Date: 09-Aug-99
Weather: Clear
Number of Workers: 5
Lots Open: 2478 2483 2484 2585
Page Reference: 432

STRATEGY: Remove sf.21 ("painted plaster" #2). Continue excavation of 2478 as planning requirments allow. Clarify relation between 2484 & 2478. Begin removal of later architectural features to permit further excavation. Continue detailed excavation of 2483 with trowel and soft brush. Continue to reveal stones of f846 to establish foundation layer.

SUMMARY: F843 was removed & grindstones incorporated within it and f847 were given small find numbers (sf22, sf23). In cleaning 2483, it was apparent that while in someplaces sherds underlay f848, in others they were compressed upon virtually intact plaster, which had survived owing to the protection offered by the sherd(s). It therefore seems unlikely that the sherds were intended as floor - underlay, but were rather lying upon the floor at the time of abandonment/filling. (Refitting studies will inform this problem). Only in one case was a sherd clearly beneath well preserved plaster. In a number of caes, when sherds were removed, the underlying plaster had the same reddish colour as sf20-21, & in others it was plain white, this suggests that the colour of the plaster is in fact a post-depositional consequence of prolonged contact with coloured sherds (was there red-painted ware in the lot?) 2478 continues to a surprising depth and the W section shows that it was constitued by red-brown silt interspersed with patches of plaster from 30-8cm thick. It appears to have been laid in more than one phase, the earliest providing the foundation for f846 ("tholos") and the later providing a surface which surrounded its foundations to the N & was the founding layer for later features f843, f847 & f844. Interface between 2484 (pise) & 2478 remains to be established. Large slab of tabular stone lying partially across 2483 (=f870).