| Entry: | Can we learn anything from 1960’s backfill?
I’ve started 2016 season with continuing to reexpose western part of Mellaart’s building E.IX.31 (Sp.553) in the South Area. The goal that was set for me was to define fire installations and get charcoal samples which would be suitable for radiocarbon dating. The excavation strategy seemed to be clear: get rid of backfill 19747 as soon as possible which meant fast tracking, no dry sieving, no sampling and, in general, no collecting of unstratified finds. However, as I continue to excavate, I decided to make some changes to this standard procedure that all of us had been following so far. The reason for that was a discovery of a northern wall F.3573 of so-called red shrine (S.VIII.31) that had collapsed after Mellaart’s excavations and had sealed some primary backfill of preceeding Sp.553. All this made me think about post-depositional processes at the site now and in a much more remote past. Additionally, I decided to sample bricks, mortar and red-painted plaster which made up the collapsed wall. Hopefully, this will allow us to put the shrine that seemed to be gone for good in at least a bit broader context. |
