Daily Log

146

147

July 24, 2003

This morning after taking our opening measurements, we began with a light picking of the southwesternmost square meter of the trench.  We are then cleaning through the debris and troweling for an even level.  This should make it easier to continue following our yellow soil level.  We also need to straighten the western balk.  It is rather straight, but sloped and skewed in places.  The architect will be drawing the balk during the afternoon, and it is not yet ready for him.

Dr. Tuck told us that if we cannot find the yellow soil through the entire length of the trench, then the architect will interpolate between c. 84 S and where it reappears.  We have, therefore, levelled out the trench for approximately 1.2 m along the western balk.  The soil still looks and feels very different from the yellow soil, but we cannot tell where the change is.  The brown soil is also very similar if not identical to the soil of Locus 6 .

The galestra deposit noted on Tuesday appears as a band 6-10 cm wide that rusn across the trench from c. 83 S along the western balk to c. 82.50 at the eastern edge.  This continues in T28 N(2002) as the makeup of the higher step.  This band appears to have an edge-on appearance; it looks as though the layers have formed vertically.

A large piece of ceramic first noticed several days ago in the southern edge of Locus 5 was excavated further and removed.

148

149

It is a large fragment of pithos rim showing that the vessel had been made in two pieces - the body and the rim.  The rim was made to sit over the wall of the vessel (= Find #4 ).

Pottery Count:  62 total sherds. Locus 6 :  58 sherds.  2 undiagnostic orange ware sherds, 1 cream ware incised oinochoe fragment (= Find #1 ), 4 undiagnostic coarse ware sherds, 5 undiagnostic bucchero sherds, 1 bucchero rim, 37 undiagnostic impasto sherds, 4 impasto rim sherds. Locus 5 :  1 coarse ware pithos rim fragment (= Find #4 ), 2 impasto undiagnostic sherds, 1 orange ware rim sherd.

Also found were 10 pieces of bone including 1 piece of worked bone (= Find #3 ), and a small bronze lump (= Find #2 ).

150

151

20030137

• Find #3
• Worked bone
• Found at 192.87 E x 83.97 S x 22.64 m

Pottery from balk cleaning:  18 sherds.  11 undiagnostic impasto, 1 undiagnostic coarse ware sherd, 2 undiagnostic buccheroid sherds, 1 undiagnostic bucchero sherd, 1 bucchero rim, 2 impasto rim sherds.

Also found were 4 pieces of bone.