| Entry: | Big day today. Our first day in the field excavating under our gorgeous tent - the Goddess Pavilion. Hot sunny day. Big storm in the evening, so we have to postpone the Goddess Pavilion opening.
RET, Mira, Kathy, Sonya, Miriam, Anne-Marie, Dusan, Ayse: Start to brush and trowel off just down to hard soil. We assume this is the top of the 1994 scrape. We can see the tops of wall with plaster, although they are not all very continuous and don't look like the ones on the scrape plan. Between them the surface is bumpy - mostly soil fill. No obvious platforms. It's very dusty- we open the side flaps. Ian comes to visit and says that we are not deep enough yet because the walls and burned areas should show up very clearly with bright colours. He suggests that we should use the hoes that Roger designed and used during the scrape since these will bring out the patterns most clearly. I agree that we aren't deep enough. Makes it sound like we have been wasting our time. I think, however, that what we did (removal of loose surface dust) was valuable. So we go ahead and finish by lunchtime.
After lunch, RET, Mira, Dusan, Ayse start hoeing the earthy areas. Burnt area in SW area shows up very well. Dusan finds north wall (1994: 814/#14). We find the central wall (1994: 814/#3). We can see small cells. By the end of the day we have cleaned about half.
Jason with Khan set up temporary benchmarks for EDM in Bach area.
Vladimir on HF. Peggy flotation. After lunch: Sonya, Miriam, Anne-Marie finds, Kathy: fauna.
Specialist tour: Start in space 117 of building 2 (Mell): reports of specialists on the priorities that were chosen two days ago. Works very well. Very informative. a) comparison between 1873 (dump of rapid filling of space after abandonement) with last year midden slow deposit. This one shows consumption debris not production/food processing. b) 1889: balls in SW corner of space 117, associated with grindstone, pebbles, ash, poss clay weights, ceramic vessel (half). Balls are larger than those in SE Europe (8cm). Are ca. 25, 2/3 complete. Balls are against plaster. Are they an in situ deposit or dumped. I think they are in situ, close to an oven - very discrete deposit. c) space 113 (Craig), is this a floor or not? will make a cross-section. d) space 112 (Jon): burial associated with earlier phase of the house. **photo all of this on film #3. North area: adult female skeleton now found going under foundation of lowest floor - maybe is a foundation burial. **Photo.
PM: workshop on sampling by Wendy and Julie: sampling for micromorphology, dendrochronology, DNA etc.
The Goddess Pavilion works very well in the storm. A little water comes in through the sides and flows down our steep slope on E. side, but really very dry and cosy inside. However, it is the highest structure for quite a distance and so would be quite scary ( and dangerous) in thunder-and-lightning.Entered By: Ruth Tringham |
