Daily Trench Journal

Area F

Trench 6

May 30, 2005

Jeanne Nijhowne

Today, I began excavating F6. In 2001, F6 was dug as a test trench. A few days ago, Bradley had the workmen expand the old trench to the east, north, and west. (The trench is at the southern edge of the tell and couldn’t be expanded in that direction without going down.) The trench now measures roughly 5 x 5 meters. After the workmen finished, a pebble floor was clearly visible towards the bottom of the east baulk.

Bradley and I decided to initially divide the trench into four loci. These numbers are the next in the sequence used by the original trench. Locus 6024 was assigned to the matrix east of the original test trench, locus 6026 to the west, and 6027 to the north. Locus 6025 was assigned to the material that had slumped into the old trench. For this reason, no artifacts were saved from this locus.

We excavated most of 6025 today. We wanted to excavate down to virgin soil. Some sherds are still being found in the southern most part of the trench which was the deepest part of the sounding. Towards the end of the day, I started excavating 6027 in the northeast corner of that locus. I found what appears to be the stub of a rock wall with a surface associated to the east. The surface is ashy and can be traced in the unexcavated baulk section above 6024.