| Entry: | Today I first removed the burnt orange layer 31181. It was often mixed with some patches of ashes and about 0,5cm thick at the section. Under it was layer 31174, which was continuous from the bottom of the slope until the eastern "circles". Parts of 31174 had already been removed of the slope in the previous days. We removed it completely with TET; it was from 2 to 4cm thick. We could afterwards see very clearly the negative imprint of it, as well as all the excavated layers in the profile sections west-east and north-south. Afterwards, we started excavating the postulated room fill under it. Our plan is to go ca. 30cm deeper unless we find something that is not fill of course. First I sectioned the slope to see if there were any signs of mud-brick-construction. It was quite heterogeneous, with sometimes harder and sometimes looser earth, but nothing conclusive so we removed it completely until the section, as a part of 31199, our new room fill unit. I started excavating the room fill directly under the previous slope for about 10cm and got painted pottery sherds, bigger animal bones, an almost complete clay ball and a ground stone. There were also some patches of very loose yellow earth that could be some sulfate-minerals, we still see some patches in the profile. However, while extending my cut towards west, I realized that there is still a quit thick layer of white plaster covering the fill in the south-west corner of the room! With maybe some orangy beneath it from what I see in the profile towards south. Seems I am not done with plaster yet... So now that we have actually removed all of 31174 that didn’t seem at all to go further west, I am somehow wondering where this one does belong to! I did not find trace of it in the fill under the removed hill and it doesn’t appear in its profile either, so I think unless it became very thin and I missed it, this thick white plaster must have stopped south of it. Now is the question if it did connect with one of the plaster layer on the surface, which we will try to clear tomorrow, by at least trying to see until where it extends towards east. I might go for the sequence 31182 til 31181, because of the last orange layer, but it would be a very weird place to find it since the last spotted place for it is ca. 2m away east and the sloping was completely different... Hopefully tomorrow will bring an answer! |
