July 15, 2004

We noted large reddish flat lying potsherds in the centre of the trench within locus 5174. our assumption is that, together with the partially excavated coking vessel within the same locus, these may indicate a surface sloping from the southwest to the northeast. We excavated a 5cm layer across the entire locus and in the southwest area noted a color change from the brown fill to a areas where patchy orange was showing through. We also excavated a flat stone in the northern area of the locus that may represent the level of the layer we are looking for.

In the southeast area of the trench we cut a section through the mud brick lined pit (5180) and the fill layer 5190 to assess whether we should excavate the platform of material in the southwest corner (5190) more vigorously. We decided that no layers were visible and that this area represented fill beneath the domestic architecture revealed during the 2002 season. However, we also found another cooking vessel in northern area of 5190 so we decided to bring 5190 down by 5cm intervals, spray and check and move on if no visible differences were observed. As an example we therefore decided that pit 5187, although visible as a color difference described as locus 5192, had been completed.

During the first 5cm interval we also wanted to record the large number of both obsidian and other lithics that were being bagged.