| Entry: | The removal of unit 18328 in space 342 was today completed, and the more colourful (brighter brown-yellow) layer beneath has been defined as unit 18341.
Excavation of unit 18328 has revealed the extent of the potential bench installation (unit 18310) as continuing west along the northern wall (feature 5051) right up until hitting the eastern side of the northern buttress (feature 5061) - thereby making an 'L' shape pivoted in the corner of the intersection between the northern and eastern walls (features 5051 and 2424 respectively).
[insert general comments about unit 18328: more burned material than in higher layers, artefacts mostly (but not entirely) horizontal.]
Unit 18341 does indeed exhibit the downward slope towards the north of the unit that I have discussed previously. PFB has highlighted, however, that the highest part of the unit - the area in the south-east corner - is not only different from the rest of the unit in terms of height but also appears to have a more compact consistency: we may decide to excavate this corner as a separate unit; the exact implications of this difference (to me at least) are not currently entirely clear.
The western area of unit 18341 exhibits a patch of very ashy grey material, surrounded by whiter areas including impressions of parallel lines. This ashy area was noticed and photographed (as a working shot?) roughly a centimeter above while still in unit 18328, but is much more clearly defined now it is visible at the top of unit 18341 - suggesting that the activity this ash represents was most likely contemporary with unit 18341, and that some material then became mixed with later deposits (i.e. within unit 18328). The immediate suggestion this presents is of a fire, with the white material potentially partially-burned fuel - the parallel lines could even be impressions of the fuel material.
It is worth observing that unit 18328 contained a ceramic pot stand (18328.X??) only a couple of centimeters above in the same ashy deposit - it is tempting to assosciate this pot stand with the potential fire suggested by unit 18341, and further suggest that the recovery of the assosciated pot stand in the higher (and distinct, as opposed to arbitrary) layer (unit 18328) in such close proximity implies that activity/activites resulting in the deposit defined as unit 18328 occurred fairly rapidly after the activity represented by unit 18341. This is obviously currently only speculation, but would certainly fit with the previously discussed more general sense of space 342 representing activities taking place in reasonably rapid succession, and without significant subsequent disturbance.
A roughly elliptical patch of even brighter yellow material is visible at the top of unit 18341 beginning a few centimeters to the west of the south-eastern buttress (unit 5063). This could be a large patch of fallen wall plaster, but might also be some sort of surface (with its mounded, rather than flat, appearance suggesting one that has collapsed to some extent) - excavation of unit 18341 should be able to follow this yellow material down into other parts of unit 18341 to attempt to clarify the situation.
In short, unit 18341 could itself be - or more likely could contain - a floor. Especially careful excavation, presumably with a grid installed for accuracy, should be able to search for this tomorrow.
(entry TBC) |
