ÇATALHÖYÜK 1996 ARCHIVE REPORT

Lithic Report

James Conolly

1. North Excavation Area

1.1 General characteristics

There are four aspects of patterning that can be discussed:

In all cases the quantity of material is such that few conclusions can be drawn and because, this is in effect the only house from Çatalhöyük excavated in this detail, there is nothing to compare it to. Despite this, there are some hints of patterning of the aforementioned data. There are over near one thousand individual pieces of obsidian and flint from building 1, and as a whole flakes and flake fragments dominate the assemblage (graph 1). There is, however, a small but significant blade component which heralds the development of a blade dominated industry in later phases. Approximately 21% of the assemblages exhibits (macroscopic) evidence of modification by intentional retouch or use. The majority of these fall into the irregularly retouched blade and flake categories. However, 19 projectiles (1 complete, 18 fragmentary), and 40 pièces esquillées, have now been recovered (figure 1a-b). Examination of the edge modification characteristics of the latter objects, and discussion with Wendy Matthews, has lead to the provisional judgement that these probably represent special wood-working tools. Given the high incidence of wooden objects recovered in the past, the high numbers of woodworking tools is perhaps not unexpected. Nevertheless, it is telling that as a single (functional) type of object, they are unmatched in terms of their frequency. It is also useful to note that experimental replication of these objects (by K. Ataman, 1989) suggests that they are unsuitable for splitting bone. Obsidian can therefore be effectively ruled out as the material used for the breaking-up of long bones, of which there is a fairly high incidence.

1.2 Density of material between spaces and units.

The density of obsidian was calculated both by weight and by count for each unit dry sieved. The highest densities by weight were recorded in Units 1279 (fill immediately above floor Space 110), 1130 (fill Space 70), 1183 (fill immediately above floor, Space 70) and 1236 (upper fill Space 70-71). Unit 1279 has a high weight by volume density because of its large heavy core. The highest densities by count were recorded in Units 1110 (upper fill Space 70), 1181 (floor Space 70), 1139 (fill over north-west platform Space 71), and 1101 (upper fill Space 70) (graph 2). Space 70 therefore stands out as possessing the greatest number of high-density units both by weight and by count. On the other hand, density patterning by Space suggests that Space 111 contains the highest number of artefacts, with a density of 0.14 (roughly one every 7 litres of earth). Space 70 contained 343 flint and obsidian artefacts in 5330 litres of earth (a density of 0.06). Space 71 had 399 artefacts in 7349 litres (0.05), and Space 110 had 50 artefacts in 1615 litres (0.03). Overall, the highest density of material comes from FI.11, which produced 30 artefacts in the >4mm range.

1.3 Distribution of debitage types by space.

Overall there are few differences in the distribution of different types of debitage between the spaces. The patterns that can be squeezed out concerns blades and cores. Blades are found in all areas save Space 111, although the greatest numbers are to be seen in Space 71 (n=30), all but 7 of which appear to be knapped by pressure techniques. Space 70 contained 27, and of these 17 are inferred as pressure derived. Interestingly, very few blades were recovered from the northern half of the building (although one was found in the pit – F.17). Space 110 contains 7 blades, 6 of which are pressure-produced. The largest core so far recovered from building 1 also comes from Space 110, which is an irregular flake cores, although appears to have had a previous life as a prismatic blade core. Space 70 possessed the other 2 of the 3 cores and core derived products (one small fragment of a flake core and a core-tablet from what was likely a prismatic pressure-blade core). When tallied with other debris, Space 70 and 71 are remarkably equal in absolute quantities (graph 3).

1.4 Distribution of modified blanks.

This includes all those pieces which have been modified by retouch and/or use. Overall, most of the retouched tools appear to be expedient ‘low-energy' types. There are a couple of exceptions to this, notably the large obsidian retouched flake (possibly a butchery tool) and the large obsidian scraper found in Space 70 last year, together with the small amount of projectiles and projectile fragments. The greatest number of modified pieces (n=49) comes once again from Space 70. Close behind, Space 71 has 44 modified pieces, although only 2 come from the northern part of the building, the remainder split between the pit and the southern half. Space 110 stands out with 9 modified pieces, two of which are projectile fragments, including one very finely made obliquely retouched tanged base. Space 71 also stands out with its high proportion of (indeterminable) broken tools, as does Space 70 with large numbers projectile fragments (n=8), six of which come from FI.11 (graph 4).

