ABSTRACT
A team from the University of California was directed at Berkeley in an archaeological project of excavation and analysis at the site of atalhyk in Central Turkey, a nine thousand-year-old Early Ceramic Neolithic settlement mound. It is more than fragmentary, being a ghost of its former self, and is, moreover, not aesthetically pleasing. The author had used it as the starting point for a network of fragmentary stories and biographies called Dead Women Do Tell Tales. By happy synchronicity, during these events Willeke Wendrich, an Egyptologist and specialist in the archaeology of baskets, happened to be visiting atalhyk and was able to confirm the shape and size of the original basket. The BACH project focused on the life-history of a single house. Tucked down on the right side were more basket phytoliths, closely associated with blue pigment fragments. Lori began to excavate the skull of the skeleton that was the interment in this burial pit.
