| Entry: | I drew and removed clusters 18320 and 18319 today.
Some sherds of 18320 had phytoliths sticking on the side that was turned down. Those were indicated on the drawing and photographed. One sherd was black on the side which was turned down.
X3 that was supposed to be a stone turned out to be a very thick sherd. It might be part of the large pot X1. More sherds belonging to X1 appeared underneath the visible part. The sherds that were standing nearly vertically had yellow clay sticking to ther insides. Directly underneath/ next to one of them an animal mandibula appeared (X4) was was touching the sherds. One sherd next to X1 might have an anthropomorphic painting (X5).
Also some sherds of 18319 had phytoliths underneath them. Directly under the handle X1 a mandibula (X5) became visible. Another sherd turned out to have a handle as well (X6). The fill under one of the large sherds contained a piece of yellow clay (?? S1).
X4, a rim sherd, turned out to be sticking deeply in what I thought was a wall (F.2408). This made me clean the walls after having removed the clusters. I found that the "walls" consist of very heterogeneous material and there are also several bones sticking in them. We already noticed that this is nothing unusual on the West Mound. The fact, however, that the thick layer of white plaster covering the walls 5058, 2408 and 2427 has stopped about 20-30cm above the level I have now is really more worrying. After cleaning I found that in the lower part af what I thought to be the walls there are a lot of yellowish clay lumps, so in fact this looks very similar to the room fill I have been digging in. Today I was very convinced that I already undercut the lower limit of these three walls. What does not fit with this is the fact that the butress whose largest part is sticking in the south section does still have the thick white plaster and that at no point during excavating this or last year there was a floor visible. At all states of excavation there were always several large sherds sticking vertically or nearly vertically in the fill. A straight, slightly sloping line of yellow clay which is visible at some parts of the lower part of 2408 and which we took for a mortar line might be something else.
We will have to check on this tomorrow and the first step will be to clean the south section. This might also clarify another question which I discussed with ER and PFB today. Both suggested that the two "butresses" visible in the south section are in fact the door to the space and that access to the room might have been from the south rather than from above. PFB pointed out that the way the artefacts cluster would also very well fit the situation of people coming through this door into the space and dumping their waste into it, what would explain the "empty" area right next to the door.
After removing the clusters I cleaned the space to take a photos of the next of room fill which will be 18326. While brushing I confirmed the feeling I already had when removing the last centimeters of 18318 and which was that the fill is becoming more homogeneous and loose. Especially on the SE part brushing already was enough to remove the soil. Another thing I will have to have a closer look at tomorrow. |
