ÇATALHÖYÜK 2005 ARCHIVE REPORT

CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MATERIALS REPORTS

Macro Botanical Remains

Makro – Botanik Buluntuları

Amy Bogaard, Mike Charles, Müge Ergun, Glynis Jones, Kim Ng, Marek Polcyn & Nicola Stone

Team leaders: Amy Bogaard (University of Nottingham), Mike Charles (University of Sheffield)
Team Poznan archaeobotanist: Marek Polcyn
Flotation officer: Nicola Stone
Archaeobotanical assistants: Müge Ergun, Kim Ng

Abstract

The team processed 373 samples – a significant increase from last year, due largely to modifications in the excavation system (i.e. we now receive a 30 litre flotation sample from all contexts unless they are of a ‘sterile’ type – see Farid, ‘Excavation: overview’, 2004 Archive Report).  A total of 22 samples were prioritised for archaeobotanical feedback during the field season. Most of these were either poor in archaeobotanical remains or were rich in the usual ‘waste’ components (e.g. glume wheat chaff, sedge seeds and tuber). 

A burnt building (Building 52) in the 4040 area revealed a small room (space 93) at the north end of the building that contained concentrations of charred plant remains.  These concentrations resemble stored plant food of various kinds: cereal grain (naked barley, einkorn, emmer), peas, tiny crucifer seeds and almonds (kernels still in the shell).  The contrast with the usual ‘waste’ deposits is very clear.

Özet

2005 sezonunda Arkeobotani ekibi, geçen seneye göre belirgin bir artış olarak 373 örnek analize etmiştir. (Bu sezondan itibaren, sterile tipi örnek olmadıkça, her kontextden 30lt tarama örneği almaktayız. Farid, 2004 Arşiv raporu, Kazıya genel bakış). Sezon boyunca, arkeobotani çalışmasına destek oldukları düşünülen, 22 örneğe öncelik tanındı. Bu örneklerin çoğu arkeobotani kalıntısı açısından zayıf, fakat artık parçaları acısından zengindi (örneğin saz tohumu ve yumru).

4040 alanında, yangına uğramış bir bina olan Bina 52’nin kuzeyinde bulunan küçük bir odada (Alan 93) yanmış bitki kalıntılarına rastlanmıştır. Gıda olarak depolanmış olan bu kalıntılar çeşitlidir: Taneli tahıl (arpa, einkorn ve emmer buğdayı), bezelye, minik turpgiller tohumları ve badem (taneler hala kabuğun içinde). Artık kalıntıları ile aradaki kontrast çok açıktır.

Introduction

This report focuses on the following topics: results from this season; the on-site scanning/assessment system; and work on a new database.

Archaeobotanical results for 2005

The team processed 373 samples – a significant increase from last year, due largely to modifications in the excavation system (i.e. we now receive a 30 litre flotation sample from all contexts unless they are of a ‘sterile’ type – see Farid, ‘Excavation: overview’, 2004 Archive Report).  The samples break down by area as shown in Table 1.  We carried out level 1 assessment (a quantitative assessment of major categories of crop and wild plant remains – see 2003-2004 Archive Reports and below) on all samples from the 4040 area, the South area (including South) and the new IST area.  (Level 1 assessment was not carried out for TP samples, since Marek Polcyn will export and sort all of the samples in Poland; TP samples designated as priorities in the field, however, received level 2 assessment – see 2003-2004 Archive Reports and below).

Table 1

A total of 22 samples were prioritised for archaeobotanical feedback during the field season and so received level 2 assessment.  Most of these were either poor in archaeobotanical remains or were rich in the usual ‘waste’ components (e.g. glume wheat chaff, sedge seeds and tuber).  Several of the priority samples, however, and a significant number of other units were of a very different nature and these are described briefly below.

‘Stored food’ deposits from the 4040 area

Excavations in the 4040 area revealed a burnt building (Building 52).  At the north end of the building, a small room (space 93) was excavated that contained concentrations of charred plant remains.  These concentrations resemble stored plant food of various kinds: cereal grain (naked barley, einkorn, emmer), peas, tiny crucifer seeds and almonds (kernels still in the shell).  The contrast with the usual ‘waste’ deposits is very clear:

-seed concentrations occur within or next to three to four bins in a small (storage?) room

-these concentrations often contain one predominant species; some concentrations include fused lumps of charred seeds, including examples consisting of naked barley and crucifer seeds, indicating that ‘caches’ of seeds were charred together

-sedge seeds, tubers and chaff are mostly absent; there is no evidence that Scirpus seeds or tubers were stored as food, implying that these tend to enter the archaeobotanical record by other routes (e.g. dung fuel)

-the associated wild seed assemblage (aside from concentrations of oil-rich crucifer seeds, e.g. Descurainia-type or Flixweed) overlaps with, but is distinct from, the usual wild seed flora found in ‘rubbish’ depostis.  We hope to be able to gain an unusually clear view in these deposits of the arable weed flora, which will yield information on the nature of crop husbandry practices

The precise nature of the contexts rich in plant ‘foods’ from space 93 – including one bin containing over 30 litres of crucifer seeds – is still being discussed, as is the issue of accidental versus deliberate burning of the building.  It is clear, however, that we will have the opportunity to explore a full spectrum of archaeobotanical deposition in the 40x40 area, ranging from stored food to routinely deposited ‘rubbish’, and the contrast between the two will be instructive.  Extensive remains of stored plant food have not been uncovered at the site since Mellaart’s excavations (Helbaek 1964).  Recent re-analysis of the Helbaek material (Fairbairn et al. in press; Fairbairn et al. forthcoming) will further enhance a full appraisal of wild and cultivated food, crop husbandry practices, animal feeding, dung fuel and so on.

