INTRODUCTION
In 2002 the team based in Stanford and Cambridge Universities has been completing the writing of four volumes that will report on the work that we conducted at the site from 1995 to 1999. We have already published volumes dealing with surface survey and with our methodologies. But the four new volumes will provide the first in-depth coverage of the excavations and the analyses that members of the 120-strong team have been conducting. It is important to get this post-excavation and publication stage completed before we plan to return to large-scale excavation in 2003. But other teams working at Çatalhöyük have been digging (Fig.2). The Berkeley team has completed the excavation of Building 3 in the BACH area in the north part of the site, and a team from Poznan in Poland has been working in the TP area in the southern part of the East Mound. Excavations by the Stanford-Cambridge team also took place in the South Area for the foundations of a large shelter.
Figure 2: Overall plan of the excavation areas
The South Area Shelter Project has been in the planning for the past three years and construction started in earnest this year. It is now two-thirds complete and will be ready for a new phase of excavations in 2003. The 45m x 27m shelter also covers the Summit Area excavated by the team from Thessaloniki in 1996 – 1998. It drops from a ground level of 1014.9m AD (meters Above Datum) to the east down to 1006.9m AD to the west in the South Area and has been designed by a team of architects from Istanbul, Atölye Mimarlik. The design of a continuous concrete foundation plinth was the solution to the many difficulties posed by constructing on an archaeological site of mudbrick architecture, differential soil compaction and exposure to extreme weather conditions (Figs. 1, 3 and 4).
Figure 3: Design plans for South Shelter
Figure 4: The South shelter under construction
Study seasons were conducted by the West Mound and Konya Plain Survey Teams, on continued collation of data towards final publication. Discussions also took place about the next 5-year phase of work concluding in plans for a major new area of excavation in a 40m x 40m area in the North part of the site (Forty-forty-see Fig. 2).
The dig house has finally been completed: there is now accommodation for 80 people, three storerooms, a Visitor Centre, seven laboratories (including a large seminar and excavation study room), and a terrace overlooking the mounds (see page 23).
The project was very honoured to receive an award this year from the Turkish Ministry of Culture, and we acknowledge in return the help that has been given to us in 2002 by the Minister of Culture and the Department of Monuments and Museums, especially regarding the South Area shelter. We are also making plans in collaboration with the Department, for a major exhibit about the site at the American Natural History Museum in New York.
In June we hosted a large on-site press day to which over 100 press and guests were invited. The event, sponsored by Boeing, was a huge success with many articles featuring in newspapers and magazines in the ensuing weeks.
Work on the Experimental House Project continued in 2002, the internal walls and furnishing were plastered and ‘smoothed’ with ‘rubbing’ stones and experiments in pigment mixes were made and used in replicating wall paintings (Fig. 5). The oven was lit (Fig. 6) using both dung and wood to analyse the residue signature and to see how it compared to the archaeological by-product. Based on those excavated in Building 5, storage bins were constructed in one of the small rooms. Modern portable objects, such as wooden bowls, animal skins, plants, seeds and fruits were arranged inside the house, all based on findings from the excavation areas.
The house has been a great success not only for visitors to the site but to the team. It has provided an insight into the use and ‘feel’ of the internal space, as well as raising many questions such as light source and problems of air circulation during the use of ovens and hearths.
Figure 5: Experimenting with pigments
Figure 6: Experimenting with fire
During late 2001 and early 2002 a fascinating Çatalhöyük exhibit opened in the Science Museum of Minnesota, and there is a smaller version now on permanent display (http://www.smm.org/mysteries/).
The project is also the lead partner in a Mediterranean-wide heritage project called TEMPER (Training, Education, Management and Prehistory in the Mediterranean). This involves six partner institutions and will lead to site management plans being completed for Çatalhöyük as well as for four other sites in the Eastern Mediterranean. The aim of the project is to raise awareness of the importance of the prehistoric heritage of the Mediterranean and to encourage best practice in site management. Training sessions will disseminate best practice methods and the first of these took place this summer at Çatalhöyük. Educational programmes are also being devised to encourage school children and adults to visit the sites and to develop an interest in prehistory. The TEMPER project is being very capably administered by Louise Doughty in the Cambridge office (see page 17).
This year the dig house was also used as the venue for a seminar for 7 Palestinian and 7 Israeli archaeologists to hold discussions about a shared past and a common cultural heritage.
The Çatalhöyük Thames Water Scholarship Fund established in 2000 assists young Turkish archaeologists and students gain additional training and studies abroad. This year seven applicants have been awarded funds.
As we complete the current phase of our work, publishing the excavation that took place between 1995 and 1999, and as we look forward to the next phase of 5-6 years of excavation and post-excavation, it has been necessary to make changes to the team as people retire and move on to other research. We are especially thankful to Peter Andrews and Theya Molleson who headed the human remains team based in the Natural History Museum in London for all their work over this first phase, and to the archaeobotanical team of Christine Hastorf, Julie Near, Andy Fairbairn and Daniele Martinoli. The new teams in these areas will be Clark Larsen based at Ohio University and Simon Hillson at University College London for human remains, and Mike Charles and Glynis Jones at Sheffield University for archaeobotany. We also welcome a conservation team headed by Liz Pye from University College London and David Watkinson at Cardiff University.
During 2002, Jackie Ouchikh took over as Project Administrator in Cambridge and we are very grateful to her for fitting in so quickly and effectively. Also in 2002 we were extremely sorry to lose Anja Wolle. She had worked for the project since 1996 and provided much of our ‘outward face’ through the Website and Newsletter, for example. She developed the project database, which provides the backbone for the analysis and dissemination of the projects research, and was a huge support to the running of the project. We owe her much and wish her well in her new position.
Figure 7: Thank You Anja and Good Luck!