Weekly Summary

Area D, Trench 9

Week 3 (ending July 20, 2004)

M. Eppihimer

As was the case during the previous week, the majority of time in trench D9 was spent working around the oven in the SW corner. Pottery reading confirmed that the oven dates to the Chalcolithic. The question of its construction was still unanswered, so we alternated digging the general area to the N and E of the oven and a ring around the oven that allowed us to examine the relationship between the oven walls and the soil that surrounds it. First, the ash layer under the mudbrick leveling platform was removed (Locus 16). Underneath was a muddy redbrown fill (Locus 21). The mud around the oven continued down until the bottom of the oven walls, which sat on something that looked like re-deposited virgin soil. While removing the mud, a thin line of orange red bricks running SW-NE was observed to the E of the oven. Further examination showed a 5 cm thick layer of bricks that sloped downhill (Locus 28) SW-NE that sat atop a 1 to 2 cm ash layer (Locus 27). Neither of these features could be connected directly to the oven.

As the walls of the oven were removed (Loci 10 and 22), its circumference expanded, confirming the beehive shape. It expands into the S baulk, into the W baulk, which was removed, and into D5. To establish the full diameter, the W baulk was cut down and excavation was extended into D5. The diameter at the oven’s base is 1.40 m.

Inside the oven, the four protruding bricks were removed; beneath them was an ashy layer. When all of the ashy soil was removed from the oven interior, the packed mud floor sloped downhill from E to W. To determine that we were indeed at the bottom of the oven walls, some of this floor was removed and the bottom of the burnt brick walls was found. During the removal of the baulk between D9 and D5, a pebble surface (known in D5 as L5194) appeared beneath some of the mud. Tracing this to the edge of the oven, it seemed as if the oven was cut into the surface. If this surface is Ubaid, as D5 suggests, then we can confirm that the oven was cut into earlier levels. The trick is determining where the earlier levels stop and the Chalco surface begins. Pottery reading from the loci around the oven are key to this issue.

Once the oven excavation was complete, we decided to close down the trench, rather than continue to excavate fill.