Çatalhöyük 2002 Archive Report

ÇATALHÖYÜK 2002 ARCHIVE REPORT

The material from these last two seasons in the Bach area has been retrieved from floor or floor related deposits and deposits right above the floors. The general assemblage was dominated by flakes without retouch (1,978 pieces) followed by nonregular blades without retouch (67 pieces) and retouched flakes (47 pieces). The most common modification was direct retouch made on both laterals of flakes and nonregular blades. Special attention was drawn to two of the units from this year. Unit 8446 was considered as a small cache of obsidian and flint pieces, much like the larger ones that have been found in the South area in previous years. The deposit consisted of one biface, one flake with attempt to biface it, two flakes, a core fragment on flint and a blade with retouch on the left lateral. The unit was the richest unit of the ones excavated in 2002. The flotation from this unit was also rich in debitage where 126 pieces came from the 1 and 2mm fraction and 31 pieces came from the 4mm fraction flotation. Unit 8570 was considered as a deliberate floor deposit, which was placed in the south-eastern corner of building 3. Underneath the floor were two beautifully bifaced obsidian points. These were situated in a small space between the eastern wall, the southern wall and a low plastered dividing wall.

Introduction

This report will summarise the lithics from the 2001 and 2002 seasons of the Bach area at Çatalhöyük. During the last two seasons a total of 5.043 pieces of chipped stone have been registered. The material came from 343 units primarily in building 3 in the Bach area. The majority of the material came from the flotation samples. As the previous seasons obsidian dominates the assemblage, only about 30 pieces was made on flint. There will also be a concluding paragraph of the lithics in general from the BACH area.

The assemblage in general from 2001 and 2002

Lithic category	Count
Flakes	1.978
Nonreg. Blades	67
Retouched blades	24
Retouched flakes	47
Debitage	2.893
Cores etc.	22
Tools	3
Bifaces	9

Lithics from priority units 2002

The material was retrieved from floor or floor related deposits. The lithics that have been recorded from the 2002 season were from priority units only. These priority units were dominated by flakes (432 pieces) followed by noneregular blades (22 pieces) and chips (22 pieces). Few of the flakes and blades had been retouched and these had often been used as scrapers.

Special attention was drawn to two of the units from this year. Unit 8446 was considered as a small cache of obsidian and flint pieces, much like the larger ones that have been found in the South area in previous years. The deposit consisted of one biface, one flake with attempt to biface it, two flakes, a core fragment on flint and a blade with retouch on the left lateral. The unit was the richest unit of the ones excavated in 2002. The flotation from this unit was also rich in debitage where 126 pieces came from the 1 and 2mm fraction and 31 pieces came from the 4mm fraction flotation.

Unit 8570 was considered as a deliberate floor deposit, which was placed in the south-eastern corner of building 3. Underneath the floor were two beautifully bifaced obsidian points. These were situated in a small space between the eastern wall, the southern wall and a low plastered dividing wall.

The chipped stone technology in the BACH area

The chipped stone technology in the BACH area indicates a predominance of the production of flakes from single and multiple sequence platform cores produced by percussion. The limited evidence of opposed blades cores and core fragments suggest that the production of these took place elsewhere on the site or off the site, but not in building 3. The majority of the debitage fragments are unmodified broken flakes. Non of the cores in the total assemblage have the characteristics of the pressure technology, though there are regular blades in the debitage assemblage, but the regular blades does not seem to be a part of the house production in building 3. It is possible that the unmodified pieces have been used as cutting tools, but there are no visible residue or use wear marks on any of them. The tools are not very common within the building. A majority of the tools are scrapers, but there are some fragments from bifacial tools and piercers.

The distribution of chipped stone according to contexts shows that the platforms, fire installations and floors/packing are the contexts with high densities of lithics. It is not surprising that the results of the production in the Bach area is similar to those from other level VI areas at the East mound, though the Bach area lacks the evidence of pyramidal shaped cores for blade production.