.bk A6 .fl H627rk.j .fd part of diary for h623-h627; A6Hp38-49 .fn original file name H627RK.--A, changed manually by lC on ZH301 .ed H627 .ei rk .rd H623 .ri rK v 112 ds Profile of the preserved top of the tannur, f356, with the E wall f78 in the background. f220, the accumulation surrounding the top of f356 has been removed to the immediate E and W of the tannur top. v 113 ds The tannur has been cleared of the deposits/accumulation within it. The shots show the tannur, its walls, broken off rim, and a long carbonaceous shallow trench to the E. Closeup of the tannur shows the flue opening inside. .rd H624 k 30 sg All of the structures such as walls, benches previously present in the locus have now been removed. We decided to dig a trench 50 x 100, along the E baulk at the S end, to a depth of 50cm, in order to view the section so as to proceed further. The trench revealed a very hard accumulation. After ca. 30cm down, it changed to looser material and again reverted to a hard accumulation, followed by a looser one. The W half of the locus shows what may be a working floor (flat sherds etc.). We shall try to level it Eastwards, to see if it exists throughout the locus. f 330 A1 f324 dy Leveling the floor at the bottom of f330 = f324 led to material easily peeling off an ashy surface. This may be a floor--had plenty of sherds-- and we have labeled it f331. A clay lump that may have an impression on it was recovered from here. i 267 P2 ZS10.7 i 251 P2 ZS10.7 q 700.1 P2 ZS10.7 q 851.1 P2 ZS10.7 q 851.2 P2 ZS10.7 q 860.3 ds snail shell w2 0.8 P2 ZS10.7 q 861.1 ds snail shell w2 0.8 P2 ZS10.7 q 863.1 ds clay wheel, type II P2 ZS10.7 q 867.1 ds eroded clay lump P99 discard q 861.2 df sg P99 discard -dy A section that had been cut in k22, adjoining the threshold f142, starting at floor f351, was examined. On the W it revealed the two bricks of the threshold. Below the bricks was a thin ash layer & a pink-brown layer below. In the floor accumulation there was a brown band followed by a thin gray/ash band, ca. 12 cm from the surface. This was determined as the lower limit of f358 to be removed with the small pick. Aside from large chunks of carbon, and a few isolated small objects, the accum. did not contain many material artifacts. Close to the tannur, f356, the accum. was harder, so was removed with the large pick. In k30, the section trench was cut, but the sides away from the baulks waited to be straightened and cleaned. Levelling them floor suggested a floor surface closely below. We have defined this for now as a new floor surface. .rd H625 -sg We shall continue excavation of f358 in the room D2 (k22). four pickmen shall work there with the small pick. In k30, we will look at the section before determining the next action. k 30 sg The locus is free of any standing structures at this point. The large stone, f327, had been broken up with a sledgehammer on H624 pm, so we began with removing the pieces from the locus. The surface shall be cleaned and leveled first. Then we should excavate the next layer of accumulation. -sf DNS practiced picking along with BSH in k22 (f358). rK went over some practical aspects of coding journal entries with bsh. -dy We cut down the hard accumulation in the E 1/2 of the area (leaving ca. 80 cm from the N), using the large pick down to the level of the bottom of the trench previously dug. Although a thin ash layer was visible for a little in the E baulk (this later disappeared, on cleaning the section), no transitions were seen to the adjoining side to the N, or on the W face. The cut began at a level where the W 1/2 of the locus suggested a floor, mainly on account of the presence of ash and many sherds lying flat on the surface. The excavated volume had more than the higher levels' content of bones. Excavations in k22 brought us to a low floor, clearly a smooth, working floor. It had a layer of ash deposited on top. The floor had an ancient rodent hole E of the threshold and contained a small animal vertebra (#1, atlas). A depression to which the rodent hole opened was full of ash. The base of a conical cup was nearby. q 771.5 df cl P99 discard q 771.4 df cl P99 discard q 765.2 df cl P99 discard per mkb .rd H626 k 30 dy we are going down in the E part of the locus. We came to a level of fine, pinkish accum. at the level a brick structure had a shallow pit with a few bones in it. Some of the bricky material had the appearance of a tannur wall and the whole mass has been defined as a separate feature and will be excavated separately. It appears that we may have excavated two or three floors at the levels we are digging in this locus. The uppermost of these had the suggestion being a working floor, but could not be traced through the entire locus. In fact, it has been left unexcavated in the W 1/2 of the area. The other two were encountered in digging the E 1/2 of the locus. The artifactual indication of the existence of a floor is the tannur wall like material seen. k 22 dy Excavation in k22 has furthered the clarification of floors close to the level of the flue of the tannur. Today's removal of the floor accumulation led to the identification