The Life-History of the BACH Project

1. The Life-History of the BACH Project CoDA Center for Digital Archaeology www.codifi.info This video will help you get started in exploring the Last House on the Hill digital edition, a multigraph about the Berkeley Archaeologists @ Çatalhöyük (BACH) project at this famous 9000-year old Neolithic mound settlement in Central Anatolia, Turkey. This video focuses on the work of the BACH team and the 7-year history of the project. It is a guide to understanding the way in which we collected and documented the materials that you will ﬁnd in this multigraph. If you want to read more on these topics, look at Chapters 1-4 of the printed monograph

2. Çatalhöyük Research Project 1993N East Mound, Çatalhöyük North Area, East Mound The archaeological site of Çatalhöyük comprises two mounds. This is the earlier Neolithic East Mound that was the main focus of both the 1960s excavation and the renewed (since 1993) project. The northern eminence of the East Mound was untouched by archaeologists until 1993, when its top 10 cm were scraped off revealing this pattern of walls. This was to be the NORTH Area of excavation.You can see in the southwest of the mound the excavation started in the 1960s, referred to as the SOUTH Area

3. The North Area N Building 1 (Çatalhöyük Research Project) 1995-1997 The ﬁrst house to be excavated in the NORTH Area was Building 1 started in 1995 by the Çatalhöyük Research Project.

4. The North Area N Building 3: Berkeley Archaeologists @ Çatalhöyük (BACH) 1997-2003 The next building to be excavated in the NORTH Area was Building 3 -the focus of the BACH (Berkeley Archaeologists @ Çatalhöyük)project. Both Building 1 and Building 3 in a sense are Last Houses on THIS part of the Hill since - unusually - they were never built over. Characteristically the mud-brick houses of Çatalhöyük were truncated, ﬁlled in and built over, thus forming the mound.

5. The New (2008) Chronology at Çatalhöyük Mellaart’s Levels New (2008) Phases 1 T 11 111 1V V VIA VIB VII VIII IX X XI XII pre-XII S R Q P O N M L K J I H G North Eminence Building 1 Building 5 5900BC Building 3 7400BC After Farid (2008) Çatalhöyük Archive Reports, p.20 The two houses - Building 1 and Building 3 - that were ﬁrst excavated in the NORTH Area are probably quite similar in age in terms of the East Mound’s history, overlapping in their history with each other and with the house below Building 1 called Building 5. According to James Mellaart’s original scheme, these three houses have been dated to the middle of the East Mound’s occupation (Phase VIA-VII, ca. 6900-6500BC)). According to the new (2008) dating system at the site, Building 3 has been dated to Phase N .

6. The Birth of the BACH Project 1996 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 The BACH project was actually born in 1996 with a visit to Çatalhöyük and the decision on the location next to Building 1, here seen in the lone raggedy-looking shelter on the northern eminence of the East Mound.

7. The Birth of the BACH Project 1997 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 This lovely shelter -contrasting with the neighboring one over Building 1- was constructed the following year in 1997 and became the iconic symbol of the BACH project.

8. Dates of the BACH Area Field Seasons Field Season Dates 1997 August 3 (12)-September 3 1998 July 18-August 24 1999 July 10-August 19 2000 July 20-August 21 2001 June 7-July 13 2002 June 3-July 15 2003 July 1-August 11 2004 August 2, burial of BACH Area The BACH project comprised seven excavation seasons of varying duration, and one ﬁnal sad day in 2004 of ﬁlling in. In the archive of the LHotH web edition, you can choose a date within these date spans to see what was happening that day in a video, or an image, or even a diary entry (later), a unit excavation

9. Space 87 Space 89 Space 88 Post-Neolithic 3rd century AD burials 1997 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Inside the BACH tent, we started to excavate the ﬁll within the walls of Building 3 and the three small rooms to its south (Spaces 87, 88, 89). Immediately we came across postNeolithic burials of the late Roman period C3AD.

10. Space 88 Post-Neolithic 3rd century AD burials 1997 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Inside the BACH tent, we started to excavate the ﬁll within the walls of Building 3 and the three small rooms to its south (Spaces 87, 88, 89). Immediately we came across postNeolithic burials of the late Roman period C3AD.

