EXCAVATION IN THE NORTH AND MELLAART AREAS
In terms of other aspects of methodology we continued with the strategies of dry sieving all soil and wet sieving 30 litres from all units. The heavy residues from the latter were sieved through 4 mm, 2 mm, and 1 mm meshes and that sorted by hand by a team of up to 10 women from the local villages to whom we gave special training. The overall emphasis on integrated and reflexive research continued, with video documentation and diary writing acting as central components.
Figure 7: The North Area during excavation in 1997
One methodological change was that the 'specialist tours' which had caused problems in previous years were changed into 'priority tours'. The aim of the latter is to develop a form of sampling strategies. The trouble with pre-set sampling strategies is that they are not sensitive to the specific data being uncovered and they may not be adequate for all the different specialist interests. We decided that it was necessary to have some form of sampling strategy that was negotiated between the different project members, and was argued out in relation to the emerging interpretation of individual features. Thus, every two days representatives from all the lab teams toured the site and discussed the individual excavation areas with the digging teams. Each deposit was discussed and decisions made about whether it should be prioritised. Prioritised units would be those that would be studied by all specialist staff (bones, seeds, lithics etc) during the post-excavation process. In this way we could ensure that information from one type of analysis could be compared with another type of analysis. The priority tours also identified fast-track units. These latter units would be studied by the faunal, botanical, lithic, ceramic and small finds specialists before the next tour in two days time. During that tour the results of the preliminary analyses would be discussed and the overall interpretation of the deposit discussed with the digging staff. In this way immediate feedback could be provided for the digging staff, and further digging and sampling could be adjusted accordingly. This whole prioritising procedure proved very successful, partly thanks to the presence on site of our computer specialist, Anja Wolle, who was able to provide updated priority lists for all to work on, on a day to day basis.
Figure 8: Details of the wall paintings in Building 1
The following account of the excavations is based on reports by Shahina Farid and Gavin Lucas. In the North area, excavation of Building 1 was completed except for the removal of the brick walls. A large number of burials were found beneath the northwest platform (F13) of the main room (Space 71) and beneath the north part of the room and beneath the main east platform. In all, about 67 individuals were recovered. The bodies had been placed in pits beneath the platforms, tightly flexed and with flesh. Later addition of bodies disturbed earlier bodies. Amongst the mainly younger bodies beneath the northwest platform several necklaces as well as other ornaments were found. The wall plaster surrounding the northwest platform proved to have 4 to 5 layers of geometric painting, in the form of triangles and lattices (fig 8). The pottery from Building 1 suggests a date comparable to Level VI in the Mellaart sequence.
After removal of the floors in Building 1, sterile packing or foundation layers were excavated in 2m squares. However, within this packing a series of foundation burials were recovered, in particular in front of the doorway between space 70 and 71. Another burial (F211) beneath the northern part of the house consisted of an infant with an adult, with 'figure-of-8' fibre braids surviving as salts or phytoliths.
Beneath the foundation layers, the walls of an earlier building (probably equivalent to Level VII) were found. The main outline of these walls exactly prefigures Building 1. An internal wall exactly underlies the wall between Spaces 70 and 71, with an entrance in the same place. Another internal wall divides off an eastern room. The plasters on the walls of the side rooms are considerably thinner than in the main central room. A test trench dug in the western room came onto floors at 1m below the Building 1 floors.
Further work on the Harris matrix for Building 1 has led Gavin Lucas to redefine the phasing - the new sequence is explained in detail in the archive report.
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
Figure 11: The Mellaart Area as excavated 1997
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