August 1, 2001

We started taking down L 9002 in the north section. As we did the soil became looser and more loamy. It was also somewhat softer to dig in and not as hard packed. I made this new area L 9005. As we scraped further out from that the area became full of ash. This new very ashy area became L 9006. This follows the line of the sounding. There was a thicker deposition next to the north baulk that slanted up thinner toward the center of the trench so we hit the ash in the center sooner. Before I'd defined the boundaries of the new L 9006 loci and the old L 9005 loci pottery from L 9006 got into the pottery bag for L 9005, so KT 9044 is contaminated.

After that we spent time pushing the L 9006 back to its southern boundaries. There has been some flat laying pottery which I left in the ground, but I don't think it's a surface.

I also had workmen push L 9005 down to see if we could get through it and reach the ash layer. We're almost there. The soil coming up is starting to have some ash, but it's in transition time and we're not at the thick deposit yet. We will be tomorrow. That is if I am not dead from the slimy sheep milk ice cream various thoughtful workers bade me eat.