Locus 51 was a soil deposit that infilled the rectangular cut of Locus 47 into EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor surface (Locus 53). The soil of Locus 51 was predominantly olive-brown in color, loosely compacted, and predominantly claylike in texture, although there were patches where soil was flakier and resembled galestra; in such patches, soil also tended to be more yellowish or gray in color. The deposit contained numerous small limestone rocks (maximum dimension 15cm) as well as some tree roots. The soil also contained a noticeable charcoal concentration in the central area of the locus, extending northward out of the southern edge of the deposit, where the deposit pressed against the wall of the Locus 47 cut. The deposit was excavated using trowels, soil was hand-sorted in the trench, and then a soil sample was collected for flotation; soil collected for flotation was not sieved, to better preserve any ecofacts contained within the deposit. Once the soil sample was collected, soil was passed through a 1cm and 2mm gauge sieve.

The deposit of Locus 51 and the Locus 47 cut that it infilled was located in the southwestern quadrant of the trench, just north of EPOC4’s southern foundation wall. The deposit was rectangular in shape and measured roughly 1.2 x 0.8 meters in dimension, with the longer axis running east-west. The deposit also measured approximately 5cm in depth.

Despite its small size, Locus 51 contained relatively high quantities of material culture, all of which was found in the concentration of charcoal in the central area of the locus. We recovered 132 sherds of pottery and 55 fragments of bone from the locus, along with 4 slag fragments. Despite the relatively high quantities of materials to come from the locus, no finds helped to determine the dating of the deposit or shed light on why occupants of EPOC4 decided to cut a rectangular depression into EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor.

Locus 51 infills Locus 47. It underlies Locus 48 and overlies Locus 54.