| Entry: | So far, Osman and I have been working on floors, and today the space looks just about the same way it did when we first got here. Three exposed skeletons, white plaster floors… Really looks no different at all! I did a video today with Jason summarizing the work we have done so far this year and marking the beginning of the season, which in some ways reinforced the sense of not having done very much. Layers of floor that looked just the same, and the same number of exposed skeletons (3) as we started with. In some ways, a microcosm of the larger story of Catal—serious consistency over time. Though I can be comforted by the fact that it’s just when you get comfortable with what’s here that you find yourself shocked (seriously, go take a look at Erik’s burial. Or we can chat [some more] about the baby head in a bag.)
I also find myself struck by the constant back-and-forth between giant units (e.g. 20849, 20852—the units of our big western floor f. 7014) and tiny units (e.g. 20858, the burial fill of f. 7015 that we’ll be excavating tomorrow). It echoes, for me, the lived experience of normal, everyday life versus the sudden, ephemeral, memorable moments that people must have encountered. So tomorrow we’ll quickly excavate the fill surrounding a child who was lost and buried under the floor, at a particular moment—with the child’s skeleton constantly in view—in contrast to the more routine and now-invisible steps trod across the western floor which we have spent the past five days excavating. |
