| Entry: | Space 105, Roddy and Mary continued to excavate what for now appears to be part of a consolidation packing for the SW walls, these series of deposits lie in a diagonal cut (1041) in this SW corner. Below (1067), which was a compound layer of building debris, was layer (1072), a thin spread of silicified vegetation. This in turn overlay (1073), a dump of mixed building and cultural debris and below that was a cluster of bone, (1082). The exposure of this unit coincided with the specialists on tour, consequently Louise and Risa were able to identify, advise and assist in the excavation of this unit. They recorded and lifted the skull, apparently dog, but there was also horse bone. Most of it was disarticulated and the question that arises is whether this deposit was consumption debris.
Space 106, Jon and Anwen exacavted the rest of (1071), an arbitrary layer of building debris. The walls to the north and east are still an bit of a problem in that to the north the wall appears to have bottomed whilst to the east it's unclear. Do we have a situation where a mudbrick wall is constructed and then the base horizon is cut to heighten the wall, therefore the lowest course of the wall isn't actually brick? Unit (1071), seals quite a clear cut (it'll probabaly disappear as soon as its touched), this horizon is also a good one to stop at, draw the section and excavate the other half of the area, this might resolve the wall problem. The wall lines will now act as running sections.
Space 107, Ian and Ali excavated a lower fill (1076), below (1065), both within cut (1077); function unknown. To the south a further bricky debris layer (1078) is under excavation. This area also has wall problems in that they either bottom before they're supposed to or they're really hard to see.
Space 108, Naomi worked in this area in the morning with Cicek and I took over from her in the afternoon. Naomi from now would like to concentrate on finds in the afternoon. To the north, a pit fill (1075) was excavated from below (1069), both within cut (1080), although (1069) may represent a re cut. To the south layer/fill (1079) below (1058), was excavated. This fills another post occupation cut, still under excavation. Once this cut is out the floors sholud be released and thereby releasing the blocking. There has been much debate about the section, my scenario would be that the floors in section represent pre-blocking floors as post-blocking Mellaart records platforms abutting the eastern and northern wall. If this is so could cut (1080) be associated with a platform, the fill doesn't imply this as it appears to be slow accumulation but we don't know what a platform looks like in section. The bones, what are they?
Colin and Atakhan spent today digitising the walls of space 108 and began on space 107. I hope we can take some of these walls out soon, not only because it will make the area look so different but also because some walls are in a bad state of collapse.
The houses to the north of the strip we're excavating have been allocated space numbers. To the west house 19 is space 109, shrine 9 is space 112, house 7 is space 113 and shrine 14 is space 114. Ian realised the need to investigate these spaces prior to removing the north walls of the spaces under excavation and accordingly space 112 was cleared of erosion deposits as (1081) down to Mellaart's horizon of excavation. The walls are really complicated with later walls abutting plaster faces and there are traces of supposedly level VII floors still in situ. If level VII, this illustrates the terrace from north to south as well as east to west. Part of the erosion deposits from space 109 were removed as (1083), there is more to come out but removing it might collapse the wall. By the afternoon Ian was having second thoughts about this particular strip but this will be discussed in the cool of the morning, sometime.
Yet more changes to the unit sheets were battled out by diggers and various specialists. Not as many changes were made as I was anticipating, we need to use the system a bit more, see how the database deals with ceratin aspects of the records before abandoning parts of the written form. It's always good to question how and why we do things and benefit from other's experiences and of course there is always room for improvement. Sampling was again discussed the archive sample is the problem at the moment, basically how to take it with the minimum work in the field.
The specialists are going to be more informative in the field, feedback from what they've done and comment on the types of deposits we're digging. But please no more samples!Entered By: Shahina Farid |
