| Entry: | Felt exhausted this morning after a long day trip yesterday to the Hittite sites of Eflatun Pinar and Fasillar. At Fasillar we had a great time being shown round the local village, where we ascended to the roofs by internal ladder and saw all the activities going on up there. It was a rare living hint of a way of life we are currently exploring so carefully, expensively and slowly. It has been hot on site today with little breeze to chase the air through our excavation tent. Our new representative, Osman bey from Konya museum, spends a good deal of time with us on site. He is an experienced excavator and has a thorough knowledge of local archaeology, which is interesting to listen to. Work progressed okay today - I really hope we can complete the excavation of the upper phase by the end of the week at the very latest. There are still some knotty problems to solve, but essentially we are doing well. The conservators have arrived and seem happy with what they have to deal with. Today's digging went as follows: Mehmet finished excavating the upper fill, at least, of his pit in Space 71. He will now remove collapsed fill in the same area. He found a nice bone fish-hook from the pit. Serap began excavating deposits contained within the plaster walled feature along the main S wall of Space 71. She has some large chunks of bone there and a very distinct spread of charred lentils along one face of the western plaster wall. Acorns one week, lentils the next. Gavin is now excavating down to the floor immediately to the west of this and it now seems that the plaster walls are going to contain a raised area. We have got plastered steps or slopes all over the place within the building. Gavin had a nice spread of broken pot sherds lying flat on the floor. We have had very little pottery in all so far. Louise excavated fill in the centre of Space 71 and is now exploring the rather fishy curving wall feature prior to removing it - it has always looked anomalous and I will be so pleased when it is out of the way, after proper recording of course. She had some smallish pieces of red-painted plaster in the fill today. Nurcan was away translating with the Mayor of Cumra for most of the day, but then she finished excavating the entrance step to Space 110 from Space 71 before starting to draw the sections of the main baulk in Space 71. We will then be able to take the micromorphology blocks before removing the baulks. Engin was also away for most of the day, helping Colin Shell with magnetometry, but returned after lunch to continue excavation of Space 73 deposits to the E of Building 1. I also worked in this area, removing rubbish deposits with much bone just to the S of Engin. Most of my time I spent looking after the team.Entered By: Roger Matthews |
