Journal / Summary:F-9-2001-Summary

F-9 Trench Summary

Dawnell Somerville Moon

I excavated trench F-9 which was a continuation of an earlier trench, F-3. However this year what was formerly a 5m x 5m trench was laid in as the corner of a 10 x 10. Focus shifted because this trench was bordered on the north by the 10 x 10 F7 and on the east by the 10 x 10 F8. And so although it was part of a 10 x 10 it was my duty to keep digging the 5 x 5 and push down while the larger trenches pushed out. Had I encountered some great architecture or a nice floor I could have pushed out and enlarged the boundaries.

Because it was an old trench the baulks eroded during the off season necessitating a cut back and making the dimensions of the trench 4.25 m by 4.30 m.

This trench was not very productive last year so they decided to dig a 1 m by 1 m sounding in the north east corner of the trench. This too had to be cut back severely and thus became a 1.65 m by 1.65 m sounding. The cutting back of this section began before I started excavating the trench, but when I opened it the sounding still needed to be pushed deeper to remove more of the eroded in dirt accumulated over the off season. I made a cleaning locus L 9004 for the sounding so we could save any pottery or artifacts that came out of there.

Excavation in the trench began when it was already around one meter deep. I dug about 1 meter in the west section of the trench and almost 2 meters in the east.

I began by removing a layer of erosion/topsoil L 9000. This was finished after about 20 cm and I divided the trench into two loci. The east, L 9001 and the west L 9002. The trench tended to stay divided along these lines which were from the south west corner of the sounding to the south baulk.

L 9002 was redeposited virgin clay. This area came up with a couple of small finds. When we were cleaning the north west corner of the trench a metal awl KT 9011 was found. This area also produced a grindstone fragment. Once this locus was removed it was above the huge ash layer that the sounding indicated would appear. This ash locus was L 9006. This area of the trench was made up of sloping layers of deposition. Therefore L 9006 was found in the center and then pushed back toward the south baulk while the fake virgin soil of L 9002 stayed there for a longer time. In the north L 9002 changed into L 9005. This was a loamier browner soil. Although the baulk indicates that the ash from the sounding had a small spur heading up into this area it was very hard to detect and I probably missed it and left the loci the same there.

L 9006 had thick ash and in the center of the locus there were flat lying sherds. There obviously wasn't a surface, but there were a lot of them and they were documented with photos. One of the infamous "digging spades" (KT 9093) was found in this locus although the provenance was somewhat suspicious due to a worker leaving it in the middle of the trench and then telling me where he found it. Regardless it is interesting that one was found here as they were found in F4 and F7 as well.

Once this layer was removed an area of harder light brown clay appeared, L 9008. This spread under L 9005 and covered the entire western half of the trench. This seemed a little suspicious to me so I spent time scraping and found some areas that looked a little more red about halfway up the western baulk and I also discovered a small pit L 9010 that cut the area. This pit was removed and minimal amounts of pottery recovered from it. At this point focus shifted to the east of the trench in an effort to get that half down to the level of the sounding. Therefore the red areas are still present and should be explored further next year.

In the east half of the trench L 9000 was removed and L 9001 appeared. This was a fake virgin soil layer as well. It was above an area of hard clay which at first I thought was a wall L 9003. This clay was bounded on either side by the fake virgin soil. I let the north half remain L 9001, but as it was separated by an entity I renamed the southern section of virgin soil L 9007. I removed the L 9001 in the north and below it was the ash layer of L 9006. The same occurred when I removed L 9007. The ash was present and it became L 9006. I removed L 9003 when it was clear it was an area of slump/clay and below it was ash as well. I made this L 9009 because there were a few pieces of mudbrick present which I did not find in L 9006 anywhere else. In reality they are probably equal.

Once L 9009 was removed we hit on a harder, loamier, browner soil which became L 9014. The north sections of L 9009 were sacrificed to an attempt to reach closer to the sounding. The section indicated that there was nothing new coming for around a meter. I decided to take a 50 cm wide area by 1.65 m and push it down 50 cm. This bashing locus became L 9012. Later as this cut produced nothing I took down a 50 cm by 50 cm square to the elevation of the sounding. This was an attempt to follow a surface ( see below) but it was unsuccessful.

Once all of L 9012 was removed the section still indicated that there was nothing there and I began to remove another 50 cm block L 9013. This did not reach down as far. In the east section I encountered some reddish dirt much like the areas in L 9008. I sectioned up close to this, but it was never fully explained. It is still present and can be looked at next year. On the lower step of this locus some more yellow earth began appearing and some ash came out. Due to time and emphasis placed on what came up in the sounding this was never fully explored as well and needs to be looked at.

I pushed down in the sounding and finally reached clean dirt. (Although some areas like L 9015 which were under the cut back areas already had a good context.) Upon removing all this dirt I found some flat lying sherds and a pottery installation L 9011. This was removed and it had a stone foundation, perhaps a pot stand. Below this was an area of brown soil with a white deposition on it like a salt residue. This became L 9022, but it was not dug as the season closed. It still needs to be explored.

Due to the flat lying sherds and the pottery installation and the hard packed nature of the area I believe we had hit on a clay surface, L 9020. I also feel it may have been a surface as there were three bricks, L 9018, present in the north east corner of the sounding which were three courses high in the baulk. I think this was a wall that the surface may have abutted. All of these were cut by an ashy pit L 9019. There was an ashy area with some nice sherds in it under the baulk cut back that I made its own locus L 9015 so we could save the pottery. This is equal to L 9019 although this locus started at a lower elevation because it was cut deeper last year because it was a soft pit and we had to remove more trash dirt. This pit will need to be excavated next year and the bricks which are L 9018 studied further as well. The surface L 9020 didn't look like it extended much further but it was only closed due to the end of the season so it needs to be watched for next year as well.

After examining the sections when the trench was closed and looking at the sounding stuff from last year it is possible that the clay bands ( most prevalent in the sounding levels) of fake virgin soil could be crude walls. The other trenches in the area should be aware of this phenomenon, especially F-7 as a reddish wall began appearing as the season ended.

F-9 particularly was a rather sterile trench. We have yet to discover what created the huge ash deposition although the ovens in F1 and F4 may be candidates. Priority should be given to lowering the west half of the trench to get a more complete context and then studying the areas found in the sounding as that seems to be the first good occupation levels of this trench.

The last locus was L 9022 and the last KT used was 9141.