| Entry: | LKH continued fill unit 15194. XHB exposed floor U.15341 further (fill above: 15196). It is still continuing towards west, but considerably sloping downwards in that part. He stopped cleaning the floor to make a section through the fill above (15196) in that western part and to clarify ist southern limit and relation with wall F.3330.
EMM started working on a cluster of clay balls (15343) that became visible in the southeastern corner of Space 449 yesterday. By the end of the day, she had exposed what looks like a large heap of unfired clay balls put into that corner between F.3324 and 3333. Shahina came by to help us with some information about how to document the cluster and about what purpose they might have had. In this case, we probably can be sure that they do not form part of an installation (oven), but maybe represent raw material for pottery production or some other clay workshop.
BOD removed F.3329 between 3321 and 3326, which was thought to be a rectangular mudbrick construction initially, but yesterday turned out to be a smaller installation surrounded by fill. It had a roughly rectangular lining, was not parallel to 3324, 3326 or 3321 and only some more cm thick when we spotted it, thus seems to be an addition that is not contemporary with the use of building 98. Under it, there is yellowish room fill (15346). This space bordered by 5052, 3320, 3321, 3324 and 3326 was given space number 452 today, as it actually looks like a space and not just a pass-through now that 3329 was recognised to be later. Space 452 forms part of Building 98.
JFB finished exposing all human bones of cluster/skeleton U.15199 in pit F.3331 that could be exposed on this level without taking some of them out. Probably there is more to come underneath the present level, but this might have to wait unit next year.
IF joined us today to excavate room fill (15335) in Space 310, recognising a lot of unburnt pottery and taking several samples to identify all those lumps and pieces of materials that make up our typical rooms fills and make them so heterogenous, lumpy and colourful.
Me and SCS spent more time with buttress F.5052 and finally it seems a bit clearer. After scraping away some soil if ist lower part, that now was recognised as fill, not mudbrick, after it had dried out for several days, it is obvious that there is another mudbrick feature (bench?? F.3334) abutting it from the east and south. This feature was recognised, as ist lower limit is already visible and it is sitting on fill. The western face of F.5052 shows, though, that the buttress, coated in plaster, is still continuing below the present level on Space 340. 3334 had to be a different feature, then.
Having clarified that, the plaster line between F.5052 and 3320 actually seems to be the coating of the buttress. The two of them seem to be abutting, 3320 NOT cutting 5052. 3320 still might be a later addition within the outlines of building 98, together with 3329 and 3334, not belonging to ist original plan and probably quite high above a potential floor (which we have not yet reached in any of the rooms, but 449 is already quite deep without sign of a floor) and sitting on at least 40-50cm of fill above a potential floor. We will have to check the heights of the lower bases of F.3320 and 3321 next week in order to verify that. All those later additons might, tough, at some point formed an inhabited/ used building together with the older structures. This taken together with the fact that 2413/5055 and 2428 in Space 340 might already been sitting on fill, thus also being later additions, but 5052 and 5053/5054 not, makes a very complicated picture of stratigraphy and phases of use in building 98 (but see diary 22.8.). Another fact worth mentioning is that the southern walls of building 98 (5056 and 3333) are not quite in line, the building seen from the outside would have had a corner here. The reason might be that building 98 was built to fit next to already existing buildings to the south of it. |
