INTRODUCTION
| Much seems to happen and change in a short time as the project grows and begins to establish itself. In terms of funding, we have obtained a £250,000 grant spread over 5 years from the Newton Trust which will be a major support for post-excavation work and has allowed us to take on a half-time computing assistant, Anja Wolle. Our continued sponsorship from British-linked companies in Turkey, together with European Union support, allowed the construction in 1996 of the second phase of the dig house at the site. This now has four laboratories with some high quality equipment such as microscopes. There is also a spacious dining room and kitchen, and bedrooms. At the high point of the 1996 season we crammed up to 80 people into the accommodation at the site. This was far from satisfactory and we are hoping to build more of the dig house in 1997 - both for accommodation and for storage. The building so far completed was opened formally by the European Ambassador and Director General of Monuments and Museums on 27 September. There was a major press day on 25 September at which 60 journalists and television reporters attended, and a local open day on 28 September. The Turkish Friends of Çatalhöyük continue to be active and successful under the redoubtable leadership of Resit Ergener. Their campaign to lend a hand to Çatalhöyük allowed an expensive shelter to be bought and shipped out to Turkey. This will allow excavations on the North part of the East mound to take place under cover, and it will allow the excavations there to be left open to visitors throughout the year. |
Wallplaster painting of hand discovered during the excavations of Shrine 7 in 1963 |
Support from the British Council is allowing still closer collaboration with our film and video team in Karlsruhe, Germany. A number of visits will take place between Cambridge and Karlsruhe in early 1997 in order to work further on video documentation, CD-Rom production and new films and videos. The British Council has also supported a visit by Nurcan Yalman to spend a month at Cambridge working on the ethnoarchaeological aspects of the project, and by Professor Mehmet ÖzdoÈan to participate in TAG (Theoretical Archaeology Group) in Liverpool in December 1996. The TAG session on the project involved a whole day of talks and presentations, focusing on method. The feedback was overall very positive and the session also helped project members to coordinate and develop ideas. There have been various suggestions that we produce a book on method at the end of 1997. A publication date of December 1996 has been given for the volume covering the first three years of exploratory surface work at the site and in the region. Called On the surface this substantial volume is published jointly by the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara and the McDonald Institute in Cambridge. Ian Hodder gave a lecture on the 1996 field season in the British Museum (organised jointly with the British Museum Society) on 30 October, kindly attended by Professor Lord Renfrew. There was so much demand for this lecture that it was repeated in Cambridge on 27 November and will be repeated at the British Museum on Tuesday 18 February.
We are very honoured that Sir David Attenborough has agreed to act as a patron. Mr Sevket Sabanci has had to leave the Board of Directors of the Trust for personal reasons. Since 1993 the Field Director has been Roger Matthews. Unfortunately he will be unable to continue in this capacity in 1997. His experience and personal kindness over these initial years have been invaluable in setting up the project and we will all miss him deeply. As the Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara he will, however, continue to keep in close contact. Patrons: Professor Lord Renfrew Sir David Attenborough Directors of the Çatalhöyük Trust Chairman: Sir Mark Russell Treasurer: Mr George Warren Company Secretary: Prof Ian Hodder Dr John Curtis Lady Daunt Professor Nicholas Postgate Dr Andrew Sherratt Dr Trevor Watkins
It was a great pleasure to welcome James and Arlette Mellaart at the site in 1996. Their visit was brief but full of warmth, memories and support. The project is enormously indebted to them for their continued encouragement and advice.
A World Wide Web site has been set up at http://www.catalhoyuk.com/catal.html This not only has general information about the project, results and Quick-Time VR, but also is one of the first in archaeology to include the raw data base from the site including excavation diaries. Archive reports and TAG papers will also be included. Members of the project also communicate with each other through a list-server.