August 10, 2001

Spider Shot Information Included!!

Today is our return from Van. Van is beautiful, many bazaars are there, the people in Hotel Bayram are wonderful, and it is only 32 degrees Celsius. Today it was about 42 degrees on Kenan Tepe, but it is indeed good to be able to dig, especially since we have begun the dismantling, destruction if you will, of the large pavement L1033. Initially we had believed and hoped that L1033 was a very large wall, a Wonder Wall, but the discovery of the black ashy layer of L1037, along with the subsequent discovery that this locus seems to go underneath the L1033, led us to realize that this was not a large wall, but was in fact a rather large pavement. After this realization we understood that there was no reason for us to keep the pavement around, and we took to the idea of blasting through this pavement, hoping to eventually reach the black ashy layer underneath.

But first a Spider Shot:

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Spider Shot Information

August 10, 2001

Area: F Trench: 1

Purpose:

The purpose of this spider shot was to record the large pavement L1033 which takes up a large portion of the trench. Once we determined that the large ashy layer which lies to the west of the pavement goes under it we decided that we were going to take out the pavement. Up until this time it had been left intact in the hope that it was actually a wall. In addition there are some bricks which are laid diagonally in the view of the trench near the west baulk which we also wanted to record before we took it out. Since these features are often difficult to see, even without the added difficulties of looking at a picture, we sprayed down the entire trench so that the brick colors would come out. This will hopefully allow more of the mudbricks to be drawn than would otherwise be seen.

Loci Description:

L1033 - This is the large pavement, almost three meters long and three meters wide. It is cut by L1031 and L1035, an oven with oven wall (oven wall removed down to surface level already). This pavement is the main reason for the spider shot.

L1031- An oven which cuts into the pavement in the southwest corner of the pavement

L1035- The oven wall. Wall has been removed, but black lines which were the wall border are still visible in the trench.

L1038- General fill

L1036- This area is probably a pit, and may be related to or touching L1031, the oven. This locus has been cut in two for the time being by L1037.

L1037- A very large black ashy layer which goes from one end of the trench to the other. This area is very soft and silty. Appears to be too large to be a pit. We have been calling it a layer, for lack of a better name.

L1032- This is the locus with the collection of diagonal bricks in it. Other than the diagonally laid bricks it is a small collection of fill.

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After the spider shot we began the destruction of L1033, the wonder pavement. We started by noticing that there was a seam on which it appeared the bricks were laid. This seam was very uneven. Near the north baulk the bricks were only a couple of centimeters tall, while farther towards the middle of the trench they were almost 15 centimeters tall. This surface began at the locus line between L1037 and L1033, or better put where the pavement ends, and then continued for about 70 centimeters towards the east baulk. After about 70 cm the bricks no longer popped off as easily. This surface was a white clayey burned crusty looking surface with some black burned splotches, similar to a Dalmatian dog. After we could no longer take out this area by easily popping off the bricks, we began picking at it for 10 cm at a time. As might be expected, the bricks were very hard and difficult to pick through. Some remnants of the bricks are still left, so this part remains part of the original locus. I think that we are going to rename the locus where the crust has come up, but that will wait until we have reevaluated tomorrow. As might be expected, the removal of a 3 meter by 3 meter brick pavement was an arduous process which took the entire day, and between the spider shot and removal we used the entire day. We will reevaluate tomorrow.