August 9, 2000

The first thing I did today was remove a piece of basalt grindstone that had begun to surface yesterday in the SW quadrant of the trench. While I was documenting this find, the workers were struggling to set up our new giganto-tent. This morning I figure we will dig another 5 - 10 cm in the SW quadrant as L 2001. Then we will open a new locus and dig the entire western third of the trench to the level of the soil change.

However, while digging the SW, a couple of rows of large stones were discovered very early on. It may be a continuation of the path in Randy's sounding, however there does not appear to be a cobble surface (or any surface for that matter) associated with the rows of stones. In order to get a better idea of what is going on, we are taking down the pile of debris in the NW quadrant of the trench, and also digging down 20cm in the area immediatley to the east of the line of stones. After Drew photographs, we will take this area down to the level of the soil change as it appears to include only the same crumbly fill as the rest of L 2001.

While cleaning the trench for a photo, another chunk of basalt was found along the western balk. After Drew took a few shots of the stone lines, we took the area to the east of the stones down, and did not find anything interesting.

After the dirt from that section of L 2001 was cleaned up, we began excavating an area in the NW quadrant as L 2002. L 2002 turned out to be a fill with soil similar to L 2001. However, this locus contained many, many more stones and potsherds per square inch than L 2001. Many of the sherds appeared to be Hellenistic. The area of large stones documented on yesterday's day plan was found to extend to the western balk. L 2002 was closed today after the level of the soil change observed in L 2001 was reached. The soil was also noticeably harder at this point. The pile of stones in the middle of L 2002 will be excavated as a separate locus tomorrow.

I have to do a lot of measuring and drawing in the next hour, and Drew also has to come and photograph the trench and rock pile. After the photo, the workers will be kept busy digging another 10 - 20 cm in the eastern part of the trench, still as L 2001 because we haven't gotten very deep below the surface at all in this area.

Tomorrow I will open a whole bunch of new loci in the western part of the trench, and hopefully the workers will be able to blast the area down quite a bit.