| Entry: | Exciting day in B.105. During room fill removal in both parts of the building (north – 17280, south – 17283), more and more construction features started showing up. Also, 17280 looks very different from the usual West Mound room fill. In this layer of building infill, we have much less finds and much less chaos of smaller lumps of inclusions of all kinds. Instead, we seem to get larger lumps of different kinds of clay and brick. While it does not seem like in situ collapse, as most of the materials cannot be found in B.106, and no fragments of constructions (e.g. brick with plaster) were seen so far, it is definitely something different and we will slow down our excavation to uncover these lumps carefully.
Concerning the construction features in B.105, what looked like a shapeless brick lump where first discovered now is a clear “platform” (F.3365) in front of (south of) buttress F.5061. Towards the end of the day, EUR discovered a similar feature (F.3366) in front of (north of) F.3363. Also, along the western and eastern walls F.2424 and F.3352 south of the buttresses F.5062 and F.5063 there seem to be features similar to the “benches” F.3303, F.3310, F.3311 and F.3346 in the north. In sum, the room is getting a bit crowded. The many features inspired discussions about two or more wall phases being present in the building. A hypothesis supported by the excavators FKJ, EUR and CMF, and also Ian Hodder who visited us in the afternoon, is that F.3303, F.3310, F.3311, F.3346, F.3353, F.3365 and F.3366 represent the wall and buttresses an older (lower) building which was then basically reproduced, only with slightly larger outlines, on top (F.5051, F.2424, F.3352, F.5061, F.5062, F.5063, F.3363, F.3364, F.3341). While I do not find this too convincing, and would still interpret all the many features as internal furnishing for whatever reason, the whole southern wall(s) yield more convincing evidence for phases. First, a lower wall seems to show up under the gap (doorway) between F.3341 and F.3364. Second, F.3364 west of buttress F.3363 is confusing. It seems like we have a bit of the wall left on top, than ca.15cm of garden soil, and then again wall underneath. Most unclear are the yellow walls in the southwest corner. We really have some serious wall clarification to do tomorrow.
So, we will move much slower in B.105 from now, and also FKJ is going to relocate to Space 345, as three persons really do not fit into B.105 any more and in Space 345 we want to discover the floor level to investigate possible terracing during comparison with 16977 in B.98.
GWN and JHB continued working on wall clarification in northern B.98. After scraping down the tops of F.3320-3335-5052-2428-2429 some more, we were able to determine outlines of the features. JHB then continued to remove what remained of F.5052 and F.3335, while GWN removed the small was F.3321 and then started on F.3320. The two latter are still interpreted not to have been part of the original B.98, as their bases are much higher up than those of the surrounding walls. Also, floor 15170 was found running up to F.3320, and this floor is much higher up than 16977 in the main building. 15170 had been found and removed in 2010, after which we excavated deeper in Sp.446 and found more disturbed floors on a deeper level. How this part of B.98 looked like originally cannot be determined at the moment and might not be for a while; who knows what lies behind the northern trench border? This door opening might lead to a very large room, or even another building, which we will not uncover this year.
In B.106, KTX finished exposing two bricklayers of F.5058; in the southern part of the wall, a layer further up was uncovered, and in the northern part the same layer as in F.2408. The aim is to follow one layer at least all along F.2408 and F.5058, therefore encompassing half of the building. F.2427 was not preserved high enough to attempt this; with F.3351 we will have to see whether it is possible. This one layer can be taken as an example of brick laying, so the other layers can be removed quicker. While I would have just cut a layer artificially in the centre (horizontally speaking), KTX suggested to expose the tops of this layer, which is better for several reasons. First, you can see the actual shape of bricks to infer information about their manufacture. Second are information about the relative setting of the bricks. Of course, everything turned out to be more difficult. From the sides it looks like there were continuous layers all around the building, but we could not connect with certainty bricklayers around the corner of F.5058 and F.2408, and also not in the central part of F.5058 behind buttress F.3301. More has to be removed in the southern part, but before and overview photo was taken and tomorrow the southern part will be drawn, before taking it down to the famous bricklayer we are trying to see in total.
A very nice event today was a visit from BT who discussed many aspects of the architecture and phasing with us. Two of her most important comments concern B.106 and B.107. BT looked at the material in F.2408 of B.106 and determined that it was mostly silt, with a lot of ash, charcoal and organic inclusions. She suggested the bricks were indeed manufactures outside the construction site; during the building of the experimental house, they found out that two persons can carry such a brick and they are, although thin, stable enough not to break. In B.107, we looked at the western section together, scraped a it and found that wall F.3344 in its central part goes down further than we thought, it still had some fill sticking to its face. The mortar lines wobble heavily here. |
