| Entry: | Today (7th of July), together with Jedrzej we have been continuing excavation of the room infill [19390] within the space 470. During mentioned activity we have pulled out 1320 litters of the pretty firm deposit. In consequence we are 30 cm lower than on Thursday all over the space, but still we have not reached any floor.
In my opinion we need yet 50-60 cm to get to a level whom Neolithic people used as a surface to step and live on. I look forward seeing it and experience its white silty-clay consistency first time since it was left to be buried and forgotten.
Yesterday and on Thursday I took a closer look at the plans of Mellaart’s settlement levels as well as I read some fragments of his reports that refer to the Shrine 8 and in particular to a room neighboring directly from South to mentioned structure. The search aimed to clarify the nature of the rooms placed above the space 470, that ones that were excavated in 1960’s. Since for me personally , the vital question is: (a.) how the younger structures were related with the famous Shrine ? and (b.)how the later structure might have duplicated character of space 470 (antechamber or/and separated residential unit). Analyzing the plans I noticed that Mell had drew some plans of levels VIA, VI B and VII presenting internal arrangements as well as particular features inside the rooms considered to be above the referring space 470.
In other words, it means that my previous statement, telling that the fragmentarily preserved floor U.19388 (recorded on 3rd of July in the Eastern part of the space) represents level VI, might be incorrect. Reconsidering the plans we may assume in contrary that the mentioned floor horizon was related with Mellaart’s level VII – the last stage left by him in the appealing locate.
Consequently, the room infill [19390] excavated by us for last 3 days covers a structure from level VIII. According to I. Hodder, the (small) size of the space 470 and the thin layers of plaster evidenced so far on its walls still leave open question about the nature of the structure which might have been an antechamber of shrine 8 in level VIII. So it is still an open query to solve and answer. |
