Journal / Summary:F-9-2005-Summary

Final Trench Summary

Area F Trench 9

6/12/2005

J. Vidar

Trench F9 is located in Area F adjoining the 10x10 - Trench F7. The size of F9 itself was 4.35 x 4.65. This trench had been previously excavated, however it had not been touched since the 2001 season. The opening elevation for this season was between 569.01 and 567.98 taking into account the previously dug sounding in the eastern portion of the trench. The closing elevation for the trench was 567.7 and 566.35 – again taking into account both the main portion of trench and a deeper sounding.

I began with Loci L9023 – L9027 which were assigned to separate the previous levels of the trench into their own loci. When I felt like I got past the level of fill that had been redeposited in the trench since 2001, I renamed L9023 to L9029. L9028 was a locus in which I cut back the side of the 2001 sounding to see what we could tell about the next half a meter of the trench. Once I brought L9025 down to the level of 9026, I renamed the locus L9031. L9029 was temporarily divided into two loci but later merged back into one – L9032. L9033 and 9034 can both be disregarded, as I later realized that L9027 had not been brought down to the levels of 2001 and the former loci were just redeposited soil.

L9030 is the first important locus. It was the corner of a pit located in L9029/9032. I later realized, after taking L9029 down to the proper level, that the pit continued at this level. I later took L9030 down and renamed the whole pit L9045. This pit coincides with the pit in F7 on the other side of the baulk. It should also be noted that I took this pit down a little too low on the W side and the actual stopping point would have been more in line with the other side of the pit in F7.

L9035 was a wall that wrapped around L9032 and L9039 (a later locus # for the same L9032 region). The fill at the end of the wall in the SW corner eventually became L9040 and L9041 as I defined the wall with Bradley. The only associated surface might have been the pebble surface L9036 but the majority of this surface was blown through and I’m not positive if it went all the way to this wall. I took a HAP sample of this surface and renamed the actual 50cm x 50cm sample L9037. The only thing the surface really revealed was a bronze needle.

On the western edge of F9 we found an ashy region – L9038. I actually thin this might have been some type of moving fireplace, as the thin ash layer can be seen jumping around within close proximity in the baulk.

I then went through a period of relatively nothing in the trench and renamed ¾ of the trench L9043. The L9027 locus was renamed L9044 once I had determined that I was past the backfill of the 2001 season. Once I had brought the whole trench down to one level, I renamed the majority of the trench into on locus – L9047.

L9042 was a burial in the SW corner of the trench but it was very poorly preserved and not much remains of it but photographs. It was an adult body – face down. The skull was smashed and half of the body was in the baulk so I only was able to get what I could.

From this point, my trench began to get interesting. L9046 developed in a locus containing a plaster surface (L9051) and a doorpost and threshold entrance to a large room with a packed mud surface. The supra surface fill L9048 was filled with layers of white pseudo morph imprints from what appeared to be grass and reeds. The L9049 surface itself turned out to be packed mud but was also covered by a layer of the white pseudo morph material. The subsurface was L9053. This room was surrounded on the visible sides by the wall L9052 Рa wall of pis̩ and mud brick construction. The pis̩ row was closest to the L9049 surface with portions of the surface fused to it. The type of construction is why I originally had difficulty defining it and hence left it all a part of the L9050 Locus. This whole room was cut by the previously mention L9045 pit. However, at the level of the surface, there was a burn line that appeared as though it might have been an earlier, smaller pit actually associated with the L9049 surface. Whoever continues in F7 should watch for this as they are going down. Under the L9049 surface, there turned out to be a large pit over a meter deep (L9055). This explains why the part of the L9049 surface directly above was sinking as much as it was.

After digging the L9055 pit, we decided to turn the sides into a square and push down until we hit virgin soil. This would give us an idea of what to expect in the trench via the 4 sections, as well as how long it would be until we hit the bottom. The sections ended up not revealing much of anything and as a result we closed the trench.

The sections of the baulk don’t show much more than layer after layer of ash and fill. The North section shows in great detail the effect of the L9045 pit on the later layers above it. All the layers sink into this large pit.

For the most part, we believed that F9 was centered on a courtyard or other outside area throughout most of the levels. This is supported by the pebble surface L9036 and the nonexistent architecture in the sections of L9056. The structure that consisted of the white pseudo morph most likely was used as organic material storage, and we believe that it could have been part of a barn area. This is also supported by greenish material surrounding the structure, which might be a sign of animal pens.

The presence of multiple large pits could contribute to the idea that the area was primarily used as a work area.

This Trench has no exposed features that are waiting to be excavated. If anyone takes over the trench in the future, I would suggest that they just focus on pushing down to see if anything is revealed that does not appear in the sections of L9056