Voices from the Field (2017-07-24)

Posted on July 24, 2017July 24, 2017 by Catherine Scott

Voices from the Field (2017-07-20)

Posted on July 20, 2017July 20, 2017 by Catherine Scott

The small finds team has grown in 2017, with Magda Pieniążek getting support from students Maria Lill and Milos Roháček. The small finds team deals with a variety of manmade objects from diverse materials ranging from metal, clay, faience, and stone to bones. Even though they are called ‘small finds,’ some of the objects (like grinding stones) are quite big; one weighing as much as 2 kg!

The focus this season was primarily on textile tools, such as spindle whorls and loom weights, and metal objects, such as knives, needles, and awls. All these objects bring us closer to the people that lived and worked in Bronze Age Kaymakçı.

Over quite a few days Maria dealt with the 120 spindle whorls found at the site so far, working with them throughout the day (and night, as they even appeared in her dreams!). Spindle whorls were used on spindle spikes as weights to increase and maintain the speed of spinning. The spindle whorls in Kaymakçı were made of clay and come in various shapes: conical, biconical, and spherical. They also differ considerably in weight. Their appearance on the site tells us about people spinning yarn of varying quality for different kinds of textiles.

Magda and Milos concentrated on the metal finds such as pins, chisels, knives, drills, and awls. Bronze Age awls could have been used for fine levering or prying work, carving, or perforating objects made of wood, leather, bone, horn, or even stone. The awls found at Kaymakçı so far are small, 5 cm on average, so they must have been used for very fine craftsmanship. Some of them could be used as drills for perforating very small objects such as beads – one was only about two millimetres thick.

Voices from the Field (2017-07-17)

Posted on July 17, 2017July 17, 2017 by Catherine Scott

One of the many benefits of a study season is the chance to follow new lines of research that we wouldn’t have time for during a normal field season. This year, a number of team members were lucky enough to visit Gökeyüp, a village on the outskirts of the Gediz Valley, and watch the traditional production of ceramics. This is our first trip since excavation began at Kaymakçı, though we have visited the village multiple times over the past 15 years as part of the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS).

Our area has been known for producing “goldwash” pottery since the second millennium BCE. “Goldwash” generally refers to ceramics that have a deep gold or bronze color following firing, which is created using local mica. In Gökeyüp, mica is used as a temper to strengthen cooking pots, and as a wash or slip to make them shine. Goldwash ceramics are also found at Kaymakçı, though their method of production seems to be different. That said, observing modern production can still be informative.

Voices from the Field (2017-07-11)

Posted on July 11, 2017July 11, 2017 by Catherine Scott

This year the faunal team has begun the analysis of the heavy residues retrieved during flotation. After a long workflow involving collection of sediment samples by excavators and flotation, heavy residue collection, and sorting by the archaeobotany team, the bone material within the heavy residue samples ended up with the faunal team. Using a variety of tools, the heavy residue samples are laid out on trays, meticulously examined in bright daylight, and sorted into categories with small brushes and dental tools. We have been finding various taxa of not just the common domesticates, but also bones from amphibians, birds, fish, molluscs, and small mammals such as mice.

In these heavy residue samples, we find bones that do not usually appear in the hand-selected and dry-sieved samples. In addition to finding small animals, here and there we find small bones from very young animals, showing that even very young baby animals were kept at Kaymakçı. This means that the heavy residue samples are very complementary to the dataset, as a whole, and give us better insight into the full spectrum of domestic, wild, and commensal animals present at Kaymakçı in the past.

When we do the sorting, we also keep our eyes out for some specific bones that may be used for other types of analysis. For instance, we are hoping to find fish otoliths (a type of ear bone), which can be used in future isotope analysis. In this way, we collaborate not just between specialists, but also across many years of the project!

Voices from the Field (2017-07-09)

Posted on July 9, 2017July 9, 2017 by Catherine Scott

It was a great pleasure to host expert photographer Niki Gail as part of the Kaymakçı team for four days. His good spirit with the various field conditions made the extreme (47 degrees) heat wave much more enjoyable. He worked closely with many team members to document small finds (pins, rings, tokens, spindle whorls, etc.) as well as bones, ceramics, and architectural materials in mudbrick. We were also able to spend a day at the Manisa Museum to document previous seasons of material stored in their collections. While the heat made that work challenging, the wonderful setting of the Ottoman era architecture creates a nice setting for work.

Voices from the Field (2017-07-07)

Posted on July 7, 2017July 7, 2017 by Catherine Scott

Voices from the Field (2017-07-06)

Posted on July 6, 2017July 6, 2017 by Catherine Scott

Voices from the Field (2017-07-05)

Posted on July 5, 2017July 5, 2017 by Catherine Scott

Voices from the Field (2017-06-24)

Posted on June 24, 2017June 24, 2017 by Catherine Scott

During the 2017 study season, the pottery team at Kaymakçı is re-examining the great amount of ceramic sherds collected in previous years. These have already been processed during the excavation seasons, but this year the goal is to analyze the pottery repertoire in more detail by looking for major groups and subgroups’ distinctions and correcting possible errors. This detailed study will allow a more careful assessment of intra-site variation and represents a pivotal element for the interpretation of the excavated contexts.