| Entry: | Richard Turnbull 16/4/99
Them past few days I have been digging in the midden area ( space 115 ) with Jez. So far all the midden material we have excavated has been taken out as one unit ( 4121 ). Some variation within the unit; towards the western end , particularly the south west corner the unit contained more large inclusions of plaster and was more clayey and brown in colour. The northern and eastern part of the unit has been greyer and much more of a soil - but no clear division between these two halves , just a change in the deposit rather than two distinct layers. Also working towards the east finding more ash and burnt material. At the far western end seemed to be concentration of large animal bone ( cattle ? ) and we took a number of cattle DNA samples from here. We have also partially uncovered what seems to be collapsed wall material - composed of dark grey clay bricks and white mortar similar to the ones visible in the wall ( ) below the wall ( ) on the south side of the midden . However the orientation of the courses we can see at the moment makes it appear as if the material has collapsed from a wall running N/S. We have now dug enough of the midden at the west end to see the base of the wall ( ) S. Side of midden and some courses of bricks in the wall beneath. We should be able to follow this east as we excavate more of ( 4121 ) - the base of this wall though is at a higher level on the north side than the south side. Towards the end of the started to find light brown clay material underneath the wall material - this also appears to be running under the collapsed wall material , so possibly we are starting to get to the bottom of the midden deposit. But have only revealed a very small amount of this material so far - also doesn’t appear to be infill material which is what I would expect to find here. Part of another wall perhaps ?
[ 16/4: Need to insert context numbers of walls but don’t what they are yet.]Entered By: Richard Turnbull |
