July 10, 2004

Locus 5174 was continued to the south and east of D5. The white material (5176) and the solitary mudbrick (5175) were removed and although they were aove the level of the floor surface of 5169 we could not assess whether there was a direct relationship as the floor and the material in the fill of 5164 were too similar to make a clear connection.

We continued to strip the layers from the oven centre (5156) completing 5173 and moving on to 5177, 5178 and 5179 taking layer material and carbon samples. With regard to the fill round the oven (5155) and the "walls" (5157) our hypothesis was that 5157 was a constructed feature and thus 5155 an arbitrary locus. We sectioned the wal by the east baulk and examined both the baulk section and the section on 5157. Neither showed clearly any evidence of mudbrick and the material of the wall was very similar to the fill of 5167. The wall was therefore removed to the level of 5167.

The cleaning locus (5174) was continued to the edge of the hole left by the oven’s excavation.

A roughly circular line in 5167 suggested the presence of a large (1.7 by 1.7m) pit and we test pitted to make certain the edge continued under the current surface which it did. A locus of 5180 was assigned to this feature.