| Entry: |
Last week’s aim was getting rid of the features and revealing the packing all over S.531. So first thing to remove was the long lived bench F.7879. While I was excavating the make-up of the bench U.32740, unexpectedly I revealed an earlier phase of the bench when it was smaller in width and perhaps in length however, due to truncation by F. 7872 post retrieval pit on east, the earlier length of the bench is unknown. It is clear that at some point they extended the earlier bench and constructed a bigger one at least on northern part the latest phase of the bench is bigger. Perhaps they didn’t want to make the bench bigger on South to not to reduce the size of “kitchen” space Below the make-up of the bench, I revealed several plaster and make up layers (32783) . To understand the sequential relationship of the bench with eastern platform F. 7734, I started excavating the platform. After removing the grouped make up and plaster layers U.32735 from the platform, eastern side of the platform, we found plaster layer that did not exist on the southern part (U32785) and later it is understood that U.32783 was the same as U.32785. So now it is clear that, below the extension of the bench U.32740, we got the same sequence for eastern platform and the bench. So the theory of “extended part of the bench belongs to earlier phase of the building” was gone! While these discussions were going on between me and Arek, he said he remembers this kind of connection between platform and bench, and it was from building 119.
From 2015 onwards, when we found the bench, it was just a small similarity for us that B.119 has the same type of bench abutting the eastern platform. However, in 2016 season we started finding more similarities. Of course, there are sets of features we expect to find in Çatalhöyük and ways to construct them. You know what to expect from Northern part of the building or from southern “kitchen” area. It may sound naive to say that there are many similarities between B.119 and B.132 but I will go wild and say it! For me B.119 looks like a miniature B.132.
It is obvious that B.132 is much bigger than B.119 but it also has the characteristics of “typical Çatalhöyük house”. So I started researching about B.119. Going through feature sheets didn’t make my work easier since there was no discussion in the sheets. So I started looking archive reports from 2013 and 2014. As I went through archive reports, I realized that there are even more similarities.
So, in the final phase of occupation, S.513 of B.119, it has four platforms on three sides and eastern platform F.7320 was abutting the eastern Wall, as F.7734 (Eastern platform of B.132). Bench of B.119 (F.7121) was abutted to the platform and was incorporated by a post as we understand from the post retrieval pit (F.7143). Bench, platform and post incorporation is not a new thing for Çatalhöyük but it’s interesting to see the exact same arrangement on the same spot for both of the buildings. Other similarities that can be mentioned are the use of oven F.7322 (B.119) and hearth F.7323 (B.119) together on the South eastern part of the building as B.132 has the same use (Oven abuts the southern Wall in both of them) and the fact that curbs, and southern platforms abutting the southern walls, are used to separate these features from the rest of the spaces (S.513-B.119/ S.531-B.132).
It is obvious that it’s easy to define similarities between buildings while you can still see them. If we go through building by building and compare all of the features used in the same phases, we would probably find many more similarities that are not obvious at the moment. It would be very exciting for me to find out more of these similarities between buildings but I guess it would require more time and energy than is available during the excavation season. Lastly, I wonder if those similarities are not just architectural but also reflected in the material culture. |
