| Entry: | XHB was kept busy today by the fill east of F.3322, which is full of pieces of plaster, pots, a grinding stone and other artefacts. Here he might have found a continuation of the plaster floor (15170) in Space 446, but this still remains unclear. We might extend the trench here by a bit in order to clarify structures, as there is only ca. 30cm of space between 3322 and the trench border. Also, another late burial seems to appear here, what will make our physical anthropologist JFB happy and produce more data for her PhD.
BOD cleaned and documented the area in the between buttresses F.5053/5054, F.5052 and F.5057, which she has been scraping in the last days (15158). It is now very clear that there is a fourth buttress (F.3326) going together with the other three. This would form a very nice and symmetrical building plan, were there not the apparent doorway between F.3320 and F.3321, leading out of the area between the four buttresses into another room of the building (Space 446). There are discussions in the trench over whether or not Space 446 and ist surrounding features represent a later phase cutting into the northeastern part of a building defined by walls F.2428, 2413/5055, 5056, 5067 and buttresses F.5052, 5053/5054 and 5057. It is to soon to decide on this question, probably we have to do much more excavation before it becomes clearer.
F.3326 looked confusing before cleaning today as it is in fact of a brighter coulour (yellowish) than the surrounding soil, quite unsual for Trench 5. BOD suspects that the darker area around 3326, seemingly forming a rectangle around the buttress might represent an earlier phase of that buttress. I am not yet convinces, but the material does look like the typical blueish grey mudbrick we have in Trench 5. Probably this will become clear after going down in between the four buttresses.
EMM and BOD together tackled the never-ending cluster U.15160. It is extending farer to the east than expected, but seems to respect walls F.5067 and 3324 and buttresses F.5057 and 3326 and thus seems to represent waste(?) disposed in the space between those features. It has to be checked tomorrow, though, whether 15160 really does not cut into wall F.3324, as ist western limit it not quite clear at the moment.
LKH followed F.3324 towards north and F.5067 towards east and took out fill in between those structures (15166). F.5067 seems to continue east and run into the east section of Trench 5. F.3324 is still a bit more difficult. We were not able to define ist width and find the western limit today, this will be easier once cluster U.15160 is out. The strange feature of the little "niche" and two parallel plaster/mortar lines running through the wall is still not clearer. We were able to find the northern continuation of 3324 today, though. JFB finished documenting burial F.3316 and took out the bones of the skeleton (15150). Afterwards, she removed mudbrick (15148) and fill (15149, 15151) of this burial together with the soil around it. Finds from this area were collected with one unit number (15173), as it is very mixed up and disturbed. After scraping the area, buttress F.3326 and the continuation of wall F.3324 became visible. The area is still so disturbed by parts of the burial, though, that important spots remain blurred, such as the corners between F.3324 and 3326, the excact outlines of F.3326 and ist connection to F.3321/3322. This is only a bit more work for tomorrow and the following days, though, and very soon we probably will be able to clearly see all features in the northeast corner of the trench.
SCS continued excavating room fill in Space 345 (15168). It is the typical fill already seen in Spaces 310 and 342, all kinds of clay, plaster, brick and mortar lumps, artefacts, charcoal and what not. The plaster of the surrounding walls F.5067, 5075, 5068, 5076 seems to form some funny shapes at this level, which we will see clearer when we go down.
PTW continued work on F.3325 - the installation (or not) including mortar and horn. The situation remains confusing. Bumps of plaster coming out from buttress F.3319 and the floor (15167) towards the stone and core might be constructed to hold those artefacts in place, but on the other hand bumps in the plaster coating of walls and buttresses in Trench 5 are nothing unusual. Several sherds and animal bones sticking under and behind F.3325 seem to indicate, tough, that this is not an installation.
While working on F.3325, he also discovered a nicely preserved patch of the plastered floor (15167) in between F.3319 and wall (?) F.3323, the plaster of the floor seemingly smeared up the walls. Thus, F.3323 does not really look like a wall any more, as it does not continue to meet F.3319. As only the westernmost 7-10cm of this feature are inside trench border, though, we might not be able to clarify the situation without extending east.
I drew the walls around Space 310 in the southern trench extension and then started taking out roomfill between F.3302, 3301, 5058, 2427 (15165). Space 310 continues to be an interesting space even so high up in a probably still disturbed level. I spent some time with the plaster of wall F.5058 and buttress F.3301 which form funny shapes. Probably the upper parts of that plaster have been washed out and eroded into the space, where it also surrounds some sherds and bones. Apart from this, the room fill does not seems spectacular so far, but already includes many pot sherds and four x-finds, one of them a stone with depressions on both sides, mortar-like. |
