| Entry: | This is my first diary entry for the 1997 season and exactly a week since the first day of excavation in the Mellaart area. Prior to my arrival Roddy and Craig had spent much of a week removing last years packing and backfill that we'd placed over the excavation area for protection. Generally the packing of soil filled sacks worked well, the tops of walls suffered some erosion as had been expected but otherwise the damage was minimal. A couple of problems from last season should be noted, firstly unit 1637 was allocated twice, once as a prioritised botanical rich 'midden' lens and secondly as a wall. The wall unit has now been renumbered as 1860 and because we have an amazingly thorough recording system, the artefacts, heavy residue and samples were successfully traced and renumbered. It was a complicated process to trace these various finds but it is reassuring to know that this mistake can be rectified, however I don't recommend anyone should do this and I stress the importance of keeping a tight control on the allocation and use of the unit number. The second problem is an 8cm discrepancy in the grid over spaces 117 and 118. We are going to continue with this grid for the duration of excavation of the building and any overall plans can, I hope, be rectified. I can' remember the exact grid value we're using but I will note it in the diary at some stage. This year we're concentrating on the northern strip of the 20 x 20 m sq trench, i.e. north of the area we excavated last year which previously we'd only ever cleared of erosion and overgrowth. From west to east this consists of Space 109 (Mell **Level VII). Engin and Aylin are digging this space which is actually about 1/3 of the whole room as seen in Mellaart's plans. We're being strict about not overstepping the limit of our trench area as we may be tempted to just keep on going in all directions and we'll never get to achieve our main goal of excavtaing the early activity Mellaart reached in 1963, also we'll always loose partial room areas as we 'step-in' around the sides for safety considerations and to limit damage through huge exposed sections. Unit 1869 was allocated to the backfill of erosion over the horizon where Mellaart had excavated to, which was a heavily disturbed and worn surface with traces of plaster indicative of floor level, however an area of section against the eastern wall showed that Mellaart had also removed some floors. Central to the space was a shallow oval oven/hearth with moulded rim/lip, which abutted the southern wall. The rim/lip was higher to the east and elsewhere it appeared to have been worn in antiquity to be almost flush with the surface we exposed, unit 1890. Across this surface, which was uneven and sloping towards the northwest corner, were patches of scorching. This and the flush rim of the feature suggests the oven/hearth was regularly raked. This space is being half sectioned, the eastern half will be excavated first as the western half shows traces of plaster which maybe platforms truncated by Mellaarts excavation, this is suggested by his plans which both show the oven/hearth and platforms. Unit 1892 represents the excavation of the floor and consisted of material similar to packing or levelling. We therefore appear to be out of the use of this building but we have to check the walls which we know abut plaster facing on earlier walls. Space 112 (Mell Shrine 9, Level VII), likewise is reduced in size because of the limit of our trench edge and likewise we found Mellaart had partially excavated floors and features, generally leaving corners of intact deposits. Jon is digging this area with help from Mirium (BACH 1 Team), and now Burcu. Having excavated unit 1870, building fill in the southwest corner, a cleaning number was given over the whole space, unit 1875. This revealed human remains in the southwest corner and an area of scorching to the east of them. Mellaarts plans show a circular hearth roughly in the area of the scorching, however in a reconstructed drawing it appears as a sunken basin. Platforms are shown against all the walls with a gap in the middle of the eastern wall. We haven't established yet whether Mellaart excavated any burials, it's likely he did, but missed the ones we have found. A series of plaster applications still adhering to the western wall is probably the remnants of a truncated platform. The first skeleton 1884 was successfully excavated and the second 1885, has been found to underly the southern walls. This exciting scenario will be recapped tomorrow as well as the other spaces. I shall also go over the newly designed specialist tours and the results as well as refining of the recording sheets. Read on!Entered By: Shahina Farid |
