August 16, 2001

For most trenches, today was close-down, but given the fragile nature of the features in the trench, we plan to keep the trench open an extra day. This will allow us additional time to work on the features surrounding and within the southern mudbrick house, in particular the hard and plaster surfaces W of wall L5045 (L5069 and L5068, respectively) and the emerging mixed stones/hearth area (L5076) to the N of the house, abutting the wall, and some time to gather more information on the surface above the mudbrick house (L5066).

The majority of today's work was done by workers in the area N of the mudbrick house, trying to identify, document, and then remove portions of surface L5066 so that more area can be brought down to the level of the mudbrick house's surfaces. Some time was also spent to follow a small portion of plaster-lined mudbrick wall associated with surface L5066 (L5073) which is cut, possibly by a faint pit, making it hard to follow for any distance. In fact, we could only follow it for about a half meter SE into the trench from where it emerges from the W baulk. More fair-sized (up to 20 cm) pieces of pottery were found on the N side of wall, but it's unclear whether they are associated with pit L5047 or the surface, and were left in situ. Notably, some of a plaster surface we had been picking up in small segments in the W section associated with L5066 was finally articulated nicely, and remains at the very south-west extent of the surface's area.

In areas where we found the dividing line between the higher surface (L5066) and the mudbrick house, notably a layer of extremely thin ash with impressions of the organic fiber of the fuel (maybe 1 mil thick), we changed the locus to L5071 and continued excavation down to the level of outside-house, northern L5060.

An enigmatic rock jumble has emerged in the area below L5066 (though some of the larger rocks could be seen through the surface, as the lowest yet uncovered are below the ash level, I am associating them with the mudbrick house or earlier rather than the surface). The rocks occupy an area approximately 1m x 1m, up to the northern face of mudbrick wall L5074 (the western continuation of L5045, the higher portions of which were cut by floor L5066) and in the area abutting the wall have gray, charcoal and ash rich soil between. There is no clear organization, however, and though the ash area indicates a possible oven or hearth of some sort, many of the stones are not surrounded by such deposits. It is possible the stones are collapsed from some higher portion of the mudbrick house, or that the contexts which would clarify their origin have yet to be dug. No other features were uncovered.

Because we will not have time to properly and systematically remove the mudbrick house this season (and to verify my conclusion of what was the surface on the inside (SE) of wall L5045, we cut a sounding down35 centimeters (L5070). It verified the floor, showing a packed area about 10 cm deep, followed by softer fill below, while appearing to show the wall's founding (for similar reasons, as courses in the wall elude us, probably due to mud plaster) 12 centimeters below (this area was pedestled and designated L5075). The was also an area of slightly different soil texture curving out where the corner occurs between wall L5045 and the extant portion of the wall to oven L5062, which was similarly pedestled and designated L5077. The remainder of the sounding turned up little of interest, and importantly, no (clear) floors.

I also spent some time in the very SW of the trench working on articulating the plaster level there (L5068), a very time-consuming job as it is only a few millimeters thick and very fragile. I also took out the bottom of oven L5029, which was a few centimeters above the surrounding surface level and had a charred area beneath it and a few centimeters above where the hard surface associated with the mudbrick house (L5059) was uncovered. The plaster surface was not found in this area, possibly because it was cut by the oven.