| Entry: | 08 07 2006
We had a visit from Goddesses on Wednesday so no diary entry. The last few days Lisa and myself have been excavating a large midden deposit (13103). This extended almost completely across the space from east to west. On the west side of the space this layer slumped into one of the underlying pit cuts and from about the point where this slumping began the base of the layer was defined by a band of light brown or creamy coloured clay silt, up to approx 10cm thick and below this another thinner band of dark brown or black burning. This is very similar to the layer(s) we had at the base of (12980). I think these layers might represent episodes of lime burning ~ they remind me of the layer that Craig excavated in the south area in 1999. Arlene had a look today during the priority tour and didn t rule it out as an idea. These layers are in section at the edge of ex.
If we assume that these are lime burning layers then we can say that the midden layers are slumping into the underlying pits rather than just tipping into them as they were deposited, because the lime burning would have taken place on a horizontal level. This implies that the original fill of the pits was quite soft and uncompacted. Maybe the original fill is something other than midden. But very curious to learn what these pits were all about, would like to able to excavate at least down to the original fills but probably won t get to dig them this season.
Apart from (13103) we also excavated a small but interesting deposit on the south side of the space, (13107) which Lisa flagged up because of the unusual animal bones that were coming up. Also distinct in colour from (13103).
We finished excavating (13103) today with the help of David who has joined us for a brief sojourn before he moves on to the south area. I should mention that we have found quite a few animal figurines in (13103) and today we had two small pregnant female figurines as well as a probable boar. After our first go with the digital camera and a somewhat incoherent video we started to excavate a large mud brick dump deposit (13112) on the north side of the space that has been released by the excavation of (13103). This is butting up against walls so we once this has gone we should start getting a better idea of any underlying buildings. Lisa also spotted that one of our pits is cutting a mudbrick wall, but because of the curve of the pit we can t say which way the wall is orientated.Entered By: RT |
