| Entry: | Another great day at T5! Weather was pleasant, archaeology fun.
AWH and JJW continued 16898 in space 310. There is a very interesting cluster of big potsherds (unit 17208) abutting the plaster 13726 at the E wall 2427. looks as if people have swept stuff towards the sides of the space before it was filled with the roomfill 16898.
A similar phenomenon is observable in space 342, where DEL and me continued 16896. Most of the pottery of this unit comes from within a decimeter or so off the walls: pot cluster 16899 and buttress 5062 indicate that the W wall of space 342 hidden under the W profile must be very close, and we retrieved a big bag full of large potsherds from within 10cm off wall 5051 while exposing the plaster on 5051 and the buttress 5062. The plaster first seemed to overlie the roomfill 16896 in a similar way as it was visible in the section of wall 2424, so I initially suspected a second phase, as the upper row of mudbrick is different from the lower courses. The plaster on 5051 however, does not overlie the roomfill 16896: rather, wall 5051 is heavily bent towards the W. If it does not discontinue under the level where we can see the two sorts of mudbricks in the W cut of grave 2403, the two phases of the wall might become a bit more doubtful. PFB thinks that the upper row of mudbricks is the first row of an upper storey that has burnt down (as in Can Hasan), but unless we can find the slots for the horizontal beams this remains yet another theory. Is the pretty squarish molehole right in the corner between 5051 and 2424 that TEB emptied while brushing the walls evidence for a timber-reinforced upper storey wall construction? This will remain PFB's working hypothesis until we can find more squarish holes. The bent wall 5051 is the reason why we photographed 5051 and 2424 today and I will draw them tomorrow, as this bend will most likely not survive very long. It is also interesting to note that bones and potsherds in that unit are either huge fragments (potsherds about the size of my palm, and bone frags usually ca. 5 to 10cms long) or tiny stuff that is only retrieved using the dry sieve. The medium frag size fraction is completely missing.
MB and SO finished the loose earthy unit in space 343, coming down to a yellow wobbly surface that will be dug as a new unit. Towards the N, a patch with burnt mudbrick appeared and was defined as unit 17210. Closer to wall 2426, a round pit (fill unit 17211) became visible. It is underlying grave 2416, and I really hope it turns out to be EC in date and not another late disturbance.
KJK continued the roomfill unit 16879 in space 341, and JMR did the same in space 340 (unit 16880).
The Selcuk team continued 16884, but I still have difficulty seeing the continuation of the NS wall and the E wall. But if pace dimensions continue as in 310, 341 and 340, there should be a corner. It would also make sense having the pot and the potstand and that stuff clustered in a corner. And they finished the grave 5060. As its cut was pretty clear in the S, but unclear in the N, W and E, it may be a bit arbitrary, but as long as all of it is gone - and what I can see in the bottom and the sides of the cut looks pretty EC) that is fine. It was a relly difficult grave, with all that cloudy red disintegrated and concrete-hard burnt mudbrick stuff in the fill, cutting into EC stratigraphy of about the same compactness.
Having TEB doing the paperwork is such a relief, as I can attack strat, read articles, talk to IF or other specialists and do other stuff in preparation for our next archive reports etc. during labtime. The preliminary T7 matrix was done last week, and today I did space 310 and grave 2403. |
