Unit Book A6

A6-summary

Processed on 2023-09-08

	Date	Author	Record
	1997-06-27	rK	Excavation in A6 began on H616. We have had ten days of excavation in the two connected areas pertaining to this book at the end of this work week yesterday, H626. Significant progress has been made in both areas. At the floor level of the room D2, which we have been excavating as locus k22, it is quite possible that we have come to the original floor of the AK building in this room. This was encountered as an uneven but well packed and smooth ash-covered floor that meets the threshold of the doorway to the W, f142, at the level of the second of the two layers of its bricks. We have a clearer picture of the use of the room, perhaps even the section of the larger building from the discovery of the tannur at this level. There are many questions as yet unanswered, such as whether the room was indeed a room or a courtyard, whether it was in fact a cooking area or kitchen, etc. However, the findings explain the lack of similarity with the area A1, in spite of the architecture. There the symmetrically laid out rooms which have been interpreted as being the storehouse had original floors which yielded a wealth of information through seal impressions. We have had very little of that so far, even on the original floors in room k25, to the W of k22, which provides access to the vault a1. If this was an outdoor area, or a kitchen, there is no reason to expect the floor to have been littered with sealings or for those to have been preserved. We continue the excavation of this room excavating floor deposits, identifying floor surfaces and clarifying stratraphic contact relationships. In the NE corner of the room which is locus 30, we are still above the walls of the AK building or even the secondary walls built over them, if present. We have cut down the Eastern limit of that locus to a depth of approx. 2.5m. It would appear that we have passed the earliest phase of occupation and its floors in this area and are going through the floors of the next phase at the present time. The latter have been excavated in less than 1/2 of the locus at this time and should be clarified and removed in the coming week. We should be able to pass through the intermediate phases of earlier 2nd millennium occupation in this locus so as to reach the top of the AK building walls in the next two weeks. [Input: H627RK.J]
	1997-07-19	dns	We are now come to the final week of excavations. The work has progressed well so far, and we have met the preliminary goal of coming down to the top of the AK building walls in k30 and k31, although we are not yet to the floor of the building as hoped for. That goal is still within reach before the excavations should end this season. So far, we have succeeded, in addition to adding to the details of stratigraphy, in improving our sense of the building's architecture. The walls f200 and 210 meet and f210 which runs N-S makes a corner there and continues Eastward (the two walls are distinguishable by higher courses of stone in f210, where f200 [& f78] have brick). The southward continuation of f210/430 is yet to be found, but otherwise the continuation of the two walls is clear. The surprise element cme in the fact that the E continuation of f200 resembles the construction of f210. Also the upper layers of the wall that seems secondary is also present in the E-W direction. At the N end of the locus k30, the walls f78/444 and wall f210/430 appear to meet and continue both Eward and Nward, but we are clarifying this. Two burials have been excavated, in fact today. One was a simple grave, partially excavated previously; the other was a brick-walled tomb with an incomplete skeleton, two jars and a bronze arrow. Also it appears that in the SE corner of room D1 (of the AK building), there was some kind of a structure of brick and mud, adjoining the stone walls. This is intriguing, to say the least. Our strategy for the final weeks to otbain the limits of the room D1 at the floor level and to clarify the corner of the wallss at the SE and NE junction. [Input: H726RK2.J]