Daily Journal

Area D

Trench 8

July 7, 2004

Today we cleaned and leveled the trench with the expectation of beginning a new locus. However when Bradley came over after we had cleaned he pointed out that the eastern edge, in an approximately 1.5m swath following the curve of the hill was still sub topsoil. There was also still evidence of L6 showing in both the newly cleaned balk and on the flat surface in the form of large rocks, potsherds and grouped pebbles. Because of this we are simply continuing the same loci. L5 is the sub topsoil on the west stretch, L6 is the pit/wash/ditch, L3 is the north of L6 and L7 is South of L6. Because it became clear yesterday the L6 is not a wall this time we are removing it as a pit, that is, we are removing it before removing L3 or L7. L5 we are removing at the same time but that is just to get ride of it because it is still sub topsoil. Ahmet who is digging L6 noted a change in the soil of L6. One meter east out of the west balk the soil changed from the fine loose texture in L5 to harder clumped soil. This soil is a pinkish grey ( 7.5YR 6/2.) We also found a few bits or charcoal, to at least some carbon-ish burned matter. As we continued to take L6 down a thick layer of pebbles appeared. The pebble layer is not perfectly flat, however that may be because we already hacked through it. The pebbles range in size from 1cm-7cm. The most interesting feature is the variety of colors the pebbles are in. I pulled out several to munsell. The colors were 5R 6/4 pale red, 5R 7/6 light red, 5R 2.5 very dusky red, 5/5GY greenish grey, 5Yr 6/6 reddish yellow. As we continued to clear this area it became apparent that this was a floor. Looking at the balk it is now clear that the original L6 pit is different from the floor. There is a bare space in the balk of about 10 cm which is the divider. It appears that there are actually several floors layered one right on top of another; at least two more are visible in the balk which we cut trough. Now that this is clear the goal is to excavate L3 and then L7 and look for these higher levels of floor.