Introduction

In 2023 T26 was established in order to reinvestigate a building intermittently excavated between the late 1980s, early 2000s, 2019, and 2022 which has become known as Orientalizing Complex 2/Workshop (OC 2). This structure consists of a plaster floor interspersed with three rows of limestone column pads that 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 (OC 1) 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 OC 2. 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 OC 2 workshop. In 2022, T26 and T100 (NKDIII; AXBI) revealed a roofing tile fall with a number of tiles preserving full widths. The tiles found in the northernmost extent of T26 (NKDII) and in the southernmost extent of T100 (AXBI) were found laying flatly on a plaster and soil surface, which must have been the northern exterior surface contemporary with the OC 2/Workshop occupation and use onto which its roof collapsed during destruction. In 2023 the extent of the depression and its relationship to the tile fall found to the north of the structure will be further investigated in T26 and T103. Therefore, another T26 trench continues the exploration begun in the 2019 and 2022 seasons.

A heavily carbon included layer revealed under a 0.50 m section of the floor surface in 2019 will be excavated in the 2023 season to determine if the carbon included soil is present due to burning in the area prior to the OC 2 structure or is present as a result of the construction of the OC 2 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 OC 2.

Further elements of the construction of OC 2 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 2023 season are:

• To section through the plaster floor of OC 2 to better understand the building techniques employed in OC 2

• To excavate the stratigraphy under the plaster floor of OC 2 to investigate earlier uses of the area preceding the construction of the building

• To further reveal the depression to the north of the floor surface revealed in 2019

• To determine the extent and composition of the tile fall to the north of OC 2

• To determine the nature and function of the small auxiliary stones of OC 2

• To uncover details that will clarify the chronology of the OC structures in relation to the EPOC structures