| Entry: | This entry summarises my reflections on the excavations conducted in building 48 and 17.
Excavation in building 48 (already excavated in 2004) was brief and intense: the burial (F3814) of a child in a flexed position without grave items (primary deposition) was found under the floor (F1817) of the main space (Sp. 239), quite close to the western wall. The bones are in quite a good condition and will be probably used for the building dating.
What seemed to be a burial cut in the north-western platform (F1810) of the same space was further examined: after removing the remains of the platform floor (32215=11117) and most of the underlying make-up layer (32214, 32216) no burial cut was visible. Therefore we decided to interrupt the excavation in building 48 (make-up layer 32214 is not completely removed) for another priority: building 17, sp. 170.
The 25th of June I left the northern shelter and went to the south.
My first impression: the south is less hot. Second impression: I’m going to miss the north anyway.
Nada was already excavating in building 17 since some days and gave me a clear introduction to its configuration and to our goal: excavating the many cuts (possibly burials) that dot the floor (F5365) of the earliest phase (phase E) reached by the previous excavation (1999) as well as the earliest floor itself, in order to proof if there is another phase of building 17 or maybe one (or more?) distinct building underneath. After this, our final destination will be the bedrock.
From my perspective it has been very interesting to follow the discussion between Ian and Burcu about the strategy to choose in order to fulfil the best and quickest result.
The first problem was related to the understanding of the stratigraphic relationship between the cuts quoted above and the main floor: according to the report’s excavation those cuts where not visible when the floor was first exposed (1999): they became clear just some times after. During last year campaign at least 10 cuts were clearly recognizable:
4 of them were excavated and it was possible to associate them to burials (F8203, F8204, F8205, F8206), the remnants 6 were left for this year campaign.
More than this, from the sections of some of the burials excavated last year (F8204, F8205) some human remains in anatomical connection were visible, but it was not possible to associate them to any visible cut.
The question therefore was: were the burials excavated in 2015 and the other cuts not excavated yet really cutting from the upper floor (F5365), or were they cutting from a layer underneath (make-up/midden clearly visible in all the burials sections) and their visibility, only some times after the floor excavation, was due to, for example, a high permeability/humidity of the soil or other causes?
In order to answer this question the strategy adopted was the following:
1. deep cleaning of the floor (F5365), that after 17 years of exposition looked quite homogeneous and highly cracked. The cleaning was meant to better define the often blurred edges of the cuts;
2. excavation of features associated to phase E and main floor (one unit: 21827)
.
The first part of the strategy permitted us to see that the visible cuts are in fact all quite clearly cutting from the main floor; the second part will let us understand if the human remains visible in the burials sections are associated to cuts that belong to an earlier layer (make-up/midden or other).
Another important thing that has to be pointed out is that the excavation of one of the cuts (21813) brought to light one white layer (1 cm thick; 20 cm deep from floor and separated from it by the make-up/midden layer mentioned above) visible in the burial’s cut section. The same layer was then also recognized in other burial’s cuts sections (F8203, F8205, F8204, F8015). The layer looks most likely as a floor. The question is: does this layer/floor belong to an earlier phase of building 17 (separated from floor F5365 by the make-up/midden layer) or to a distinct building? Hopefully the answer will be given in the next days. |
