| | Area: North | | | | Dug in Year: 2004 | | Feature Type: basin | | Feature Subtype: | | | | Location: South Central Wall, built on platform F.1666 | | | | Grid X: 1052.1 Grid Y: 1169.3 | | | 28/07/04 Large, roughly rectangular plaster and mudbrick feature originally 30 cm high. It was originally thought to be a possible stepping platform or a large bin. At the bottom of the feature, the profile shows that the entire feature is at a later level than the other features around it. As well, the feature itself contains multiple phases, each a separate unit. The northern most edge is a plastered rim that reaches to the bottom of the feature. The eastern edge of this rim has been cut down until it is only 5 cm high at the end.
02/08/04 This feature upon excavated has been revealed to be a bin, with earlier and later phases under and around the bin. The stratigraphy of this feature is rather complicated. The feature extends on the western edge from the edge of feature 1659, and its eastern edge is the western edge of unit 7943. The southern edge is the southern wall of space 100 (F. 1658), and the northern edge is the bin wall, unit 7963. The feature contains the entirety of a bin, as well as two possible other bins as well as a possible unplastered surface or platform.
The earliest phase is represented by unit 7968, which isn only a profile under the units 7966 and 7965. This was a series of unplastered surfaces or possibly platforms that was joined by F.1666, which also are on top of this series of surfaces. The elevation of surface 7960 is lower than the elevation of 7968, and so cuts into the surfaces, but on the souther wall of space 100 behind unit 7960, there is scaring in the plaster showing that the surfaces went into the wall in some way. Because other features are on top of this surface, it is not excavated and it cannot be well understood.
The second phase is represented by unit 7966, which is a single plaster block. This block may have been an earlier bin, but the rest of the bin is now missing or not yet excavated. This has been interpreted as the second phase as it is above the phase apparent in 7968, but the north and south sides of this unit have been cut y units 7965 and 7964. It is clear that it is not a part of the later bin, as the ends of the unit are cut by the bin and the construction of the plaster block is quite different than that of the other, later bin to be discussed below. The western wall of the later bin may have rested on this unit as well.
The third phase is the main bin of feature 1652. This consists of units 7952, 7955 and 7961 as the fill of the bin, and features 7959, 7960, 7963 and 7964 as the remaining floors and walls of the bin. Units 7963 and 7964 are the walls of the unit, but were cut from on another, perhaps by the next phase, discussed below. The eastern end of 7963 has been truncated down to the level of the surface 7959. It is possible that once, the wall went all around the entire bin at the same elevation and has since been truncated. However, there is no scar in the southern wall of space 100 where 7963 would have hit the southern wall to indicate its absence, so it is also possible that the eastern end of the bin was in fact a small plastered platform or surface abuting the bin. Surface 7959 is a nicely plastered surface, while the surface of 7960 has a much thinner plastered surface and is 2-3 cm below that of 7959. In excavation, these two surfaces were divided by a thin plaster line, which may have been the eastern wall of the bin, or maybe a dividing wall of the bin. The line was removed during excavation to discover the relationship between the two surfaces better. There was again no scaring in the souther wall of space 100 to indicate its absence, so the purpose of the line is still somewhat unclear.
The fourth and final visible phase in feature 1652 is represented by unit 7965. This unit is a dividing wall, possibly the wall of the bin in F.1666. This unit cuts the northern end of unit 7966, as well as the eastern end of 7963.
JLD 14/08/06
This feature appears to be at least two bins or basins which were repeatedly destroyed / collapsed and remodelled throughout their use life. The earliest construction is a small narrow feature (13655. 13656) along the E. edge of platform F1666 (from which a horn core was recovered in 2004). This was leter added to creating a large double bin.
Eventually the height was built up to apporimately 38cm and a final layer of plaster was applied creating a concave bottomed basin.This plaster layer was alluded to in the 2004 archive and was also visible as a faint sloping scar on the plastered south wall (F.1658).
At some point the bin walls were demolised or collapsed and a pit [13648] was dug through the walls to either retrieve a much earlier cache or to access a pit cut into platform F1666 (visible in plan within truncated area). The later phases of construction then occurred as numerous dumps, irregular layers of different coloured silty clays and plaster.
The function of the layers (13622, 13623, 13620) infilling the gap between the W wall and the internal wall and the wooden post (13628) is uncertain but slight traces of plaster may hint that this was a third basin-like structure.
These basins were all constructed fairly late in the lifetime of the house. | | | | In situ Conservation: No | | Lifted: No | | | | Feature Relationships: | | above: (Click to view the record) 1666 | | abuts: (Click to view the record) 1658, 1659, 1665 | | | | Number of Related Diary Entries: 4 | | | | Conservation Recorded: No | | Related Photos: 48 (Opens as a group in a new window) | Buildings: (Click to view the record)
| Spaces: (Click to view the record)
| | No. Of Units in this Feature: 34 (Click here to view unit list) |
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