| | Area: North | | | | Dug in Year: 2012 | | Feature Type: fire installation | | Feature Subtype: oven | | | | Location: Inside southern wall in space 336, building 77 | | | | Grid X: 1044.6 Grid Y: 1180.2 | | | This feature was initially identified as F.3621 which was wrong so the oven got a new feature number instead (F.7108). The top part of the oven was partially excavated previous seasons and was initially interpreted as a niche, probably because of the large chunks of plaster layers that was situated in the infill of the oven. The section through the oven, which was formed during previous seasons, was kept during excavation in order to prevent the oven from collapsing. This implies that just slightly more than half of the oven was excavated. Another source critical matter is that an animal burrow was situated in the western part of the oven, running from top to bottom (at the very edge of the oven).
The oven has a domed superstructure and it was situated in the dirty area in space 336. It was built into wall F.3096 and precedes a later oven, which makes it the earliest oven in building 77. The clay dome is preserved with its roof intact and it stretches about 0,8 m into the wall. The back of the dome can be seen from the other side of the wall (in space 488). The oven had four series of oven floors and after its use life it was infilled and blocked with different kind of materials and another oven was built in front of it.
The oven was either cut into the wall or possibly built at the same time as the house (the clay dome is not yet excavated). The wall (U.20496) from an older building (made of mud brick and mortar) and old infill (U.20483) was used together with a make-up/levelling layer (U.20478) as an oven base. The dome was constructed of clay layers with more than one application (there were plaster remains inside) and it abuts the first oven floor. All oven floors were sloping. This was made on purpose and was not a result of later subsidence, but for what reason is an open question. The first oven floor (U.20473) was badly preserved and fragmented, part of it was probably raked out and a levelling layer (U.20477) was put into the oven in order to build a new oven floor (U.20469). The succeeding three oven floors (U.20469, U.20466, U.20464) were better preserved, especially the last oven floor was in good condition and it did not look scorched. Maybe the abandonment of the oven was not due to the need for a new floor (which perhaps would have made the oven to narrow), but rather for another reason, maybe a threatening collapse or because the last floor actually did make the oven to narrow or perhaps for reasons which is not so practically founded.
The oven was infilled and blocked in an interesting way. The varied material that was used for the blocking infill seems to represent the building material of a house. First a large chunk of floor plaster with make-up layers was put on top of the last oven floor, right in the back of the oven. Then a clayish material mixed with charcoal, a burnt piece of mud brick and about three chunks of plaster layers were put into the oven together with pieces of oven wall (perhaps originating from a destroyed part of the oven).
The function of the different blocking materials that were applied to the oven after that the dome was filled is unclear. Like the infill of the oven, they were of different materials, compact clay, soft and friable clay and mud brick made of mica-based clay. Initially the mud brick blocking was thought to be part of a later oven but the material/texture of the blocking makes this less probable and it may as well have been made to harmonize with the surrounding wall. | | | | In situ Conservation: No | | Lifted: No | | | | Feature Relationships: | | below?: (Click to view the record) 3621 | | cuts?: (Click to view the record) 3096 | | | | Number of Related Diary Entries: 1 | | | | Conservation Recorded: No | | Related Photos: 29 (Opens as a group in a new window) | Buildings: (Click to view the record)
| Spaces: (Click to view the record)
| | No. Of Units in this Feature: 16 (Click here to view unit list) |
|
|
