| Entry: | Continued in space 342 with OMV, removing a curious grey, ashy fill (18310) that had been discerned yesterday along the eastern edge of (arbitrary layer) fill 18309. Particular caution was exercised due to the presence above the north-western area of 18310 of an infant burial (excavated last year); small burned bones were found in the north of 18310, but - despite their close proximity - there was no apparent articulation and (after our site specialist checked with the human bone lab) they were identified as almost certainly non-human. The southern part of 18310 was more productive, yielding two pieces of plaster with red lines across them (18310.X1): mobile XRF identified this colouration as ochre. The apparent implication of painted wall plaster on the West Mound would be particularly interesting, given current ideas about the reduction of emphasis on walls as an artistic canvass here in the chalcolithic. Extra care will be taken in future to ensure all pieces of plaster are explicitly checked for colouration.
An unexpected feature noticed during the excavation of 18310 was a layer of plaster apparently jutting out of the eastern wall (feature 2424) that delimits space 342. This layer appears to drop as it runs west towards the centre of the space, until it reaches roughly vertical a few tens of centimetres into the room. It is tempting to see this as a bench, given the proximity of buttresses (features 5061 and 5063) that would make its identification as an additional buttress seem implausible (or, at least, structurally unneccessary). However, this would seem to require a rather less deep floor than the heights of surrounding walls/buttresses (5061/5051/2424/5063) would seem to imply - though it is presumably possible that the surrounding walls/buttresses have been truncated more than previously assumed.
I also helped TEB using a total station to mark out steps in spaces 342 and 343: the step in 342 should allow us to (safely!) excavate deeper into the space in search of a floor and further coloured plaster - to further investigate the intriguing results (and develop the ideas referred to) above. |