In addition to detailed scanning and some sorting of rich units from space 93, we also returned to promising samples from the 4040 area processed in 2004.  None of these 2004 samples (including other burnt room fills) appears to represent stored food preserved in situ, but they also diverge from the usual ‘midden rubbish’.  Identification of some unusually grain-rich samples from 2004 confirmed the common presence of two-grained einkorn, a cereal type previously unreported from the site.  This finding further underlines the diversity and significance of glume wheats, the chaff of which is among the most ubiquitous charred plant components at the site.
Considering all of the units processed in 2005 and assessed at levels 1 or 2, around 130 contain at least 100 items and are potentially rich enough to warrant full analysis.  Over 30 of these samples are also very high in density, containing hundreds or thousands of seeds per litre soil.  These dense units mostly derive from the 40x40 area, especially space 93, but one unit worth noting is from the new area excavated by the Istanbul team.  This deposit consists almost entirely of barley grain and derives from a probable burnt bin fill.  Further excavation in this area next year will clarify the context of this feature.

Methodology for scanning/assessment of samples on-site

A scanning system (‘level 1 assessment’) designed to yield basic information on the composition and richness of all samples was implemented in 2003, with minor modifications in 2004 (see 2003-2004 Archive Reports). 

The scanning system is still being refined.  An opportunity to gauge the accuracy of richness estimates based on scanning was provided by ongoing analysis of West Mound samples (see also below).  Full sorting of around 80 rich West Mound samples in the spring of 2005 gave us accurate counts of items with which scanning-based richness estimates could be compared.  The richness estimates from scanning were based on non-random 5 ml subsamples (see Table 1, 2004 Archive Report).  The comparison showed that, while the 2004 system provided reasonably accurate estimates for most samples, increased accuracy would be useful.

It was decided, therefore, to begin taking random 5(-10) ml subsamples (of the 1 mm size fraction) using a riffle box.  Though sample splitting with a riffle box is more time consuming than taking a non-random subsample, the resulting richness estimates should be more accurate.  In addition, material sorted out of the random subsample is labelled and kept separate in a capsule or tube and used as a basis for future sorting and id work.

Table 2 compares the current Level 1 and 2 assessment methods.  The major differences are the treatment of the 4 mm size fraction and the size of the 1 mm subsample.  Overall, the two levels yield a similar quality of information, on the basis of which we will select samples for full archaeobotanical analysis.

Table 2

West Mound
We received a British Academy Large Grant in the spring of 2005 to analyse rich samples from the West Mound archaeobotanical assemblage, recovered from 1998 to 2003.  The sorting and preliminary identification is being carried out by Nicola Stone under the supervision of Amy Bogaard, Mike Charles and Glynis Jones.

A central question to be addressed in our study concerns continuity or change in the use and husbandry of plants across the Neolithic to Chalcolithic transition at Çatalhöyük: to what extent were changes in social organisation and material culture linked to changes in the use of staple crops and gathered wild plants and in the management of these resources?  This issue is important not only for understanding the economy and routine of the Early Chalcolithic community but also as a new vantage point from which to evaluate the growing archaeobotanical dataset available for the East Mound.

Çarşamba field trip
In 2004 we collected modern cereal material along a broad transect extending from the site to the source of the Çarşamba river.  One aim was to determine whether cereal plants growing in different geological zones differed in their isotopic characteristics, and to assess the archaeobotanical applicability of this method.  We are currently working with Dr. Jane Evans at the NERC Isotope Geosciences Lab (Keyworth) on preliminary analyses.

Database
We worked with Mia Ridge to devise an archaeobotanical database that can be fully integrated with the rest of the excavation data.  We now have a ‘core’ Access Table of flot logbook data (sample number, unit number, soil volume etc.) going back to the beginning of the current excavations.  This file will be linked to our level 1 and 2 assessment data files.  With regard to compositional data from the 1996-2002 excavations, we are currently in touch with members of the previous team, in order to obtain all sample-by-sample data on the North, South and Kopal excavation areas.  Once the BACH data are available, they can also be linked into the database.

References
Fairbairn, A, Martinoli, D., Butler, A. and Hillman, G. in press. Wild plant seed storage at Neolithic Çatalhöyük East, Turkey. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany.

Fairbairn, A., Martinoli, D., Butler, A. and Hillman, G. forthcoming. Archaeobotany of Neolithic Çatalhöyük East, Turkey. BAR, International Series.

Helbaek, H. 1964. First impressions of the Çatal Hüyük plant husbandry. Anatolian Studies 14: 121-123.

© Çatalhöyük Research Project and individual authors, 2005