| 1997-06-22 |
bsh |
the fact that the two damaged pieces at 5 and 7 o'clock have smooth edges indicates that they are from the top of the oven and, furthermore, that the oven was open at the top (i.e., the oven is a cylinder hollow at the top). The hole in the oven wall seems to be too small to serve for ash removal; accordingly, it likely is a flue (such flues are to date still built within ovens by natives in the region, [GB/Ibrahim]). The discovery of the flue is most significant, for a plane tangent to the bottom of the flue marks the highest point possible for the location of the original floor surface. With this assumption, the location of the damaged pieces of the wall also becomes significant. The damaged pieces of the wall, or some of them, lie well above the flue and, accordingly, the original floor surface. This suggests one of three possibilities: 1) a layer of accumulation had formed before the oven was damaged, that is, the oven was damaged several years (centuries?) after its original disuse (this does not disqualify the possibility that the oven was again used at a later time); 2) damaged pieces of the wall are stacked is such a way as to render damaged pieces at this heigh (however, one would in this case expect the pieces from the top of the oven to lie on the bottom of such a stack); 3) there is some other structure near the oven that broke the fall of the damaged pieces that is yet to be excavated. Furthermore, the location of the flue (i.e., some 30cm below the accumulation f220) begs the following questions: "Does the depth of the flue coincide with the bottom of the bricks forming the room's Western threshold?"; and "What light does the discovery of this flue shed on the possible connection of this original floor surface with f113?" [Input: H622BSH.J] |