Unit 19570

Category: Layer    dug in 2012

Area: North 

Interpretive Categories: Infill 

Data Category Information: Location: building

Dimensions: 1,80 (NS) x 3 (EW) 

Discussion: This unit is a continuation of infill within Building 114. Fill continues to be a panoply of color/consistency with everything from yellow-brown-red-black of mostly silty sandy clay with inclusions of brick, mortar, plaster, clean sand, charcoal, ash, faunal bone, obsidian, rock, groundstone, shell and… human remains. 3 skeletons (1 crania, 1 complete and 2 possibly related feet) (units 19588, 19593 and 20604 respectively) are all associated with this fill. No burial cuts were found in association. The skull (19588) of an adult was upside down, with its face against the west wall. It was immediately under the Bucranium (x=19) from 20404 and immediately above a series of pig bones that included a mandible and several vertebrae (X15 of 20404). The complete (minus the head) of a juvenile, lay sprawled in the center of the unit. The two adult feet associated with this nearly complete juvenile skeleton were located at its back and atop its mandible. More details on each skeleton report. 3D images were taken of all.

This unit is not complete. Still to do are: to clear out and define the undercut walls - particularly along the south. To record and consolidate the painted plaster found in the two grooves along the south wall, to record and define the plaster feature against the alcove in the north wall, to define the alcove in the north wall, and of course to finish excavating the space to floor. We also were unable to recover 19593 (the juvenile) skeleton's left arm, which is deeper in fill. Good luck to 'ya. :) Season closing measurements for the unit are: NW: 1011.99, NE 1012.00, SW: 1011.97, SE: 1012.02, Center: 1011.98.

Some small notes:
The platform identified in Space 87 during the 2002 season indicates that there is a chance for a surface 5-10 cm below the current level of excavation. However, it is my belief that floor will be much lower. This is indicated by two things: 1) several rodent holes seem to show throrough burrowing at least 20-30 cm below the current unit level and 2) based on cursory research of Mellaart and others, it seems that painted grooves like the one in the south wall usually occur about 1 m above floor surfaces. That means that floor may be as much as 40 cm deeper.

Unlike the 2002 excavation, we noted no disparity in wet/dryness along an east-west axis. That team attributed the disparity to the collapse of the roof along the southern wall which trapped a degree of moisture. We saw neither a moisture differential or any indication of roof collapse en masse. The infill within the building seems to be generally homogenously heterogeous. A massive mix without any identifiable feature beyond dumps of garbage and the burning feature associated with the post. Beyond that, the human skeletal remains, obvious feasting behavior and dumps of horn cores (there are 17 thus far) appear to be all simply a part of infill, without identifiable components of activity.

Added 2013:
This Unit is the same as U. 20627, opened during the 2013 season as part of a new excavation strategy for this building consisting on "slicing" it into 3 or more areas that will be excavated and registered separately. 

Recognition: Same as 20404. 

Definition: Infill within room. 

Execution: Mattock, Pick, Trowel, Brush 

Condition: Dry 

Consistency: Firm 

Colour: Brownish Yellow 

Texture: Silty Sandy Clay 

Bedding: Massive 

Inclusions: Faunal Bones, Charcoal, Calcium Carbonate 

Post-depositional Features: Rodent Runs 

Basal Boundary: - (arbitrary) 

Unit Stratigraphy (as recorded in the field): above: (Click to view the record) 20696 below: (Click to view the record) 20488 equal to: (Click to view the record) 20627 

Dry sieve volume: 280 

Total Deposit Volume: 308 

Number of Samples recorded by excavator: 3

Number of X-Finds recorded by excavator: 4

Number of Related Diary Entries: 1

Settlement Phase:

Associated Mellaart Levels (from Space): Unassigned at present 

Associated Hodder Level (from Space): Unassigned at present 

Finds Room Information:

All material from site passes through the finds room for washing and separating before it is passed onto the various lab teams. The finds room keeps a basic inventory of what is found. A finds material type list is given here. Further analytical detail maybe provided by the Lab Team data below.

X Finds Material: nothing recorded  

Finds Material Stored: nothing recorded  

Lab Team Data

Please note the list below does not represent everything that might have been found in this Unit, but represents the datasets we have available on-line. Please contact us to obtain more information about this Unit.

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