Stratigraphic Summary

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This summary will only be a brief breakdown of the strata excavated this season.  For the stratigraphy above 180 cm b.d., one should refer to AMC I, LRL I, and JH III.  This will also be only a partial summary as the entire trench was not excavated down to sterile soil/bedrock.  All strata produced large amounts of ceramic material, bone, and metals.

A layer of yellow-brown, with packets of sod, soil was excavated in Y-Z/15-18.  Y-Z/15 was left at 150 cm to facilitate entry into the trench, so not all of this stratum was excavated.  However, in Y-Z/16-18, this stratum was completely excavated, the deepest extent of it being at approximately 250 cm b.d.  This deepest portion was linked tenuously to the upper levels in Y-Z/15 by two fragments

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of italo-corinthian pottery -- a rim ( p. 77 #10 ) and a base ( p. 91 #3 ).  No join was found between the pieces, but the fabric and decoration suggest that they may belong to the same vessel.

The above stratum was also found to be linked to the reddish stratum that was excavated in alpha-beta/13-14 to a depth of 135 cm.  Although the soils in each area were visibly different, they are linked by two fragments of a fenestrated bone disk ( p. 73 #5 , p. 93 #5 ).  One fragment was found in beta/14 at 139 cm while the other, which joined with the first, was found in Z/15 at 192 cm.

The area in Y-Z/13-14 was excavated to a depth of 260 cm b.d.  The stratum in this area, dark brown with carbon inclusions, was partially excavated last season.  Beneath this soil, galestra was discovered with veins of bedrock cropping up in several places.  It should be noted that in the western baulk of Y-Z/13, the section shows that galestra appears in the south at 160 cm whereas in the north it appears at 250 cm.  Due to the nature of the drop in the level of the galestra, it may be that this section indicates a fossa cut into the sterile soil (see p. 193 for a drawing).  This is further supportedby the condition and extent of material recovered within this possible fossa.

The small amount of excavation done in Y-Z/16-17 showed that the stratum below that first discovered in this summary was dark brown with carbon and a high plaster content.  This stratum was not completely excavated.

The area in Y-Z/18 was excavated through this dark brown carbon and plaster stratum, revealing that it was extremely full of material -- tile, plaster, pottery.

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A thin layer of dark brown soil with carbon was beneath this, which in turn sat directly on galestra.  The find depth in this area was 320 cm b.d.  Another possible fossa, or "dripline", feature was discovered in the west baulk of Z/18 (see p. 155 ).  It is a narrow, shallow deppresion filled with crushed, decayed plaster lying on a thin layer of carbon.  Approximately 40 cm of this feature, which extended eastward into Z/18, were excavated.  The full extent of this feature to the west is impossible to determine without further excavation.