| Entry: | As I'm so far behind I've taken some sound advice which is to enter daily events and try to catch up in my own time as and when appropraite. So, today was quite eventful.
Firstly, Ian has returned after a weeks absence, and 'though there were no major problems whilst he was away (or none that were made known to me), I'm sure Ian will be inundated now that he's back.
This morning we were quite busy on site with Frank, Cassie and Elizabeth on site working on various conservation jobs, one was the phytolith basket/matting in Craigs pit (cut 2050, fills 2028, 2036, 2947 and 2059) the basket/mat I think was from the lowest fill 2059. These fills are also the priority discussion units for tomorrow, chosen for a number of reasons, one because there wasn't much to choose from (Bach and North yet again escaped. I don't mean that in a negative way as these priorty discussions have been useful and informative, in fact I think this form of feedback is really working well, feedback usually fits in with our impressions in the field but generates much wider discussions, ideas and further research questions and has been leading on to the next priority units generated from the conclusions or questions raised from the priority discussions.
Not surprisingly these have mostly concentrated on the nature of dumps versus fine ashy 'midden', why and from where, the variable nature of the dumps from space to space i.e. we're comparing the two spaces in building 2 (116 and 117): mixed building and domestic debris in largish dumps with comparatively large artefactual assemblages and then comparing builing fill/dumps in space 113: dense clayey deposit which appears to contain very few artefacts and then with space 109, a homogeneous fill of what appears to be well mixed building debris with some domestic debris. Nothing has been compared with space 112 as yet cos Burcu and Jon are still stuck with their skeletons, of which there are now at least five. I'd like to re-cap the priority discusions in a bit more detail than the filmed version as I feel I don't do justice in these re-cap sessions, but this, I will have to come back to as I've digressed from todays events already.
Back to the basket/matting from Craigs pit which was a trial exersize and a huge success, Frank consolidated it and lifted it in block and its now sitting in the finds lab with Chris. As Frank was thus engaged Roddy with his team of workmen were exposing the plaster face on the north wall of space 117, the wall was hugely undercut and loose, we'd discussed some form of shorring and whilst we were constructing a support the section of wall collapsed before our eyes and also just as Ismail and Taneer reached out to it! There was littlle we could have done as the damage was already done by a huge root. The consevation team were also working on other fragments of exposed plaster in Shrines 1 and 8 and space 108.
Another exciting event of the day was Wendy defining possible collapsed moldings in space 116, Wendy was very convincing in her interpretation of collapsed bulls heads and we could all see wavy horns in sections, thats Carolyn, Jenny, Frank, Wendy and I. Roddy is busy drawing sections and digging them, after Wendy's sections have been removed, in order to expose and excavate the floor of space 117 as a whole with the western wall defined rather than having to backtrack later on. He's been very busy of late, inundated with specialists of all kind, its a very busy building. Much of the latter part of my day was taken up with the business about the trap found on site and the ensuing statements taken by the Jandarma. We have to err on the side of caution but I think its a one of event and insignificant to the excavation.
Engin and Aylin in space 109 are bashing on down through room fill in the half sectioned space. The oven has gone, another set of walls has appeared but no floor yet. I'm still trying to get back into space 115 as I would really like to get through the fine 'midden' deposits and possibly define a new building and/or at least take down some wall that are not going to survive into next season. We're coping without our equipment; its actually amazing what you can do and how innovative you can be without certain items, I just hope it gets resolved soon as we're all falling behind in data inputting not to mention what Chris need o do his work adequately.Entered By: Shahina Farid |
