| Entry: | This area of plaster will be removed as one unit (4800) as it contains no layers or internal structure. Shahina has suggested that it may be an area of floor underneath a hole in the roof and have a wavy appearance because of puddling. I began to excavate and plan the unit and found that in some areas there are large thick layers but these are not continuous and there is no real order in them that would benefit from individual recording. Most of the unit was massive in bedding and so doesn’t appear to be floor layers. Unit 4800 is underlain by a layer of plaster and packing which I do not think was part of the construction of the whatever 4800 is, although it is possible that the packing is part of it as it is quite thick in places so probably not packing in between floor layers. The plaster layer underneath however is a floor that continues south, east and north beyond the extent of 4800 and also continues underneath F.518. There are remnants of plaster layers half way across space 173. Which may have lipped up and extended northwards as an area of raised floor. These plaster layers may have extended north over 4800 which may then be packing for a raised area of floor.
Moved back to F.488 to continue the sequence of bins. I began to take out the next layer of fill (4805) underneath the last layer of fill (4794). This fill (4705) is comprised of compound layers of plaster, lots of organic spreads and packing and covered the east half of F.488. On excavation, an eastern edge of the bin was apparent and found to join with the northern edge which was revealed under 4794. This layer, 4794 was similar in composition to 4794and the distinction between them in retrospect rests mainly on the appearance of the northern edge of F.488 under 4794. The southern side of the bin continues down and is earlier than all of the above fills, however I do not yet know the relationship between the latter part of the structure and the north and eastern sides which are of different material and style. The removal of 4805 also revealed a possible bin arm coming out westwards from the eastern side of the bin. Fill 4807 (below 4805) is defined on its northern side by this arm and there is a plastered base underlying this fill which lips up against this edge. It looks at present as though this smaller bin is the earliest and its southern arm is reused in a larger bin, the northern and eastern edges of which are constructed later. The layers of fill 4805 and 4807 which are compound layers of plaster and packing and organic traces (which have been sampled) are possibly the base of this larger second bin. As the bin is used and the layers get thicker the northern and eastern edges of the bin may have been plastered over (as 4805 and 4794 extend over them and are both made of these compound layers) to create a larger bin. If this were the case then 4805 and 4794 span the use of the second bin and construction of the third.Entered By: Lucy Hawkes |
