Journal / Summary:F-2-2000-Journal

August 7, 2000

We opened up Area F today.  After taking initial elevations I told the workers to dig 20 cms for L2000.  Digging was slow at first because we only had two wheelbarrows for three trenches.  In addition to that I only had two workers because some of them were commandeered to dig a cut into the east side of the tepe.

The soil at this level is topsoil fill.  It is brownish gray in color.  The terrain is maked by plow furrows.

We just found out that "60 Minutes" is coming.

After digging down 20 cms I noticed that the soil seemed redder and softer.  Because of this I closed L2000 and opened a new locus, L2001.  As of yet there are no indications of anything special.  Tomorrow I may split the trench in half and stagger it so I have a section to see what is going on.

8 August 2000

the plan for today is to take L2001 down 5-10cms.  If nothing shows up I may split the trench into east and west halves.  I could stagger these by 5cm to help me get an idea of what is going on in the trench.

About 5mins into digging we found an oven in the middle of the trench.  After consulting Andy I decided to go ahead with my plan to divide the trench in half.  I will push the west half down another 5cms.  Hopefully this will geve me a good section and help me find a surface for the oven.

Change of plan.  I turned my back to do elevations and they started digging the east half of the trench.  Here we found some bones, rocks, and pottery that could be a surface.  Because of this we will peel back the eastern part and try to articulate a surface.  It looks like I'll have to change my loci making L2002 the oven and L2003 the surface.

My workers are quite slow and often stand around.  I'm tired of babysitting.  Fortunately Andy brought Meki over to help me.  I'm having him articulate the surface, L2003 and he's also going to work on the oven.   Meanwhile the other three workers will dig the rest of the trench down level with the southeastern corner of the trench.

By the end of the day L2001 has been levelled while L2003 has been somewhat articulated.  The plan for tomorrow is to work more on the oven and the surface as well as pushing down the rest of the trench.

9 August 2000

I was ill and didn't dig today.

10 August 2000

Today I looked around the trench and noticed that the southern half was a different color than L2001 so I opened it up as a new locus, L2004.  It is characterized by a grayish brown soil that is medium packed.  In the northwest corner of the trench it appears that more of a surface is emerging.  In that case I will expand L2003 so that it includes the entire surface of the northern part of the trench.  I will have the workers push down L2004 by 5cms while I try to articulate L2003.

Stopped digging after breakfast to go get an IV.

12 August 2000

The plan for today is for me to continue peeling back L2003 while my workers trowel around close to the oven, L2002 in the hope of finding the its associated surface.  if they don't find it I'll probably have them push down L2004 by another 5cm.

After consulting with Bradley w decided to get a photo after the surface is articulated.  Then we will push down L2003 to the level of l2004.

13 August 2000

Today I will begin by taking elevations because some of my figures from yesterday don't make any sense.  Then we will take out the surface, L2003.  After that I will open a new locus L2005 below it and push it down level with L2004.  Then, Inshallah, I will be able to take out the oven.  We are screening all of the buckets that come from L2003.

After breakfast we continued to level L2005 to the same depth as L2004.  After that we will take out the oven, keeping only a few pieces of it along with a soil sample from the area inside the oven.  This fill is L2006.

By the end of the day L2005 was levelled to the same depth as L2004 and the oven has been taken out.  Tomorrow I will scrape around to see if I've taken out the entire bottom of the oven and the fill inside it.  I'll also poke around for any texture differences and color changes to give me an idea where I stand now that my oven and surface are out.

14 August 2000

The plan for today is to make sure the entire oven and the fill inside it are out and close both loci.

After poking around I noticed that the soil in the southern half of the trench was harder packed so I closed L2004 and opened up L2007 beneath it.  I checked the oven, scraped around, and decided that I had found the bottom of it so I closed L2002 and L2006.

Now I'm having my workers take L2007 down by 15cm.  I poked around the north half and noticed a new surface emerging in the northwest corner.  I will therefore close L2005 and open up 2 loci beneath it- L2008, the new surface and L2009, the rest of the northern half.

After we pushed l2007down 15cm I didn't notice anything so i had them go down another 5cm.  Meanwhile I scraped around L2008 and found that it extended farther than i originally thought.

15 August 2000

The plan for today is to articulate the surface L2008.  i will also trowel around L2009 and L2007 to see what is going on in those loci.  I'll probably have the workers take down L2009, possibly 5-10cm.

I looked around and decided to have the workers go 10cm down on L2009.  I'm beginning to wonder if L2008 is a new surface or just a continuation of L2003.  There were about 5cm of soil between them, but L2009 appears to follow the same plan as L2003.  One difference is the composition.  L2008 is made up of small rocks approximately 5*6cm.  i don't see any of the cobblestones that characterized L2003.

