ÇATALHÖYÜK 2004 ARCHIVE REPORT

Excavations of the 4040 Area  

Buildings 46 and 48

Burcu Tung

Berkeley University Field School
Supervised by: Burcu Tung
Site Assistants: Medha Garg, Sheila Rajashekara, Valeriano Saucedo III, Dan Thompson, Selcan Yalçin (Eskisehir University)

Abstract

The Berkeley Field School team started working in a building to the east of Building 49 on the 14th of July until 2nd August We started working within of a building that had been uncovered during the surface scrape of 2003. The aim of the season was to uncover the latest phase of this building. Initially, the building seemed to have been made of two spaces, a small room (2 x 2.5m) to the north and a larger room to the south (4 x 2.5m). Within one day of excavating it became apparent the walls that defined our working area were the remains of a later building, and were not associated with the plastered wall surfaces that could be seen in parts. Once the heavily eroded remains of this later Building 46 had been excavated, the earlier Building 48, comprising two rooms, were excavated to the latest occupation horizon.

Özet

Berkeley Kazı Okulu ekibi, Bina 49'un doğusuna düşen binayı 14.07 – 02.08 tarihine kadar kazmışlardır. 2003 yılında yüzeyin temizlenmesi esnasında ortaya çıkan binada kazıyı gerçekleştirdik. Bu sezonun amacı bu binada korunmuş olan en son tabakayı ortaya çıkarmaktı. Sonunda bu binanın iki alandan oluştuğu ortaya çıkmıştır, kuzeye doğru bir küçük oda (2 x 2.5m) ve güneye doğru daha geniş bir oda (4 x 2.5m). Bir günlük bir kazıdan sonra kazacağımız alanın sınırlarını belirleyen duvarların daha geç bir evreye ait bir binanın kalıntıları olduğu, kısmen görülen sıvalı duvarların devamı olmadığı ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu tahribaa uğramış Bina 46 kazıldıktan sonra, iki odadan oluşan Bina 48 son evresine kadar kazılmıştır.

Building 46, Space 233

The building appeared to have been made of two spaces, a small room (2 x 2.5m) to the north and a larger room to the south (4 x 2.5m) with wall plaster traced on all the walls (see Fig 9). Initial excavation began in both of the rooms by removing infill (11100) and (11101).

Within one day of excavating it became apparent the walls that defined our working area were the remains of a later building, and were not associated with the plastered wall surfaces that could be seen in parts. After clearly defining these later walls (F.1800 to the west, F.1801 to the south, F.1802 to the east), it became apparent that the northern wall of this later building, Building 46, was eroded away and that the smaller room, defined to the north belonged to an earlier structure (Building 48). The only ‘fill' units associated with Building 46 are (11100) and (11102) which are truncated packing deposits. Both of these fills contain an ashy light orangish brown matrix with inclusions such as mud brick, mortar, and plaster chunks. The brick of the building consists of a silty clay loam of a light orangish brown while the mortar is light grayish brown and again has the texture of a silty clay loam with a blockier structure. The walls consisted of only 2 or 3 courses of mud brick with the mortar in between and do not pass a height of 0.3m. Due to the closeness to the surface, the top course of the walls were heavily eroded. These walls were constructed on top of an earlier building following the same plan, however they were not directly above the earlier walls but protruded about 40mm outwards from all sides. Beneath the western wall of B.46 was a layer of ashy packing (11108) that may have been used for stabilization purposes.

By July 29th, we completed excavating the space, as we had uncovered the latest phase of the building. The space proved to have a set of interesting features. The south wall was cut in the center for a domed oven F.1812. Figure 19: Plan of Building 48

Associated with this oven was a hearth F.1813, that was in the center of the ‘dirty' floor. This area was separated from the rest of the space with a ridge F.1809, that ran across the room from the western wall towards the eastern wall where it ended as it hit a bench like feature that may have been related to the access ladder.

The western wall of the building had many features abutting it. The center of the wall has a post scar F.1808, though we were not able to define a post retrieval pit (Fig 20). The southern most end of the wall showed the rim of a possible bin F.1805, that was cut by a pillar F.1804. This pillar was constructed above the ridge, showing that it belonged to the last modification of the space.

Next to the pillar to the north was a bench F.1806 that abutted the post scar, and was bonded to the pillar by a plastered surface. This bench was made from a reddish brown clay loam, which could be seen in the pillar as well. The post scar was abutted by another bench F.1807 to its north, which was again made from the same material as F.1806. Just north to this bench lay a platform F.1810, abutting the partition wall of the space. The central area of the space was defined by a badly preserved plastered floor that was clearly associated with the benches and the platform.

Figure 20: Building 48. Looking West

A ‘curtain' wall was built to the east rim of this northwestern platform, which stood about 0.2m high and was approximately 80mm thick, giving the platform a bin like look. Just east of the platform were 2 badly preserved bins F.1814 and F.1815 that slightly surprised us as they were located right by the passage to Space 234. The relationship of the bins and the passage needs further exploration.

The excavation of this building has stopped, and will not resume until the other buildings around it are uncovered.