| Entry: | The last week we have mainly been digging the midden in building 108, space 84. From the first trench in the midden (that was c. 1x1m and 0,5m deep, U.19486), we continued two more metres to the east, to the border of the cut (U.20414), in the eastern part of the midden. The bottom limit for the arbitrary layer was a continuous relatively thick clay layer that was sloping to the north and the east. The first unit in the midden was about 0.5m thick, which is somewhat thick. The following units in the midden was decided to be 0.15m thick, which of course is much better for the stratigraphic recording, even if we don’t follow the natural sloop of the layers. On the other hand we are suppose to excavate the rest of the midden as one unit, about 3x2.5x0.15m, which might seem kind of coarse. It is said that several midden at the site have been documented extremely carefully and that there is no need for more detailed documentation. Anyway, it hurts a little in my Scandinavian Mesolithic soul, since I am used to excavate refuse layers more in detail. Since it is often the only thing that is well preserved at the Mesolithic sites. There are a lot of interesting finds in the midden and only some of them are treated as X-finds and documented in three dimensions.
We have also tried to understand the relation between the two southern walls, F.3623 and F.3624, in building 108. At first it seemed clear that the wall F.3624 was the younger one and belonged to the younger building 108, since it ended in the midden. After the wall was excavated, in the area of the test trench in the midden, it wasn’t so clear. Some of the bricks in the two walls seem to be intertwined. There were also a row with leaning bricks in the lower part of the younger wall that also seems to belong to the older wall, or they don’t belong at all to the younger one. It was decided that we should excavate more of the midden area close to walls to get a clearer view of the relation.
We have also been speculating about why our walls don’t have any plaster, so far. Burcu got the idea that the lower part of the building, which is filled with midden, could have been an open space. Obviously that’s true since the space have been used as midden for some time. Ian on the other hand is certain that there is an older building in the bottom of the midden, and that the plaster could have fallen off due to weathering.
When we started to excavate the northern part of the midden a new child burial popped up (F.3644), just some centimetres from the one that Asa excavated (F.3622), in the beginning of the season. Probably she excavated the legs of the child since they were found in the southern part of her cut, some distance from the other bones in her grave. They seem to fit to the new child burial that is missing its legs, and they are in the right location for a hocked burial position. |
