| Entry: | there are some remarkable developments in the southern part of space 112.
In the human remains lab a refit could be made between the mandible of skeleton 10814 found in burial f1711 and the skull 10834 found in post retrieval pit 1705 (futher loose teeth found in the fill of 1711, fill unit 10837 - could be matched with dental holes in the skull). Given that the missing skull of 10814 was probably in the of burial 1711 (given the articulation of the undisturbed skeletal elements of 10814) and that post retrieval pit 1705 is located to the east of 1711, the match across these spatially and contextually discrete units requires some form of explanation. At present I can outline two scenarios.
First, at the time at which burial 1709 (above 1711) was cut some skeletal elements of 10814 were placed along the edge of 1709. It is possible that the skull was placed on the eastern edge of the cut 10830 of burial 1709, and was then encountered when post retrieval pit 1705 was cut, lifted, and then placed in this pit. This scenario seems unlikely to me given the distict matrix of the fill of 1705 (unit 10807) compared to that in the fill of 1709 (unit 10831). Second the skeletal elements of 10814 placed along the edge of 1709 seem to suggest that the two cut features touched, but that 1705 did not really disturb 1709.
Second, it is possible that at the time at which 1709 was cut (cut unit 10830) some elements of 10814 were put along the edge of this feature, but the skull was lifted and than placed in 1705. This scenario would imply that burial 1709 was put at approximately the same time that post retrieval pit 1705 was cut (it is ofcourse possible that skull 10834 was out in the 'open' for some time.
Further investigation of the large cut feature 1702 revealed the following matters. Due north of skeleton 10840 (which remains to be revealed) what appears to be a more or less complete sheep skeleton seems to come up. The cluster 10828, that was earlier collected, represent the front legs of this individualç and to the south are the hind legs. Other elements that came to surface are vertebrae and ribs. This sheep skeleton is designated unit 10839. This sheep skeleton in a burial is so far unique at Çatalhöyük, and is excavated in close cooperation with Nerissa Russel from the faunal remains team.
Finally a substantial part of the east wall was excavated as unit 10841. In the course of this removal several matters became clear. First of all the fabric of the bricks and the mortar is the same everywhere in this wall, further it is founded everywhere on the dark grey brick wall of the level VIII room below, feature 298. Third, wall 259 has a plaster coating on its east surface along its entire lenght (this could imply it was a party wall at some stage, or it might have been an outside plastered wall. It is clear that the plaster goes with wall 259, because there is loose fill beyond the plaster, behind which is the next wall). Thus contrary to what was posited on 22-07-04 in my diary the southern strech of the east wall is not a later wall placed in front, but belongs to wall 259.Entered By: Bleda Düring |
