Çatalhöyük 2001 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 2001 ARCHIVE REPORT

TP Area Lithic Assemblages. A preliminary report.

TP Alanı Litik Buluntuları. Bir ön rapor

Jacek Kabacinski

Abstract

The analyzed sample come from 30 units which comprises about 1/3 of all lithics material recovered in this season. A vast majority of lithics were made of obsidian and only very few of flint. The most characteristic feature of the assemblage is (1) very low percentage of products from the stage of preparation of cores and its early exploitation (below 5%) and (2) high index of group III - production of blades and index of tools, especially retouched blades. This indicates that process of initial preparation took place outside the excavated area, most probably outside the site. The studied assemblage bears close resemblance to the Chalcolithic lithic assemblage discovered on the western mound.

Özet

İncelenen örnekler toplam 30 üniteden gelerek, bu sene ele geçen litik malzemenin sadece 1/3'ünü oluşturmaktadır. Taş aletlerin çoğunluğu obsidiyenden yapılmış olup sadece birkaç tane çakmaktaşı örneği vardır. İncelenen örneklerin en tanımlayıcı özellikleri, (1) taş alet üretiminin ilk aşamalarını gösteren aletlerin sayısı çok azdır (%5'ten daha düşük), (2) grup III üretimine ait keskilerin, özellikle yeniden işlenmiş ağızların yüksek sayıda olmasıdır. Bu, taş alet üretiminin kazılan alan dışında, büyük olasıklıkla höyüğün dışında bir yerde gerçekleştiğini göstermektedir. İncelen aletlerin tipolojisi, Batı höyükten ele geçen Kalkolitik dönem örneklerine benzemektedir.

The report is based on study of lithic assemblages discovered by the Team Poznan during the 2001 season. They come from 30 units numbered from 6700 to 6799. Out of 360 lithics analyzed as many as 357 were made of obsidian and remaining 3 specimens made of flint. The analyzed sample comprises about 1/3 of all lithics material recovered in this season.

Analyzed lithics come from the units excavated during the early phase of this year season. Since all of them are Byzantine and/or Roman/Byzantine in age, it is clear that obsidian and flint artifacts found there are secondary deposits.

Description of the assemblage

The method of description is based on the dynamic typology, methodology that allows to follow the process of production from the nodule of raw material down to the finished tool.

General structure of the assemblage is shown in Table 15. In general, it is extremely specific due to: (1) very low percentage of products from the stage of preparation of cores and its early exploitation (below 5%); (2) high index of group III (production of blades - over 36%) and index of tools (over 38%). That indicates that process of initial preparation took place outside the excavated area, most probably outside the site. This latter possibility is even more probable when we consider a complete lack of cores in the analyzed assemblage. Local production was certainly present at the site (see for instance few cortex flakes and core tablets - Figure 36.4), albeit very limited.

Lithic production was clearly focused on blades which were removed almost exclusively from single platform cores (only one blade from opposed platform core was recorded). There is not enough evidence to reconstruct the way they were prepared, however core tablets show that at least platforms of cores were carefully prepared with several strokes. Two main methods of core exploitation were used: pressure technique and indirect percussion. The former was clearly predominant.

Two additional information shed some light on the obsidian exploitation strategy. The first comprises almost complete lack of cortex blades - only 1 out of 110 blades is covered by cortex while the second refers to the proportion of proximal central and distal parts of the blades. 80 per cent of blades are broken in central parts, while only 17.3 and 2.7 in proximal and distal respectively.

When combining these data with a domination of blades in the assemblage we can assume that not only production of blades took place outside the site but that most of the blades came to the site with already removed proximal and distal ends. The partition of blades was undertaken in three different ways: (1) by direct breaking, (2) by making first notches on sides and than breaking on those notches, or (3) by making notches and removing micro-burins (Figure 36:1, 3, 5-6).

Scaled technique played a specific role in the process of obsidian elaboration. It is especially clear in this assemblage (over 16 per cent) and was used in the final phase of obsidian exploitation (Figure 36:2). In many cases scaled technique was used for exploitation of large fragments of blades or destroyed tools (Figure 36:7).

