| Entry: | Ian and I talked strategy first thing this morning, about what could be achieved by the 2nd Sept. for press day. The walls and floors of space 117 should be exposed which we were aiming for anyway, Kate and Lucy have already started on the west section, excavating the broader bands of dumps as separate units which will be tied into the units already excavated, this will be a good check on the dumps that were quite often excavated as arbitrary layers. Lucy took out pit cut 2073, same as 1665, excavated last season with fill 2067, same as 1660 from last season. It was pretty much as recorded in the first half, still no idea on its function, was a farily irregugalr cut filled by blocky clayey deposit which, since it cuts throuh the 'midden' is unlikely to fulfill a rubbish pit function and therefore possibly some form of stabilising activity, but what?
Layer 2077 was excavated as the earliest midden/dump that sealed space 117 and therefore in space 116, same as 1596 and it was the removal of this that revealed the top of the western wall. We were quite relieved as Ian had just told us that Mellaart sometimes found that the western wall was dismantled for some significant reason or other. The north and east walls of space 117 is under excavation both as single arbitrary units, 2029 against wall 64 (north) and 2078 against the east wall.The southern section is again being excavated in its broad bands.
Frank is busy conserving the plaster as its being exposed, we had to put north-south cross beams to hold up the north wall to avoid a repeat of Wednesdays collapse. Doesn't make for a very nice photo nor an easy place to work but is necessary.
Craig, in space 113 is excavating the small south east room which from now will be known as space 150 and the outer room at this phase space 151. Pit cut 2050 cut floor 2072 to the east, overlying 2074, interpreted as a make-up or levelling layer or some transient surface which overlay 2081, a similar deposit both in composition and use. Banu is at the moment drawing the southern wall elevation. This space ought to be down to floors and the blockings in the southern wall excavated by the 2nd Sept.
Jon is still dealing with his double skeleton in space 112 whilst Burcu is taking down patches of floors in the southwest corner. I'll try and backtrack on their unit numbers at some stage. Space 109 is still infill and fire installation 82, which was believed to have abutted the southern wall is actually cut in or rather I can't tell yet whtether it's cut in, or was incorporated in the construction of the wall. This should become clear when we half section the wall along with the fire installation. Oh, I almost forgot we have a very nice and convincing pillar emplacement roughly central, on the north wall of space 117.Entered By: Shahina Farid |
