| Entry: | I should start my diary by saying that I previously wrote a lengthy diary entry thanking the Polish team and others who came to help out in our trench, but it somehow didn't save in its entirety and only managed to describe the confusing situation with the stratigraphy and floors that we were facing that day. I described this a bit in the trench tours-- we really thought we had found patches of surface and floor, but were repeatedly proven quite wrong.
Now that things are much clearer in the trench, I can really thank everyone who helped in our trench because we are FINALLY reaching the (verifiable) floor in our Roman building! (So far, known as space 509). We have plaster that comes off the walls and connects to the floor; we have this thin ashy layer that just overlies the hard, semi-plastered surface (either floor matting or roof material… note to self: check if the thin ashy layer goes OVER the intact pots or UNDER to shed some light on this debate.)
Which brings me to the coolest part of the trench right now-- we have now found FOUR nearly-intact vessels lying on the floor of the trench, in u.30246. One looks like an egg (usually used for shipping), one looks like a little creamer, one looks like a pretty standard jug with a handle, and one looks like a voluptuous woman (Ian thinks the heat is getting to me on that one). They're pretty fantastic (the voluptuous woman pot, nicknamed Leo, got audible gasps at trench tours). What's really serendipitous is that there will be people arriving on Tuesday who are apparently interested in late pottery. We've decided to sample the interiors of at least a couple of them, but as Lisa noted, it's unclear when or if anyone will examine these samples.
And this is my final point of this diary entry: It's not easy being Roman! Erik and I talked very briefly about this today, that digging late material makes it really difficult to get the same level of understanding about what you're excavating as is possible for the Neolithic material. Our units are never prioritized, our faunal remains get put on the back burner, and our samples get shelved indefinitely… It makes it tough to develop the same kind of complex, data-rich analysis that is possible for the Neolithic buildings. Which is a shame, because this Roman building really is quite cool! It's quite enigmatic… I'll be needing to do some research on what those grave-ovens are (I really don't think they're bathtubs, Ian!) as well as on those pots; if anyone has any knowledge or experience that might help, let me know! |
