Daily Journal

Area D

Trench 8

July 6, 2004

Today began with the clearing of L7. L3 is not yet finished, the balk needs to be cleaned and the floor leveled however we wanted to use the small pick and trowel to investigate the north side of L6. Whereas yesterday we believed L6 may be a robber trench or some other form of pit to trench further investigation suggests it may be a wash or drainage ditch. Water would have carried smaller items away but the larger items would have sunk and stayed. Most of the day was spent clearing L7 and L6. L3 was mostly removed yesterday but it had to be taken down 15-20 more centimeters to make it level, however the balk still needs to be cleaned. As the workmen were clearing L7 on the south side of 6 we attempted to define the north side of L6. We then did the same for the south side. On the south side close to the west balk we were able to very clearly see the layers of rock and pottery lying horizontally. Though we had pedestaled it like a wall it was clear that it was not. We took a photo of the south side of L6 were it was most defined. The most interesting part of L6 and the thing which best confirms its classification as its own locus is the plethora of items which were stuffed in the small area. Pottery, rocks, large head crusher rocks to pebbles, and bone were the most prominent components. However all together there were pottery sherds, stones, soil, bone, shells, mud brick and slag. At the end of the day L6 was mostly gone however the entire west balk needs to be straightened then everything needs to be cleaned up. Dong this will leave us with a 9x4 trench in which the south east corner is still topsoil but is bellow the level of the rest of the trench because of the slope of the tepe.