| Entry: | Shahina: Last Diary 29th Sept.
Trenches are backfilled, most of the house has been packed and only the very last of the team are here. As usual the close up has been hectic, however many days we allow at the end of the project there never seems to be enough time. It is however clear that digging practically up to the last minute is chaotic, we kind of wound down during the last week in the Mellaart area as did Gavin in the North and by the last digging day North and Summit were backfilled, Bach was secure and revetted and only Mell. needed backfilling. In Mell. area we did not succeed in digging all the floors in space 117, building 2. There was simply too much going on and to rush it would have meant loss of information, poor records and general chaos. The floors are in a bit of a acomposite state but discrete areas are in phase and Roddy has written a final summary of events and recommendations fo next season. Spaces 150 and 151 were excavated down to floor level and no further, neither of the ovens were tackled this season as the aim in the last week was to excavate the southern walls that were clearly not going to survive the coming winter. This was done successfully and in doing so many of the wall problems were sorted ie. an order of construction was understood and linked with neighbouring buildings, these events still have to be tested in post-ex. but I'm kind of optomistic that it will work. Wall 52, which was th north wall of spaces 106, 107 and 108 has ben shaved down as it was not completely released, this because it is also the south wall of the early level VII phase of space 112. Wall 267, the west wall of space 112, which walls 91 and 98 of space 109 abutted, was shaved down because of its steep overhang but not completely excavated as it was not released in space 112 and wall 52 was later than wall 267. Wall 85 has been completely excavated however the basal courses of its its north bound return to the east, wall 253, are still in situ and also the basal courses of wall 90, the dividing wall of space 113 and early phase 112 is still in situ. Wall 67 was excavated which defined a stub of wall 266 which appeared to be more of a blocking than a wall, was also excavated. These last two walls have revealed an even earlier wall which needs to be investigated next year. To sum up: the earliset wall in all those that have been investigated appears to be wall 267. We were going to excavate wall 270, to the south of space 115 but again it has not been released, this wall is also the bit of wall to the south west of space 117 against which the clay lined 'bin' was constructed. Thats basically what we did in the final week i the Mell area.
Ian left on Thursday morning to lecture in Istanbul with the intention to return on Satarday to attend our final lunch with the work men and women and to pay them, however he got ill and went straight back to the UK. His absence on Friday was lucky for me as I took his place on a balloon ride over the site, arranged by Lothar, Ralph and Alex as part of their documentary. That was amazing.
The finds went into the museum on Friday which after many stresses was successful. The stresses arose due to an outburst of temper towards the representatives. Not very clever at all!! Not only because it dumped me in it to pick up the pieces but it also puts the whole project in jeperdy.
Satarday was a bit of a non ending nightmare. It rained all day as we tried to backfill Mell. Consequently alot of the area was churned up and we ran out of sacks for wall revetting. The area looks pretty miserable with trample all over which means there will be alot of cleaning to do next year, and a lot of damage to sort out. Why did this happen? You can never tell what the weather holds in store, we had little time to complete the task, we couldn't do it the following day as the finds depot had to be sorted the following day which was the mens last day of work, we had no option of keeping them on for an extra day because of our departure date. One thing after another capped off by the car getting stuck in mud on its way to Konya and having to sort that out.
Today is depot lock up and I pray it goes smoothly. There is a lot of scope for things to go wrong. I took the reps. around the store with various lists last night and was disappointed at the arrangements. Its true that they had been very demanding at the end when we were all very busy, wanting more and more reports and lists all that Burcu had to translate, but in the end we have to do what they want. Most of us know this except the person most concerned, whose short sighted and unaccommodated conduct caused endless problems and more work for others.
One final word, we must establish early on in the next season what the representatives require from us: reports, lists, how things are to be boxed for the end etc. and then all team members must comply. There are too many boxing and listing systems in use at the moment.
It has been a good season!Entered By: Shahina Farid |
