| Entry: | Craig 24-4-99
Removed the last of the spit of (4205) which produced more obsidian - 4205 X.1 and cluster (4210) - quite close to cluster (4209) from yesterday. These are all in the south-west quadrant underlying the dirty/domestic/oven area of Building 2 where we found obsidian in the general layers and clusters (4134) and (4138), (4134) in fact almost directly overlies (4209). This spatial patterning is presumably not coincidental. Having seen (4210) and checked my records I have become more convinced that (4209) and (4210) were deposited during the latter stages of the infilling process. Is this a similar phenomenon to the foundation phase burials from Building 1 and the pot-stand group from the West Mound?
Numbered up the building beneath Building 2, it is Building 9 consisting of spaces 166 and 167. We have revealed the internal division wall F.418 between the two spaces and part of the south and west walls of what appears to be the main western space 166 - F.420 and F.422. Obviously things are very patchy and will remain so, however, there are a few pointers to the nature of Building 9. It is on a slightly different orientation to Building 2 but the main walls appear to pretty much underlie those of Building 2. The internal division wall F.418 is further west than the corresponding wall in Building 2 which suggests a different spatial emphasis. There are hints that there was a crawl hole in this wall between spaces 166 and 167, mirroring Building 2, and this crawl hole may have had plastered posts on either side of it [F.419 and a small lip on F.418]. There is an internal wall feature F.421 attached to wall F.420, the nature of this feature is unclear but its eastern end hints at the location of a ladder installation in the normal location. A plaster feature F.423 at the southern end of space 167 could be the hood of a bin or a different type of feature. No bins, apart from the late phase one on top of the oven containing clay balls, were found in Building 2. This is probably because they were in the eastern space 116,which corresponds with space 167, which has not been fully excavated.
Had a fun meeting where the heavy residue procedures were explained. I am gradually becoming less and less convinced of the validity of the statistics that we produce from these which the project is using as a major interpretational tool. For example I now learn that the plant weight is only that material which does not float - is this standard for all samples or does the percentage which doesn’t float vary with circumstances. Also the division of the 2mm and 1mm residues into 50%, 25% and 25% piles for different types of sorting seems quite haphazard. Whilst neither of these factors is perhaps major when combined with a number of other problems I am coming to wonder if they don’t have the cumulative effect of seriously compromising the results.Entered By: Craig Cessford |
