| Entry: | I was asked by Ian to contribute to this diary. If I understand correctly, this would be the sort of personal notes that will balance the "positive" information included in the sheet forms. I am a bit mystified for two reasons: first, I never did this on an excavation, second, I never did this in a language other than my own. Perhaps I should write down my personal thoughts in Greek, with a summary in English, but then the computer here simply does not support Greek characters.
The five days that passed since we arrived were more or less spent in preparation. It took more than three days to have my laptop connected to the net, which repeatedly refused to accept the newcomer. Today’s entry will necessarily cover all days lost in attempting the connection. Securing equipment proved also a complicated process, tracing people responsible for each department, and bothering them with our demands. I wish we had brought with us everything. First day in CH was spent with a presentation of the excavation system, and a tour in the trenches. Both areas (Mell and North) have changed dramatically since last year. As regards the CH system, my feelings are mixed. Its basic concept (the unit) is archaeologically identical with what we normally apply, but I think the emphasis in our case is on documentation of the consecutive steps of digging, while in CH a number of interpretative concepts seem to be involved. E.g. the "cut" unit, which interprets an action of the past rather than an action of the excavator. Equally the "surface" unit etc. While excavation is about reconstructing past human activity, I would not make this an integral part of the recording system. I would rather keep these discrete, something like the structure and the meaning of language, if I may use this metaphor. After all, we do have to break down human activity into discrete entities, which are no more than archaeological constructs. I am also somehow surprised that the integriy of the stratigraphic layer is not kept but the system permits its breaking down in separate units. I ‘ll be interested to see how it works and I ‘ll report back my comments.
1st of September. First day of dig. An area with the imposing name "The summit", just East and overlooking Mellaart’s trench, slopping gently from East to West. The area has been very kindly prepared and scraped. Further cleaning, architectural features already showing on the surface. A wall running NW-SE on the edge and another turning at apprx right angle to the East. A hearth or oven is already visible in the Southern part. A big circular pit, ca 2 m wide, occupies the Northern part. The rest of the trench looks highly disturbed. No traces yet of any floors. We lay a trench of 6 x 9 m which includes all these features. The plan is to dig the building, leaving a baulk across it to follow its stratigraphy.
The next two days are devoted to the cleaning of the pit, which becomes Feature 100. Wendy is kind enough to show me around Mellaart’s sections and discuss the stratigraphy with me. She thinks our area belongs to Mellaart’s phase V and Jonathan later on tells me that the surface pottery from the area supports her conclusions. So we are on top of a house of phase V? The pit proves to be bell shaped and contains mixed pottery dating from the Chalcolithic to the Late Hellenistic or Early Roman. After taking three units we decide to leave it and concentrate our efforts to the house.
In Day 3 and 4 we work on the Eastern part of the trench. The Eastern wall of the Building appears, in poor preservation, heavily disturbed by a dense network of animal barrows. The wall seems very wide (70 cm), so perhaps a double wall is running here, but the evidence is not yet decisive. A pit next to the wall becomes Feature 101. Roger visits the trench and we discuss these features.
Thursday, 5. Moving to the West, towards the hearth or oven. The deposits look disturbed, pieces of plaster found, some of them with colour. Under the disturbed deposits, a new layer of brownish clay, heavily tempered with sand, very much like the material of mudbricks, adjacent to the West wall. No visible structure though. A platform or a floor?Entered By: Kostas Kotsakis |
