| Entry: | 6th August. I’ve been trying to sort out the plastered moulded feature on the north side of the crawlhole, now called feature 279, and it still isn’t clear what’s going on! Two or three days ago I did take off the orange-brown curved bit (3150) at the north-west of the feature, as it did not seem to be part of the rest, and appeared not to be joined to the wall - which had earlier been suspected. It was made of two colours of bricky material, which have more chaff than normal in bricks, and a layer of plaster. I then made detailed plans and profiles of the main lump, and tried to tunnel underneath the understand the extent of the plaster on the north side, as this appears to be a real surface while the southern one is badly cut and broken. It runs diagonally south as it goes down, and I haven’t yet got all the way through. However, today I cleaned up the area from which I’d removed the bricky stuff, and found plaster which appears to attach the main lump to the wall, and also seems to enclose more orange-brown and grey bricky material the same as the stuff I took off. I’m now beginning to wonder if it is a bin, or series of bins, after all, that have slumped and had extra layers of clay, mud or plaster added at various times to support or re-make them. I don’t understand otherwise why they should be attached to the wall. It would also explain the curves apparent on the northern edge - rather than being bull-horns or something similar, they could be bin divisions. The only one which isn’t damaged is at the east, which could be an entrance. Mark has a series of bins in building 5, and they seem to have had curving roofs and an entrance at the side. The bin we found in Mellaart’s VII:2 in 95/96 was also in the NW corner and had traces of a curving roof. I daresay I’ll find out next week, but the slowness of all this is very dispiriting. Every time I decide on a course of action, something crops up to suggest a different one! Today I started taking down the next spit of fill (3189), so I can get down under it to ascertain what is part of the moulding and what is fill. On the southern side there is lots of grey stuff at the east which looks to me like a brick with plaster round it, but Wendy thinks is part of the moulding. I did start taking off 3189 in that area, and came onto a mixed deposit of plaster, grey brick and orange-brown clay. Either we say it IS part of the moulding and that F.2279 was huge, or we say it’s a collapsed wall and the same stuff underlies F.279, reducing the size of it considerably. I go for the latter at present, and just want to get rid of all this stuff and see what’s further down! I can’t believe I’ve achieved so little visible change in 116 this week - although I have been very tired on a couple of days and not working to full capacity, especially in these really hot afternoons. Next week I want to get rid of 3189, F.279 and the plaster thing on the south of the crawlhole, and uncover all the reddish stuff. Preferably I’ll remove that too and see what’s underneath.
I haven’t achieved much in the way of lab work either, we’ve had so many meetings on the methodology volume. These have been interesting, although at times I’ve felt they are just re-opening old wounds. It’s also made me recognise that things we felt might have been resolved may simply be things we have become accustomed to, as new diggers are expressing the same frustrations that we were in 96. Last year, on the north trench, things were different as we dealt largely with burials, and taking off plaster. While this was slow, it was due to the state of the burials, and presence of paintings etc, not the sampling process or recording system. Working in 116 I’m much more aware again of how extremely slow the digging is. I know this moulding thing is holding me up because we don’t know what it is, and some people think it might be important, and even taking it apart layer by layer isn’t as simple as it sounds because of its structure and I haven’t been able to clear its outer layer due to its position, but it is also the recording and sampling process that is slow. It was wonderful to see the huge progress made in building 5 yesterday, when Anita Louise and her goddess friends were here. Very heartening to see that soil really can be shifted at Catalhoyuk. I didn’t go on the site tour today - it is just too hot. Nothing has come of the attempt to move it to 5pm. In fact today there was a meeting at 2pm with some chemists from METU regarding possible areas for them to do analysis for us.Entered By: Naomi Hamilton |
