Journal / Summary:D-5-2005-Summary

Kenantepe 2005        Page 1

Datum: 587.95

Trench: D.5

Date: June 10, 2005

TRENCH D.5 SUMMARY FOR 2005 SEASON

Trench D.5 was reopened for the season 2005 on May 16th and work was stopped on June 8th. There were a few goals for working in this trench. One of them was to continue horizontal excavations in order to see whether there was any earlier Ubaid architecture below the Ubaid house found during 2002 season. If there was any, we hoped to expose preserved building remains and record them as much as possible and compare them with the later one. Along with the comparisons of the artifacts, we hoped to distinguish any temporal change in spatial arrangements, architectural style and function of the meaningfully established spaces. The second goal was to document the change in settlement size in this part of the mound as we go deep. The last goal was to see how deep the Ubaid occupation layers continue and at which level the virgin soil could be reached in this part of the mound. With these questions in mind, we also reopened the trench D.9 in the E of D.5.

Unfortunately, the first goal was not achieved this year. Excavations showed that below the Ubaid house, there was not any architecture built in this part of the mound until we stopped the excavations at about 585.69 m. This indicates that during the earlier phases, the Ubaid occupations were elsewhere and the area where the trench D.5 was probably used as the open-air activities. I was able to detect some surfaces (L.5216 and L.5218) that were preserved only in small areas less than 1m2. The concentration of very hard, fine clay mixed with pebbles and large size chert flakes (L.5209) in the western part of the trench and the pile of very coarse sand mixed with small pebbles (L.5219) to the NW of the trench indicated to me that, perhaps, there were multiple activities. They may have been different types but consecutive related to one major task, such as preparing mud-bricks for wall constructions. The other possibility is that the activities may have been different and for short duration. Maybe that is why the surfaces L.5216 and L.5218 were very small. After completion of one short-term activity, the surface might have been left for good and the next activity might have been taking place nearby. It is important to note here that the nature of the outdoor activities are unknown, although we seem to have been documenting the remnants of them this year. It seems that human activities were intense and this area was repeatedly in use allowing for the accumulation of more than one meter thickness of fill.

The most significant discovery of the outside activities is the food preparation and possibly baking and cooking found in the S of the trench. Number of grinding stones, stone balls, and some hammers and pestles found near to each other in L. 5226 and L.5228 and their association with the hearth, which had two heavily burned plaster surfaces built on top of each other, implicated that firing activity was distinct. Additionally, ashy soil texture visible in the W section with more than 10cm thickness confirms that the hearth was used for a long time and hearth was rebuilt and the plaster

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was regularly renewed. It seemed to me that the heart was built higher than the living surface around it. The finds associated with it were begun appearing at similar level but more and more of them were recovered in the following 15cm as the excavations went on. Some of those finds were turned up side down implying that they were not in situ and moved. I suggest that this might be related with the natural slope of the mound that may have moved the artifacts and the living surface around the heart was adjusting itself with the downward form of the mound over the course of time. Thus, the slope was probably causing the actual surface disappear and disturbing the location of the finds.

In relation with the slope of the mound, the wall L.5212 deserves a note. It was initially found in earlier seasons and it was clear that the wall was continuing further down. At the end of the excavations in this trench, it was not clear if we had reached its bottom. A test I made on its n side showed that it may not be continuing further down and its bottom might be at the depth of 585.91 meter. If this is true the height of the wall becomes almost a meter. It has only one row of bricks but the size of the bricks is not obvious. The brick near the W section seems to be 70x22x5-6cm. This wall might have been built to draw the edge of the site and protect the area just S of it against erosion.

We excavated about one meter in this trench and there was no significant change observable in the size of the Ubaid settlement. However, I believe that the edge of the settlement in the NE got 40 cm shorter. It, thus, seems that the settlement was probably not enlarging so distinctively but the debris from ongoing activities was accumulating over time. If we can excavate in this trench next year, we may have better understanding about whether the site was smaller or not in the earlier phases.

In order to find out the depth of the Ubaid mound and locate the depth of the virgin soil, we continued digging in the SW sounding. We started at the depth of 585.31m with L.5214 and by changing the locus number every 25 cm, we reached to the depth of 583.48 m with L.5234. It is certain that the virgin soil has not been reached yet and the artifacts continued appearing with varying amounts in every locus assigned to the sounding. We found two distinct features in the sounding. Topmost one is L.5222 burned plaster surface found at the level 585.04-585.00 m. It is SE quadrant was found in the sounding but its structure was very similar to the hearth surfaces L.5225 and L.5227 found in the S of the trench. It was free of artifacts and a few sherds collected with its locus number may or may not be associated. The pottery from this sounding has not been studied yet and it is impossible to talk about the differences in the use of pottery that may imply change in style and more.

Due to not achieving the most important goal, recovering more earlier date architectural remains, this trench may not be excavated in the coming years. However, the SW sounding may be excavated further so that the sampling of more artifacts and reaching to the sterile soil may become possible.