July 21, 2001

The trench took some damage over the weekend, seemingly from a problem with some curious people (and birds) disturbing the trench. Though nothing was missing, the trench had as much as 2 centimeters of topsoil over it and had to be cleaned again, probably doing some damage to the loci. Specifically, a turkey seems to have made a nest, though left no eggs, in SE pit L5024.

The plan for the day was to clean up the trench for a schematic drawing and a plan shot, so we took some time to level up and clean surfaces and articulate mudbrick, and finally dig the oven in the southern surface near the western wall L5008, L5040. Unfortunately, neither Mehmet or I were feeling well and I stopped paying attention to him digging it and it got a little out of hand. It wasn't a complete loss, though, as it showed that the surface L5027 was built upon thick, hard fill, possibly more collapsed mudbrick. I'm no longer as sure as I once was that the area is a surface, but I think, especially given walls L5008 and NW-SE wall L5031, that it is still a good theory, especially if the area was an exterior courtyard or something similar.