| Entry: | JHB and JMK removed the bins, which are now called F.3377, nicely sampling all the removed construction and fill. We had a discussion about whether or not this actually is a construction feature, or some unfortunate erosion/rubbish – I so far believe the second option. We also talked about how different excavators make different stories in their head about a certain unit or feature – and how that is even more the case when the context is excavated, or simply around, for years. And how things to not get fresher and easier to see when being exposed during years, backfilled, brushed, exposed …
JHB and JMK then tried to connect the floor 16977 of B.98 to the bin feature –which is not possible. We see a few rodent disturbances, but also there simply does not seem to have been floor at all – or maybe it was removed at some point before the bins were built? I hope we will know more once JMK starts tackling stratigraphy in Space 446 tomorrow.
CLC finished removing floor 18376 and then tackled the remains of floor 31143. 18376 turned out to be very thick and quite greyish, not so fine material – 31143 is again the nice yellow fine material we are used to. And soon we will actually look under the floor!
ASO and PAB cleaned Space 448. Ah, the old ghosts from 2010. I had forgotten about this plaster thing 15341 north of wall F.3330, so actually in Space 446. I am now starting to think this might all be part of one large building: B.98 and Space 446 and Space 448. Maybe that is why we never found the western end of F.3330 which supposedly divides Space 446 and Space 448; maybe there was a connection between these two spaces. Maybe all rooms had different functions – Space 448 is big and empty, Space 446 has a million floors, B.98 is dark and cool. There definitely is some phasing in there, though – B.98 might have been blocked off from Space 446 at some points (before bins F.3377 were built). Maybe it also originally was constructed as a building by itself, and Space 446 added later – see much higher floor levels in Space 446.
ASO and PAB are removing room fill 31169 trying to cut the fill flat so we can see features. They already seem to have found a new wall – we saw a line, just north of wall F.3322, between brighter fill and something dark (wall) that we do not yet see the shape of. Tomorrow! This is exciting!
This might become very fascinating!
TET started removing a sondage through wall F.2425/5050 and F.2426. Nice walls. He is removing bricks from the top down, which turns out to be very easy. Interestingly, the two walls do not seem to be bonded. In fact, there is a considerable gap between them. This makes me think – maybe there were not built at the same time? We still have a few brick layers to go down and check, but there really seems to be no bonding.
CMP finished removing wall F.3344 and then started tackling fill 31168 under the wall. After removing a good chunk of that “fill”, it turned out that in fact the wall continues further down. It is not sitting on fill – it’s base is thinner and there is fill IN FRONT of it which tricked us into thinking the wall was finished. I cannot believe this is happening to us again. The same thing – last year in B.98. This year in B.105 (APV’s wall F.3346 a few days ago) and B.107 (CMP’s wall F.3344). Apparently that is a thing – the bases of walls are thinner than the upper parts. Well, I probably should not be that surprised because it is consistent with known erosion patterns on mud walls. Just a real hassle – apparently we really have to “undercut” walls if we think they might be sitting on fill – just to make sure.
We applied that new thought in TMK’s area.
TMK removed more of his erosion layer 31141. We are going down in arbitrary flat spits to get tomography-like insights into the layer, which is turning out nicely. All kinds of stuff jumbled together. Many large brick fragments. He also did something we did not do last year – clean the lower parts of the walls here. Of course it is difficult to separate wall from erosion that is made up of the exact same ingrediences as the wall. I think we did pretty well – and will see more when going further down. Also here, the walls seem to become thinner further down – they are bellied as also the tops were not wall preserved. Again, typical erosion patterns. And as we know now that all wall features continue down into unexcavated, it very much seems those inner walls were the ones that eroded to form the erosion layer TMK is digging in currently. We are all pretty excited to go down and below the erosion layer to find out what is below. PFB hopes for a floor. I would be happy with anything – just a new phase of the infilling process is exciting enough.
AVP first tried to peel off fill 31167 from the facades of F.3346 and F.5062 which turn out to be a tedious task to we decided to take the short way and cut buttress F.5062 in half – its section will show how much further down it goes and whether or not its base is also thinner and hidden behind the fill. First, AVP had to remove the rest of F.3346 down to the level of the room fill, then just started picking at the buttress after scraping the “eroded” plaster 31116 off its northern façade. I am really excited about this. More tomorrow.
TSK also did something cool – he cut a NS section into F.2424 (inside our section area), so along the long side of the wall. This gives us a very nice view of brick and mortar layers inside the wall. Also, he will now moved back that section to see a cut through F.3303 and the buttress F.5063 and F.5535 next to it – to find out the relation between these three features, which would have been a pain in the ass to figure out trying to come from the top down. Again, really cool results. We saw one of the random red bricks that we see a few examples of in F.2424. F.3341, and F.5058 of B.106.
NMK had more fun with plaster layers in Space 454. She found out that the sequence, of course, is more complicated and saw a few more layers that we did not see before. The most important observation of the day is that the layer 31142, which runs all the way towards the centre of the room “floor” also runs up to wall F.5058. It is not entirely sure whether it was applied to lip up on the wall, or is meeting it in a right angle – but definitely there is only a ca. 1cm of gap between the preserved plaster layer and the brick of the wall, so it is pretty secure that both are connected and therefore used at the same time – once upon a time. |
