| Entry: | A much more productive day today, largely due to the total absence of electronic gadgetry from the excavation. All levels and 3D co-ordinates were taken with dumpy and tapes and plotted directly onto plans and unit sheets. We will continue with this method from now on. Our team was joined today by Nurcan and Mehmet so we now have 6 diggers at work in Building 1, including myself but not Atakan who was busy in Mellaart Area with the EDM etc. Earth is now beginning to move and we are starting to get used to the system, so we expect to speed up from now on. Starting from the west, today's work featured; Serap digging ash deposits, Units 1239 and 1245, associated with the upper phase of FI 11; Gavin digging the wall, Unit 1243, and the floor, Unit 1247, of the upper phase of FI 11; Mehmet digging room fill, Unit 1246, in Space 71 immediately to the east of the access between Spaces 70 and 71; Engin digging cut fill and upper collapse, Unit 1242, in the southeastern part of Space 71; Nurcan digging room fill, Unit 1241, in the southern half of Space 110 (a new number for the small sub-room along the eastern side of Space 71) and myself digging room fill, Units 1238, 1244 and 1248, in most of Space 111 (a new number for the small enclosed area in the northeast corner of Space 71). All deposits were sampled for flotation, and in my case the appearance of what appear to be very fugitive floors led to the sampling of probable occupation deposits, Unit 1248, for organic and inorganic analyses. These probable floors and associated deposits appeared after excavating only some 10-15 cm of room fill from Space 111 - they may be patchy floors of an upper phase as we had last year in the northern part of Space 70. Wall plaster is very fragmentary here as elsewhere - all very close to the surface. Gavin had some fallen plaster with washes of red paint near FI 11. He also had a Roman rim sherd, wheel-made, from Unit 1235 - must come from bottom of scoop or pit which was originally visible in plan when we first scraped and planned Building 1 in 1993. We are not too worried about this contamination of Unit 1235 as Gavin will be giving a new unit number to the lower deposits in this room and again to any deposits on or near the floor. Engin's deposits, Unit 1242, contain large heavily burnt chunks of daub with clear reed impressions - very likely the collapsed roof. These deposits are burnt orange and brown - perhaps also indicating the high vegetable matter content of the roof leading to ready combustion. Not many finds from anywhere - few bits of bone and obsidian. I had quite a few peas - charred. We had one workman (Mustafa - the one who looks like Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan's Express) to help with dry-sieving, which worked well.Entered By: Roger Matthews |
