Date: 04-Aug-97
Weather: Hot, still, cloudless
Number of Workers: 3
Lots Open: 1304, 1307, 1308
Page Reference: 96

STRATEGY: 1. Continue removing 1304 with the aim of reducing the trench to a level excavating surface. I have decided that 1304 will be a kind of cleaning run i.e chop through the animal holes & hope that they will disappear down (as the sections & its hardness would suggest). Aim to end up with a more secure lot under 1304. 2. Continue 'tickling' f87 to clarify the nature of its construction

SUMMARY: 1. 1304 was fully removed & we have a level digging surface for tomorrow. 1304 will be pretty secure but it will also contain much 'animal hole' material, & material from around f90 which may belong to a pit. A 50% sieve was done of 1304. We have now got a level digging surface with very little animal disturbance - a secure lot ( though I still have not clarified things around f90). 2. I established that 1304 clearly extends into the channel between the inner & outer stones of f87 & f87 rests on 1304. I dug c.10-15cm below the stones of f87 & came upon some stones & plaster of an earlier structure. 1304 overlies this new structure, which was given f no.92. 3. Digging around f90 exposed another stone in the channel of f87 - a loose silty soil similar to 1301 was in the cavity between it & f90 - called 1307. 4. Decided to distinguish the SW corner of the trench as 1308. This lot is the same level as 1304 but badly disturbed, loose soil very different to 1304. However, the distinction was made too late to prevent some 1308 material getting in with 1304.