| Entry: | Second last day of excavation for this season. BOD continued excavating room fill (15340) in Spaces 450 and 452, typical fill with a lot of building materials and finds. Building 98 is now excavated fairly deep in the central part, not floor yet and the buttresses are still continuing downwards. Today we noticed that still some fill was remaining on buttresses F.5057 and 5053/5054, as well as on features in Spaces 341 and 340, only visible now the fill is dried out and is forming cracks and coming off the mudbrick and plaster by itself. The faces of both buttresses look very straight and neat now they are fully exposed. After cleaning walls in Spaces 340 and 341 is became clear that F.2413 and 2428 are NOT already undercut (base visible), but lower parts were still covered by some cm of fill in front of them. The plaster in the lower part of 2413 is retreating, therefore the wrong impression. The drawing done by SCS yesterday (elevation of 2413) is thus incorrect. I am nevertheless very relieved by the discovery that building 98 is still fully intact in ist lower part. Mind this when reading my diary from 19.8. It also saves us work drawing wall elevations.
SCS cleaned walls in Spaces 341 and 310/453 and prepared both Spaces for final photos. JFB started drawing the southern section of the trench (that is, the section of this year's extension). I drew relations of F.3324. 3326, 3321, 3333 and 3332.
EMM started taking out the clay balls of cluster U.15343, documenting every layer in photogrammetry.
LKH and XHB are clarifying structures in the northeastern corner of the trench. The floor (15341) which XHB has been following westwards is still not finished, but he stopped exposing it for this year to clarify wall F.3330. This wall is still a mystery, one single plaster line is visible on the ground and the soil on both sides is so disturbed that it is not clear at all whether the wall is north or south of this line. What we found instead, is a probable corner formed by F.3324 and 3321. The plaster is lost here, but the fill nevertheless peels very clearly from what looks like mudbrick.The stratigraphy in the part of the trench is highly complex and will not be solved this year, this will be the final state of excavation for this season. It shows, however, that 3321, even when a later addition to building 98, was still possibly connected to 3324 by a plaster coating surrounding both. Lower bases of 3320 and 3321 will be checked tomorrow, last thing to do for this year. |
