Daily Trench Journal

Area D

Trench 8

May 21, 2005

Today started with bringing the southern third of the trench, an area approx three meters by four meters starting at the south balk, down 10 cm. This is the first excavation of loci 52 which was assigned on Thursday (5-19-05). The excavation began with big picks. As it is being brought down we are also attempting to make the surface level. The inexperience of the workmen makes this somewhat difficult. The trench perpetually slops as it approaches the eastern balk where the soil is softer. Early in the morning we found the base of a pot, turned upside down and slightly slanted. We continued to excavate down another ten meters before we were able to pedestal the piece of pot and see the bottom edges. It is a very large base and is broken about 5 cm down from the bottom rim. This rim is potentially the bottom piece for the large pieces which were pulled out of loci 44 on the last day of last season. Approximately half a meter from the broken pot base was a grouping of sherds from the same pot. It does not look like there are enough present for it to be reconstructed. From preliminary examination it appears to be a dark burnished piece. After breakfast we took elevation and began to level out the center third of the trench. The raised areas around loci 30, the large pit, were considerably higher than the other areas of the trench. We had to make several passes throughout the day with the small picks to even it out. In the center area we pulled out several small finds. These were: a small loom weight; an animal figurine with no head; and a tiny shell bead. The day ended with trying to even out the east balk which is not at all a straight line.