This chapter outlines the general aims and history of the University of California at Berkeley research project at Çatalhöyük (BACH) from 1997 to 2003. It introduces the project team, funding sources, permit holders,  puts the BACH research into the context of the at. We provide a short introduction to the Neolithic 9000-year old settlement mound (East Mound) of Çatalhöyük  along with previous and ongoing research as the context of the Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük (BACH) project, Finally we introduce in this chapter some of the broader issues and significance of our research.

The site of Çatalhöyük was excavated by James Mellaart in 1961-63, and 1965 who focused on the southwestern corner of the East Mound. After the 1965 season, the site was closed down for almost 30 years. Read Michael Balter's book the Goddess and the Bull for some ideas on this. Ian Hodder was able to secure a long-term permit to excavate the site and survey the surrounding region, starting in 1993. The first research cycle included the surface and sub-surface reconnaissance of 1993-1994 of the undisturbed areas in the northern part of the East Mound. The second cycle of research included excavation in this area called NORTH in 1995-1999. The BACH excavation of Building 3 in this same area 1997-2003 was also part of this second research cycle.

We selected an 11 x 7 m area for excavation in the NORTH area in order to take advantage of the excavated houses by the CRP immediately to the west to consider questions such as the life-histories of houses in a "neighborhood", the physical and social/cultural formation of the East Mound itself and, in a broader sense, the continuity of place. In the BACH project at Çatalhöyük we treated the archaeological record of architecture as the focus of our research, rather than as the context of the associated finds. The buildings at Çatalhöyük are constructed of walls of large unfired clay mud-bricks glued together with thick layers of "mortar". Their plastered walls and floors - including sometimes painted decoration - are extraordinarily well preserved.

The research activity of the BACH team comprised the excavation of Building 3 - an early Neolithic building dating to ca. 7000 BC, probably the equivalent of Mellaart's phases VIb-VII. Also included in the BACH Area were two contemporary complete small rooms (Spaces 88 and 89) abutting Building 3 on its south side, along with Space 87 which belonged to a building outside our area. As a result of the 1997-2003 excavations in the BACH Area we have been able to synthesize the hundreds of observed depositional events in Building 3 into five major phases, starting with its construction on top of an underlying midden and ending with its rituals of closure, roof collapse and infilling.

Six burials from the Roman period (1st-3rd century A.D) had been dug into the fill of Building 3 and Space 88. Five of these were removed in 1997, and a sixth, burial was excavated in 1998. These graves provided a valuable window into the underlying Neolithic fill of Building 3, such as part of the collapsed house roof.

The 1998 seasons focused on the removal of the post-occupation deposits in Building 3. These did not comprise deliberate infill, rather collapsed building material and its debris. One of the most striking features of Building 3 - and a highly unusual occurrence in the prehistory of the Near East and Southern Europe - comprises the presence of substantial remains (nearly a half) of its collapsed roof. These covered much of the northern half of Space 86 and rested directly on the platforms and central floor area. By contrast, the southern part of the building was dismantled and abandoned more gradually. Large animal bones, predominantly scapulae and skulls, possibly the remains of a great feast, were found in this part of the building lying on the latest floors.

The 1999-2002 seasons proceeded with the systematic excavation of floors, platforms, and burials (from the end of 1999) in Building 3. An unusual “Screen Wall” with two small partition walls separated a narrow western space 158 from the larger space 86 in the later history of Building 3. The large earlier unpartitioned room is termed Space 201. Through all its history, space 86/201 has a tripartite division: North-and-East with three large contiguous platforms whose  floors and walls were carefully re-plastered many times. In the later history of Building 3 the north-central and northeast platforms were cut several times by deep burial pits. The lower Central Floor Area was also cut by the earliest burials in Building 3 exclusively of children. In the South-and-West area of Building 3 the space is frequently re-configured by the construction of ovens, hearths, and storage facilities. In the southeast corner a step acted as the base for a ladder giving access to the roof.

Towards the end of the 2002 season, the earliest floor of Building 3 was removed, revealing an underlying midden deposit. In 2003, the plaster, bricks and mortar of the walls of Building 3 were analyzed and recorded in detail and then removed, revealing also the history of the three small cells (Spaces 87,88,89) immediately to its south, that now appear to have been built at the same time as Building 3. Excavation in Space 87 in 2002 revealed the surprising discovery of nine complete skeletons.

The backdrop to the project at Çatalhöyük was the transition to subsistence based on domesticated plants and animals. The question of sedentism dominates (albeit implicitly) all of the models of the "Neolithic Revolution". It has been assumed traditionally that the establishment of "tell" settlements represents a definite increase in sedentism and commitment to a particular location through many generations of time. I (RET) have argued, however, that it is not the formation of a tell by itself that is the important variable, but the way in which it is formed physically and culturally, that is important to understand. I argued that the significant archaeological demonstration of the social concomitants of sedentism at work is to what extent there is an intentional continuity of occupation of "place, shown by detailed analysis of the life-history of a specific house within the context of neighboring houses.

There were several existing ideas in a broad spectrum of literature about Çatalhöyük, to whose investigation we thought the BACH project could contribute. One of our aims was not to assume conformity to some normative "typical" house, but to treat the details of the house and its history as objects of investigation. Secondly, we wished to join in the investigation of the claim of Çatalhöyük as the "earliest city" by challenging the large intensive population count based on the assumed simultaneous occupation of  the dense agglomeration of rooms. This was one of the purposes of constructing the life-histories of individual houses in a neighborhood. Thirdly, we were especially interested in developing alternative interpretations of “shrine-like” elaborations such as bucrania and the screen wall. 

Download this chapter, but remember that this is a pre-print copy of a paper that is currently under review. Please respect the intellectual property of the author and the efforts of the publishers and reviewers until its publication. If you find any errors that need modification please contact the author at Tringham@berkeley.edu. Meanwhile this pdf is distributed to interested readers under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.

Preface

Introduction

Chapters

Preface

Introduction

Chapters

Unless otherwise specified, this site is licensed by a Creative Commons 2.5 license