Weekly Trench Summary

Area F

Trench 15

July 14, 2002

F15 was opened on July 9th. This trench is near the F Datum at an elevation of 570.82 meters. Our reasoning for opening this trench is part of a scheme to cover a lot of ground in the lower town at Kenan Tepe while still getting a pretty fair sampling of close up areas. The question as we look for architecture and features is more related to direction and spread of the town, and the various work areas that would have formed part of it as well as their functionality and the role they may have played as part of the Kenan Tepe community. Thus F15 will work the area almost 20 meters from the current trench opened as part of F13, the trench runs North to South and our hope is to locate more signs of habitation in this direction.

We started quickly not collecting any pottery over the first 0.40 to 0.50 meters, after this we started collecting materials as locus 1 shortly after we began uncovering some large cobblestones (0.10 to 0.20 meters) on the North corner, as they were articulated they displayed rocks at at least 3 different depths and seemingly organized or laid in a specific square pattern. This became locus # 2, since it is right next to what would be the Northeast corner of the North end of trench we will leave it for now and get back to it at a later date. I think that it looks a lot like a burial even at this earlier juncture. It sure reminds me of the collection of rocks (also likely a burial) found in F14.

The digging with either hand pick or large picks has been fairly easy as the ground is not overly packed or rocky. We changed locus number when the soil coloration also changed and became lighter. We have not encountered much in the way of white pebble speckling at the depths to which we have gone. In this new locus we located a pit Locus 4 which is a pit of large dimensions, it was emptied and samples collected as customary.

Weekly Trench Summary

Area F

Trench 15

July 14, 2002

F15 was opened on July 9th. This trench is near the F Datum at an elevation of 570.82 meters. Our reasoning for opening this trench is part of a scheme to cover a lot of ground in the lower town at Kenan Tepe while still getting a pretty fair sampling of close up areas. The question as we look for architecture and features is more related to direction and spread of the town, and the various work areas that would have formed part of it as well as their functionality and the role they may have played as part of the Kenan Tepe community. Thus F15 will work the area almost 20 meters from the current trench opened as part of F13, the trench runs North to South and our hope is to locate more signs of habitation in this direction.

We started quickly not collecting any pottery over the first 0.40 to 0.50 meters, after this we started collecting materials as locus 1 shortly after we began uncovering some large cobblestones (0.10 to 0.20 meters) on the North corner, as they were articulated they displayed rocks at least 3 different depths and seemingly organized or laid in a specific square pattern. This became locus # 2, since it is right next to what would be the Northeast corner of the North end of trench we will leave it for now and get back to it at a later date. I think that it looks a lot like a burial even at this earlier juncture. It sure reminds me of the collection of rocks (also likely a burial) found in F14.

The digging with either hand pick or large picks has been fairly easy as the ground is not overly packed or rocky. We changed locus number when the soil coloration also changed and became lighter. We have not encountered much in the way of white pebble speckling at the depths to which we have gone. In this new locus we located a pit Locus 4 which is a pit of large dimensions, it was emptied and samples collected as customary.

ANDY COMMENTS:

Need more info about loci. L1 and L2 are well described, but L3 and L4 are described in a confusing manner. Just what is L3 (fill below L1 along entire length of trench? Is L3 over L2? L3 is over L4, correct? Describe these loci and their relationships a bit better.