| Entry: | Work has begun in full blast since the teams arrived on the 25th and 26th of the month. New teams, new students, and a new season. And lots of babies, which is quite refreshing really.
I arrived on site on the 19th of June - this is rather a late diary entry. In any case, it is worth noting that this year the North Shelter seemed to be in much better condition compared to the state I found it last year. The sacking at the bottom of the flaps blocked rain, although I must also note that apparently it was a really dry year. Sp.337 in B.77 had probably an inch of dust accumulation. As did all the floors of B.52. From what I’ve observed in the two years I’ve excavated and been a part of the North Shelter, burnt deposits and features seem to erode much faster than the others. The cleaning of the archaeological deposits we uncovered last year began with the arrival of the Selcuk students and Aroa, on the 24th of June. Things were pretty much good to go by the 27th and excavations began in full force, after the new excavators adjustment period on the 29th.
The plan for this year is to work within the northern end of the North Shelter, within spaces defined by the rather eroded building, B.112 as well as the partially excavated B.102. B.114, Sp.87 will be "sliced" by Aroa, a micromorphologist and a student of Wendy Matthews. A team will continue their work on B.77 - the plan is to remove the whole building this season, while another team will go even further down to hit the floors of the building that is just below the midden sequence of Sp.489. Finally there will be a team working on removing what is left behind of B.52.
A few issues from last season do need resolving early on this season. An important one is gathering the sequence of construction events associated with building B.108, and the stratigraphic relationship of this space to the surrounding buildings. Last year we were quite confused with the southern walls of B.108: F.3624 and F.3623. Perhaps the biggest fault in our interpretation of these walls was to assume one was later than the other. Our assumption was partially based on the fact that in plan, F.3623 seemed to be cutting F.3624 and the walls were actually made from different mud bricks. Well, coming back to the section left by Arne - we have finally decided that in the walls were built at the same time as they actually interlock. Another issue has been how extensively the northern and southern walls were built. Why such massive walls (at least 1.5m below floor surface) for such a small building? Well, it seems as though the builders of B.108 had a good reason to do this: B.108 was to be established on a midden area. As middens are unstable, as evidenced by slumped walls we see in the south, such as "Roddy’s sequence" we might assume that this was a precautionary measure taken to actually have a stable building. Finally, its worth noting that the construction of B.108 probably superseded the construction of B.113, as it respects the alignment of the western wall of B.113. What will be more interesting to explore will be the relationships between F.3646 and F.3679. It is definite that F.3646 is a later build than F.3679 as it abuts the plastered southern façade of F.3679. Both walls were cut by the foundation trench of F.3627. There are older walls below F.3627 that seem to be same build of F.3679. But more on that as we excavate further.
Numan and Kerim began working within the bounds of B.112. They’ve finally removed F.7102 which seems to have belonged to a later phase of this building. They’ve also excavated ephemeral remains of a platform and a burnt surface abutting the southern wall, F.6071. What’s refreshing is that they’ve basically hit room infill and seem to be hitting an earlier phase of this building with better-preserved plastered walls. Though the extent of this building still needs to be further defined.
B.102 is being excavated under the direction of Stella. Work is underway here, and each day we have a better understanding of the nature of this building which seems to not have well-preserved plastered floors but rather packed clay floors. I will elaborate on this in an upcoming diary entry with more discussion.
I should also note that Aroa, Wendy Matthew’s student began excavating Sp.87 and has hit the platform surface towards the end of this space. She’ll be slicing the space in three (some 1 m slices running N-S across the building) to take thin sections across the different floor levels of this space. She’s already hit another skull in the infill along with bits of more human bone just scattered across the floor: Violent sacrifice? I’m sure that’s what the IMITATIO people would love to see but I won’t get into that just now.
I want to end this entry with a quick note on B.52: I am extremely excited about this incredible space with platforms some 50cm to 1m tall, containing layers and layers of red paint, the incredible bucranium and the horn cores presumably attached to the bench... It is quite a thought thinking that we will actually be excavating this "super-structure". Again, this will be another discussion to follow soon. Suffice to say today Remi began uncovering extensive red paint on the NE platform F.1575 that seems to be associated with the burial cut we see on the badly weathered surface.
It is going to be another busy year under the North Shelter. |
