| Entry: | 29.07.04
Since the last diary entry we have been mostly dealing with burials. First, the burial with plaster rim (F.1455) in between spaces 226 and 243. Tanja excavated it weeks ago and stopped after hitting a hard, construction rubble surface, concluding that it must had been disturbed (judging by iron nails in it). I had the ‘luck’ of discovering the skeleton, i.e. scull, (again I might add) after removing some of the rubble in order to see what lies underneath it. So it seems that we had another type of the ‘false bottom burial’ like F. 1452 but this one was much less elaborate since only harder rubble covered the skeleton and probable wooden construction judging by the nails. Another thing interesting about this burial are its dimensions: 2.5 x 0.5 meters and the E side which is inclined at an angle of about 60 degrees rather than vertical. The units associated with this feature are (in matrix order): 8871(white plaster rim which seems to be associated with the burial); 8872 (fill no. 1), 8884 (construction rubble ‘bottom’ and fill no. 2 underneath it since they could not be separated); 8885 (skeleton – older mail); 8873 (cut).
As can be seen from the previous paragraph we also ‘named’ (space 243) the small, enclosed space in the NE quadrant of the area even though its walls (F. 1453, 1454 and the main N wall of sp. 226, while the E one is still a mystery) do not seem to be in phase.
Other burial appeared after Tanja removed U: 8881 or the recent water-laid lenses in circular depression at the easternmost extent of the area. Cut (U: 8891) was more or less recognized, fill (U: 8886) produced iron nails (among loads of material since it was backfilled with the surrounding midden), but the skeleton is still missing after more than half a meter of going in depth. This is also where we stop with this one.
The third burial (F. 1456) is still uncovered except for the scull and was not such a big surprise. We saw this cut already at the beginning of the season but have just now decided to deal with it (mostly because we got help, Dan from Berkeley University). The cut (U: 8889, fill is U: 8888, skeleton U: 8890) truncate what might be the E wall of space 243 (made up of grey bricks it seems) and this section will be valuable.
Finally, we removed what seemed a supporting wall for the main N wall of sp.226 or bricks and brick fragments laid in the nivelation layer of construction rubble (similar to U: 8863) to the N of sp. 226 (or ‘cul de sac’). However, since Doru was also removing his big-grey-brick wall, which this wall seemed to be abutting as a later addition, we produced a mutual section and it shoved that his wall was later and cuts into ours. It was already late to stop excavating our wall, so we gave it a feature number (F. 1457) and brought it down to the level of ‘middeny packing’ (which upper layers slope down against this wall (so U: 8863 was also built up against it). Underneath it, another bricks are appearing (sandy yellow) and these might connect with the similar bricks seen in plan in Doru’s area.Entered By: Pedja Dakic |
