Temporal variation in the South Area

The deep excavations in the South Area provide a remarkable opportunity for study of continuity and change in social and ecological strategies over more than one thousand years of sustainable occupation from 7,400-6,200 BC.

 

All of the micromorphological samples from buildings in the South Area were ‘fast-tracked' as they had been partially excavated by Mellaart, or were close to the surface of the mound. The buildings sampled include: Building 43 Space 236, Level VIII; Building 44; and Building 42, in which the plastered skull and limestone figurine were found, Level V/IV.

 

Oven and hearth areas

Microstratigraphic sequences in oven and hearth areas were prioritised for sampling and analysis, in order to examine seasonal, annual and longer-term continuities and changes in individual household strategies in:

 

food preparation and cooking fuel use, notably dung, tree (wood and leaf) and graminae (reeds and grasses) resources, which are preserved in thin-section as charred remains and phytoliths, ash or calcareous spherulites (derived from dung) craft production and specialisation, as micro-residues from these are most frequently found in lenses within oven and hearth rake-out within buildings, probably from floor sweepings

 

Plasters

Some floors and oven plasters in Building 44 had inclusions of fine rounded gravel, which are virtually absent in soft lime or ‘mud' plasters from earlier levels, and suggest a major change in selection of or access to source materials for plasters. Mellaart does note, however, that pebbles were laid as a base below fired-lime plaster floors in Levels XII-XI (Mellaart 1966, 169 & Fig. 2), and in Shrine VIII.31 (Mellaart 1966, 181, pl. XLVI b).

 

In the Level V/IV Building 42 where a plastered skull and a figurine were found, the floor plasters are c. 10 mm thick, and generally thicker than Level VI/V floors in the North Area. All edges and angles of platforms and benches were sharper, flatter and more even than buildings in the North Area, suggesting the plaster had been applied and smoothed using a different tool (s). Unfortunately no floors were sampled for micromorphology, as the building had been partially excavated by Mellaart, and was ‘fast-track'. A sample of white wall plaster was collected, in the hope that this may represent a more complete history of the building.

Wall plasters

Wall plaster was also sampled from Space 100. Wall plasters will be systematically sampled from each space and building, as they are a sensitive record of cycles of plastering, which are often linked to significant social and ritual events and also record cycles of indoor and outdoor cooking from the presence and absence of soot (Carsten and Hugh-Jones 1995, 38; Matthews 1998 and in press).

 

Area TP

 

The steeply sloping layers of grey silty clay-loam sediments and ash and charred rich lenses, on top of building debris were systematically sampled to determine the nature and rate of deposition. Some of the upper layers resembled collapsed roof deposits from Building 3, but the depth of the entire sequence resembles steeply sloping midden deposits. In thin-section we will examine whether there are any indicators of: wind and water-laid deposits in an unroofed area. The orientation and distribution of sediments within any in-situ water-laid crusts will indicate whether these layers originally formed on a flat horizontal roof, or in a steeply sloping midden.

plastered surfaces, as found on Building 3 roof

trampled surfaces and reworked deposits

discard patterns and seasonality in the phytoliths and other micro-residues

 

Midden areas

The purpose of midden sampling was twofold – firstly to investigate the pattern of discard and deposition activity and the possible seasonal signal this may record, and secondly to investigate the potential of combining phytolith analysis with thin section micromorphology to address a number of questions. The middens sampled in this season were chosen in order to gain an extensive temporal and spatial sequence in order to compare patterns in later levels with those already investigated in the early levels of the site. The samples collected from Area TP and 4040 will provide information on the latest occupation of the site, which will be contrasted with the information gained from the extensive lab study of the Deep Sounding and 1668 sections. These latter samples were studied at Reading (Shillito 2004 MSc Dissertation).

 

The results of this investigation revealed a number of deposit types within middens that can be attributed to different activities. For example ashy, phytolith rich deposits with higher percentages of charred plant remains can be attributed to hearth rake out and food processing remains, whereas deposits containing less than 5% charred plant remains and a higher frequency of plasters and minerals show an activity not directly related to domestic activities, perhaps building collapse debris. The cycle of activities and the frequency with which different activity types are represented in the midden can be related to everyday life at Çatalhöyük. Those types which occur more frequently show us what people were doing on a more daily basis, whereas less frequent deposits show less frequent activities which may have been more significant or had different meaning for the inhabitants.