of a slightly higher ash covered floor, and perhaps another one 1-2 cm above it. Excavation in the NW quadrant of the room also revealed the presence of white striations in the deposit that called for comparison to a mat, directly in front of doorway, f217. -sf RK covered the following points with DNS and BSH. (1) Need for precise descriptions, especially of features. (2) Use of a [accumulation] and f [floor] subcategories [aa-ad; fa-fd], once these can be determined. (3) Useful categories under "incidentals" for journal entry: -dy, -mt, -sg, -sn, -sr, and -su [Manual, p. 17]. (4) Depositional verbs [p. 17]. (5) encoding for pottery, overall shape [p. 18]. (6) The need to make strata assignments and to articulate stratigraphy related arguments. (7) Q-lots; filling in the slot for location. (8) View descriptions as part of the journal. We have been fairly successful in processing items regularly so that there is no backlog in any real sense. Files too have been entered regularly. i 281 ds bone P99 discard .ri bsh q 868.1 df ma ds encased in clay; clump-shaped lg 1.2 ht 1 th 0.6 P2 ZS10.7 .ri rK i 282 df la co white lg 2.6 w2 0.55 wm white stone nm inner diameter 0.2 sh hollow cylinder .rd H627 -su 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. -sf RK and DNS visited k22 to examine stratigraphic matters related to the floors. f 356 ds The tannur appears to have an outer brick reinforcement. The brick appear trapezoidal and small. Furthermore, the whole tannur appears tilted to the West. That is, if a plumb line is held at the top of the inner rim to the E, it will be several cms. away from the base; if held likewise on the W, it will rest on the wall in the middle. Is it possible that the whole floor tilted Westwards to some degree? There is a small rock sitting about 0.5m from the tannur to the NW. k 22 nr Today, being Friday, was off for excavations. A visit to the site in the morning (along with DNS) to review the state of things yielded some observations as well as thoughts of strategy for the coming week. 1. The brick threshold, f142, was identified as consisting of two layers of bricks when examined from k25. Since it is exposed on the E side at these levels, I was able to pick off the accumulation and identify the face of a brick in the lower layer. The threshold limit on the E is uneven. Where the lower layer of brick does not come out as far as the top, the floor accumulation goes in under the first layer and abuts the lower brick. This means that the accumulation is later than the threshold. This was verified only over the surface area of one brick and needs to be examined more thoroughly. 2. The floor f364, the lowest of what has so far been discovered, forms a depression at the SW corner of the room, adjacent to the threshold. Picking here recovered lumps of accumulation which had laminations where they were in contact with the floor. This suggests that at some point there was standing water here that was stirred and in which things settled. The lowest layer of the lamination had particles of the size of sand grains. The hollow was about 6 cm deep from where the floor surface came down. The section of the accumulation against the threshold preserves the profile of the ash floor. This deservsd further careful study. Other questions raised by the evidence pertaining to this floor as follows: (3) Are there 3 floors revealed at this level? There definitely is evidence for two separated by a cm or two of accumulation. However a third layer of ash could be traced above these at least over a little area. Further examination can reveal if this is extensive enough to be considered a floor. (4) With which floor does the pit/depression in the SW corner go? (5) Were both layers of brick part of the threshold at the same time(s). (6) What floor does the tannur go with? (7) What is the earliest floor with which the threshold f142 belongs. (8) Have we discovered the original floor that goes with the walls of the AK building. (9) Is there a floor associated with the "log pits"? (10) What is the relationship of the broken jar with ash, that is adjacent to the tannur, to the floors? (11) There is the top of a fairly large area of carbon, visible to the N of the tannur. This should be examined and excavated carefully as a separate feature. (12) f158 excavation to the E of the locus shows two cuts, the first of which might be the top of a floor. If so, which floor surface of the ones identified to the W of the room does it go with? --- It would also seem valuable to document the following with suitable photographs: (a) The section created in the floor accumulation by the stage of the excavation to the E of the tannur shows several carbon samples occurring at the same level. (b) The pit at the SW corner of the room. (c) Various floor surfaces, along with the trace of the matting. (d) The outside brick reinforcement to the tannur walls. -lb We have placed feature tags in several places to identify accumulation, wall etc. in both loci. Over the next few days, we shall do as completely as is feasible. RK will tag the MZ9 features seen on section to the E of k22, at the NE.