The buildings in the 10x40 were excavated to their latest occupation horizons, conserved and covered. The aim in 2005 is to explore another third of the 4040 Area so that the variation in date and function between apparently adjacent houses can be explored further.

 

Building 49, Space 100

Figure 18. Plan of Building 49. The photograph taken facing southwest shows a cluster of horncores on the left hand side. Some had traces of plaster residue.

 

This is a relatively small building located in the NW corner of the 10x40 strip (Fig. 18 ). It is roughly square with a corner cut out of the NW. The internal layout of the building consists of an oven and hearth zone in the SE corner abutted by a series of features of bins, podiums and basins to the west of the oven. Similar bin like features run along the western wall from where a cache of animal figurines was found in the make-up of a bin-type feature. Two platforms lay along the north wall and one along the east wall, which formed a kerb for the oven zone to its south. The remaining central space also formed a platform. In total therefore were four platforms each slightly stepped from each other. Across the latest surface and therefore deposited at the closure of the building, were seven cattle horn cores.

 

Building 48, Spaces 234 & 239

Figure 19. Building 48, facing west. The small room lies beyond the photograph to the right

 

This rectangular building lay to the east of Building 49 and consisted of a small northern room with a small division possibly defining two basins or bins. Access to the larger room was provided on to two platforms along the northern wall of the larger room with a series of posts and podiums to the centre of the west wall. A kerb defined the oven/hearth area to the south where a small oven was cut into the southern wall. A bench-like feature lay in the southeast corner.

 

Space 229

Bounded by Building 49 to the north and Building 48 to the east was perhaps the most intriguing structure, Space 229. This had a plan that has not been seen before, either by Mellaart or by the current team. It has two compartments on the west side, with three upright posts on the north, central and southern wall (Fig. 20). The floor of the whole building is relatively lacking in platforms, and was remade a very large number of times. Much of the walls were at various times painted black but there is a well preserved dado of red on the lower panel of the eastern wall. There is an oven that was added later into the southern wall.

Figure 20. Space 229 had an unusual building plan with two compartments and was relatively bare of other features. On the top the photograph faces west into the compartments. The photograph on the bottom faces east. The red ‘dado' can be seen on the facing (east) wall seen as a pink band of colour below the photographic scale. At the top right a gap in the wall is the location of the oven cut though the wall in the southeast corner.

 

Spaces 242 & 244

To the east of Space 229 was a later structure Space 242. This structure had a complicated history of walls and re builds. It formed a squareish plan but with deliberately rounded inner corners on the west wall. The internal deposits were an orange homogenous material unlike any floors we have previously excavated. It was completely devoid of features and in its current state of excavation appears to be some form of external area. It was not possible to investigate further as a building lying to its east, Space 244, was later in date which we began to excavate. By the end of the season only three plastered walls were defined but the floor had not been reached.

 

Figure 21. Space 242 facing west showing the deliberately curved inner corners of this enigmatic structure.

 

 

Spaces 232 & 240

Lying to the south of this zone of buildings was an external area Spaces 232 & 240 that appears to be a boundary between the earlier structures to the north and later structures to the south (see Fig. 17). It consisted of compacted buff coloured deposits over earlier midden material.

 

Building 47 & Space 227

 

Figure 22. Building 47 had an unusual plan with a central hearth reminiscent of the Chalcolithic building excavated on the West Mound. Could this represent how buildings change towards the end of the occupation of the East Mound? The photograph to the bottom is of Space 227, facing north with platforms along the eastern wall and a bench.

 

South of boundary Spaces 232 & 240, we excavated an important group of buildings that had a number of distinct characteristics. One of these (Space 227) contained a figurine with an elongated neck (Fig. 23) as part of abandonment material on the floors along with a concentration of large fragments of animal bone and obsidian. Tucked in an overhang of the north wall, was an infant which would have been placed immediately prior to backfilling; therefore buried but not in a customary grave cut. This building was only partially represented in the 10x40 strip and extended into the section to the west. Just to the east of this we found a building (Building 47) that had a central hearth and a very distinctive and large western platform (see Fig. 22). At one point the floor of much of this building was covered in large rectangular bricks. We have not seen buildings of this type, with a central hearth, before in our excavations, although Mellaart had found buildings with central features in the upper levels, and on the West Mound the excavation team there have discovered a Chalcolithic building with a central hearth (Anatolian Archaeology 2003). The ceramics and lithics for this building again suggested Levels IV and later. Either this is a special building with a distinctive function, and/or it is an example of how buildings change towards the end of the occupation of the East Mound.