11. Space 87 Space 89 Space 88 Post-Neolithic 3rd century AD burials 1997 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 As we excavated one of the late Roman period C3AD (Feature 153) we made the fortuitous discovery that it had cut through the many layers of the collapsed roof of Building 3 that can be seen showing in the side wall of the burial cut. It helped to make sense of the striations in deposits seen on the surface of the excavation

12. The Roof of Building 3 1998 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 The roof is one of the very few instances of a preserved roof remains in the Near East. Its excavation was an important part of the 1998 season.

13. illustration by John G. Swogger The Roof of Building 3 1998 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Micromorphological analysis helped the interpretation that the roof was used for a large number of domestic activities especially in the warmer seasons. In this interpretation, the ceiling is probably too high. Building the Replica House gave us some important clues about this question (see chapter 22 of the book)

14. Roof Part it ion w all the roof N Screen wall Partition wall 1998 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 During 1998, the roof took a lot of our energies, but we also excavated the post-occupational building ﬁll and midden south and west of the roof, retaining two cross-baulks to create cross-sections through these complicated deposits. As we did this we were able to deﬁne two small partition walls (F.160 and F.161) and - between them - the white plaster mass of what we interpreted as a screen wall (F.155) that together separated Space 86 in the east and the narrow western room Space 158

15. Abandonment and Closure of Building 3 cluster 2 cluster 1 Mirjana Stevanovic studies Cluster 1 immediately above the final floors of Building 3 1999 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 During the 1999 season, in the deposits of fill immediately above the latest floors we came across two deposits that have been interpreted as possible deliberate ritualized acts of closure of Building 3. Both have been designated as “clusters” (see glossary) rather than features. Cluster 1 in the southern end of Building 3 is a cluster of large animal bones, especially scapulae, possibly the debris of feasting; Cluster 2 is in the center of Building 3, at the southern end of the collapsed roof and comprises a carved cattle skull (bukranion) a hearth, and two detached skulls.

16. Abandonment and Closure of Building 3 Cluster 2 immediately above the ﬁnal ﬂoors of Building 3 1999 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Cluster 2 is in the center of Building 3, at the southern end of the collapsed roof and comprises a carved cattle skull (bukranion) a hearth, and two detached skulls. 2004

17. North Space 158 Screen Wall and 2 partition walls Space 86 Southwest Platform: F.169 Southeast Platform: F.167 Central Floor Area F.606 or m Central Platf East F.170 North al centr : m latfor P F.162 The last floors of Building 3 t theas Nor : tform Pla F.173 1999 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 By the end of the 1999 season we had reached the final floors of Building 3 and could see that the whole of Building 3 is encompassed in the BACH area. What we could see in 1999 was the situation in the second half of the life of Building 3 when the two small walls and screen wall divided the space encompassed by the 4 peripheral walls into two rooms: Space 86 and Space 158. In Space 86 five platforms were defined with a lower Central Floor Area

18. Çatalhöyük documentation from 1993: units, depositional events, Harris matrix In the new project directed by Ian Hodder from 1993 it was decided to excavate using the single context method in which each depositional event is recorded as a separate unit and is excavated wherever possible in the reverse sequence of its deposition. The sequence of depositional events is visualized using the Harris Matrix format of representation.

19. Units and Features in the BACH Project 6149 6138 6151 6206 6144 6211 6237 6207 6150 6157 6132 6135 Feature 162 (northcentral platform) Units of floor 1 and packing below, assigned to Phase B3.4B Feature 617 (burial) Units of burial cut, skeleton, fill and lid, assigned to Phase B3.4B For example Feature 162 contains a large number of units, here expressing different quadrants of its floor plaster and underlying packing in the final life-history phase (B3.4B) of Building 3. This floor and packing (along with all the underlying (earlier) floors) were cut by a pit dug for the burial of a child whose sequence of units also date to B3.4B phase. Look in the glossary for more detailed definitions.

20. lid: unit 6206 basket: unit 6239 fill: unit 6211 Feature 617: the last burial for Building 3 and first for the BACH Project 6206 skeleton: unit 6237 6211 6237 6239 6207 cut: unit 6207 1999 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 This Feature 617 is the final burial of Building 3 - a 5-year old child in a basket - and was discovered at the end of the 1999 season. This shows you how the different units describe the sequence of depositional events in burials at Çatalhöyük: first the cut or pit creating an edge and a void, then the body (in this case placed in a basket), then the fill of the pit, and finally its clay and plaster lid to mask its position on the floor. The time-lapse movie of the excavation helps share the experience in 3 mins of 32 hours of excavation. You can find the full movie in the archive of the LHotH web edition

