| Entry: | This is my first diary record since I arrived in Catalhöyük.
The first impact with the site was shocking me in different ways.
On the one hand, the uniqueness and beauty of the archaeological site, together with the extreme calm and sense of isolation transmitted by the landscape (we literally are in the middle of nowhere) left me speechless and contemplative for the first couple of days.
On the other hand, the data recording system used here, associated to the exclusive use of tablets for the storage of the archaeological information, was (and still is..) difficult to learn, so that I often felt desperate and hopeless.
After 2 weeks of socialisation, excavation and practice with the recording system, I still do not feel 100% efficient, but the initial feeling of desperation has decreased and things that just some days ago seemed impossible to accomplish, look now doable.
After the first “archaeological shock” I have now a more positive attitude and I also feel very excited about the context I am excavating: building 5, north-western platform of space 154. After the excavation of the upper layers of the platform (all of them highly eroded) the cut of a burial appeared (F 3808). The excavation of the burial disclosed a group of bones, probably belonging to the same individual. Some of the bones were missing (skull, hands, feet for example).
The chance to work with an anthropologist directly on the field (Barbara) helped me to understand that the individual was dismembered at the time of interment and that the position of some bones (femur behind spinal column) was only possible if she/he was partially fleshed at the time of interment, with just some preserved ligaments holding together the spinal column.
A high quantity of phytholits was very well conserved over the external surface (upper and lower) of the bones. When Burcu saw this, she immediately thought about a textile or a chord that was strongly wrapping the bones. I also agree with this interpretation and I am looking forward to the analysis on the phytholits samples, in order to know more about the type of wrap that was used.
The dismembered body together with the phytholits over the bones support the conclusion that this is a secondary burial.
After the removal of the bones and of some millimetres of the subjacent infill, an obsidian blade and a fragmented skull appeared. The skull is plastered with red pigment and covered by a layer of phytholits, probably related to a textile. The excavation of the skull has just started (18.05.16) and this is just a work in progress hypothesis, but due to the traces of another textile wrapping the skull and to its proximity to the upper group of bones, it is possible that the two distinct groups of human remains were related and possibly belonged to the same person. |
