| Entry: | We have been working in Building 64 which is truncated by the pitting. A layer of mudbrick collapse was taken off (13112) and this overlay (13116) and (13117) in spaces 288 and 287 respectively. These layers are more like the typical room fill deposits. Tomorrow we will continue with this and concentrate on recording the final use phase of Building 64.
Although Building 64 has been released by the excavation of the midden filled pits, the lower fills of these have still to be excavated and we will start removing the fill of one of the pits whose lower fill has been completely released in a day or so.
We had the feed back on one of the midden deposits (12980) which was prioritised last time. All of the specialists agreed with our interpretation that the midden layers formed relatively rapidly as the bone, pot and obsidian were not abraded. Nurcan gave us the pottery report and informed us that the double pierced lugs that are present in the sample end (at least in the Mellart collection) at level V. The box shaped pottery is has previously been through to begin at level IV/III and so the pottery seems to suggest a date towards the end of level V or the beginning of level IV. This agrees with the obsidian which Stringy says is typical of level V. Most the obsidian pieces are end use rather than manufacture debris. The animal bone is typical of daily consumption and much of it had been burnt post-depositionally suggesting an activity took place in the midden perhaps agreeing with that plaster preparation may have been taking place in the midden. The animal bone contained both butchery and consumption waste but there was a lack of the less dense and grease rich ends of the long bones which could have been taken elsewhere for grease extraction. The phytoliths from all of the samples were similar and included materials typically used for fuel. The bots could not give us feedback yet.
The priority feedback was really useful and the dating evidence will help as date the earlier Building 64 whose walls (although this is not yet based on stratigraphic excavation) may have been built at the same time as Building 59 since, in the section revealed by the late foundation trench, the mudbricks used in the construction of 59 and 64 appear similarEntered By: LY |