Tools comprise almost 39 per cent of the identified assemblage. Its composition (Table 16) is clearly dominated by differently retouched blades, and they are represented by 73.3 per cent of all tools (Figure 36:8-13). They served mostly as inserts to be fit into the hafts.

Another relatively large group of tools are projectiles and bifaces. That is a very differentiated category containing both tang points, leaf points made with edge or bifacial retouch (Figure 36:16-17; Figure 37:1-3). Other types of tools like end-scrapers (Figure 37:4-5), truncations (Figure 37:6, 9), perforators (Figure 37:10-11), backed blades (Figure 37: 7-8) or large knifes made with edge retouch (Figure 37:12-13) are far less common (Table 16).

General remarks

This general overview of the studied assemblage can only be regarded as the first and initial step of the analysis and it does not contain more advanced technological and typological aspects of the assemblage. However, even if limited in size, the sample is large enough to give statistically valid results with regard to basic technological and typological characteristics of the assemblage. These are as follows:

The basic raw material for lithic production was obsidian, most probably of local origin. Flint played a marginal role in the stone processing.
Core preparation and partially also core processing took place outside the site, possibly next to the obsidian outcrops.
Main purpose of core exploitation was procurement of blades, which were struck off single platform cores, mainly by pressure or by indirect percussion. Most of these blades reach the site in a incomplete form: their proximal and distal parts were removed in workshops.
Local production of blades was limited however scaled technique was used quite intensively at the site.
Retouched blades are the main category of tools. An extremely high percentage of macroscopically observed traces of their use (both on blades and retouched blades) and high number of broken blades indicate a very intensive economic activities performed at the site.
As far as its chronological and cultural affiliation is concerned the studied assemblage bears close resemblance to the Chalcolithic lithic assemblage found on the West mound.

Tables

Table 15: General structure of the assemblage.

Table 16: Structure of tools

Figures

Figure 36: Lithics from the 2001 TP excavation

Figure 37: Lithics from the 2001 TP excavation

Table 15: General structure of the assemblage.

Type of product	n.	%
Group I preparation of cores and initial exploitation
1.1. Cortex flakes	4	1.3
1.2. Cortex blades	1	0.3
1.3. Primary lames a crete	1	0.3
1.4. Core trimming pieces	9	3.0
Group II production of flakes
2.1. Flakes from single platform cores	3	1.0
Group III production of blades
3.1. Blades from single platform cores	109	36.0
3.2. Blades from opposed platform cores	1	0.3
Group IV exploitation of scaled pieces
4.1. Scaled pieces	28	9.2
4.2. Cortex flakes from scaled pieces	3	1.0
4.3. Flakes from scaled pieces	12	4.0
4.4. Blades from scaled pieces	6	2.0
Group V repairs
5.1. Core tablets	5	1.7
5.2. Secondary lames a crete	1	0.3
Group VI undetermined, core exploitation and tool production wastes
6.1. Undetermined flakes	7
6.2. Undetermined blades	4
6.3. Chips	32
6.4. Chunks	14
Group VI tools and characteristic tools production wastes
7.1. Tools	117	38.6
7.2. Micro-burins	3	1.0
Subtotal (without group VI)	303	100
Total	360

Table 16: Structure of tools.

Type of tool	n.	%
1. End-scrapers on flake	1	0.9
2. End-scrapers on blade	1	0.9
3. Truncations	5	4.3
4. Perforators	3	2.6
5. Backed blades	2	1.7
6. Continuously retouched blades	28	24.1
7. Micro-retouched blades	10	8.6
8. Fragmentary retouched blades	6	5.2
9. Fragments of retouched blades	24	20.7
10. Notched blades	14	12.1
11. Blades with denticulated retouch	3	2.6
12. Retouched flakes	2	1.7
13. Notched flakes	1	0.9
14. Retouched scaled pieces	1	0.9
15. Knifes with edge retouch	2	1.7
16. Projectiles and bifaces	13	11.2
Total	116	100.0