 

 

Figure 23. ‘Moment of discovery': the figurine was found by student archaeologist Candemir Zoruğlu. The cluster of artefacts in which this figurine was found occurred to the south of the bench in Space 227. It is a marble anthropomorphic figure with long neck and incised/carved face. Eyes are indicated by two inward slanting, incised slashes; the carved nose gently protrudes from face. The head is delineated from the neck by a smoothly carved line, and the neck is differentiated from the body by a similar but slightly coarser line at the neck/torso interface. The upper torso shape is suggestive of shoulders and arms crossed over the chest to meet in front. A wide, smoothed groove separates the upper and the lower torsos and is aligned with the upper torso in front, but extends outward in the rear emphasizing the buttocks. The figurine appears to be unsexed, but there is some ambiguity since the overall shape of the head and neck appears phallic, and an off-centered (towards the left) pubic triangle appears to be coarsely incised on the bottom front at a later date (this may also be accidental). The figure is very similar to Final Neolithic Cycladic and Cypriot Neolithic figurines (Figurine Report 2004 Archive).

The infant was tucked in the overhang of the northern wall immediately prior to the backfilling of the building.

Space 226

An open area created another boundary with Building 47 and Space 227 to the north and Building 45 to the south. This long linear area Space 226 we had first thought could be a street or alleyway. But the ‘alleyway' seemed to be full of, or was covered by, midden. Detailed analysis of the thin layers of ash and charcoal and other refuse in this midden showed no evidence of trampling. So, for the moment, we must interpret the area not as a path for movement but as an area or refuse deposition – perhaps bounding a sector of houses to the south.

Building 45

The southern most building in this 10x40 strip was by far the largest we excavated this year and was heavily burnt. The internal layout was a familiar plan with the main room, Space 228 basically comprised of a raised northern platform, a long eastern platform and platforms at the southern side of the building associated with the oven and hearths. An access point was provided from these southwestern platforms to a long, narrow room Space 238. At the northern end of the narrow room were two basins. To the

south we found fragmentary remains of a bucranium consisting of cattle horns and connecting skull set in clay object. Nearby was a modified boar jaw and the back of its skull. The pedestal with horns may have been dismantled from one of the pedestal scars we found in the main room of that building before the building burned down. The fire had a starting point at the northern end of the narrow room but we are still in debate as to whether it was a deliberate act or accidental conflagration.

 

Figure 24. Building 45, facing north. The starting point of the fire is clearly seen as a blackened area. The bucranium and boar head were found in the foreground of the narrow room which may have been dismantled from posts in the larger room. Large platforms occupy the southwest corner (foreground of photograph) and hearths are   unusually found on top of the platforms although this is not unknown from James Mellaart's excavations.

 

Figure 25. The bucranium may once have sat as the top of a pillar with horns or may have been a modeled clay head with inset horns. Whatever installation it had once been a part of was clearly dismantled prior to its deposition in Building 45. The bony part of this bucranium consisted of a set of cattle horns with connecting skull. Most of the horns as well as much of the clay object had been broken off prior to deposition. The front part of the skull seems to have been neatly chopped off just behind the orbits prior to encasing it in clay. Its clay covering originally extended over the bases of the horn cores, so closely in contact with them as to suggest that their sheaths were not included in the installation. There are no indications of deliberate horn sheath removal, however. Plaster on the horn cores may have been intended to mimic or replace the missing sheaths, although in its fragmentary state we cannot tell if this extended over the entire horns. The size and texture of the horn cores suggest that the animal was a mature female (Faunal Report 2004 Archive).

 

Next to the bucranium in Building 45 was another, more unusual dismantled installation: a modified boar skull. It consists of the posterior cranium in articulation with the modified mandible (Fig. above). The skull was in poor condition, which may indicate that at one point it had been covered in plaster, although there are currently no traces of this. Only the back of the cranium was found, and we believe that the rostrum was missing prior to placement of the skull. The mandible was more complete, but its anterior cheek teeth had been deliberately removed, and it appears that the animal's upper canines had been removed from the maxilla and inserted into the empty mandibular canine sockets. In addition, a concentration of grass phytoliths was identified on top of and posterior to both third mandibular molars (Faunal Report 2004 Archive).