Unit 21827

Category: Layer    dug in 2016

Area: South 

Interpretive Categories: features and floor phase E 

Data Category Information: Location: building; Description: general; Material: mix (dark grey&white); Deposition: composite (floors/bedding/plaster/packing/occupation); Basal Spit: unpainted

Discussion: Unit 21827 refers to all the features (except from the walls) and floor that belong to building 17 phase E: they were excavated as one during this year campaign.
Due to the long exposition and erosion they have been subjected to since 1999 excavation, their conservation was quite compromised at the beginning of this year campaign. After a deep cleaning, that was meant to determine their approximate configuration/extention and the stratigraphic relation between the floor and the burial that were cutting it, the decision was to excavate them as one unit (one excaption has been made for oven F579), associating every single feature to at least one or more samples. Also part of the underlying make-up layers related to the floor construction were removed, mostly in the northern side of sp. 170. Unit 21827 is therefore very heterogeneous. According to lab. People's instructions, only 30 lt of soil have been sampled for flotation.
The floor was first exposed during 1999 excavation and associate to unit 5365. In 1999 no burial cuts was related to the floor, but with the passing of the time they became clearly recognizable. During last year (2015) campaign 4 burials were excavated and 7 other cuts were potentially associated to the same function. According to last year interpretation, the burials/cuts were covered by the floor's layers related to phase E occupation. Their excavation showed then that they were cutting the same floor's layers. This ambigous stratigraphic relation can be explained by the fact that phase E floor was formed by a superposition of many plaster/floor layers, out of which 5365 were the latest and, what we named 21827, the earliest.
Due to the compactness of the floor's layers, they have been removed all together: because of this it has not been possible to establish a direct stratigraphic relation between the single burial's cut and the exact correspondant floor's layer. Generally speaking, all the burials seem to have been originally excavated between the latest and earliest floor's layers of phase E (contemporary to it).
Features were also exposed in 1999 and associated to the following features numbers and annotations:
F579: oven (N-E corner sp. 170); partially excavated during this year campaign and associated to specific unit numbers (see 21849, 21851, 21865, 21866, 21867, 21870): unit 21870 (earlier floor of oven) is actually exposed. Since phase E floor's layers were not well preserved in this side of sp. 170 it has not been possible to detect the exact stratigraphic relationship between phase E floor and oven (floor abutting the oven?floor covered by the oven?other?). Still, due to the general configuration of the space, it is quite clear that they belong to the same phase.
F580: oven/heart (N-E corner sp. 170); very badly eroded and almost not visible, it was partially excavated during this year campaign (S9 taken). One little part of it is still in place along the southern side of oven F579. Another sample (S10) has been taken from the soil west from F580: here, the presence of a dirty floor related to the use of the fire installations (F579, 580) is suggested.
F581: kerb (N-E corner sp. 170):highly eroded, therefore not detected during this year campaign: if part of it was still in place it has been completely excavated.
F577, 578: basin (along N wall sp. 170); entierly excavated during this year campaign (S4-5 taken)
F585: basin (S-W corner sp. 170); hardly eroded and entierly excavated during this year campaign
F574: podium (S-W corner sp. 170); hardly eroded and entierly excavated during this year campaign
F586: basin (S-W corner sp. 170): entierly excavated during this year campaign (S3, 6 taken). The basin was cutting an heterogeneous association of at least 2 distinct make-up layers related to its construction and extended between the S-W corner of sp. 170, post retrival pit 55013 (to the north) and platform 558 ( to the east). The latter one seems to be contemporary to basin 586, since the plaster floor related to the platform was also covering part of the basin's make-up layers.
The latter one were covering another make-up layer (see 21860) associated to the construction of a little fire installation (see 21859) lying under basin 586.Phase E floors were covered by these make-up layers.
Conclusion: basin 586 and fire installation 21859 most likely belong to 2 distinct usage of this corner of space 170, but were still both related to phase E.
F558: platform (south-western side of sp. 170); entierly removed during this year campaign: the platform was covering phase E floor's layers and was basically formed by a thick make-up layer (S1 taken) rich in white and red clay aggregates and by a superposition of plastered floors (S2 taken). The construction of the platform seems to be related to the 'random' deposition of 3 distinct clusters (see 21830, 21840, 21843) that might be associated to some specific foundation/construction rituality. As already said for basin F586, the platform seems to be contemporary to it since the upper plastered floor of F558 was also covering the basin's make-up layers.
F545: heart (S-E corner sp. 170): hardly eroder, it was entierly excavated during this year campaign.
On the bottom of F563 (burial, phase D), located in the south-western side of sp. 170, was most likely a basin. One compact layer covering its surface was excavated this year (S11 taken) and the original cut exposed. 

Consistency: heterogeneous multi layer: see discussion 

Colour: heterogeneous multi layer: see discussion 

Texture: heterogeneous multi layer: see discussion 

Bedding: heterogeneous multi layer: see discussion 

Inclusions: heterogeneous multi layer: see discussion 

Post-depositional Features: heterogeneous multi layer: see discussion 

Basal Boundary: heterogeneous multi layer: see discussion 

Unit Stratigraphy (as recorded in the field): above: (Click to view the record) 21873 below: (Click to view the record) 5365 

Total Deposit Volume: 1813 

Number of Samples recorded by excavator: 9

Number of Related Diary Entries: 1

Settlement Phase:

Associated Mellaart Levels (from Space):  

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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