| Entry: | Today was a day of new discoveries.
In Space 448, TET and PAB scraped the bottom some more after finishing the big fill layer 31169 yesterday. After that, we saw two spots that very certainly were buttresses, even though they are still fuzzy at this level – F.3383 in the south and F.3384 in the west. Both are visible in plan as dark patches without large inclusions or finds, and in section. F.3383 is cut by the trench section, its mud brick and mortar lines are quite clear.
Well, that is kind of the answer to our question – what was up with that space? Apparently another roofed area with similar layout to the ones we already have. As the buttresses were not terribly clear at the moment, we decided to dig down further in only the northern part of the room (31215) with the aim to firstly verify that F.3384 is a buttress by exposing it from the side, and to check out F.3330 and the connection to Space 446. We might leave this area be after that.
JMK finished layer 31200 and then started cutting back/clarifying walls around the area. With F.3379, this brought instant success with mortar and mud brick layers visible nicely. With the cob wall F.3324, it was not that satisfying. We only were sure we had reached a wall when the niche/reach-through 15336 appeared again, first spotted in 2010. JMK started emptying this unit, not taking samples because of the multiple rodent holes.
The other discovery of the day came from the sondage under Space 449 of B.98. Here, CLC cut back wall F.3333 to remove the rest of the clay ball cluster 18369 (it turns out that really only the 10 or so odd balls we saw since last year were left from the cluster, it did not continue further south) and check whether any floor run under the wall. Which is not the case but also right now it is not quite clear where the wall ends and where the fill under it starts – all grey and homogeneous.
But that is not the discovery. The discovery was made by GWN, who had just started using a big pick to remove 31214 when he saw in plan a red-white line (31218, 31219) forming something like a rectangle with very rounded corners. Definitely something constructed – maybe an oven? He noticed a darker line 31217 and some dark (ashy?) fill around it. And also dark reddish clayey lumps over the area where the lines became visible. Fascinating! CLC and GWN started uncovering that dark red layer from the top. More soon.
DSE worked on exposing a plaster feature he encountered yesterday in the SE corner of Space 310. It consists of a horizontal part in the room, and is connected to some plaster that runs up, but not really vertical, more like forming a little cave. PFB thinks it might be an oven. I do no have a clear opinion yet, I think we have to clarify walls here first thing tomorrow to see whether this a just a horizontal plaster layer built against a plastered wall.
TSK is working on the plaster layer 16999 which has caused much discussion and which to me is a dividing layer between two wall phases, but which has also been called a floor by several people. Today TSK verified that 16999, on top of F.3314 in the east of B.106, really ends with the limit of the wall, does not continue into the gap between B.106 and Space 345, or even into the adjacent wall F.5068, and does not lip up any feature. Which for me does maybe not contradict, but certainly not strengthen the floor theory.
NMR verified that there is neither a pit nor a construction associated with the horns she found yesterday, and then removed them, assisted by CMP. After that, she started excavating fill 31199 with tools bigger than a spatula and brush, and was quite happy about it.
APV clarified the entrance situation in southern B.105. She cut back F.3345 until the mud brick and mortar lines in the section verified that this really is a wall, even though it was hard to see its outlines from the top. Then she cleaned the area between F.3363, F.3341, F.3368 and F.3364 and we took one dry and one wet photo of it (our pompa arrived today!). The facades of F.3364, F.3363 and F.3341 towards the entrance are plastered, as are parts of the top of F.3368 – making us quite sure this really is a constructed and intented entrance, which was blocked by F.3345 at some point. PFB then suggested cutting down F.3368, which is a good idea as it will at the same time verify whether or not this is a double wall, and expose more of the plaster of F.3363 which could potentially shed new light on what that strange plaster shape 31194 could have been. First, APV noticed that there seem to be remains of a mud brick construction on top of F.3368, clearly visible because the plaster of F.3341 is running down, curving and then covering the top of F.3368.
TMK worked further on fill in B.105, with the intention to make a sondage 31210 in its northern part and go deeper to follow the fallen wall 18372 to finds its base. The base will give us an indication how deep we still have to go and how fast or not we can be. However, he was held up by a nice pottery cluster 31216 in the NW corner of the building with many phytoliths preserved under the sherds.
CMP cut back a part of the northern wall like a section, to firstly check whether she would find more postholes here (which she did not), and to also clarify wall succession. The sediment she removed from the façade seems to be a mixture of some room fill parts still left, and the fuzzy outer few cm of the wall. I was quite happy when we saw the usual three wall phases on top of each other (F.5074, F.3306, F.3375) which are much easier to see in the east. There is quite a thick layer of fill between F.3306 and F.3375, which F.5074 was built directly onto F.3306. The lowermost wall F.3375 is only visible ca. 15cm high right now. The mortar lines in F.3306 did become better visible after spraying and for some reason are better visible in the photo than in real – interesting! Tomorrow we want to do the same thing with the western wall. |
