Space Number:  488

Area: North  

Within Building Number:  

Phasing:
Mellaart Level Range: VII - VI 

Hodder Level: North.G 

Additional Phase Info: Level assignment based on Shahina Farid's phasing of the 4040 sequences. 

Description:
BT - 2016
Space 488 is located between B.77 and Space 489. It was excavated during the 2012, 2013 and 2015 field seasons. It was first excavated partially in 2012 - its western limit being a section defined by the limit of excavation that year. All deposits belonging to that section were removed by the end of 2013. In the following years the remaining half of the space was excavated.

During its inception in the Neoltihic, it was defined by building 132’s partition wall F.3679 to the south, B132’s western wall F.3643 to the west, and B.77’s southern wall F.3096 to the north. Its eastern limit remains uncertain, although it is likely to have been defined by the western wall of B.113, F.3647. The definition of its eastern extent was truncated in the Neolithic with the construction of B.108. In fact, this construction event removed the original depositional events within this space. The space was used most likely as a refuse area. At one point in its use, wall F. 3646 was constructed to support wall F.3679 which greatly reduced its size.

There is no clear evidence on how the space was accessed.

AK - 2013 The space 488 was recorded and assigned under separate number in 2012, after exposition of the walls: Southern - F.3646, Northern - F.3626 and Eastern - F.3627. The western limit of the space is set arbitrarily on the section positioned in 2012 along the Grid line: E-1044. Taking into consideration the plan arrangement of the buildings uncovered on the North Shelter the described interior is placed between B.77 (in the North), B.113 (in the East) and Sp.489 (in the South).
-It must be stated at the beginning that the Space 488 has to be treated as a stratigraphical entity as well as recording/documentation one, and not considered as actual inhabited/residential activity space (similar to the Sp.518 underneath). The latter is involved with the fact that the walls described above restricting the space were built for different purposes and diachronically (not simultaneously). Except for F.3626 and F.3627 that were bonded and created N-E corner of the space. Their erection was involved with the aim of setting the building (B.108) on a stable ground that appeared to be the top of two mentioned walls whose height reached 1.58m. The latter shows complicated techniques and tremendous endeavor implicated with desire of building the structure on higher elevation while the neighbouring buildings (e.g. B.77) had been still inhabited on much lower level.
-The above statement is confirmed by the absolute lack of any features of internal arrangement within the space 488 that would be related with the walls. An additional affirmation might be the southern face of the wall F.3626. It seems that during constructional phases the builders did not care about the vertical line of the wall. It is clear that it was difficult to maintain the straightness in the extremely narrow space 488. Furthermore, re-using the broken bricks was the significant factor of the final disheveled form of F.3626. All those data demonstrate that the appearance was not as important as in typical buildings, because the described part of the feature was plausibly immediately covered by the infill (u. 19580, 20486) that wrapped whole sp.488, creating at the same time suitable base/ground for erection of above structure B.108.
-The reason of erection of the southern wall (F.3646) of Sp. 488 along the northern face of existing counterpart structure (F.3679) remains still unclear. The feature did not have any relations with uncovered units and it was not bonded with any structure at least in its Eastern section. Therefore, interpretation involving construction of the wall with the kind of retaining purpose is still the most plausible. In that case the feature might have been built to keep F.3679 from collapsing on to B.77 (see Archive Report 2012, p:25). 

Number of Related Diary Entries: 3

Conservation Recorded: No

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