1.5 The obsidian blade cache.

A unique and interesting cache of obsidian blades were recovered from Building 1 (figure 1c-f). Their morphology shows that they were definitely knapped from opposed platform cores in a manner superficially akin to PPNB Naviform technology (as found, for instance, at Asiklihöyük). No cores have ever been located that would accommodate this form of production so direct comparisons with PPNB cannot be made, but several similarities and differences are evident between the platforms of these pieces and those of typical PPNB blades. Four in particular stand out:

With regards to the archaeological peculiarities of the cache two additional points can be made:

2. The blanks do not refit in any way, despite repeated attempts.

Of possible importance is the fact that blanks of this sort are routinely employed for a particular form of projectile commonly seen in Mellaart equivalent Level VIA/B to Level V. Equivalent caches of blanks have also been recovered from the Mellaart area in similar depositional contexts. In the case of the Building 1 cache, it represents a collection of obsidian not necessarily derived from a single knapping event (although is certainly from the same type of production). This, combined with the observation that no production equivalent to this has been identified, strongly suggests that these have been imported: it thus represents an acquired store of obsidian from an external source, almost definitely from outside the house and possibly from outside the settlement.

2. The Mellaart Area

2.1 General characteristics

Nearly three thousand artefacts were retrieved from excavations in the Mellaart area. As a whole these are broadly comparable to those recovered from the excavation in the North area with a few telling exceptions. First, the incidence of blades in Mellaart's area is very much lower than from the North which, given the shift in production around Level VI, can be attributed to differences in the ages of their deposits. Second, which again is related to the differences in age, the projectile points from the Mellaart area are of a different character than those from the North insofar as they are generally smaller and more completely bifacially retouched (figure 2e-f). Here, flakes form about 90% (n=2701) and blades about 2% (n=50) of the sample. The majority of the latter are irregular, percussion produced, with only 5 pieces that appear to be pressure derived. The presence of such pieces in these contexts is unexpected, and examination of their contexts suggests that they are probably intrusive. Retouched pieces number 11% of the assemblage, the majority irregularly retouched flakes. There are 22 projectiles, 5 of which are complete, and 111 pièces esquillées.

2.2 Density of material between spaces and units

Three units stand out as having remarkably higher density than any other in Mellaart's area: 1849, 1099 and 1066. All have densities approaching 1.5 artefacts per litre of dry sieved soil in an area where the mean density is 0.11 per litre. All three units are described as ash with charcoal lenses or layers and midden-like. The latter unit was described by the excavators as being a hearth or oven dump. Given the association noted in the North between high density lithic deposits and the fire instillation, this conclusions seems justified. At the other end of the scale, units such as 1071 have densities approaching nil (in this case it is 0.0026 per litre). Although these contexts contain small amounts of ash, they appear to be generally differentiated from ‘midden' by the inclusion of clay brick deposits. As a whole, these low density, clay-brick composed deposits appear to be ‘cleaner' fills than there artefact-rich, ashy counterparts. In terms of spaces, those with the highest density of artefacts are 107 and 116, all with a density of 0.1 per litre.

2.3 Distribution of debitage types

The space with the highest amounts of cores and core associated debris is 105, which otherwise has a very low density rating (graph 5 and graph 6). Space 105 also (together with 113) contained the greatest absolute number of blades. Space 113 possessed a cache of blade blanks outwardly different from the cache in Building 1 because some are heavily retouched, but appear to have been produced in a similar manner (i.e. from a bipolar, acute angled core) (figure 2a-d).

2.4 Distribution of retouched debitage

Most of the retouched pieces were found in Space 105. As noted, the majority are irregularly retouched flakes, and little can be said about them at this point beyond remarking that they are inherently variable and represent a wide range of potential activities ranging such as cutting, scraping, drilling/piercing. Large number of pièces esquillées were also recovered which are most likely wood-working tools. The majority of the projectiles were found in Space 117 (graph 7).

3. The Summit

3.1 General characteristics

Overall the material from this area is very different than assemblages being recovered from the Mellaart and North excavation areas. The most striking differences is seen in the higher quantities of blades found on the Summit, which form approximately 56% of the sample examined. This is broadly comparable to the proportion found from surface contexts on the southern mound, but differs from the low (under 10%) from the both the surface and excavation of the north mound and the excavation of Mellaart. This suggests that the Summit is later than Level 5, most likely Level 4 or higher. There are some later intrusions as the two transverse projectiles in the assemblage indicate a Chalcolithic component associated with Units 1703 and 1708 (figure 3). The projectile from 1703 is notched, and likely a regional variation on a widespread Chalcolithic form. The other is notable for its dorsal thinning retouch.