| Entry: | Me and Arne were assigned to the space 84 shortly after the beginning of the season (after warming up in building 3, those who were there know what I am writing about). The situation in the space which seemed back than to be pretty obvious got complicated shortly after cleaning the area. Acting on Arnes doubts we did two “mini sondages” (or “peep holes” in Arnes words), and determined that, what was thought to be earlier, lower wall (F.3623) was actually lying over the F.3624, which at the beginning was thought to be later.
But that revelation didn’t make the interpretation any easier, since then we uncovered couple features (mainly walls) for which we don’t have obvious stratygraphy.
What we are sure of is that we had younger building (108) with typical for the site arrangement with platforms (remains of which we found next to N wall an about 1,5m away from its E wall) along N and S part, with burials under them (Features 3622, F6065, 3088 and 3089) and a bench (build of two rows of bricks) separating the E platforms from “dirty” area (in SE corner of the building). The building was build on a midden filling most of the space. Prior to the rising of the new house some intrusions/preparations seems to be made in the (probably unstable or “unfit” for harboring later burials) midden. Mainly big, 3,8x,16x0,7 cut alongside the E wall of the space, emptying the easternmost part of the building of midden replacing it with much more dense and firm clayish infill. We also had similar but not the same layer aligning the part of F3624 the only wall that we are certain to be part of the later building, what can be interpreted as some kind of foundation trench. We also think to have something similar alongside the W wall of the building.
However as previously said we are very uncertain about the stratygraphy of other walls of the space. Even the number of buildings preceding the building 108 is disputable and varies from 0 (in which case it was open space used as a midden from the very beginning, what would explain lack of plaster on exposed surface of the E wall of the space) to 2.
It may be confusing that after removing of more than 4 tons of material (which is not exactly fulfilling task, while all around you everyone have exciting and uncommon finds, done while precise exploration of burials) we still don’t have any clear answers. However I hope that what we are looking for will provide the project with some essential information, maybe not of the kind worth of showing in a flashy 3D model, but important on some other maybe deeper level. Arnes enthusiasm (as he seems to be amazed by any interpretation, even if it’s contradictory to our previous ones) helps a lot and makes the whole experience challenging and all in all interesting -even without discovering any burials for what I was secretly hoping as I lack experience in excavating them in spite of my interests (while everyone are already fed up with their abundance, slowing down the work in the whole area). |