21. Daily life for the BACH Team Priority Tour You are encouraged to explore the Persons category in the archive of the LHotH web edition. A person in the BACH project can have many roles; most participated in some, if not all, ﬁeld seasons of the project, either in the lab or the excavation site. In contrast to the 1960s project at Çatalhöyük, the local workers in the new project do not as a rule excavate. They screen and do heavy manual labor jobs. Excavation is in the hands of professional archaeologists, often from the world of CRM, or advanced, experienced students and researchers. The analytical work takes place on site in the labs at the compound by a large force of “specialists”, who interact regularly on site with the excavators in the twice-weekly “priority tours”.

22. Life in the compound of Çatalhöyük 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 The Compound at the bottom of the East Mound is the hub of social and scientiﬁc activity of the Çatalhöyük Research Project. Here are bedrooms, laboratories, storerooms, kitchen and dining rooms. The size of the Compound has grown even from this 2001 photo (see Chapter 25 and 26 of the primnted edition of LHotH). This is where a party is held almost every Thursday night before the free day - Friday! You might have to sign in to the archive of the LHotH web edition to view the party photos

23. Çatalhöyük from 1993 From 1997, the BACH project within the main Çatalhöyük project, spearheaded a cataloging system for photography and creating a digital image record, thanks especially to Michael Ashley. The 10,000 photographic images are embedded with rich metadata that enable them to be meaningful for many generations and ready for you to explore and download and re-use in the archive of the LHotH web edition. Thanks to the Çatalhöyük Research Project team (that includes the BACH team) all the images are licensed with a Creative Commons license. Thanks also to Michael’s and Jason Quinlan’s rock-climbing skills, we have been able to get a view that in prehistory no-one would have seen - from directly above.

24. Video documentation in the BACH project Daily Video Diary Video documentation played an important role in recording the everyday observations and discussions of excavators and specialists. A video for each working day of the project has been created so that you can relive the archaeological project (at least, its working days) as it progressed and what were mysteries earlier on became resolved as excavation proceeded or as results came up from the labs. Smaller clips have been created for speciﬁc topics and features on a speciﬁc day so that you can explore the progress made on a particular feature during the project. Some of the clips have been remixed further to create new videos that are also in the archive of the LHotH web edition.

25. Excavating life and death in Building 3 2000-2001 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 During the 2000 and 2001 seasons, progress was made in excavating and understanding the occupation of Building 3 and its changing conﬁgurations in the location of ovens, hearths, storage bins, ﬂoors and walls during its history. You can see the details of these in Chapter 5 of the printed edition of LHotH.

26. Excavating life and death in Building 3 2000-2001 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 During the 2000 and 2001 seasons, seven more Neolithic burial events were discovered, one in the northeast platform (F.631). See the details of the burials in Chapter 13 of the book.

27. Excavating life and death in Building 3 2000-2001 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 During the 2000 and 2001 seasons three more burials were excavated in the north-central platform (F.634, F.644. F.647). See the details of the burials in Chapter 13 of the printed edition of LHotH.

28. Excavating life and death in Building 3 2000-2001 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 During the 2000 and 2001 seasons, the three earlier child graves in the Central Floor Area (F. 648, F.756, F.757) were excavated. See the details of the burials in Chapter 13 of the printed edition of LHotH.

29. Life-history of the house 7000 BC 7000 BC 1996 2002 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 By the end of 2002 we had excavated down past the earliest ﬂoors to the underlying midden and were ready to begin building up the life-history of Building 3. You can see from the video collection in the archive of the LHotH web edition that we had been working to understand the sequence of phases in the house life history since 2000. This drawing from James Mellaart’s book. This is also the topic of Getting Started presentation: The Life History of Building 3 in the LHotH web edition.

30. Life-history of the house 7000 BC 7000 BC 1996 2002 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 The Replica House (see Chapter 22 of the printed edition of LHotH) will also help visualize life inside Building 3. This is also the topic of Getting Started presentation: The Life History of Building 3 in the LHotH web edition.

