| Entry: | Here is where we’re at in Sp. 182. We found ‘dirty’ floors at both ends of the room, defined as such by the presence of macro artefacts, layers/lenses of orange material and charcoal, though the flotation samples proved relatively clean. These were excavated separately (5231/5234 in the S, 5240 in the N) because they did not connect through the middle of the room. The northern surfaces at first seemed earlier because along the eastern wall they were at a lower level - but this proved to be due to the presence of some kind of feature just south of the crawlhole (defined by an ‘arm’ of bricky stuff, close to a small circular plaster depression and an area where the wall face was hard to define, perhaps indicating something cut into the wall). In general, however, the room is free of features and FI-related ashy deposits - there is a plaster ‘shelf’ in the NW corner (as in Sp. 170) and some kind of small hearth (?) in the SE.
The dirty surfaces must represent the latest occupation since the objects on them have not been crushed and trampled; therefore they are contemporary (confirmed by the presence of joining sherds in 5231 and 5240). What is happening in the middle of the room, especially against the W wall where large lumps of plaster poke up through the levels where these surfaces should be is still unclear - perhaps we will define a PRP? In the S, dirty surfaces overlay greyish plaster floor 5234 (this was the same as the wall plaster and in places was continuous with it). These sit over clean dark brown fill 5239 and so far there is no sign of a lower floor. In the centre of the space 5239 runs out just as 5234 did and the northern sequence, though it ends with the same kind of deposit, is very different. Here the discontinuous orange surface overlies a sequence of scrappy plaster surfaces/occupation deposits of varying type (taken out as 5242/5243) rather than a single formal floor like 5234, with better floors lying deeper. The upper most of these rises up to the NW to form a low ridge around the corner of the room, which comprises a depression covered with a dense spread of fine phytoliths or salts (5244). This rather gritty surface becomes more variable and harder to trace as you move south; it seems to overlie a sticky plaster floor which becomes the first clear surface you come down to in the centre of the room (it may run under 5239 and therefore represent an earlier floor across the whole space). This surface also appears at a higher level in the NE corner of the space, close to the crawlhole, where it was overlain by occupation deposits 5241. Hence the southern end of the room has a better surface in the final phase of occupation but the north end has a much deeper sequence of surfaces, unless something similar underlies 5239.
The issues, therefore, are to resolve the discontinuities in the middle of the space (along with the armed feature on the E wall and the apparent collapse continuing down against the W wall) and attempt to trace an earlier plaster surface below 5239. In addition we need to define the phases of the crawlhole. From the absence of wall plaster this appears to have been originally larger from the Sp. 182 side than what was knocked out from Sp. 170. Below the crawlhole in section is a large plaster ‘slab’; It projected into the space some way but I removed most of this because it was mixed with the infill which included numerous such fragments. However , it may represent a step or threshold. Does it continue through an earlier (and lower) phase of the crawlhole or does it run up to a wall face lying further back?Entered By: Jonathan Last |
