, Fig.58:5), boxes (square.14 and 15, Fig. 58:8), carinated body sherds (square 4, 15, Fig.57:9) and lid (?) (square 8). All of these forms are represented by 1 or 2 sherds each and do not show any location pattern. There are 3 miniature vessels and one of them has an oval base. There are some miniature wares in the Mellaart collections which were found in Levels V and IV. The box like sherds were recovered in Mellaart’s Levels V-III (Mellaart 1962). But there is no similar form to the twin bowls. There is also no example of pottery lids, neither in Çatalhöyük East nor in the Early Neolithic sites in the region. The sherd in question is quite small so we can not be sure about its function yet. The carination is characteristic of the Chalcolithic period but may also represent a Late Neolithic date.

Stratified Sherds
The only stratified deposits from the 4040 Area are those from Space 100. 15 sherds were registered from units (7900), (7901), (7903), (7905) and (7906). Two sherds are organic tempered (7902.S1 and 7903.S2). There are 3 diagnostic sherds, one of them is a painted Chalcolithic sherd and the others are B3 (angular base-7903.S1) and H1 (holemouth-7901.S2). Units (7905) and (7906) contained sherds from the late period.

Figure 58: Decorated and rare forms

Sherds Related with Skeletons
(7515) grave fill 2 sherds Late Period
(7519) burial fill 2 sherds Neolithic, 1 sherd Late Period.
(7536) burial fill 2 sherds Neolithic
(7545) skeleton 7 sherds Neolithic, 2 sherds Late Period
(8726) burial fill 6 sherds Neolithic, 12 sherds Late Period
(8741) burial fill 2 sherds Neolithic, 1 sherd Late Period.
(8753) skeleton 6 sherds Neolithic, 1 sherd Late Period.
(8770) burial fill 1 sherd Neolithic
(8827) skeleton 4 sherds Neolithic, 6 sherds Late Period.

Discussion

The analysis of the 4040 Area pottery assemblage indicates quite a clear separation between Levels VI and earlier levels. Although there are some concentrations they are not meaningful for dating purposes. Space 100 also indicated a mix of material but not enough of an assemblage to ascertain a date. Generally all indicators suggest that the 4040 Area is predominantly of Levels VI and later.

Table 12 :% of the Bases in each square. The first group is rounded bases, the middle group is angulars and the last group of bases are the developed forms.

Table 13: % of Lugs and Handles in each square.

Table 14:% of lugs according to their perforations.

© Çatalhöyük Research Project and individual authors, 2003