| Entry: | diary entry 6
Yesterday I spent time taking off layers of wall plaster, and excavating another hard lump of material beside the probable ladder setting (11271). There are many of these which have come off now, it really seems that this area was used for something requiring a lot of support - in other words the entrance way theory is constantly being reinforced. The plaster layers were providing relationships with the main floors (11258). The pillaster (F. 1309) is now looking interesting - a second large packing stone came out from a hole beside the pillaster yesterday (11264 in cut 11232), suggesting a repeated need to add extra support. The pillaster is slumping badly and the plaster coverings on it are cracked, with what looks like the internal material slumping out. It is possible that the post hole was sunk in beside the pillaster to counteract this, and to support the roof. The more recent plaster layers stop where the post hole would have met the pillaster, and there is a plaster layer in the gap where the post would have been that is not seen at all on the rest of the pillaster, suggesting it may be a very early plaster face that has not survived where it was not protected.
Today I have been working on the platform to the North of the building, F.1321 taking floor layers off from this. It began looking just like platform F.1312, layer 11276 I had just come from, but has evolved into something very different during the day. It became apparent early on that the platform seemed to be constructed in two halves, with surfaces peeling off from a roughly central east-west divide (11279, 11283). At the end of today, it appears that the North part of the platform may in fact be hollow! It seems that judging from the evidence for burning that is turning up there may be a complete oven bricked up in the platform, with the layers lapping off the southern end of the platform merely being make-up to convert an oven into a platform. Tomorrow will tell if this is true - one other thing worth noting is a depression or hollow in layer 11283 that seems to represent where something was resting on the surface when the layer was put down, and was plastered around but later removed - rectangular, only about 2 inches long (called cut 11281). When the next floor layer comes off it should be clearer what may have caused it.Entered By: Alex Pryor |
