Only the results of the magnetometer
survey over the TP area are summarized here. More information can be
found on the
Çatalhöyük web site:
http://catal.arch.cam.ac.uk/catal/catal.html. Our geophysical
survey results can be found in the 2000 archive reports.
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
