1979 Summary

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The purpose of this continued excavation in T21 has been to disclose the extent and shape of the "walls" uncovered in 1978 by Fred Albertson as well as their function and their chronological relationship to the major upper and lower buildings of the Tesoro terrace.  Work has clarified the shape of the walls; it has clarified the problems of chronology and function.  It has not revealed their extent to the south or any clear architectural entity.

Grids excavated in 1979 are: D-E 35-39; F-M 37-39; and N-P 33-39.  These were dug in two strips running parallel to the north-south wall, F-P 37-38, then F-P 38-39; more irregularly from the east and west in N-P 33-37; and with an extension to the north in D-E 37-39, then west in D-E 35-37.  Note also topsoil removed in G-P 40.  Alongside the north-south wall we find in F-H 37 a jumble of large stones resting apparently on the end of a vein of bedrock uncovered in 1978.  After a gap in I-J 37 a line of smaller stones stretches unevenly to the end of the trench lying at the same level as the main wall.  This haphazard construction may have incorporated the stones in F-H, and does incorporate a roof tile still in situ and the akroterion fragment p. 339 #8, now removed and catalogued.

Stratigraphy see stratigraphic profile p. 348 .

Generally speaking, five strata are encountered moving downward:

1) A dark, greyish brown humus.

2) A light, clayey soil which is a yellowish, grey-brown ("tan") color; sometimes chunks of pinkish material was seen.

3) A soil much like #2 but full of yellowish and white matter, bits and chunks of burned wood and sometimes chunks of a white material, all in varying degrees of concentration.  Because of its close relationship to the heavy burn layer below, and because of the frequency of carbonized material, this stratum is (tentatively) called a "light burn layer."

4) Below 3 in its most concentrated form, we normally find a dark soil full of red material, probably decayed terracotta and plaster and black matter, probably carbonized wood and other substances.  This heavy burn layer, like the light burn soil, also often contains pinkish or orange burned or deteriorated plaster, sometimes in lumps; and the reddish and carbonized material sometimes occurs in

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large masses.

6) On rare occasions galestra is encountered at the bottom of the trench.

In addition, a dark soil, browner than the usual dark humus is to be seen on the face of the trench wall in the north of grid D39 extending down from the topsoil deep into the clayey soil below.  This area is full of roots, and its character is probably the result of a tree which was removed here.

These strata are often uneven in contour, and transitions are often gradual particularly from the dark humus to the tan layer and from the tan to light burn layer, which seems, especially in the east, to represent the steady downward accumulation of yellow, orange, white and charred matter toward the heavy burn layer.  The light burn-tan transition is definite however in the east between F and L, where it is piled up to form a stratum visible in the trench wall (tree roots have mixed the soil down to burn layer in M) and where the distinction was clear in the course of excavation (see p. 181 , and samples p. 185 #6, 7).  In the south the tan-light burn division seems clearer.  Here a line of small stones divides the two between 38 and 35 in the balk.  These stones may correspond stratigraphically to the rock fall removed from the same level in grids N-P 33-35, and below which a light burn soil was encountered (see p. 307 ).  The humus to tan transition too is sharper along the south face.  The light burn- heavy burn border is clear but often uneven, and the light burn layer is generally most concentrated and distinct in the 5-15 cm.  Just over the heavy burn soil, more diffuse in areas where heavy burning is less in evidence (see pp. 181 , 209 , 277 , samples 185 , # 8, 9).

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In general, heavy burn soil with its light burn superstratum occus over and alongside the north-south wall(s) until the main wall turns east and continues alongside the east-west wall.  Heavy burn soil drops off and apparently disappears north of F, where the north-south wall ends, replaced by a diffuse tan to yellow-white soil, then, west of the line determined by the wall, in D-E 35-37, by tan soil (see pp. 281 , 295 , 319 ).  The heavy burn layer seems, further, to subside toward the east, where it appears only sporadically in the profile, and to the south from the east-west wall, where it does not appear in the full profile (see pp. 223 , 255 ).  Burn material grows more uneven and scattered, but does continue to the south after the main deposit ends in M-N (see pp. 219 , 217 ).

In general, then, the humus layer is ca. 25-35 cm thick; the tan soil ca. 30-40 cm thick, thinner in the south; light burn 5-25cm; and heavy burn, which has not been fully dug, at least 5-15 cm.

Finds are most highly concentrated in the heavy burn layer, and often just over this deposit, in the light burn soil.  They may also be common, however, in the tan soil and its lower whitish-yellowish, transitional zone.  It is observed that finds frow scarce in areas where heavy burn soil is not encountered, for example north of F and south of M-N in 37-39 (pp. 219 , 255 , 335 ) and that they increase markedly where heavy burn soil is present in a cut (pp. 187 , 289 ).

The humus and clay layers over the burn layers yield little or nothing until a cut of ca. 35-50 cm. is made.  Here the scant pottery and tile fragments which had occured above grow more frequent, and bronze fragments appear.  Pottery is largely impasto and coarseware (e.g. p. 167 #1, p. 169 #5) but fine and painted fragments are also present (e.g. p. 169 #3).  Bronzes are often fragments or pieces rather than slag (e.g. pp. 295 -97, p. 175 #9).  Tile becomes very frequent near the begining of the light burn layer (see e.g.p. 199 ).  However, more striking is the frequency of upper-building revetment fragmetns, mainly frieze plaques and antefixes, which are most frequent along the east end of the trench just over the light burn soil and alongside the main north-south wall (pp. 235 -39, 243 ,

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247 #10) but also appear higher up and in the south along the east-west wall (p. 229 #8).  Areas corresponding to these soils but without an underlying burn layer produce few additional revetment fragments but the ear of a terracotta statue and some fine as well as coarse pottery; among the painted ware, Lakonian black-figured sherd (see pp. 245 . This could also be assigned to a light burn soil which does not continue as far east as the balk).  Tan soil also yields the ridge-pole tile fragment p. 199 , #6 p. 201 .  The light burn stratum is often full of roof tiles which sometimes cluster in tile falls just above or below it, especially along the north-south wall.  Cuts which include it often produce bucchero and other fine wares as well as impasto and coarsewares, and concentrations of bronze fragments and slag are found in it, just above heavy burn soil (see pp. 175 , 181 , 269 )

Pottery, especially bucchero and fine wares, and bronze fragments and slag are plentiful in heavy burn soil.  Tile is less so except along the top, however both fragments of lower-building akroteria come from this layer (pp. 283 #4; 339 #8).  Ivory also appears only in cuts which encounter heavy burn soil (see pp. 243 , 277 , 279 ) and the silver-headed nail, p. 173 #5, comes from this layer as well.  The increase in quantity noted above is matched by an increase in quality.

Comments: The character of the soils and the distribution of artifacts suggests only one valid stratigraphic distinction, that between burn and non-burn material.  There are grounds for suggesting a correspondance between the distribution of the burn layer and the main north-south and the east-west walls, and for suggesting an identification of burn material with the lower building, non-burn material with the upper building.