Introduction

In 2022 T26 was established in order to reinvestigate a building intermittently excavated between the late 1980s, early 2000s, and 2019 which has become known as Orientalizing Complex 2/Workshop (OC2).  This structure consists of a plaster floor interspersed with three rows of limestone column pads which supported wooden beams carrying a terra cotta roofing system.  The column pads are irregularly and occasionally augmented by flanking smaller stones which are hypothesized to have lent support to the wooden beam structure in some manner.  It was contemporary with Orientalizing Complex 1/Residence (OC1) and Orientalizing Complex 3/Tripartite Building (OC 3), but preceded by Early Phase Orientalizing Complex 4 (EPOC 4; see KRK XV), possibly an earlier residence, and Early Phase Orientalizing Complex 5 (EPOC 5), possibly an earlier workshop. 

In 2019, excavation within T26 revealed a depression running east to west along the northern edge of the floor surface in OC2. While the function and extent of the depression is unclear, the presence of fallen roof tiles and elements of the workshop floor suggests that its construction was contemporaneous with the OC2 workshop. In 2022, therefore, another T26 trench continues the exploration begun in the 2019 season, augmented by extensions to the north, south, and east, in order to continue the original exploration and to investigate the function and extent of this feature. 

A heavily carbon included layer revealed under a 0.50 m section of the floor surface in 2019 will be excavated in the 2022 season to determine if the carbon included soil is present due to burning in the area prior to the OC2 structure or is present as a result of the construction of the OC2 structure. In addition, the construction techniques, material, and thickness of the floor surface will be investigated through a section under the floor surface, expanding the section begun in 2019. The section will further investigate the possible occupation of the area in phases preceding OC2. 

Further elements of the construction of OC2 will be investigated such as the relationship between the column pads and the small auxiliary stones of OC 2. Excavation of the soil from a linear break in the floor surface, hypothesized in previous excavations to represent fallen roof beams that prevented the beaten earth from firing in the conflagration that destroyed the building, will be investigated to determine the nature of the break in the floor. 

 To that end, the aims of T26 in the 2022 season is:

• To further reveal the depression to the north of the floor surface revealed in 2019
• To better understand the building techniques employed in OC 2
• To determine the nature and function of the small auxiliary stones of OC 2
• To excavate the soil within a linear break in the floor surface
•  To section through the plaster floor of OC 2 to investigate earlier uses of the area preceding the construction of OC2
• To uncover details which will clarify the chronology of the OC structures in relation to the EPOC structures