Wednesday, July 11 2018

AM

Began working in Locus 12.  Locus 12 appears to be a beaten earth surface; it is very rich in plaster, has some ceramics lying flat atop the surface, and is heavily compacted.  It also is at the same elevation as beaten earth surface 2, indicating that it is the same surface. Therefore, Locus 12 is equivalent to Locus 8. Locus 12 is situated to the N and E of the 2017 stratigraphic sections.

Diagram of Locus 12, 2017 sections, Beaten Earth Surfaces 1 and 2, EPOC4 N Wall

Locus 12 consists of a medium brown, heavily compacted soil with numerous plaster inclusions.  There also are relatively high quantities of pottery, along with some tile, bone, and slag. Soil is excavated using hand picks and trowels.  The first five buckets of soil are being sieved through a 1cm gauge sieve, then soil is set aside for flotation. Following these first five buckets, soil will be screened both through a 1cm and 2mm gauge sieve.  While working in Locus 12, we recovered a tooth (Find #3), a sherd of incised bucchero (Find #4), a large fragment of plaster with a preserved smooth face (Find #5), and a possible piece of worked bone (Find #6). As we excavated deeper into the deposit, we also recovered two sherds of slipped pottery (Find #7), another large plaster fragment (Find #8), a piece of plaster with a flat surface (Find #9), a piece of plaster with two reed impressions (Find #10), and a piece of plaster with a curved surface (Find #11), and another plaster with reed impressions (Find #12).

As we removed the compacted, plaster-rich, and mottled deposit of Locus 12, we began to come down on a dark gray deposit in the eastern meters of the locus.  This darker deposit also seems to contain high quantities of fist-sized stones, which resemble the small stones exposed in Locus 10 last year. It is likely that this new dark gray deposit is equivalent to Locus 10.  In the western end of the locus, Locus 12 overlies bedrock.

Special Finds:

• Find #3
• Locus 12
• 107.62E/41.95S
• 26.80m A.E.
• Tooth

• Find #4
• Locus 12
• 107.65E/41.94S
• 26.81m A.E.
• Incised bucchero

• Find #5
• Locus 12
• 108.87E/41.65S
• 26.83m A.E.
• Large plaster fragment

• Find #6
• Locus 12
• 107.72E/41.76S
• 26.78m A.E.
• Possible worked bone

• Find #7
• Locus 12
• 109.70E/42.64S
• 26.73m A.E.
• Slipped pottery

• Find #8
• Locus 12
• 108.81E/41.92S
• 26.77m A.E.
• Large plaster fragment

• Find #9
• Locus 12
• 108.80E/41.66S
• 26.84m A.E.
• Plaster with flat surface

• Find #10
• Locus 12
• 108.26E/42.10S
• 26.77m A.E.
• Plaster with reed impressions

• Find #11
• Locus 12
• 108.73E/41.80S
• 26.85m A.E.
• Plaster with curved surface

• Find #12
• Locus 12
• 108.03E/41.87S
• 26.75m A.E.
• Plaster with reed impressions

PM

Continued sectioning through beaten earth floor #2 of Locus 12.  Soil is incredibly plaster-rich and heavily mottled, with small specks of plaster held in a medium brown soil.  Soil is also heavily compacted and claylike. Soil is hand-sorted in the trench then passed through 1cm and 2mm gauge screens.  Most material culture recovered from the deposit is plaster, and four large fragments of plaster with preserved reed impressions (Finds #13-16) were recovered.  In addition, we found some pottery, bone, slag, and vitrified terracotta, all of which we are bulk finding.

In the western half of the locus, the plaster-rich deposit/beaten earth surface 2 of locus 12 overlies bedrock, while in the eastern half of the locus, the deposit overlies a dark gray deposit with many smaller stones that resemble a cobbling.  A charcoal sample was taken from Locus 12, overlying the new dark gray deposit. As we were working to expose the underlying bedrock and gray deposit, we also found a large plaster fragment (Find #17), a bronze fragment (Find #18), and a piece of tile with adhered slag (Find #19).

Charcoal sample #1:

• Locus 12
• 108.24E/42.63S
• 26.75m A.E.

Special Finds:

• Find #13
• Locus 12
• 108.83E/41.54S
• 26.91m A.E.
• Large plaster fragment

• Find #14
• Locus 12
• 107.68E/42.05S
• 26.68m A.E.
• Plaster with flat surface and reed impressions

• Find #15
• Locus 12
• 108.64E/41.67S
• 26.87m A.E.
• Plaster with reed impressions

• Find #16
• Locus 12
• 108.58E/41.63S
• 26.90m A.E.
• Plaster with reed impressions

• Find #17
• Locus 12
• 108.20E/41.83S
• 26.80m A.E.
• Large plaster fragment with reed impressions

• Find #18
• Locus 12
• 108.92E/41.59S
• 26.83m A.E.
• Bronze fragment

• Find #19
• Locus 12
• 108.14E/42.70S
• 26.62m A.E.
• Tile with adhered slag

Locus 12:

• Tile and plaster: 2 bowls
• Pottery: 86 sherds
• Bone: 12 fragments
• Slag: 21 fragments
• Vitrified terracotta: 16 fragments