After talking to Bradley we decided that today will be my last day digging F2.  Tomorrow I will learn how to draw sections with Dawnell.  So today we are going to plow.  I will start by having my workers blast 20cm in L2007.  This gives a nice step effect with L2008 being higher than L2009, which will be higher than L2007.  If nothing else this should give a nice section,

After breakfast Michaelle loaned me Ercan for a while.  During this time I was really able to plow.  I had him and Samet picking and shovelling while Bayran ran the araba.  Unfortunately Ercan was taken as quickly as he was given.  The plowing has now slowed down considerably.

By the end of the day I was right back where I started.  Apart from the oven L2002, the surface L2003, and some rocks in the northeast corner, my trench is very boring.

16 August 2000

I learned today that Dawnell wasn't ready to draw sections yet so instead of standing around we decided I would plow for another day.  I started by having the workers push down L2007 by 20cm.

After consulting with Andy we decided that once L2007  had been pushed down 20cm we would take out the surface L2008.  Then if we have time we'll take a corner out of L2007 and push it 5-19cm down.

After breakfast I trowelled around the southwestern corner of the trench.  it appears that there could be mudbrick sluppage.  I couldn't make out any definite lines so I had the workers continue to plow.  

We sprayed the baulks and I think I can make out a brick outline in the southern part of the western baulk.

L2007 is finally done so for the rest of the day I will have my workers take out the surface L2008.  I'm still not sure if L2008 is the same as L2003 or an earlier phase of it.

TRENCH SUMMARY OF AREA F, TRENCH 2

17 August 2000

We opened up F2 on 7 August 2000.  F2 is the northernmost trench on the lower lip of Kenan Tepe near the Tigris.  The terrain of this area is marked by numerous plow furrows.  L2000 was the topsoil layer which went down for about 20cms.  Below this depth the soil became both redder in color and softer in texture.  This led me to close L2000 and open up a new locus, L2001.

While taking down L2001, about 30cms from the top of the trench we found the beginnings of an oven in the center right of the trench.  We opened this as L2002.  The fill inside the oven later became L2006.  We didn't want to disturb the oven so we left a 10cm buffer zone and began pushing down around it.  This led to the discovery of a surface, L2003, in the northeastern quadrant of the trench.  We peeled back and realized that  the surface extended across the northern 2/5 of the trench.  L2003 is composed of small cobblestones approximately 5*8cms on average with scattered pottery and even some animal bones.  We believe that the surface is contemporary with the oven, as they are at the same depth.  We are not sure of the period, I haven't had any pottery readings yet, but we suspect it is Islamic.  From this area we did recover a nice pot base and two handles from a dish, both KT# 2017.  These should be good diagnostics for helping us determine for certain the time period of these loci.

Meanwhile, in the southern half of the trench the soil became grayer and more packed.  For these reasons I opened up L2004 as a new locus.  We pushed this down in the hope of finding a surface, but to no avail.

After L2003 had been articulated, we took it out, screening every bucket that came out.  Below it we opened up a new locus L2005 and pushed it down level with L2004.  Then we took out the L2006, the fill inside the oven and took a soil sample, KT# 2023.  Inside this fill was an interesting piece of pottery.  This piece, within KT# 2021 is a crappy looking sherd that Bradley says could be either Chalcolithic or Islamic.  We only saved a few pieces of the oven as KT#2022.

 On 14 August 2000 I trowelled around and noticed that the southern part of the trench was becoming harder.  This led me to close L2004 and open up L2007 beneath it.  

In the northern part of the trench a new surface began to emerge.  I therefore closed L2005 and opened up L2008.  After a while I began to wonder if L2008 was a new surface or just a continuation of L2003.  It follows the same plan in the trench, but it was not composed of cobblestones, but rather small rocks about 5*6cms on average.  All of this leads me to believe that L2008 is an earlier phase of surface L2003.

The rest of the northern half of the trench was opened as a separate locus L2009.  L2009 is composed of a hard packed brownish gray soil.

On 15 August 2000 I learned that I would close up F2 soon so I could go and learn how to draw baulk sections.  That being the case I was given the go ahead to plow.  So we took down L2007 by 20cms.  This gives a nice step effect with L2008 being higher than L2009, which is higher than L2007.  The next day we started out by plowing L2007 by another 20cms.  Here we came upon some interesting pottery, KT# 2039.  There were two sherds, on a rim, that were ridged.  One even looks like the veins of a leaf.  I am hoping, Inshallah, that it is from the Chalcolithic.  At this juncture it looks as if we're starting to come upon some mud brick sluppage, eroded mud brick wash.  I trowelled around, but couldn't see any definite lines so I allowed my workers to continue plowing.  After 20cms had been dug we sprayed the southern half of the western baulk.  I think I can see the outline of one brick.

The last order of business with trench F2 was to take out the surface, L2008.  This brought it about level with L2009.  F2 was closed at the end of 16 August 2000.