| Entry: | The situation Eric enountered in his burial very closely resembles activity we have run across in the North Shelter, specifically Space 99, where a post-neolithic burial (F. 3689) was placed directly next to, if not, partially inside a wall (F. 7103). There are two distinct layers of bricks comprising F. 7103 (the upper being highly eroded with little disambiguation between brick/mortar, and the lower being made of highly fired, very well constructed mud brick with clear distinctions between brick/mortar). The current issue at hand is determining whether these two lenses constitute one period of simultaneous construction and enviromental stressors have simply eroded the top lens more heavily than the lower, or whether we have two periods of constuction representing totally different methods in both material selection (soils/ tempers used to make the bricks) and constuction technique (as the brick/mortar boundaries are almost indiscernable when considering the upper lens U. 21119).
Regardless of what conclusion we come to, what cannot be refuted (at least- not in my opinion and not given the data we have so far) is the fact that whoever deposited this body came into direct contact with the lower, better constructed wall either purposefully (as Eric suggested- in order to provide support for the burial cut), or by accident. When looking at the orientation of the grave (F. 3689) you can see its plan had to be altered as the cut was being created after these very hard, very dense bricks were encountered, leaving the bottom half of the cut resembling a much more irregular polygon than an actual rectangle.
Further excavation will provide us with better insight as to the chronological deposition of these elements, and; futhermore, might be able to shed light on the cultural affiliations with which these people lived by. (e.g.- If it proves out that we have two distinct periods of construction it could be that those people who created this burial cut had no cultual/ familial memory of the building on which they were living, potentially speaking volumes as to the influx of ethnically differentiated people inhabiting Catalhoyuk East throughout time. |
