| Entry: | This year I am working in Building 49, Space 100, probably for the duration of the excavation. Building 49 is a small house, with plaster and the traditional features that characterize Catalhoyuk. I started excavating platform f. 1651, located in the northwest corner of the building, which had a very large round impression in the center of the plaster, layer 13668. I took off a series of red make-up, dirty surfaces, and white plaster, revealing the top of burial cut [14437], starting f. 4000. After excavating the burial fill (14429), skeletons 14441 (a young woman) and 14440 (an infant) were revealed by Lori Hagar. Along with the young female skeleton were a number of ground stone beads closely associated with the neck of the skeleton. There was a small greenstone axe in the fill, possibly associated with the infant 14440. A number of phytoliths were found associated with the young female skeleton, samples of which were taken by Lori. After the skeletons were removed, I cleared out the burial cut [14437] to bottom of the burial cut, revealing a darker layer with construction debris throughout. This layer has several instances of semi-articulated human bones, possibly disturbed by the later burials. To date, I have cleaned most of this layer, in preparation for the next burial fill.
While the burial was being excavated by Lori, I moved to the south end of the building, to work on the north-facing wall f. 1658 and the interior wall, f. 1659. I removed a layer of plaster that was overlying both walls, 14442. The plaster was heavily degraded and had been conserved, making excavation difficult. This plaster was overlying a niche [14450] in the wall above the oven that had been blocked (14448) with brick-like material, both excavated and recorded by Dan Eddisford. This wall plaster, 14442, also covered the internal wall f. 1659, a somewhat ephemeral construction of plaster and makeup on the western extent of platform f. 1666. I excavated several layers of make-up, and another layer of plaster, 14451, overlying, again, both f. 1658 and f. 1659. This revealed a post-like column 14454, comprised of make-up and plaster. This column was painted red during a phase of its use-life, and a sample was taken by Duygu Camurcuoglu for further study of painted plasters. After the column was removed, another layer of plaster, 14453, was removed from the wall f. 1658 and the remains of f. 1659. The removal of this plaster layer freed 14458, which was plaster in oven f. 4003, removed by Dan. The last layer of make-up for f. 1659 was also beneath 14453, and the removal of this last instance of make-up freed a series of floors 14423 on platform f. 1666, which were removed as the end of the phase.
My own project has progressed somewhat slowly. I have enough interesting material about f. 4000 to have a nice little video, but I feel like I should have an introductory video, and that has been harder. I might just muscle out the other videos and worry about the introduction video later. I'm hoping to have something to update in Konya next Friday, but we'll see. If nothing else, it has been an interesting exercise in how difficult it is to add one extra duty to the excavation process. |
