| Entry: | JFB continued in pit F.3331, where a lot of non-articulated human bones now appear everywhere in the northern part and under the large stone, which was taken out today. Before taking it out, we documented the state of excavation in drawing and photo.
EMM finished unit 15180 in Space 449 today be exposing walls and finds clusters and documenting them. SCS started working in Space 310 (15335) after finishing clariying F.2428, 2429, 3327, 3320, 5052.
LKH drew the section through 15194 today and started removing it. RR visited us in the trench and suggested that the fill (15191) betweent the two floors in Space 446 (15190, 15170) might be make-up as preparation for the second floor (15190), and that the layers visible in the fill underneath the floor (15194) were layers of occupation, what seems most probable. XHB continued exposing floor U.15341 not finding any more postholes. The floor seems to be considerably large and well-preserved, but sloping in several directions (probably due to post-Chalcolithic movements in the soil). It might continue towards west and run under 15170, 15190 15191 and 15194, we will see. The post hole (15197/ 15338) raised some doubts in me today, as I only now saw the piece of bone sticking from ist side into the hollow area - that would be in the way of a post set into the hole.
The northeastern corner with ist floors and layers of occupation is getting more and more interesting today. Today I started saying goodbye to the idea of finishing those units quickly to go down and clarify stratigraphy here in order to close the building southwest of this area. We finally took out a building number (Building 98) today for this building made up by Spaces 340, 341, 450 and 449. The northeastern limit or continuation of this building is not yet clear (see discussion below), and maybe even will not become clear this season, because of the many floors and layers here. We rather do a nice and thorough excavation of the northeast corner, as it contains in situ occupation layers sealed by floors on top, so actually one of the rare cases where we can be sure that there is no late disturbance and contamination.
BOD scraped the upper parts of F.3329, 3326, 3324 and 3321 and drew them. The situation does not get clearer. F.3329 now seems to be no feature after all, but fill between 3324, 3326, 3321 with some strange dark mudbricks in, which we will try to expose tomorrow.
The overall question is still whether or not F.3320 and 3321 are later and/or cutting F.5052 and 3324 (with 3320 and 3321 probably go all the floors and occupation layers discussed above). After what we saw today, 3321 does not seem to have destroyed 3324, but at some point formed a corner with it - what still does not mean that 3324 was not constructed at some earlier point. It might even have been cut in ist northern part and 3321 built against it. That 3320 and 3321 go together is suggested by the doorway they form. We cannot yet include F.3330 in this discussion, because it is not yet exposed, that has to wait for the floors to be removed.
The situation with F.3320 is even more confusing. If Building 98 was closed in the corner between buttresses F.5052 and 3326 at some point, 3320 would be cutting F.2428, 2429, 5052 and maybe 3327. SCS levelled the upper parts of these features in the last days in order to check that. Our initial idea to remove 3321/3320 and find 2428/2429 under it might not work out, because 3320/3321 go deeper than the lower base of 2428 as observed in ist elevation facing Space 340. The crucial point is thus the relationship between 5052 and 3320. 5052 is so disturbed in ist upper part that it is hard to make sense of it. There are basically two possiblities: 3320 cut 5052 after building 98 was not in use any more. This is suggested by the fact that 3320 is not parallel to 5052 and the upper part of 5052 would look strange as becoming narrower towards south. In this case, the upper part of 5052 would be destroyed by 3320 and ist real and original outlines visible under the base of 3320, exposed this section. If that lower buttress belongs to a building phase predating 5052, though, 3320 does not necessarily cut 5052. It is also possible, though, that 5052 was cut by 3320 in order to form some structure including both of them.
Even further complicating the situation, I notice a mini-gap between 2428 and 5052 today, meaning that 5052 abuts 2428. This gap, however, also extends further east and runs through 3320 exactly where it has ist little corner and becomes narrower (maybe 3320 is rather two features?). That rather seems to indicate a contemporaneity of 5052 and 3320.
Another possibility to check wether 3320 and 3321 are later than Building 98 would be comparing lower bases of all features - it seems as if the lower base of F.3321 is already visible, and being very high up, so we will check that in the next days. The stratigraphy is complicated and thus time-sonsuming and might not be entirely lcear in the end of the season, unfortunately.
It seems possible to me that Space 448 is an outer area, as it is so large, without buttresses, without a double wall separating it from 447 and 449. The two gaps in wall 3324 (15336, 15337) might in this case be mini-windows to let in light into Building 98.
I spent my time with some other stratigraphical questions, but less complicated ones. There are a few points in the trench where sevaral walls and buttresses meet each other, and we never spent much time on clarifying their relations (abutting/ binding into). This will be done in the next days. On of these spots has already been clarified by SCS (2428, 2429, 3327,5052, discussed above). The workmen levelled the meeting points of 2427/2408/5058/5057/5056/3333/5067 and 3332/5067/5075/3324 today, doing an amazing job, by the way, as they have done throughout the season. Two other points to clarify would be 5074/2429/2428/2425/2413 and 5056/2408/5058/2424/5055/5050/2426/5051.
I started drawing 2724, 5068 and so on. In the beginning, the situation looked pretty clear, it is getting more complicated the more I look at it, though, as usual. There are gaps between 2427-5068 and 2408-5056. More complicated is the relation between 2427 and 2408. At the beginning it looked as if 2427 extended to meet 5056 and 2408 was abutting it. Then I scratched more and reached the brick layer underneath the one I had drawn, realising the bricks of 2408 in that layer extended further east, thus the two walls might be binding into each other. Well well. More exciting work for tomorrow! |
