Çatalhöyük 2005 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 2005 ARCHIVE REPORT

STUDY SEASON REPORTS

BACH

M. Stevanovic and R. Tringham

Abstract

Bach team members participating in the final publication undertook at Catalhoyuk this season a study of the finds, the discussions of the issues related to the building 3 and accompanying spaces/rooms, and the writing up of the first drafts for the future volume. The publication of this volume is currently under consideration by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Publication, UCLA, USA.

Özet

Bu sezon, BACH ekibi tarafindan hazirlanan yayinla ilgili buluntu çalişmasini, bina 3 ve onunla ilişkili alan ve odalarla ilgili problemlerin tartişmasini ve gelecek ciltlerin ilk taslaklarinin hazirlanmasini içeren bir çalişma yapildi. Bu cildin basimi Cotsen Arkeoloji Yayinlari UCLA, USA tarafindan değerlendirilmektedir.

This volume is intended to compliment the previous volumes of the Çatalhöyük Research Project published by the McDonald Institute of Archaeology. The focus of the publication is the excavation of Building 3, and spaces 87, 88, and 89, that was carried out by a team from the University of California at Berkeley (BACH team) during the summers of 1997-2003. The period of excavation mirrors to a great extent the period in which excavations of Building 1 and 5 and others in the South area were being carried out by the main Çatalhöyük project team, directed by Dr. Ian Hodder, whose reports are currently being published by the McDonald Institute of Archaeology.

The organization of the publication is similar in format to the in-press volumes (see the content below). The content similarly covers a detailed description of the methodology, excavation and analysis process, description and phasing of Building 3, and contextual summary of depositional events in the first four chapters. The excavation procedure in the BACH area was identical to that of the main Çatalhöyük project, so that these chapters do mirror those of the currently in-press volumes.

These are followed by chapters by specialists on specific analysis of materials and artifacts, or on specific topics. The Bach project addresses some excavation results which were not covered in the previous reports. These include the investigation of the roof remains, a plaster screen wall, and a correlation between phasing and burial events. In addition, there are chapters that investigate aspects of excavation, which were not covered in previous reports, including the detailed analysis of house construction and use-life by Mirjana Stevanovic, and the Sense of Seeing at Çatalhöyük by Michael Ashley. Building 3 had a complicated history and we gave careful attention to the process of collapse and abandonment of the building as well as its history of occupation.

Moreover, the BACH project was the part of the overall project at Çatalhöyük that developed earliest and most fully the use of digital media in recording the excavation process and results. Not only is there a chapter devoted to tracing the process of this development, but the conventional text volume is backed up by a detailed visual record of the excavation on CD-ROM. The impressive aerial photographs of the BACH area achieved by the photographer being suspended from the roof of the shelter have become one of the hallmarks of the BACH project.

Finally, the specialist analysis chapters are followed by four relatively short theme chapters which reflect the underlying themes of the BACH team participants and will be authored as a dialogue between several participants.

The accompanying CD-ROM will contain supplementary materials, including a detailed contextual record of the excavation, detailed charts and other data presentation that cannot be produced in a text, and numerous illustrations in color. We also intend to produce a catalog of the available digital still images and videos from the BACH excavations.

The volume content is presented here in a preliminary form.

Introduction: Project history and aims. By Ruth Tringham and Mirjana Stevanovic
Excavation methodology: process, organization, recording, history. Ruth Tringham and Mirjana Stevanovic
Description of Building 3 with phasing. Mirjana Stevanovic.
Dating evidence. Ruth Tringham, Mirjana Stevanovic, Tomas Goslar.
Specialist Chapters (not necessarily in this order)
The Byzantine Interlude.
a. Daniela Cottica: Finds in the Byzantine Burials
b) Lori Hager and Basak Boz: Skeletal material in the Byzantine Burials
Architectural materials and methods: bricks, plaster, floors, platforms, roof. House Construction at Catal . Mirjana Stevanovic.
Faunal Analysis. Nerissa Russell et al.:
a) General:
b) Bird report
c) Bone tools
Palaeoethnobotanical analysis. Katy Killackey et al.
a) General
b) Wood analysis: Eleni Asouti
c) Phytolith analysis: Arleen Rosen and Emma Jenkins
Human remains: Neolithic Burials (Space 86 and Space 87) Lori Hager and Basak Boz.
Figurines. Carolyn Nakamura and Lynn Meskell.
Clay Balls. Sonya Atalay.
Ceramics. Jonathan Last.
Flaked stone.
a) Flaked Stone Analysis: Heidi Underbjerg;
b) Obsidian analysis Tristan Carter and Steven Shackley.
Groundstone. Kathrine Wright and Adnan Baysal.
Heavy Residue Analysis. Slobodan Mitrovic.
Micromorphology. Wendy Matthews.
The Replica House:
a) Experimental building at Catal. Mirjana Stevanovic;
b) The experimental house: a conservationist approach. Ina St George.
Sense of seeing at Catalhoyuk: Color, Light, and shadow. Michael Ashley.
Creating the media database and Documentation. Michael Ashley. Ruth Tringham, Jason Quinlan.
Theme Chapters
The Life-history of Building 3 and the other spaces. Temporality. Multiscalar time. Ruth Tringham and others.
Sensing the place of Building 3: color, light, shadow, sound, texture, smell etc. etc. (bringing in experimental house among other things). Ruth Tringham and others.
Building 3 beyond: landscape, ecology and cultural context.
The public face of Building 3: why Building 3 matters, includes media communication that we have had and want to have, how the Building 3 has featured in communication with the public. Ruth Tringham and others.
Accompanying CD-ROM will include:
Digital Image catalog (including photographs and drawings)
Digital Video catalog
Supplements to chapters in the volume.