| Entry: | KTX took a photo of the “section” through F.5058 created by leaving the last centimetres towards F.2424 and then removed this rest of the wall, and of F.3351. During the last days, a crack had formed naturally when the material had dried out, allowing him to peel the wall from what was behind it. After peeling, we saw homogenous, moist, soft dark material that we had very different interpretations of. I would interpret it as fill in the very narrow gap in between the walls. This fill 18371 would not have been filled in intentionally, but filled up naturally by wind, sweeping etc. KTX would rather interpret it as brick from one or both walls, disintegrated through time. When we scraped it off, wall F.2424 showed off nicely. Some of the fill was not dark and soft, but yellowish-specked and very compact. Only after a while I had the idea this might actually be plaster on the outside of F.2424, as it stuck directly on the brick and mortar of the wall and the material looked similar to the mortar. If this is true, the outer plaster is preserved only in some patches, of which I scraped off several that were so dried out that I could not clearly distinguish the material. A plaster layer on the outside of F.2424, abut and covered by F.5058, would most probably mean that it predates F.5058. We had no time to look at the line where exposed F.2424 and F.5058 meet to verify this – will do tomorrow.
F.3351 was not such a clear case. Towards where wall F.3361 is supposed to be, he removed F.3351 until seeing only homogeneous material that seems a bit too soft for a wall and does not show mortar lines. Towards F.3354, the upper part came off nicely; in the lower part, F.3354 seems to be sitting on F.3351, as far as we could see today. We will check this again in the following days.
After removing all of the walls except for the lowermost two layers, the outlines of B.106 where well visible. It is quite a large building; its rooms are small, though, because the walls are so thick. It has a trapezoid form, which might indicate that it was built into a weirdly shaped empty area between Building 105 and Space 345. Especially its southwestern corner seems unusual, both the inner and outer edge have a funny narrow angle.
JHB worked further on approaching the interface of wall F.2413/5055 with walls F.2425/5050 and F.3305 behind it. It turns out that F.2413/5055 is leaning into the room quite considerably – what does this mean about the chronology with B.107? He is now working in the southwest corner of Building 98, where nine phases of construction meet: the two phases of F.2413/5055 and F.5056, the three phases in the eastern wall of B.107 (F.2425/5050, F.3305, and wall below), the two phases of B.105 (F.2424 with F.5051, and F.3303 and F.3310 under them), and the two phases of B.106 (F.5058 with F.2408, and F.3312 with F.3313). It would be ideal if we could find indication for the chronology of these phases across buildings, to determine e.g. that upper Building 105 was constructed covering the lower phase of Building 106 or something the like. So far, JHB found that the upper phase of F.5056 comes off naturally from the lower phase and has only a minor gap with F.2408. In the very corner of all these walls, he found a retouched tool made from some dark grey and white, seemingly flint-like stone, which to me seem to be in a position somebody put it intentionally.
GWN worked further on exposing the clay ball cluster 18369, which runs alongside F.3333, but does not run into the very corner of F.3333 and F.5057 and does not follow that wall towards east, but ends halfway. Its relation to the walls (next to? under?) could not be checked yet – we have to take out the balls before. The balls are laying on an interesting layer – it seems like yellowish clay, with some phytoliths on top, impressions of chaff, and a thin layer of burnt clay. This layer is found directly under floor F.16977 towards the centre of the room, but slopes down heavily when approaching the wall – here, the clay balls fill the space between the clay layer and the floor. Once the balls are gone, we have to check out that layer and see what its function might have been.
DLG worked on clarifying the corner of F.5074 and F.2425/5050 in Building 107. This corner is heavily disturbed by rodents, and not preserved very high, so the task is difficult. At the moment it seems as if the eastern wall F.2425/5050 would run all the way to F.2429 north of it, and is abut by F.5074. The strongest indication of this is that the mortar lines of F.2425/5050 are quite horizontal, but those of F.5074 slope strongly upwards towards the corner. F.2425/5050 is a wall of one-brick width, the bricks are quite long and have large impressions of straw and chaff.
PTW continued excavating room fill 18365 in Space 345. Interestingly, a lot of patches of disintegrated dark brick can be found in the fill, similar to those in the fill of B.105. The dark brick was not used for the walls around Space 345, though; they are made of reddish brown brick. He also found a sloping layer that contained lime and looked
EUR and CMF went down in their sondage 18370 in central Building 105. During room fill removal it became clear that the bump of dark grey brick in front of buttress F.5062 is a heap of bricks and brick fragments in secondary position within the fill, so they were removed. Towards the end of the day, they discovered what looks like a fragment of a wall in the centre of their sondage. The fragment of wall 18372 is quite large, maybe 50x50cm, and made from dark grey brick and white mortar lines. It seems to lie rather flat on whatever is under it. The material is visually the same as in the structures surrounding the building, but it is hard to imagine a scenario in which a fragment of wall would fall quite far into the room, seemingly without more collapse around it, but still be so intact. I therefore at the moment would think it is in secondary position.
I worked in the southwest corner of Building 105, and removed all material (17289) that I could determine to be room fill. I came down to a block of solid grey brick material, with some lines and lumps of plaster and mortar in it, that I could not interpret at the moment. I think it might be a construction feature, but none that we understand so far. After this, and after finding the fallen wall 18372, we stopped excavation and started cleaning for a 3D-Scan. After this scan, the northeast corner of F.2424 and F.5051 can be taken off to determine relationships between Building 106, Building 107 and Building 105; and the later wall F.3349 in the western part can be removed, because it blurs the southwestern corner. I have the feeling that this corner will still be a challenge, though, even if the later wall is out. |
