EXCAVATION IN THE MELLAART AREA
Figure 11: the Mellaart Area
Building 2 in the Mellaart area is a new building that has been discovered attributable to Level IX. It has plastered walls standing over a metre high. See figures 10 and 11 below. There is remarkable preservation of the plaster walls and there are traces of sculptures and reliefs on them. There is also evidence of paintings which will be uncovered in future years. The eastern room (Space 116) of this building was not fully excavated this season and our efforts concentrated on the main room (Space 117). Removal of the fill deposits in this room uncovered a destroyed western wall with a large bull's horn which may have been attached to it. In the southwest corner two bins were found attached to an oven (F. 257 and F. 257), one bin containing over 80 clay balls. In the middle of the southern part of the room was found another oven (F. 269). The north and eastern floors and platforms are cleaner. Two niches occur in the middle of the north wall and there are traces of four vertical posts arranges symmetrically around the niches.
Figure 10: Plan of Space 117, abandonment phase and wall elevations
Three other Level VII buildings in the Mellaart area (fig 11) were also excavated but since these had been partly excavated by Mellaart less information was obtained than for Building 2. Space 109 had a hearth or oven (F. 82) in the south wall associated with a bulls horn. An infant burial was found close by as was a hoard of 9 pieces of obsidian. Space 112 produced 8 sub-floor burials. Pits against the west and east walls were also found. Space 113 had a sub-floor hoard of obsidian pieces (fig 12). At an earlier phase it was internally divided into two rooms (150 and 151). In the larger room 151 traces of wall posts were found and a basin in the northwest corner. In this room were two ovens: an earlier one (F 252) cut into the wall and through into Space 150 and a later one (F 87).
Figure 12: Space 113, Obsidian Hoards 2038 and 2039 in situ