Locus 45 was a dark grayish brown, mottled, and loosely compacted soil deposit that extended across the area of excavation in the southwestern quadrant of the trench. It contained numerous limestone, terracotta, and charcoal inclusions, giving it its mottled appearance. It was excavated using hand picks and trowels, soil was hand-sorted in the trench, then passed through 1cm and 2mm gauge sieves.

Locus 45 contained high quantities of material culture, especially pottery. Overall, 1427 sherds of pottery were recovered from this locus, including a ridged impasto rim (PC20230009), a fine impasto rim and knob handle fragment (PC20230036), and a fine impasto skyphos handle with a projecting element (PC20230025), all of which typologically date from the late 8 ^th through the mid-7 ^th centuries BCE. In addition to high quantities of ceramics, we also recovered 204 bone fragments and large quantities of ferric slag.

Stratigraphically, Locus 45 covered EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor (Locus 53), a rectangular cut into EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor (Locus 47), and the soil deposit infilling this cut (Locus 46). Based on the locus’ stratigraphy, its loose compaction, and the high quantities of material culture and charcoal recovered from the locus, Locus 45 likely is debris associated with the abandonment and destruction of EPOC4; as a result, any datable materials found within this debris provide a terminus ante quem for the life of EPOC4.

Locus 45 underlaid Loci 43 and 44, overlaid Loci 46, 47, and 53, and is equivalent to Loci 7 (2017), 19 (2018), 24 (2019), 28 (2019), 33 (2022), and 52 (2023).