Daily Log

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Wednesday, 9 July, 2008

AM

Diagram of trench

Began morning with a pick pass in Locus 11 , focusing on eastern wall, southern wall, and area abutting Locus 12 .  Soil is brown and mottled inclusing many terracotta, carbon/charcoal and limestone rock bits.  Some soil more yellowish.  With some of the deeper picks, hit darker gray soil with many carbon chunks.  This was mostly found in the middle of the trench near where the dark carbony soil slope is already exposed.

Students began sorting picked soil directly into buckets from the trench.  Sorting turned up a fair amount of terracotta fragments as well as some pottery and bone.  There was also a significant amount of bronze residue, enough to establish a bronze box.  A possible sling stone (Find #1) was uncovered in the

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northeastern concer of Locus 11 .

After loose soil was picked up, took measurements for Find #1 and pick passed a little more in the middle of the southern half of Locus 11 to expose more of the burnt carbon-rich soil.  Soil was still yellow-brown and mottled.

While picking up loose soil from previous pick pass (first), there were many sherds of fine bucchero towards the eastern side of the trench.  A large bucchero handle was recovered and there appears to be another one in the soil of the next layer (burnt charcoal soil).  In the west of Locus 11 , much more large tile pieces were recovered.

After second pick pass (described above), students sorted soil directly into buckets with ands and trowels.  When loose soil was picked up, continued with torwels to uncover burnt layer across the locus.  A rocchetto fragment (Find #2) was recovered in the south western part of the locus.  An iron nail (Find #3) was also found very close to the burnt layer but still in the mottled soil of Locus 11 .  There is still a fair amount of pottery and some bone but less tile.

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Finds

20080034

20080034

• Find #1
• Locus 11
• 52.36S/197.30E
• 25.88m A.E.
• Possible sling stone
• Drawing

20080036

20080036

• Find #2
• Locus 11
• 54.19S/196.57E
• 25.65m A.E.
• Rocchetto fragment
• Drawing

20080035

20080035

• Find #3
• Locus 11
• 53.19S/196.39E
• 25.70m A.E.
• Iron nail
• Drawing

PM

At beginning of afternoon work, the trench layout was as follows (not to scale):

Diagram of trench

trench as low baulk wall on southern end used as entrance to trench.

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Locus 12 continues as a follow-on from soundings taken last year.  The carbon-rich, gray layer is exposed in spots and we hope to unite this area with Locus 11 if the gray layer is consistent with that of Locus 11 .

We began work after lunch with 2 pickpasses focused on Locus 12 (pickpass 1) and the northeast corner (approx. 1m x 1m square) where the gray carbon layer was not yet visible.

Stratigraphy of immediate layers:

Stratigraphic section

The goal of the afternoon is to remove the rest of the "mottled" layer, fully exposing the underlying gray, carbonized "burn" layer.  So far, the gray layer is consistent throughout the bottom of the trench, but is sloped somewhat downwards from the NW corner (which appears to be the high spot for this trench).

Afternoon digging has exposed numerous artefacts which are within the burn layer (and will be removed

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with that layer.

20080183

20080183

• Find #4
• Locus 12
• 53.47S/197.77E
• 25.98m A.E.
• Handle fragment
• Drawing

Digging in Locus 12 revealed a ceramic fragment, possibly a portion of handle fragment with remaining evidence of paint/slip.

20080050

20080050

• Find #5
• Locus 11
• 51.00S/197.48E
• 25.91m A.E.
• Painted pottery
• Drawing

Almost immediately after find #4 in Locus 12 two sherds of painted pottery were found with a 1cm-wide red stripe across both sherds.  The pieces join and the break is fresh: Based on the curve of the sherd, the vessel would be small if whole.

The carbon gray clay layer, when accidentally exposed by picking, appears to be at least 4cm thick.

A ridged impasto sherd was found in the NE corner of the trench in the mottled layer:

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• Find #6
• Locus 11
• 52.91S/197.78E
• 25.73m A.E.
• Ridged impasto rim
• Drawing

Small bronze flakes were added to the bulk bronze box that was created for Locus 12 .  Flakes are unrecognizable.

The majority of the afternoon digging revealed numerous pottery, tile and bone fragments, with most of the tile concentrated in Locus 12 .

Afternoon work resulted in the removal of the majority of the "mottled" layer - in only a few small spots is the gray-carbon layer not yet exposed.

Locus 11

• Tile and Plaster: 6 1/2 bowls
• Pottery: 305 sherds
• Bone: 75 pieces
• Bronze: 21 fragments

Locus 12

• Tile and Plaster: 3 bowls
• Pottery: 63 sherds
• Bone: 13 bone pieces
• Bronze: 6 fragments

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Supplemental Finds

20080090

20080090

• Find #1
• Pottery table fin
• Locus 11
• 52-55S/195-198E
• 25.98-25.65m A.E.
• Incised bucchero sherd
• Drawing

• Find #2
• Locus 11
• Pottery table find
• 52-55S/195-198E
• 25.98-25.65m A.E.
• Incised buccheroid rim
• Drawing