| Entry: | We began cleaning B.43 yesterday afternoon, finishing up in today's morning section. I haven't reviewed all of the relevant literature yet, but, building on Agata's brief summary, it is clear that the building has been heavily weathered, what with being exposed since Mellart's excavation.
An east-west partition wall divides the building into what appear as two separate sections, recorded as Sp.235 (north) and Sp.236 (south). Currently the plan is to excavate through the floor of B.43 and to the underlying level; we began this excavation process today with Sp.235, U.30300. This space slopes mainly north-south, the higher edge being northerly, and has a post-retrieval pit along the south wall (F.1868), a pit in the northeast (F.1867), and several smaller holes (these appear to be former animal burrows) nearby F.1867. Though the surface is weathered, it is easy to distinguish its predominantly grey-brown color from the white patches (spread over the surface) and the white layers (appearing in section along the walls and in the aforementioned pits). Based mainly on the surface color we currently believe that this is a makeup layer.
Following this interpretation, we began by following a plaster layer near the southwest edge of F.1868. This layer quickly disappeared and until Agata uncovered a plaster layer along the north edge of F.1868, the surface remained a uniform grey-brown color, the only perceptible change being (perhaps) an increase in charcoal inclusions. Despite the continuity of floor in some areas, weathering may have destroyed much of the floor in other areas, accounting for the scattered floor finds. Hopefully we will reveal more floor tomorrow.
North of F.1868 was a bone and around this appear several bits of floor. It's presently unclear how the floor near the bone connects with the floor around F.1868 and whether the bone lies in a yet-to-be-discovered pit. As it's placed, it seems to be poking up through the floor and from first interpretation looks like it might be a rib. I'm unsure if we should excavate the area around the bone with higher priority or just continue layer by layer and remove the bone when we get down far enough. |
