| Entry: | August 15, 2013
I made a lot of progress in my area today. I continued with U.31130, and got all the way to the end of the fill from U.31183 (the parts not overlain by the floor sections). U.31130 was pretty straightforward, with a few artifacts (bone, pottery, obsidian, and one tiny stone). JMR asked that I expose a nice profile of U.31146 (the mortar unit) so that we could see whether the mortar extended all the way down (as I thought since I had seen a similar, though smaller, area in the sondage U.31114) or not. In fact, when I exposed the unit, there were clear mortar lines and mudbrick, indicating the presence of a wall (I was very happy with this, especially since areas of solid mortar are extremely difficult to dig through). When I had removed U.31146, I proceeded to U. 31183, the fill. There were significantly more artifacts in this unit, most of which were pottery. When I reached the first of the floor segments, I excavated it and had it sieved separately. It was made up of many layers, including a layer of phytoliths, which I sampled. I had just reached a good stopping point when it was time to stop excavating for the day and begin the trench tour. |
