| Entry: | Today I finally removed all the plaster of S454! As complementary information about the floor structure north of the section, I found out that on the slope, the layers between 31142 and 31174 thin out towards north, and that 31174 also disappears about half-way to the buttress. Their consistence is also varying, much denser and compact when approaching the wall (ca. 7cm). On the surface, the layers are sloping down towards south (about symmetrically to the other side of the section, with an acute angle on the western part, and a steeper one on the eastern part. The angle seems moreover much steeper than on the southern side of the section. The results, though excavated quite rapidly with the trowel, show approximately the same pattern than the previous detailed layer excavation. The burnt plaster was only concentrated on the eastern part, with a quite circular shape.
After this, I went on with removing the room fill 31199 under it. I started with the southern-west corner. After a ground stone and an articulated bone (which could maybe be used for dating though it is half broken in the length) I found about fifteen centimeters deeper a pair of horns! One is almost touching the southern wall plaster with its distal end and they are placed in a V-shape. Some parts are already a bit broken, but the main body is here, we will remove it tomorrow with much caution, since they are quite hollow they seem very fragile. Now is this south-western corner-area part of the room fill 31199? I already expressed my interrogations about the possible presence of plaster remains there. However, while excavating I checked and it appeared that the earth was quite dried out, but no visible plaster layer was found, and the usual room fill earth was found shortly after it. Yet the crumbly consistence might indicate instead of dryness a somewhat different kind of earth/covering that might have been put above this area. Not far from it but a bit higher to the east was found a clay ball, and to the north a big chunk of burnt orange mud brick. Remnants of a possible figurine of marl/unfired pottery where also found while exposing the plaster of the southern wall, just 8cm above the horns, though it was broken during the process. Is there a connection between them? The horns do indeed seem to have been somehow intentionally placed, but whether by digging a pit or simply put in the room while this one was becoming slowly filled is for now unclear. |
