Last House on the Hill: BACH Area Reports from Çatalhöyük, Turkey


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ISBN: 978-1-931745-66-6
Publication Date: Nov 2012
Price: Hb $76.00
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Ruth Tringham and Mirjana Stevanović

Occupied from around 7500 BC to 5700 BC, the large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük in Anatolia is composed entirely of domestic buildings; no public buildings have been identified. First excavated in the early 1960s, the site was left untouched until 1993. During the summers of 1997–2003 a team from the University of California at Berkeley (the BACH team) excavated an area at the northern end of the East Mound of Çatalhöyük. The houses there date predominantly to the late Aceramic and early Ceramic Neolithic, around 7000 BC. Last House on the Hill is the final report of the BACH excavations. This volume comprises both interpretive chapters and empirical data from the excavations and their materials. The research of the BACH team focuses on the lives and life histories of houses and people, the use of digital technologies in documenting and sharing the archaeological process, the senses of place, and the nature of cultural heritage and our public responsibilities.

Recipient of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize

Table of Contents
  • Ch. 1: Introduction to the BACH Project by Ruth Tringham and Mirjana Stevanović

Part 1: Strategies of research, analysis and interpretation

  • Ch. 2: Research Methodology by Ruth Tringham and Mirjana Stevanović
  • Ch. 3: Creating and Archiving the media database and documentation of the excavation by Ruth Tringham and Michael Ashley with Jason Quinlan

Part 2: Retrieving and Understanding the Sequence of Depositional Events of the Buildings

  • Ch. 4: Summary of the Results of the Excavation in the BACH Area by Mirjana Stevanović
  • Ch. 5: Detailed Report of the Excavation of Building 3 and Spaces 87, 88, 89 by Mirjana Stevanović
  • Ch. 6: Building and Caring for the House at Çatalhöyük by Mirjana Stevanović
  • Ch. 7: Household life-histories and boundaries: microstratigraphy and micromorphology of architectural surfaces in Building 3 of the BACH Area by Wendy Matthews

Part 3: Human-Environment Relations in the BACH Area

  • Ch. 8A: Mammals from the BACH Area at Çatalhöyük by Nerissa Russell
  • Ch. 8B: Bird Remains from the BACH Area at Çatalhöyük by Nerissa Russell and Kevin J. McGowan
  • Ch. 9: The Microfauna of the BACH Area by Emma Jenkins
  • Ch. 10: The Phytoliths of the BACH Area by Emma Jenkins
  • Ch. 11: The life of Building 3 through plant use: The macrobotanical evidence of Neolithic dwelling from the Berkeley Archaeology at Çatalhöyük (BACH) excavation 1997-2003 by Rachel M. Cane, Rob Q. Cuthrell, Matthew P. Sayre, K. Elizabeth Soluri, and Christine A. Hastorf (with Kathryn Killackey and Shanti Morell-Hart)
  • Ch. 12A: Death and its Relationship to Life: Neolithic Burials from Building 3 and Space 87 at Çatalhöyük, Turkey by Lori D. Hager and Başak Boz
  • Ch. 12B: Post-Neolithic Use of Building 3 and Spaces 88 and 89 at Çatalhöyük by Daniela Cottica, Lori D. Hager and Başak Boz

Part 4: Changing Materialities in the BACH Area

  • Ch. 13: Worked Bone from the BACH Area at Çatalhöyük by Nerissa Russell
  • Ch. 14: Neolithic Pottery from the BACH Excavation by Jonathan Last
  • Ch. 15: The BACH Area Figurines by Carolyn Nakamura
  • Ch. 16: Analysis of Clay Balls from the BACH Area by Sonya Atalay
  • Ch. 17: The Flaked Stone Assemblage from the BACH Area by Tristan Carter and Heidi Mariendahl Underbjerg
  • Ch. 18: Ground stone tools and technologies associated with buildings in the BACH Area at Çatalhöyük by Katherine I. Wright and Adnan Baysal
  • Ch. 19: Beads and the body: ornamental technologies of the BACH Area buildings at Çatalhöyük by Katherine I. Wright

Part 5: Taking the Analyses and Interpretations one step further: Alternative (non-traditional) directions of BACH Research

  • Ch. 20: Building the Replica Neolithic House at Çatalhöyük by Mirjana Stevanović
  • Ch. 21: Çatalhöyük Murals: A snapshot Conservation and Experimental Research by Ina St.George
  • Ch. 22: An Archaeology of Vision: Seeing Present and Past in Çatalhöyük by Michael Ashley
  • Ch. 23: The Public Face of Archaeology at Çatalhöyük by Ruth Tringham
  • Ch. 24: Sensing the Place at Çatalhöyük: the rhythms of daily life by Ruth Tringham

Afterword: Last House on the Hill: the digital mirror of House Lives by Ruth Tringham, Michael Ashley