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Only the results of the magnetometer survey over the TP area are
summarized here. Our geophysical survey results can be found in the 2000
archive reports on the
Çatalhöyük web site.
Figures and text describing the TP excavations are taken from the 2001
archive reports and their use is gratefully acknowledged here.
The TP area results are particularly interesting because a
portion of the area covered by the magnetometer was subsequently excavated by
Team Poznan in 2001. Team Poznan identified three occupation phases in
their excavation block. These included a Chalcolithic phase represented by
numerous potsherds; a Late Roman/early Byzantine house that had been burned and
partially rebuilt; and a Byzantine cemetery intruded into the house deposits.
No structural elements were associated with the Chalcolithic phase and we would
not expect it to be represented in the magnetic data. However, the Roman
house contained several rooms, walls, kilns, ovens, and pits. Some of
these were associated with the original house and others with the post-fire
phase of occupation. The Byzantine cemetery contained 59 complete burials
and 12 clusters of human bones not in anatomical order.
In considering the relationship between the magnetic and
archaeological materials in the excavated portion of the TP area, several things
become clear. First,
the strong magnetic responses are associated with areas of intense burning in
the Roman house - the kilns, oven, and burning of the house itself. These
very strong magnetic highs tend to mask the weaker responses from mud-brick
walls, burials, and so on. Second, the burials are probably most commonly
expressed as areas of weak magnetic lows, unless any heavily burned materials
are associated with the graves. The low magnetic response of the burials
is probably because they contain relatively large amounts of weakly magnetic
organic material which is similar to areas of organic midden, pits, and the
like. Although such weak responses may be apparent in areas where the
magnetic response is generally low, it will be very difficult to consistently
identify burials using image maps. Third, line-by-line analysis of the
magnetic data complements the image maps and allows us to identify weak
anomalies not apparent in the image maps. However, in areas where there
are strong magnetic responses, there is no guarantee that all of the weak
anomalies will be identified - or that they represent burials and not some other
subtle archaeological feature. Finally, it is worthy of note that much of
the after-fire layer was removed prior to the partial (?) rebuilding of the
Roman house. This is apparent in the magnetic data where only the kilns
and a small area of the remaining after-fire layer show up as magnetic highs.
Indeed, the areas where the after-fire layer were removed can be mapped using
the magnetic information
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