KONYA BASIN PALAEOENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH PROGRAMME 1996
by Neil Roberts
Introduction
A successful geoarchaeological and palaeoecological survey of the Konya and Aksehir basins took place between August 19 and September 7 1996 under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Culture, and with the financial support of the National Geographic Society and the Leverhulme Trust. We are indebted to both of these, to the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, to Loughborough and Ankara Universities, to Çumra Belediyesi, and to our representative from the General Directorate of Monuments and Museums in Ankara, Yücel Kiper. Our thanks also go to the Çatalhöyük representative, Baykal Aydinbek, who very kindly assisted us during the first week of our survey when our intended representative was ill.
The field season involved the following personnel: - Dr C. Neil Roberts (Loughborough University) - Dr Hakan Yigitbasioglu (Ankara University) - Dr David Twigg (Loughborough University) - Mr Peter Boyer (Loughborough University) - Dr Jane Reed (Loughborough University) - Mr Warren Eastwood (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) In addition, the KOPAL programme was visited by Dr Henry Lamb (University of Wales, Aberystwyth), and worked alongside Jamie Merrick (Dept. of Archaeology at Cambridge University) on site formation processes. Our work was also preceded by a two-week long modern chemical and biological survey of the lakes of central and southwestern Anatolia undertaken by Dr Jane Reed, Dr Sabri Kilinç (Biology Department, Sivas University) and his wife Claire. Coring equipment was driven overland from the UK to Turkey in a Toyota Pickup belonging to Loughborough University.
The KOPAL team was based at the new Çatalhöyük dig house, along with the Çatalhöyük excavation team directed by Prof. Ian Hodder, and the archaeological survey team directed by Dr Douglas Baird. Our geoarchaeological fieldwork was carried out in close relation to the work of these archaeological teams. After fieldwork, sediment and water samples were stored in core boxes, taken to the Konya Museum where they were sealed and export documents organised. The Pickup, with samples and equipment, departed from Çumra on September 7 and returned to UK on September 14.
Objectives
The prime object of the 1996 season was to complete the geoarchaeological and geomorphological survey of the area around Çumra (Konya vilayet) in order to establish a three-dimensional lithostratigraphic sequence for the Çarsamba alluvial fan. Fieldwork in 1994 and 1995 had indicated that Holocene alluviation on the fan partially or completely buried many archaeological sites, including Çatalhöyük. We sought to extend our work at Çatalhöyük itself by examining the relationship between on-site mound-forming processes and off-site alluviation, and we also aimed to obtain additional sediment cores from residual lakes in the Konya region, for pollen, diatom and isotope analysis.
Conclusions
The sediment cores and samples obtained during the 1996 field season have completed the immediate objectives of the KOPAL field programme, and it is planned to follow this with a season of consolidation. Once laboratory analyses have been undertaken these data will provide the basis for reconstructing environmental changes in the Konya basin during the late Quaternary period. However, it is intended to continue fieldwork in 1997 on the relationship between mound-forming processes and alluviation linked to the Çatalhöyük excavation and the regional archaeological survey. This will include excavating trenches off the mound itself at Çatalhöyük, and assessing the evidence for cultural impact on fields in the immediate vicinity of this and other sites in the region.