Stratigraphic Summary

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Stratigraphic section.

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T-26 M-O/64-71 revealed a rather curious and provocative stratigraphic and feature sequence.  Topsoil throughout the trench ran to roughly 20-30 cm below surface, was dark brown in color with many roots and small rocks included.  Stumps were located in N-O/65-66, M-N/69, and M-N/71.

The change out of topsoil was distinctly different in three areas.  In M-O/69-71, the change was to a light to medium brown soil that carried either a yellow or orangeish tinge; in M-N/68 and M-O/67-66, a change to a light to medium brown with a slightly olive tinge.  Similarly in M-O/64-65, but with an even more distinct olive-gray cast.  Notably in O/68, and to some extent O/67-66, a large lens of decomposing stone occupied 30-50 cm below surface.

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In M-O/69-71, this subsurface soil generally gave way at roughly 50-60 cm to a darker soil that increasingly held concentrations of small plaster/tile flecks and some charcoal bits.  In M-O/69, generally the soil was slightly redder than 70-71, and preserved more fragment pockets of "clean" soil, i.e. without the admixture of small flecks of plaster and charcoal.

At roughly 80 cm, M-O/70-71 shifted to a darker soil, sometimes packed with decomposed plaster and with increasing pottery.  At similar depths in M-O/69, the soil was noticeably redder as one came down on a tile pack.  At approx. 90 cm in M/69-71, a burn layer was encountered.  As one moved south into N-O/70-71, the "burn layer" moved lower and lower until by O/70-71 one did not contact actually burnt material until c. 100 cm.

The nature of this burn layer was mixed...in some areas, the soil was very even in texture and color, appearing to be true burn and not discoloration.  In other areas, the soil was mixed as in previous layers, and the only distinction

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being significantly darker color, perhaps burn but also perhaps discoloration.  In areas where excavation went beyond the burn layer, the lower levels varied from a quite clean gray-olive soil (M/71) to a light brown/olive soil (M/69).

In M-O/66-68, the change out of subsurface soil was not quite as uniform.  In N-M/67 and M-O/68, a lightish brown soil with olive tones continued to circa 80 cm only in the last 10 cm really beginning to show any hints of the "plaster layer."  In O/66-67, the subsurface soil gave way at circa 60-70 cm to a darker soil with reddish brown tones and more charcoal.  A similar soil in M-N/66 but without charcoal.

At circa 80-85 cm, several features appeared: a pithos/tile line in M-O/68 and a tile line in M-O/67-66.  It is very interesting to note that the soil from circa 80 cm until the burn layer or bottom of excavated area over these meters was very confused.

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In some areas, the soil was much like that in M-O/71-79, a mixed medium-dark brown, sometimes more reddish, and including quantities of decomposed plaster and charcoal.  Occasional pockets of very red soil, perhaps decomposing schist circa 10 cm across, or very dark olive green of similar size were encountered.  Elsewhere, large pockets and most of O/68 from 85-95 cm was a very silty light brown soil, clean like subsurface soil.

Much of the excavation over meters M-O/68-66 in depths 85-95 cm was done by mestlina in attempts to relate this soil to the features, but inevitably the soil was simply overly mixed.  Perhaps this itself may relate to the features, suggesting some sort of intrusion from above into the "plaster layer" though this is not certain.  Particularly in O/66 and to a lesser extent in N-M/66, the presence of the plaster layer itself was not clear as concentrations of plaster were so spotty and, relative to 69-71, not very dense.  Excavation of the last 10-15 cm (95-105 cm b.s.) in M-O/66-68

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revealed similar observations in M-O/69-71; a burn layer that seems to dip as one moves south.  In M/68-67, the trench terminated on top of a layer of whitish material, perhaps decomposed organic matter.  N-M/66 at western edge showed some larger tile frags that probably relate to tile/pithos spreads of M-O/64-65.

M-O/64-65 produced quite a different set of stratigraphic observations.  M/64-65 at 30-40 cm produced a concentration of large pan, cover, and ridgepole fragments.  These sat in a clean subsurface soil of light brown with distinct olive tinge.  This soil continued essentially unchanged down to circa 80 cm at which point in M/64-65 a tile pack of small pieces was revealed.

In N-O/64-65 at this depth, there began to be some admixture of plaster bits and at 90 cm, particularly around the emerging pithos concentration, a darker soil with reddish cast held more plaster and charcoal.  Excavation

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of this area was significantly hampered by the stump that occupied most of O-N/65-66 and smaller stumps in M/65-66.  90-100 cm below surface was essentially all tile pack, from which came a significant number of fineware pieces.  When the stumps were removed, the pithos concentration was revealed and mestied down.

M-O/64-65 terminated just reaching the burn layer in spots, at 100-105 cm below surface.  One could not speak so much of a plaster layer here, as in other areas, although similar soil was excavated around the tile and pithos, particularly in O/64-65.  This is less evident in N-M/64-65.