Journal / Summary:F-15-2002-Summary

FINAL TRENCH SUMMARY

Area F

Trench 15

Aug 7, 2002

 

F 15 was laid out as a 10 meter by 10 meter square trench with intersects also laid at the 5 meter mark, this year’s excavation began as a 1 meter by 9 meter on the Western most one meter of the trench. The trench was opened on July 9th during the 2002 field season. The trench was later expanded as we focused on uncovered features and their extent.

The trench is near other trenches in the same area of F, to the Northeast is F7 being excavated by Katie Smith; to the East is F 13 which I also excavated. A bit South and East of my trench is F1 being excavated by Chris Moon. West of F 15 is F 16, and directly North is F 17 both of which I also excavated this season. F 14 –one of the newer trenches- is also located Northeast of F 15 and is being excavated by Nergiz Nazlar.

Area F is located on the lower town of Kenan Tepe on a flat plateau overlooking the famed Tigris (Dicle) river near the town of Bismil in Eastern Anatolia.  -Latitude 37 49 53.92375 N –Longitude 40 48 55.04223 E -Elevation (WGS84) 570.823.  As the cradle of civilization, this area of Mesopotamia is rich in archaeological deposits of rich historical contexts. Our purposes with this trench and in this area were to enlarge our understanding of activities that took place in this part of the tepe. F 15 was one of a number of trenches excavated and/or that will be excavated in an effort to locate work and/or living areas, interpret activities from the cultural remains found, and, identify the time and the spread of habitation. 

To begin we cleared all of the thorny bushes and other vegetation from the 10x10 trench and marked off the one meter that was to be excavated. Locus 1 which included the first 0.05 meters of topsoil and subtopsoil below had a beginning elevation ranging from 571.53 meters on the North end of the trench to 571.38 meters on the South end. This small difference in elevations is due more to the natural down sloping of the area towards the Tigris River, than by the long abandoned plowing furrows common to this area, as F 15 is a lot flatter than other trenches nearby. My guess is that cotton or some type of winter wheat was grown in this area of the tepe. I would also guess that the field was left fallow then later abandoned some 10 years ago. Mechanized plowing may have had a lot to do with the low quantities of pottery and other cultural remains found in this trench. A trend that I believe holds for most of the trenches in area F.

Removal of locus 1 included the top-soil and sub-topsoil layers down to about the first 0.40 meters. As we continue excavating we encountered some rocks which became locus 2. These rocks were arranged in what appeared to be courses with about 3 courses to the formation. I quickly theorized that this could be the beginning (or ending) of a wall that had been carefully laid. Our problem with this feature as we articulated it was that very little of it was included in the 1 meter wide trench. As removal of it was undertaken a thin layer of plaster was noticed between the rocks, an agent probably used in binding them together. Removal was taken down to a fairly large rock at its base and left at that point until we expanded the trench East along the North baulk and discovered that the rocks had another course next to where the other had been and that it added another 0.40 meters to the extend of the locus, we did not remove this second set of courses but left it to use as a guide when expansion of new trenches to the North was started. Unfortunately the rocks did not continue East but stopped after these second "column" or course of rocks.

As excavation continued Locus 4 and 5 both pits were discovered, followed by a medium cobblestone layers (locus 6, and loci 12, 15, 16 which were later joined as one under locus 17) at two distinct levels that as we dug down became the most important features in the trench.

After the fill in locus 3 and 7 was removed we encountered a portion of a pit (locus 4) protruding from off of the West baulk, its size is estimated at about 1.28 meters in diameter which makes it a large pit, but again most of its Eastern half was in the baulk and beyond. As the pit was excavated we discovered two interesting features about it one was a lining of cobble at its bottom, which was later added to the cobble surfaces, The other interesting feature was a band of a very hard clayish material, this is also lost into the baulk and can’t be determined as to purpose or provenience. Both of the pits the larger L4 and the smaller irregular L5 were soil sampled for archaeobotanical analysis and sifted in their entirety.

The large surface of cobblestones grew as loci were removed and came to extend throughout most of the trench. When we expanded a meter to the East, and 2 meters to the South from off of the North baulk and later as we added a meter extension twice they again expanded as those additional separate cuts were added towards the South.

At this point we can surmise the following, the cobbles of locus 6 appeared at first (and may still) to have been part of a road or surface that came off of the Northwest corner of the trench wound its way between two possible structures (L 2 and L 5) and continued on a Southeasterly direction. Locus 21 which may be a piece of a wall (was left for now) may have also sat to the West of this road of cobbles. These cobbles constitute one level, the other is a more extensive surface extending for about 6.5 meters of the original 1 meter trench. These layer of cobbles we believe is part of a courtyard surface covered with cobbles. Pit L 4 must have been cut through a later layer (L 7) and stopped when the layer of cobbles of locus 17 was reached. I believe that the other pit L 5 was dug on the side of the road or surface L 6 and is probably contemporary with it.

One thing to keep in mind, and is evident by comparing depths on the day plan is that there is a difference of about 0.25 meters between the two. As locus 6 is excavated we may find that the cobbles of l 17 may also extend underneath.

At closing we located in the Northeast corner of the trench a row of bricks comprised of 3 courses with some of the white material between them as if in a layer of mortar between each brick. These are small bricks and will need to be looked at more thoroughly next year. No locus number was assigned to the bricks this year. One other area that does not have a locus number is the about 2 meter long by 0.25 wide meter feature resembling a wall and part of the original East baulk of the 9 by 1 meter trench. This feature resembles a wall but that could be just how it was cut. Its material is hard but I just didn’t get to explore it long enough.