| Entry: | Åsa 26-8
Work in space 156 has slowed down since the walls have caused some extra consideration. As the northern wall, the southern and part of the western wall had the floors going under them I had to find out where the floor met the walls.
But first, about the oven cut through the north wall. It now has its own feature number: 238. Some of the bricks are obviously not in situ, eg the one I excavated which had the burnt face lying directly on the floor. One problem is that the parts of the oven that does seem to be in situ does not have a burnt surface at the face. It looks like the base of the oven is the same surface as the floor in space 156. This is a problem I hope to solve when I take the block out left there by the person who did the sounding there last year. Next week.
The western wall (F227) had at its southern end some form of repair or underpinning. It has been constructed i two phases. The outer material (3296) is rather homogeneous and has a smooth inner and outer surface. As follows the inner repair (3298) has a smooth outer surface, but is heterogeneous and behind the surface it looks rather like a fill. In a line along the wall, sometimes even against the wall but also in the fill I found a nearly 30cm long cluster of small animal bones. A sample of the bones in a cluster in the fill is taken and the rest are sent to flotation. There are hunderedes of them. I was afraid it might be dead rodents in an animal hole but it seems unlikely as they were found in the proper fill. It can be owl droppings, but in that case, how did it get there? I don't believe the room has been abandoned with an open space in the roof at this time as the floor is nicely preserved with one thin layer of plaster under this repair. If it came in with the fill how did it get the distribution it had, in a long line? How does snake droppings look? The wall has a slight overhang here and that prevents the bird to reach down in the crack between the wall and the repair (if there ever was one) from for example a window or an opening in the roof. So the best explanation now is that it came in with the fill, even though it does not explain the distribution.
The southern partitioning wall (F231) also had a packing or something like a fill against it. Maybe as a support. Under the fill and on the floor I found an interesting group of finds. From right to left: one rib (sheep?), one horn core, one stone with an obsidian blade on top of it, a pair of horn cores (sheep) with some of the scull in place and a clay ball between the hornes. Above the floor, but agaist the wall to the left of the horns were another stone and a small scapula (sheep?). Even more to the left is another bone on the floor, but I haven't uncovered the whole bone yet as it is lying under a baulk.
This room seems to be associated with sheep. The horn core lying on the brick of the oven was also sheep. What does this mean?Entered By: Åsa Berggren |
