Unit 23027

Category: Layer    dug in 2017

Area: North 

Interpretive Categories: fire spot,hot ash dumps 

Data Category Information: Description: fire spots (non-structured); Deposition: heterogeneous

Discussion: A series of at least six ephemeral fire spots or dumps of hot ash encountered in the NW quadrant of B.131 Sp.504. The uppermost was just recognized and being defined when powers-that-be instructed that the 'room fill', all variation included, should be promptly mattocked down to an arbitrary level below the posts' bases. We modified this instruction by snapping a hasty record photo on the tablet, sampling the uppermost fire spot (archive sample only), and defining the collapsed wall (23134) as a destination level to regain stratigraphic control. (See US 23084 and KK diary entry for U23084 for in-depth discussion of this process space-wide). We dug these fire spots quickly by trowel, noting at least 6 partially-superimposed, thin baked clay lenses with lots of ash and burnt bone fragments between, before mattocking the whole space and sending it all to the dry sieve as (23084). The bottom, southernmost lenses sat more or less directly atop the collapsed wall and appeared to sit within a rounded depression in the collapse.

The best interpretation of this, given what we observed while excavating, is a series of in-situ short-lived burning activities in an open space prior to the construction of B.131; it is however possible that very hot ash dumped from an adjacent rooftop could create baked lenses.

It is probably best to treat this unit as a sample ("archive - firespots") within 23084, rather than a completely distinct unit, as the edges were never properly defined and only one sample was taken.

KK, AFK 

Consistency: soft 

Colour: mid grey with pale orange baked clay lenses 

Texture: ashy silty clay 

Bedding: layered 

Inclusions: 30% small charcoal; burnt bone 

Post-depositional Features: -- 

Basal Boundary: -- 

Unit Stratigraphy (as recorded in the field): above: (Click to view the record) 23134 below: (Click to view the record) 23037 equal to: (Click to view the record) 23084 

Dry sieve volume: 0 

Total Deposit Volume: 0 

Number of Samples recorded by excavator: 2

Number of Related Diary Entries: 0

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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