| Entry: | In Building 106, KTX drew and photographed plans and details of wall F.5058 and buttress F.3301. After recording, he started to take the southern part of F.5058 down to the brick layer we chose to uncover entirely, as an example. Southern F.5058 is still much higher than this level, and so is F.3301 which will also be removed to the same level.
In northern B.105, CMF removed the remains of layer 17280. It seems we are coming down to a level of dense, homogeneous lumps of the same grey brick that makes up the walls surrounding the building. This brick lump layer is now visible in the NW and NE corners, but also seems to be coming in the centre of the room. If this turns out to be true, the layer would be heavily concave. This and the denseness of the bricks, without other materials in between them, might indicate in-situ collapse – that clearly visible for the first time in our trench.
In the southern part, EUR and JMR spent the day on wall clarification, partially by small-scale scratching, partially by removing more of the room fill 17283. While the SW corner still is not clear, the SE is now better visible. It seems clear that wall F.2424 is preserved only ca.15cm high, and south of buttress F.5063 (but not north of the buttress) is sitting on top of ca. 20cm of fill, which in turn is sitting on an older wall with nearly same orientation as F.2424, but slightly moved to the west (no feature number yet, as this remains to be confirmed). This older wall in NS direction seems to form a corner with a wall running EW, of which we have only the very top right now and which is moved towards north when compared to F.3341. This now convinced me that we really have at least two phases in B.105.
CMF had a very interesting idea this afternoon. It seems probable that original B.106 and original B.105 were abutting, just as late B.106 and late B.105 are. If so, the border between them might have been further west originally; later B.105 widened, which might have meant that the original western wall F.3358 of B.106 is wider than F.5058 on top and the late B.106 was smaller when seen from outside, while the interior space did not change. One can only imagine how such neighbours-discussions would have been 8000 years ago. We can find this out by removing wall F.2424, but this is most probably not going to happen this year.
GWN and JHB worked further on the connection of Space 452 and Space 446 in Building 98. After we succeeded at determining their outlines yesterday, JHB took out the remains of F.5052 and F.3335. The interface of both wall features was not clear in all places; it is possible that F.3335 did not have a straight southern face that F.5052 was built against, but instead an irregular face.
The part of F.3335 that was visible from inside the house, not covered by F.5052, turned out to be quite interesting. JHB scraped back the supposed “fill under the wall” and found that it was only a few centimetres wide. He found the lowermost part of F.3335 behind this fill. When both features were removed leaving only their lowermost 4-5cm, a plaster line showed up. This plaster line was the plastering covering the corner of F.5052 and F.3335 east of the buttress. It confirms that both walls were standing at the same time, and that F.3335 shows the same phasing as the buttresses: the original version thickened by coating later, when its feet were already surrounded by fill.
GWN removed F.3320. What appeared under it was quite interesting. It turned out the wall was built on top of older walls. The irregular rectangular area that showed up under the feature shows at least two walls and a package of fill. Clearly visible was a continuation of F.2428 by the length of about one brick. This easternmost part of the wall was cut neatly straight and then F.3320 put into the neat depression. Also quite clear was a thin wall F.3367 in oblique angle when compared to F.2428. This wall is visible in its middle part, it becomes blurred towards south and north. Therefore we cannot say with certainty at the moment whether it forms a corner with F.2428. It looks like it does, because this corner seems to be plastered over. This plaster, however, could also have belonged to F.3335 and could have remained on the interface with F.3320/ F.3367 when the main wall was removed. The northern part of F.3367, where it runs into the section, was is also not so well visible at the moment. A package of fill, well visible through many large inclusions, separates F.3367 from the corner of F.2429 and F.3327. If F.3367 and F.2428 connect, this new wall could represent the original lining of the passage from main B.98 to whatever Space 446 and Spaces beyond were. Maybe just another room, maybe a whole sequence of rooms.
This taken together, F.3320 and with it maybe F.3321 clearly belonged to a whole different phase, which might actually have been much later when taking the level of floor F.15170 in Sp.446 into account. At this point in time, B.98 or most of it might actually not have been standing/used any more.
Everything observed in northern B.98 today enlightens us considerably on the internal phasing of the building. Also, the building is now ready for another thorough clean and 3D-photo session. This scan will record the plan views of original buttresses and F.3335 which can then be modelled in the computer later to give an impression of how the original features looked like. It will also record the new wall F.3367. After this scan, we can start taking out the main walls. We expect them to show the same phasing as the buttresses. We should start with F.2413/5055, for two reasons. Firstly, a view on wall F.2425/5050 and F.3305 from the east with help clarifying phases of B.107. Second, the old phase of F.2413/5055 seems to be preserved particularly high (40-60cm), hidden behind fill.
FKJ removed more of the fill above floor 17266 on top of the plaster/clay surface 17277 in Space 345. Contrary to our first impression, the surface seems to cover the entire room. Several sherds and clusters of sherds are lying flat on it. |
