Weekly Summary

Area F, Trench 2

Week 4, ending June 9, 2005

Melissa Eppihimer

During this week a number of features emerged in F2. The first was the corner of a mudbrick platform/installation in the SW area of the trench (2029). The bricks on the outside of this feature were hard and burnt red/orange. Later in the week, the other end of this feature was uncovered in neighboring trench F7, which showed that the shape of the feature is a rectangle. The function or full extent of the feature remains unclear.

Second, after a day of heavy rain when we did not work on the site, I arrived to find visible on the surface a series of walls. Although the walls were all connected, I divided them into two parts because I suspected that they may not be a single construction. The longest wall runs N-S and then at a corner turns W (2034). Extending E from this wall, close to but not at the edge of the corner, is 2033. After approximately one meter, this thin wall becomes a wide square mudbrick block.

I divided the soil around these walls into three sections. The ‘interior’ of the structure, that is the area to the E of 2034 and N of 2033 is 2030. To the west of 2033 is 2031. To the S of the structure is 2032.

We hand picked each of the three soil areas several times throughout the week. In 2030, we found a surface (2035). Initially, this surface was identified as a pebbly cluster in the SW corner close the junction of the walls. Unfortunately, the worker did not trace the surface but cut through it. Elsewhere, we came across the surface, but it was less pebbly and better identified by the flat-lying pot-sherds. This surface was removed as a HAP sample.

In 2031, the area closest to the corner was very ashy and full of mudbrick debris.

In 2032, nothing was unusual beyond the relatively large quantity of pottery that was coming out.

At the end of the week, it seems that we have not yet reached the bottom of any of the walls or features.