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The 2003 season lasted 5
weeks from the end of June to the beginning of August. The season had
two objectives; one archaeological, and the other logistical.
Archaeologically we aimed to complete the analysis of all remaining good
context artifacts from the 2001 season, especially the ceramics. The
second more practical goal was to move the artifacts to a new and secure
location.
The logistical work we did with moving the artifacts was in fact
very time-consuming. Until now, the archaeological materials from all
the Amuq Valley projects including those collected during 7 seasons of
survey in over 300 mounds in the valley and those yielded by excavations
at Tell Atchana, Tell Judaidah as well as over 4 seasons at Tell Kurdu
were stored in the depots provided by Mustafa Kemal University. These
storerooms were located in the heart of
Antakya
close to the museum by whom they were monitored. Unfortunately, the
university's plan to expand their departments meant that we could no
longer keep these rooms for the storage of our artifacts. With
increasing pressures to empty these rooms, early this summer director of
the Amuq Valley Regional Project, Dr. Aslihan Yener flew to
Antakya
to secure a new location for these finds. The hunt was successful and
two nearby houses were rented by the project in the
village
of
Tayfur Sokmen
, 20 minutes from the city of
Antakya
. Arriving shortly afterwards, our task was to renovate one of these
buildings, designated as the new Tell Kurdu storage depot. As the house
was nearly 40 years old, it demanded considerable restoration. All the
walls had to be painted and most doors and windows needed to be
replaced. In addition, to meet the museum's safety requirements, all
windows had to be protected by metal bars. With the help of Dr. Hadi
Ozbal, who has been assisting in all logistical and management aspects
of the Tell Kurdu project since 2001, painters, carpenters and metal
smiths were hired and the building was transformed into safe and
sanitary artifact storage depot.
Towards the end of the season, on 29 July, once the second house
was also restored by members the Tell Atchana field team, all the
artifacts and excavation equipment were moved from the
Mustafa
Kemal
University
storerooms to their new location. This took place with permission from
the Turkish Ministry of Culture and under the supervision of the
Antakya
Archaeological
Museum
. Two 10-wheeler trucks, one smaller sized truck, 13 workmen and 6
supervisors were necessary for this immense task. The move itself
required a lot of coordination. At least a week was spent organizing and
re-labeling the artifacts so they could be transported without being
misplaced. New crates were purchased to replace old ones and the exact
location for each crate in the new storage area was pre-planned and
mapped out. The move went successfully and was a major accomplishment.
The disadvantage of the move was that all the remaining Tell Kurdu funds
had to be spent as a result of expenses paid for repairing the house and
transporting the artifacts. This requires us now to look for new funds
for some remaining necessary analyses including obsidian provenance
sourcing, and radiocarbon analyses. In addition, a few less urgent tasks
such as analysis of wood charcoal samples as a result had to be
postponed for a later time.
Along side the logistical concerns on the storage and
transportation of the artifacts, the 2003 season was mostly devoted to
the analysis of the remaining artifacts from the 2001 season. The season
personnel included Rana Ozbal (
Northwestern
University
), Fokke Gerritsen (Free University Amsterdam), Ahmet Unal (
Mustafa
Kemal
University
), Hadi Ozbal (
Bogazici
University
), as well as Mucella Erdalkiran (
Ege
University
). Our chipped stone specialist Elizabeth Healey (
Manchester
University
) and Halaf Period painted ceramics specialist Jonathan Pickup (
Manchester
University
) joined the project for a few days.
The major part of the analysis focused on the ceramics. The 2003
season allowed us to complete analysis of all artifacts from good
contexts. This is very important for investigations such as our work at
Tell Kurdu, concerned with a full contextual analysis of rooms and
spaces. In addition, we also selected ceramics for publication and
checked that the drawings we had made of them were correct. Selected
ceramics were also analyzed for temper type, color and texture. Record
photos were made of all painted and unique sherds. .
Our season also focused on ensuring that all data generated by
the artifact analysis over the past few years was entered into a Tell
Kurdu database. Ahmet Unal (
Mustafa
Kemal
University
) and Dr. Hadi Ozbal (
Bogazici
University
) assisted with the data entry. This will ensure that the results of the
analysis can be statistically analyzed.
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Copyright
© 2003 Ozbal & Gerritsen. All the photos, images and text on this
site are subject to copyright laws.
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Painting the new depot
The new iron doors
Loading the trucks
Loading the trucks
Crates arranged in New Depot.
Ahmet entering data into Kurdu database.
Fokke recording color, texture and temper for
Kurdu pottery.
Mucella and Rana sorting ceramics
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