Daily Summary

Area F, Trench 2

June 16, 2005

M. Eppihimer

This morning we began by finishing yesterday’s work in 2043. While the workers did this, I removed 2029, the mudbrick platform. The construction constisted of 3 rows and 3 courses of bricks. In the top course there were 2 burnt orange bricks. The rest were yellow and included chunks of white green and yellow clay. The bricks were 6 to 7 cm by 32 to 33 cm. The third dimension is unknown because the bricks are in the baulk. The pedestal of soil underneath is a mixed locus, L2047. This was removed.

In the S section of 2045 there is a horizontal green line visible under what is now 2044. I am having a worker dig down to the depth of this green line to see if it is a plaster floor, the pot of the wall, or something else. The northern edge of 2044 has been redefined because I spotted a vertical green plaster line in the E section of the pit 2042. This line is now the N border of 2044 so I’m having the workers stop there.

After clearing 2044 some new interesting features emerged. In the SE corner there is a pebble surface (2049). Immediately abutting it to he W is a mudbrick wall that runs NE-SW and then turns at a corner to the W (2050). Along its western edge and including the W spur’s N wall is a plaster line. This is newly observed. Abutting this is the mudbrick wall that was observed earlier in the S section of the pit. This is L2051. Its W edge is the plaster line earlier observed in the section. This extends S to memet the second new plaster line along the N edge of the spur of 2050.

The S edge of wall 2050 is mamrker by a 2 to 3 cm wide change in soil color from the red mudbrick to gray. Further S it returns to a reddish color. I’m not sure if this is an extension of the wall or another feature.

The W half of the trench is relatively featureless right now except for an ashy layer full of carbon in the NW corner which was removed as L2048. The depth was variable and the shape amoeba-like.