| Entry: | This morning we quickly decided that we were not getting anywhere looking for the pit cut from the top of the midden, and that this was most likely to be because it doesn't exist. In the section along the edge of excavation to the east we could clearly see midden tip-lines tipping down from south to north, and it was also clear that we hadn't yet got to the edge of any pit on the north side. We came up with the alternative scenario that while there was clearly a cut or more probably cuts through the yellow brick earthy deposits lower down representing pits or possibly terracing, we should not assume that this implied any kind of cut(s) through the midden higher up, and that we hadn't found any fills as such and that the midden material was just covering these cuts and at least partly filling the top of them. Lisa mildly discouraged at this point because we'd dug ourselves a b**** great big hole.
Decided at this point to tidy up a bit and we assigned a new unit number (12980) to some upper midden material as in cleaning the east edge of ex section we'd noticed a major tip-line and decided it might be as well to differentiate this upper material. And I did notice some pottery in it when we took the flotation sample - but we've not excavated this unit any further. (Some of this unit will have been excavated as part of the underlying unit (12971)).
Shahina arrived. While she agreed that we may just have midden deposits with no pit cut from the top where we were digging she said that in last year's excavation there was definitely a pit cut through midden material from the top. Lisa could also remember seeing this cut. I feel slightly sceptical about this but this is partly because I wasn't here last year and I actually can't visualise exactly where this cut was seen as we have the large Byzantine foundation cut trunking through here. But the cut through the brick-earth material would have been visible obviously and I can't help wondering whether the cut higher up was real. But Shahina has promised to show me the relevant plans, photographs etc.
After an egg breakfast we abandoned this part of the space (279) and moved to the SW corner where we dug some kind of brick-earthy demolition or dumping deposit (12981), followed by another similar deposit below it (12983), which had largely been truncated away by the Byzantine foundation cut. We finally dug a small fire spot (12984) which had also been partly truncated away by the foundation trench. There is another brick-earthy demolition or dumping deposit visible in the SW corner but we have midden lying over the edge of this which we suspect might be the same midden material as (12971). We'll check in the morning to make sure we've released the midden deposits and if we have we'll go back to excavating (12980) and then (12971) probably. Feeling happier about things generally by the end of the day.Entered By: RT |
