| Entry: | Excavating this unit of room fill was my introduction to fieldwork at Catal. Space 340 was last excavated two years ago, so my goal for this unit was to clear the surface layer of soil that had been exposed to the elements for two years, while looking for any new walls or buttresses that might appear. Some bits of red-painted plaster, mudbrick, and mortar were found in the unit but none of these elements was cohesive enough to be called a wall. The finds were mixed and did not paint a clear picture. There were two x finds of obsidian (a core and a nice blade) as well as diverse other finds of pottery, animal bone fragments, obsidian flakes and a few small stones. None of the finds barring the obsidian x finds were particularly remarkable, and considered in association with the incomplete mudbrick and plaster, I would characterize the roomfill as mixed and heterogeneous. Nothing about the unit was particularly clear or diagnostic. Nonetheless, I think that now that the surface layer has been removed, a more closed context may be preserved deeper that will help clarify the history of space 340. |
