| Entry: | Yesterday we nearly finished unit 16966. Only some potsherds in the north-western corner and three collapsed mud bricks were left. As we continued excavating the room fill, we expected the walls to continue further down. The buttress (F. 5062) seems to continue further down, indicated by plaster.
In the south-western corner between the buttress (F. 5062) and the profile of the room fill a large mud brick has been found, that has been further exposed today. Along the mud brick a line of plaster is clearly visible from above that surrounds the mud brick. Continuing east, there seems to be another mud brick, what would "turn" the plaster into mortar. Another mud brick bordered by another plaster line on the south eastern corner of the buttress (F.5062) seems to belong to the buttress, but its northern borders are not clear. In a triangle between the mud bricks mentioned fragments of burnt yellow plaster have been found.
The situation of the installations in the north-western (F. 3346 & F. 3311) and north-eastern (F. 3310 & F. 3303) corner in contrast is unclear. In the north-eastern corner the mud bricks of both features (F. 3310 & F. 3303) apparently slope up towards each other. It would not make sense if the installation had already reached their foundation level. As we removed a small "security line" of soil on the features (F. 3310 & F. 3303) we left two days ago we found some plaster spread out ca. 10 cm from the corner towards the room. On the feature F. 3310 we also found some red painted plaster, that seems to be in situ. This is not clear though, because we didn't go further down to verify if the painted plaster continues and no clear mudbrick or mortar lines can be identified on each site of the plaster. So, as it is not clear whether the feature continues, it is also not clear, whether the painted plaster is in situ.
Yesterday we tried to find the texture of a new layer already recognized in front of buttress F. 3365 in the rest of the section. Therefore we removed large plaster lumps. In front of feature 3353 a black line appeared forming a semi-circle around the edge of the feature. We started today trying to figure out whether a pit has caused this line. It turned out not to be a pit but it seemed to be part of the new layer. Concerning the black line it seemed to become thicker towards the room when we went further down. But it still has to be checked whether it is a collapsed mudbrick or an ash lense. |
