| Entry: | We were fortunate to have gotten the shelter up yesterday (Friday) before the rain and hail storm. Space 100 was saved from any rain damage. As a result of having the shelter up, we decided to take off the wall balk and expose the wall plaster, down to the level of current excavation. We have been waiting a wile to do this and have been eager to do so as we have been leaving features/units because we are unclear as to their relationship with the walls. After some discussion, we decided to take the walls down in two arbitrary units, assuming that what was on the upper lever would be later than the lower. We arbitrarily drew a line in the wall bulk and excavated from the top down, being careful with the delicate and fragile plaster. Today we managed to expose the majority of the north wall and part of the west wall. The two upper levels of assumed later material (U. 7932, 7933) were on fast track but the bottom two levels (U. 7934, 7935) were on medium track. So far, no in situ paint has been found, althought at the bottom of the north wall (U. 7934) there is still collapsed wall plaster but I have been able to distinguish between wall fall and actual plaster wall (I think). Wendy came around in the later afternoon and had a scrape around and confirmed this distinction- it is a bit challenging to see as at the bottom levels, there is a plastered wall, a plastered platform and plastered wll fall all composed of idential materials, but the wall fall has irregular stratigraphy and looks out of place. I was originally hesitant because of seeing and hearing about plastered features that jut out of the wall to form a shape. Ian assured me it would be obvious if it were there so I will continue to remove what we have concluded is wall fall. Wendy also was interested by the very thin layer of dark brown soil that was inbetween the platform and the above fill. Once she pointed it out, I remembered that I saw that thin layer ontop of the platered platform (U.7927), as well as the light brown and silty sand platform that I begun to excavate in the northeast corner. Unfortunately, I did not give this layer any second thoughts and removed it as soon as it came up. We had it photographed today and Wendy will come and sample it tomorrow.
Along the central part of the north wall is what looks like a post retrival pit, although its initial shape is round, and not square. SLS excavated the north cental wall (the jog bit) down to the plastered platform and was able to connect the features nicely. Now with that plaster exposed, I expect that by tomorrow we can clear the rest of U. 7929 (fill on top of platform).Entered By: SHL |
