Daily Log

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July 8 - Thursday - A.M. only

The architect having drawn the stone complex, work began to remove the stones and clear away a small amount of the surrounding galestra in order to define the outline of the feature, should it continue.  From the top level of stones, in the centerm of the feature, were removed two sherds - coarse, orange impasto in shapes not unusual for a handle and rim; later, from the brown fill around the other stones, were removed 5 other fragments of utility vessels ( body sherds) and/or tiles very badly worn.

When all the stones of the top level were removed, a small amount  of the same, almost sterile brown soil was cleaned away, exposing a second layer of stones, this time more regular in appearance than the others - flat stones, many of them large, set in two rows on a circle more compact than the one above - brown dirt fills a whole in the center, which also contains a few apparent tile fragments and more heavy orange impasto sherds.  This layer of the feature to be drawn.

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Also, sections of the walls of the trench were further cleaned, or taken down to verify galestra, or clarify possible features that appeared when the architect cleaned the walls for drawing: in the west wall, below a tree, an apparent pit of the white clay from layer B, with stones on the bottom, just above the galestra - appears to have been made by a tree, a fruit tree according to the workmen; it is not a dug whole with strata to indicate that it has been deliberately filled in.  A similiar, pointed - bottomed pit was noticed in the east wall of the trench - white clay extending through the darker layer to galestra - this too is apparently indication of a tree, and such root marks suggest sure evidence that the site was cultivated after its destruction - more verification may be necessary however.