Daily Journal

Area D, Trench 9

July 11, 2004

M. Eppihimer

I have reopened Locus 6 because the last pass left enough mixed soil in the trench to make it worth taking another pass. Hopefully, by the time Locus 6 is removed, the extent of the ash pit will be clear so that Locus 5 may be removed next.

The ash pit continues to be removed as Locus 8. Along its northern side, the wall of baked bricks can still be traced; elsewhere, they seem to have disappeared. To gain control over the material from the oven/pit, I have closed the pre-breakfast KTs and will open new post-breakfast KTs.

In studying the D5 baulk, I am working with the hypothesis that an ash layer and associated pebble surface leads up to the oven (the pit is now recognizable as an oven), which may be packed in by mudbrick. Other possibilities include being dug into a surface or set upon a surface.

Four burnt mudbricks are lying inside the oven around its circumference, but the bottom of the ash has not yet been reached. There are also sherds sticking out, suggesting that the full diameter has not been exposed. The soil is getting blacker.

The ash layer in the D5 baulk stops approx. 1.2 m N of the northernmost part of the oven, so we have divided Locus 5 at this point. The area to the N becomes Locus 9 while to the S it remains Locus 5. Locus 9 is being dug with the possibility in mind that it could contain a wall, but is more likely a pit. Unfortunately, the workmen dug from S to N, eliminating the chance to naturally observe the change from this locus to the mudbricks surrounding the oven (visible in the D5 baulk). The pass is thin enough however that tomorrow’s work may correct this.