Dr Neil Roberts, with a team drawn from Ankara, Lancaster, Sussex and Aberystwyth, continues his work in the area, the general aim being to examine the relations between changes in the natural environment and the domestication of plants and animals during the period between 13000 and 7000 C14 yr BP. Lake sediments have been cored in order to undertake palaeolimnological analyses (pollen, diatoms, mollusca, etc), particularly at Suleymanhaci gölü, a small lake at the base of Kara Dag. Deposits by the site of Pinarbasi have also been cored. Preservation of diatoms seemed good in both cases. Examination of irrigation ditches near Çatalhöyük, with the assistance of Dr Charlie French from Cambridge University, led to the discovery of a large, buried palaeochannel of the Çarsamba river cut into the underlying lake marl.

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