16 August 2000

I learned today that Dawnell wasn't ready to draw sections yet so instead of standing around we decided I would plow for another day. I started by having the workers push down L2007 by 20cm.

After consulting with Andy we decided that once L2007 had been pushed down 20cm we would take out the surface L2008. Then if we have time we'll take a corner out of L2007 and push it 5-19cm down.

After breakfast I trowelled around the southwestern corner of the trench. it appears that there could be mudbrick sluppage. I couldn't make out any definite lines so I had the workers continue to plow.

We sprayed the baulks and I think I can make out a brick outline in the southern part of the western baulk.

L2007 is finally done so for the rest of the day I will have my workers take out the surface L2008. I'm still not sure if L2008 is the same as L2003 or an earlier phase of it.

TRENCH SUMMARY OF AREA F, TRENCH 2

17 August 2000

We opened up F2 on 7 August 2000. F2 is the northernmost trench on the lower lip of Kenan Tepe near the Tigris. The terrain of this area is marked by numerous plow furrows. L2000 was the topsoil layer which went down for about 20cms. Below this depth the soil became both redder in color and softer in texture. This led me to close L2000 and open up a new locus, L2001.

While taking down L2001, about 30cms from the top of the trench we found the beginnings of an oven in the center right of the trench. We opened this as L2002. The fill inside the oven later became L2006. We didn't want to disturb the oven so we left a 10cm buffer zone and began pushing down around it. This led to the discovery of a surface, L2003, in the northeastern quadrant of the trench. We peeled back and realized that the surface extended across the northern 2/5 of the trench. L2003 is composed of small cobblestones approximately 5*8cms on average with scattered pottery and even some animal bones. We believe that the surface is contemporary with the oven, as they are at the same depth. We are not sure of the period, I haven't had any pottery readings yet, but we suspect it is Islamic. From this area we did recover a nice pot base and two handles from a dish, both KT# 2017. These should be good diagnostics for helping us determine for certain the time period of these loci.

Meanwhile, in the southern half of the trench the soil became grayer and more packed. For these reasons I opened up L2004 as a new locus. We pushed this down in the hope of finding a surface, but to no avail.

After L2003 had been articulated, we took it out, screening every bucket that came out. Below it we opened up a new locus L2005 and pushed it down level with L2004. Then we took out the L2006, the fill inside the oven and took a soil sample, KT# 2023. Inside this fill was an interesting piece of pottery. This piece, within KT# 2021 is a crappy looking sherd that Bradley says could be either Chalcolithic or Islamic. We only saved a few pieces of the oven as KT#2022.

 On 14 August 2000 I trowelled around and noticed that the southern part of the trench was becoming harder. This led me to close L2004 and open up L2007 beneath it.

In the northern part of the trench a new surface began to emerge. I therefore closed L2005 and opened up L2008. After a while I began to wonder if L2008 was a new surface or just a continuation of L2003. It follows the same plan in the trench, but it was not composed of cobblestones, but rather small rocks about 5*6cms on average. All of this leads me to believe that L2008 is an earlier phase of surface L2003.

The rest of the northern half of the trench was opened as a separate locus L2009. L2009 is composed of a hard packed brownish gray soil.

On 15 August 2000 I learned that I would close up F2 soon so I could go and learn how to draw baulk sections. That being the case I was given the go ahead to plow. So we took down L2007 by 20cms. This gives a nice step effect with L2008 being higher than L2009, which is higher than L2007. The next day we started out by plowing L2007 by another 20cms. Here we came upon some interesting pottery, KT# 2039. There were two sherds, on a rim, that were ridged. One even looks like the veins of a leaf. I am hoping, Inshallah, that it is from the Chalcolithic. At this juncture it looks as if we're starting to come upon some mud brick sluppage, eroded mud brick wash. I trowelled around, but couldn't see any definite lines so I allowed my workers to continue plowing. After 20cms had been dug we sprayed the southern half of the western baulk. I think I can see the outline of one brick.

The last order of business with trench F2 was to take out the surface, L2008. This brought it about level with L2009. F2 was closed at the end of 16 August 2000.