| Entry: | At the end of the past week, Agata, Rifah and I have starting excavating B.129. This building is one of the last completely unearthed building in the North Area. Moreover, it is a burned building as the close B.77, and this let the all team hope in a building rich in interesting and well preserved feature. New and promising. At this stage, however, what is ahead us are long days of hard work, since the infill layer of the building has proven much deeper than we expected. The sections of the next B.5 and B.77 do not leave many doubts: an endless and massive layer of orangish, baked soil. Sometimes is better to focus on short term aims. This is one of those moments.
We started removing the surface of a dark brown layer covering the the borders of the building. Rifah gets familiar with her trowel under the guide of Agata.The mentioned layers seemed soon going underneath the shallow walls of a later phase of the building. After having removed the highest part of this layer, we found out that this layer (U.21185) had cut the infill layer U.21182. We were probably facing a foundation trench, excavated in order to provide a stable surface for the walls of the later building. In the southern wall of the building, we soon identified another feature: a roughly circular pit (F.7561) with vertical sides and a roughly flat bottom. These features made us think of a posthole pit, even though the diametre of the pit (around 70 cm) seems compatible with a possible storage pit. The analysis of the infill might endorse one interpretation or the other one.
Today we went on with the removal of the foundation trench (F.7561). Following the limits of the foundation trench has proven much more difficult than we expected, since the infill which has been cut by the foundation trench is far from being homogeneus. In some part it has his enjoyable, usual orange colour, while in other parts it turns dark brown and show heavily burnt animal bones and obsidian blades. Agata and I went on very carefully, trying to identify any change in layer. Our neighbour Arek also helped us with brief but revealing visits to our building. Rifah seems more familiar with her trowel and her pickel, and proved herself distinguishing different layers and phases.
Today will be remembered as "the windy day". During the morning, we worked quite efficiently, with the help of our teenager worker Ferdi, who helped collecting and sieving the soil. After lunch, though, numbs of dust from outside have invaded the entire north shelter. Working in those conditions soon proved unbearable. We leave part of our trench for tomorrow. Then, it will come the turn of that endless, orangish infill. Most probably, we are not going to see much of our building and its promising features in this season. Our work will be just a little tile in a big mosaic, as B.129 will be one of the last tiles to be added to the general picture of this site, which is part of another, much bigger, mosaic.I cannot decided if this make me feel sad or excited. Probably none of them.
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind… |