31. North the zones of Building 3 Space 158 Space 201 Space 86 wall/partition “clean” white platforms “dirty” kitchen & ladder area “dirty” food preparation & storage 7000 BC 7000 BC 1996 2002 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 central floor area 2003 2004 By the end of 2002 we had reached the earliest floors of Building 3 and realised that in the early part of its history, before the partitioning walls in Phase B3.4A, Building 3 comprised one large room that we designated Space 201. Partitioning transformed this space into the two rooms, Space 86 and Space 158. We grouped the changing configuration of features into three zones within Building 3: The South-and-West Zone referred to sometimes as the “dirty” area of the building was the center for domestic activities around food and resources. This zone was further divided into a zone encompassing the small western room Space 158 and the southwest platform (F.169) that was a focus of food preparation and storage, and a zone that included the south-center lower area which we sometimes referred to as the “kitchen” and the southeast platform (F. 167) which was the location for the ladder entrance. The Northeast Zone referred to sometimes as the “clean” area of the building comprised the white plastered platforms (F.162, F.173, F.170) that were the location for burials and presumably - not domestic activities. The Central Floor Zone is a lower area connected directly to the “kitchen”; this acted as a transitional zone between “clean” and “dirty” areas, and was also the location for child burials.

32. Life-History of Building 3 - 50 years? Life-History of the BACH Project - 7 years These are the eight phases of occupation of Building 3. Two phases not represented in this illustration are the phase of closure and abandonment (Phase 5A, that is included in the separate supplemental image that can be perused at your leisure) and the phase of postNeolithic burial of Late Roman visitors, or occupants of Çatalhöyük. The aim to construct the life-history of Building 3 hugely reﬁned the scale at which the excavation was recorded, but also added time and skilled labor into the equation. However, the detailed life-history of the building is the reward (see Getting Started presentation: the Life History of Building 3 in the LHotH web edition

33. Burials in Space 87 Excavated in 2012 Space 87 Space 89 Space 88 Building 3 2002 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Another focus of 2002 was the excavation of the small rooms Space 87, Space 88, and Space 89. Space 87 turned out to be very complicated. Not only is it clearly part of a larger building to its south and west (excavated later, see the CRP Archive Report 2012, and Getting Started presentation #2: The Life History of Building 3), but the platform that took up most of the space covered at least 9 burial events - more than the total number of burials in Building 3!

34. The walls and the doorway of Building 3 the doorway in the East wall (F.633) 7000 BC 1996 1997 2003 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Most of 2003 was taken up with the study of the walls, the technology of building materials and house construction, including the properties of bricks and mortar (see chapter 6 of the printed edition of LHotH for details on this). We also made the spectacular discovery that the strange “pit” in the northeast corner of Building 3 that had been a mystery ever since 1999 was in fact a doorway (F.633) in the East wall.

35. Feature 633: the early door into Building 3 2003 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 It’s fun to follow this mystery from when in 1999 we had no idea how to make sense of the NE corner of Building 3 to 2003 when we ﬁnally discovered that it was a door by doing a search for Feature 633 in the videos of the archive of the LHotH web edition.

36. ceremonies of closure: BACH becomes invisible 2004 7000 BC 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 The BACH Project finished excavation in 2003, but the team continued on at Çatalhöyük for two more years studying the materials and preparing their publication. After all the deposits, floors and walls of Building 3 and Spaces 88 and 89 had been removed, on August 2, 2004 we also had a ceremony of closure for the project as seen in this movie. The empty gap left by the removal of the buildings was filled in again, the shelter was removed, and in the end it was difficult to see where all the 7 years of activity had been.

37. The New NORTH Shelter (2008) And by 2008 the proud new North shelter covered the whole of the old NORTH Area and the new 4040 Area to its south

38. BACH Forgotten 2008 In the new NORTH shelter the tourists walk by the BACH Area

39. BACH Forgotten 2008 And they have no idea of the seven years of vibrant life that once ﬁlled the area. And that is one of the reasons we have created the web edition of LHotH. So that we do not forget. So that we do not forget

40. Credits • Creator and Speaker: Ruth Tringham • Photographs and Videos (unless individually speciﬁed): ©Çatalhöyük Research Project with Creative Commons 2.5 license (photographers Michael Ashley and Jason Quinlan) • Many many thanks to • Mirjana Stevanovic and the BACH Project family • Ian Hodder, Shahina Farid and our many other Çatalhöyük colleagues • BACH Project angel: John Coker • UC Berkeley: Archaeological Research Facility & MACTiA • My collaborators in the Center for Digital Archaeology (CoDA) CoDA Center for Digital Archaeology www.codifi.info

The Life-History of the BACH Project

The Life-History of the BACH Project

The Life-History of the BACH Project

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