Aug 16, 2000

Today, I slept in for a while in Bismil and came after the breakfast. Workers were bashing before I arrived. I was feeling better, but not in a perfect state; I had approximately 76.38021 % of my average strength today. I was drawing a section of the D3 and did not concentrate on what was going on at the trench 1. I hope they were doing a good job. There are still some soil left to dig tommorow. We will finish this trench. Level the whole trench, stright the balk and I'm out of here!

TRENCH SUMMARY OF AREA D TRENCH 1 (before pottery reading)

The purpose of this trench was to reach the early occupational level of the site since the area D was located at the lower part of the site. During a survey, we found some pot-sherds from early period (Chalcolithic, Uruk, etc). Area D is located at the east side of the Tepe below a steep hill where there is relatively flat area like a hump that sticks out from the Tepe. We did not achieved our purpose in this season. Because of the deep disturbed top and sub-top soil, it took us a week to excavte to reach the possible cultural level, and we began excavte this area during a last week. We have not looked at the pottery in detail, so I am not certain about the age of the Loci that I excavated. Although I am not a pottery expert by any sense, most of the pottery appears to be from the Hellenistic period. Lower levels seems to be earlier. We must wait for the pottery reading. However, this area still looks promising for next season.  Trench 3, which is located 1 m West (1 m uphill) of Trench 1 had multiple layer of surfaces and possible Hellenistic wall, or a path. When I walked around this area, especially below the area D, I found several fragments of early pottery, even possible Ubaid rim-sherd, many lithics, such as obsidian. Also, from this trench, and Trench 2, which is just North of this trench, seems to produce more lithics and grind-stone than other areas. Since we finish excavting the disturbed zone, if we given several days to excavte, there is a great possibility that we could achieve our original purpose of this Area.

LOCUS 1000 (E 85.34-85.22 W 86.76-86.05)

This Locus is the top-soil and heavily disturbed. Because of the steep slope, I expected to have a deep top and sub-topsoil. Interesting enough, I found many worked stone artifacts, such as stone-bowl, possible weight (circular shape with a hole in the center), and others; for more info look at the KT 1003,1005, 1007, 1008, 1010, 1013, 1014, 1015, 1017, 1018, 1019, 1022, 1024). First I thought this could be the indication of the early occupation of this area. Near the North balk, about 1 m from the west balk, I found a concentration of the pottery. It appears to be a pot-smash, but it is too close to the present surface (KT 1011). I found a hard compacted layer of the soil below this potsmash, and gave a new Locus 1001. Because of the slope, I decide to assigne locus 1001 for only west side of the trench. We did not excavte much in the east side; as I mentioned above, West side had a compacted soil, but East half was still in top-soil. I divided the trench in half, and made a arbitrary steps at the 2 m line.

Locus 1001 (West 1/2   86.05-85.86)

The purpose of this Locus was to level the entire trench flat, unless we reach a possible cultural layer.  There was a possible stone piled wall (86.13) at the SW corner of the trench, and found 2 possible pit, so I closed the Locus and gave Locus 1002. We found several large rocks around this possible wall; probably fallen from the wall. The soil arond the wall seemed somewhat compacted, but did not seems to be much of anything. The wall was made of piling up the flat and round rocks for about 30 cm in height. In this locus, above and below, I found sevral brick fragments, those could be Hellenistic in age.

Locus 1002 (West 1/2 85.86-85.63)

Since we found 2 possible pit, and soil was more compacted than locus 1001. First I thought that this could be a cultural surface. The stone lined wall finished in this Locus. Also, we found a pile of rocks in the North balk. A possible pit were located on the South-centarl section of the trench, irregular shape of about 1.75 m in length and 1 m + wide. the another pit was smaller, and it was located on the west balk, on the north side, about 1.25 m in length. I excavted both pits, and found relatively few pot-sherds, bricks, lithics, and bones. (chech KT 1033, 1034, 1035, and 1036). These pits seemed to be just a variation in the soil. The shape of the pit was irregular, and did not have uniform depth. I decided to make the whole trench flat. The pile of rocks that I found near the North balk was constructed by flat-rocks, and found a possible equid teeth. (KT 1055 and KT 1056). In general soil seemed to be somewhat vary in nature and disturbed, it could be still in the sub-top soil, especilly in the Eastern side of this Locus.

Locus 1003 (85.63 - 85.20)

This is the first time that I had a flat trench! Strange enough, there is less worked stone in lower levels. I found a pile of rocks about 1 m away from the SW corner of the trench. However, this did not look like constructed by human. Soil was same as inside and around the rocks. Some rocks were layed flat but many rocks were on side. I excavated for about 30 cm, and found a line between loose and compacted. This line roughly followed the 1.5 m line from East balk. Loose soil to the East is probably still in the top-soil but the west side could be in cultural level. I decided to excavted the loose soil (Locus 1004) first and than compacted soil (Locus 1005).

Locus 1004 (85.20 - 84.75)

This Locus is the East side of the line which is loose soil. I thought that the Compacted soil will gradually slopes down, but it more or less went down straight. One area at the center had a slope of compacted soil. About 30 - 40 cm below, we found a compacted soil, which is similar to the soil west -side. I think at this point, it is below the top-soil. There were some pottery and lithics. Found obsidian fagments and several pieces of bricks from this Locus.

Locus 1005 (85.20 - 84.84)

This Locus is the west side of the trench with the hard compacted soil. This Locus started out with a promise of discovery, but turned out to be little disappointment. In Northwest corner of the trench, I found a hard-compacted soil that looked as a mud-brick. We tried to make the soil flat and see if there is a mud-brick or not. There were few several lines, but were not stright and the soil looked disturbed. In the same area, I found a band of dark soil that seemed to be in circular shape.  First I thought it could be an oven; the size and shape of the dark soil was similar to that of A1 Locus 1018. This dark soil contained chrcoal. I excavated and tried to define the shape. When I start excavating, it turned out that the shae was irregular and had more dark-soil below. I decided to bash this area and make the trench flat. So that next year, when someone comes back, they will have a flat trench. Found grind-stone and Obsidian from this Locus.

For this season, the Area D trench 1 resulted in some disappointment, but for next year, there is a great chance of discovery of this Trench. From this season, we basically removed the thick top-soil that was washed down from the steep slope. For next year, we should reach the earlier ocuupational levels. We found many grind-stones, lithics, and Obsidian. All pottery seems to be from Hellenistic age, but still wait to be seen.