Trench D6 Daily Journal      July 11, 2002

First we divided the furnace L2/L20 into 9 loci as follows. The structure of the furnace is now L20. We decided to isolate the material within 10 cm next to the walls of the furnace and divided it into 3 loci. L21 is to the north, L22 follows the west wall, and L23 the south. The southmost chamber is now L24, the south middle L25, the central L26, the middle north L27, and the north L28. We also isolated the material directly in front (to the East) of the oven as L29. We then took 30 elevations in and around the furnace and marked them on the detailed dayplan.

We articulated the mudbricks/furnace debri in L6, and excavated 2 cm in the surrounding area. Near the West border of L9 we found a row of stones L16 (each stone is ~15 x 10 cm) that appears to border the back of furnace L2/L20 and might be associated with rock line L10. We also began excavation on L9 to the east of L2/L20 2 cm, and did not find the mud brick debri we saw in L12.

We also excavated another mixed section locus L13 extending from the South of furnace L2/L20 to the edge of the upper step. We used the same technique as L12 (~7cm at a time) and saved all material for sampling. At the bottom of this locus, at the level of our second step, we found a beautiful surface (small flat lying pottery and stones, very hard) that appears to be associated with furnace L2/L20.

At the end of the day we used wood planks and sandbags to cover and protect the oven and surrounding (tomorrow is a holiday), and as always the wind started roaring at noon.