Weekly Trench Summary

Week 6

Area C

Trench 2 Sounding

June 23, 2005

At the end of the fifth week of excavation I took over this sounding from Jeanne Nijhowne. Last week ended with the uncovering of a tricolor mud brick wall (L2173), an associated stone boundary (L2174) and then fill on the eastern side of the sounding (L2175). Therefore this last week of excavation for the sounding, we started with these three loci. In summation of these three loci, it seems that what was first thought to be a single course stone wall, is now thought to have been a single course stone boundary (L2174) for the mud brick wall (2173). The stones were aligned in such a way as to be relatively smooth along the mud brick wall and to present a rougher outline away from the wall. Further, during the excavation of 2174, it is my impression that there was a reddish, claylike soil adhering to the surface of the stone boundary (2174). Along from the medium sized cobbles that were in place along the mud brick wall, there were also a good number of smaller stones and pebbles that seemed to be balanced on top of the cobbles and held in place by the reddish earth. With further excavation of the trench at this level and possibly allowing the earth to dry out a bit, it is extremely wet at this depth; it might be easier to determine the relationship of the reddish earth and this locus.

Below the mud brick wall with the stone boundary appears to be a stone foundation, at least four courses wide (L2176). Two of the courses were below the mud brick wall (2173) and another was directly below the stone boundary. Though there might have been a layer of colored brick between the stone boundary/wall and the underlying foundation. Two green bricks were discovered underneath the northern and southern portions of the stone boundary and there might have been a brown brick between them.

Also associated with the stone boundary (2174) was a small pebble/pottery surface (2177). This surface was only caught in the southwestern corner of the sounding and exists to an undetermined extent in the C2 trench. The exposed surface in the sounding corner was collected as best we could with such a small area, but was too small to allow for HAP sampling. The cultural material was collected as was a soil sample, but that was the best we could do. On the southern baulk this surface stops at the stone boundary to the mud brick wall.

Once the stone foundation was removed, there was a thin layer of fill and then a secondary single course stone wall/boundary (L2179) was uncovered. This stone feature aligns vertically with the second (from the east) course of the stone foundation (L2176) and the original stone boundary (2174).

Two other large cobbles were also found in the northeast and northwest corners of the sounding respectively. This could represent some sort of passage between walls, etc. that is contained within trench C2, but that is not a part of this sounding. But that is purely hypothesis since only the two cobbles and the space between are in the sounding.

Below the stone boundary (2179) seems to be normal fill. There are a large number of pebbles and small stones coming up in the eastern portion of the trench below where the two large cobbles had been found, but it is difficult to determine if this was a pebble surface or not. Further excavation of this locus from the larger trench excavation would be necessary for a more complete hypothesis to be formed.

We continued down through three sounding loci without coming across any further architectural or otherwise important loci. The sounding was stopped with L2182 and had reached a depth of approximately 3.5m.