REPORT ON WORK BY THE KOPAL TEAM
by Neil Roberts
The work of 1997 continued that of the 1996 season, with the principal focus being the study of sediment characterisation and the interpretation of site formation processes.
KOPAL Trench 1:
A section of the 1996 trench on the North mound was reopened. This was designed to facilitate an improved understanding of the top of the in situ archaeological material when encountered. Upslope of the modern waterpipe cut excavation revealed in situ archaeology at a depth of c. 0.4m. This consisted of the top of a mudbrick wall, running approximately north-south, and the associated building fill. Downslope of the waterpipe cut the Neolithic surface comprised of a series of stepped midden deposits that may respect underlying structural features. A small sondage of c. 0.5m x 0.4m showed this midden material to be heavily bioturbated and suggests considerable exposure prior to burial by the overlying colluvial sediments.
KOPAL Trench 2:
A second trench was excavated directly to the north immediately outside the site fence with the aim of identifying the nature of off-site colluvial and alluvial processes. Deep coring in previous years has shown a considerable depth of post-Neolithic alluviation in the area around the mounds. As it was intended to excavate this trench to the top of the lake marl which lies at a depth of c. 3m, the trench was excavated in a stepped manner. An initial area 9m x 6m was cleared mechanically to a depth of 1m. Within this it was then intended to clear a smaller area (7m x 4m) to a depth of 2m and a third area within this (5m x 2m) to a depth of 3m. During the removal of the 2m deep area a quantity of Byzantine building rubble and pottery was uncovered, and in order to allow an assessment of the nature of this material the trench was moved c. 5m northwards to avoid disturbance of any more such material.
In addition to this work at Çatalhöyük itself, modern soil and bedrock samples were collected from the drainage basin catchments of the rivers Çarsamba and May which flow into the Konya basin, and from alluvial soils in the vicinity of Torundede. These will help to ascertain the origin of the sediments deposited around Çatalhöyük.
A number of soil and sediment samples from this year's work have been prepared for export to the UK for laboratory analysis. It is hoped to expand the off-site excavation work at KOPAL Trench 2 over a larger area in 1998.