Daily Trench Journal

Area C

Trench 1

July 24, 2002

Today I am continuing with the removal of the two mudbrick surfaces L1083 andL1071. Then I will examine L1084, which was a possible fire installation that was covered until such a time as I could have the rest of that area brought down to the same level.

L1083 – Hashim is continuing work on this mudbrick surface that was underneath the wall 1069. There are few artifacts in this area but a good-sized piece of pig mandible came out today as well as a large chert core. Some pottery was found but nothing exciting. The matrix continues as the dense and compact bricky material. While in the southern edge we are still above the level of the rest of the trench, the northern area is going below excavated levels. I will stop excavation on this locus until we bring down the surrounding area to the same level so I can see what is going on.

L1071 – The excavation of this locus was completed today. The southern section is more narrow and shallow than the northern since the locus had been cut into on the west by excavations last year and had been left higher to the north. A great deal of pottery came out of this locus, again probably used as fill since the pottery was coming at all angles, nothing flat lying. The pottery is of all different types, nothing of the finer stuff found yesterday in the NE corner, and many pieces are quite large. Below the fill layer is a layer of mudbrick that corresponds with the brick exposed below. I will stop excavation of this locus until the areas to the east are brought down to the same level so that we can see what is going on in this area.

L1074 – This is the area that was covered for future excavation and was uncovered today. The area of possible sealings that was noted before does not seem to be this now. There is a great deal of bricky material in this fire installation. There is a pit (approximately 20cm wide) in the center that is lined with a great deal of broken pottery, specifically placed to encircle the pit not simply thrown in. Also a good amount of wood carbon was removed. There are a couple areas where harder earth underneath was preserved below softer areas so concave areas appeared during excavation, possibly denoting organic matter that was left in situ and left an impression during decay.

I also examined the NE corner of the trench where the different pottery types were found yesterday. There appears to be the possibility of mudbrick in this area but this will be examined to a greater extent tomorrow. For today I had the locus cleaned off and the rodent holes cleaned in preparation for further examination tomorrow.