.bk A6 .fl h726rk2.j .fd Excavation diary entries .ed H726 .ei rk .rd H706 .ri rK k 30 dy The wall, f343, identified previously is most likely the remains of a foundation. The hard accumulation abutting it, f339,f340,345, perhaps consist of the broken congealed bricks of walls that stood above. The relationship between the stone wall f341 and f343 is not clear. Perhaps they were parts of a building forming a doorway in between. In the SW, the grey accum., f346, was a lense of ash, ca. 4 cm deep with no sherd or other inclusions. In the E part of the locus where an ashy deposit had been identified and partially excavated, we came to a clear boundary between ash and red running N-S. This could be along the side of the wall, f210. Also, we have found very red bricks in the middle of the locus, also extending N-S. This should correspond to the top layer of the wall. k 31 dy A gypsum-like floor covers the extant top of the tannurs, f406,407. It appears that the tannurs were razed to level the area before the floor surface was laid. The floor may not have existed over all of the locus. We could find it at the NW end in the protective baulk when that was removed. This was simply layered over a lower ash floor and it would appear that there was no compacting of material underneath to lay this floor, if it was indeed one. .rd H707 -dy The S baulk of locus, k30, and the N baulk of locus, k31, were removed today. They were removed by strata--more or less. .rd H708 f 415 dy Scraping the W area of k31 showed the profile of small bricks laid in a curved outline bordering the W baulk, and extending ca. 70cm from the S baulk. At ca. 85cm from the W baulk, the red brick of the feature turned to grey. f 412 ds over the whole locus, pink-brown accumulation f 413 ds pit of ash in the SE of locus. tc cu f412 dy was excavated of ashy deposits f 414 ds defined as an ash layer below f412 in the the SW. It is actually a lens withing f412. tc si f412 f 415 ds brick array in the NW corner of k31 f 412 dy continued the removal after excavation of pits f413 and lense f414. f 414 ds was shallow, ca. 5cm deep. f 411 ds red packing below the tannur f406,407. f 412 tc ab f411 dy relays of the limits of the feature were taken. k 31 dy current elevation 8670-148, equals ca. 8520. f 430 el 8570, for top surface of brick in the extant uppermost layer of the wall f 411 ds very hard pinkish brown accum. Very few sherds or bones. A few pieces of oven/kiln waste were found. A few brick fragments were at the top of this layer. .rd H726 ds it would seem in retrospect that f411, and its content identified as very hard pinkish brown accumulation was in fact the wall joining features 452 and 453. This like other brick walls on top of the lower red layers in the AK building was make of brick that maintained its shape and edges very poorly. .rd H708 -sf bsh will leave work in areas under book A6 and join A7 starting H712. .rd H712 k 22 dy Work continued at two levels on the room floor: One from the N to the NE of the tannur f356, removing all of f372; the other, W of f356, removing f372 to expose f 368, the reed/straw remains in the floor. .rd H707 f 407 nv top of extant rim: elevation 8579 nv base: elevation 8569 f 406 nv extant rim: elevation 8589 nv base: elevation 8573 nm diameters (determined by doubling the radius from the apparent center=halfway point of the largest distance across): innermost "plaster," 66cm; interface of walls 1&2, 73cm; interface of walls 2&3, 79cm; interface of walls 3&4, 84cm; outer edge of 4th wall, 90cm. f 411 el 8562 at top f 335 el 8665 nv elevation based on that of f334, which contained the tannur f335. f 433 el 8583 nv elevation based on that of f435, the floor on which the tannur sat. This floor is 80 cm below f334,335. .rd H716 v 136 ds The main view and sub-shots show pit f413, the alternating layers of blue & brown; pit cutting into brick wall (f451), top of stone wall (f424) below the cut brick layers, and section of brick wall (f451) from the pit. v 137 ds The main view and sub-shots show locus with the brick walls (f452,453) in section bordering the E & W limits along the N border. The W wall section shows the top identifiable layers of brick. Closeups of E section shows the lack of regular profile for brick edges in spite of horizontal lines indicating mortar. v 138 ds Shows the relationship of the gypsum floor to the tannur (f433) in the W baulk of k30. The pointer shows the area of gypsum where it goes over the remains of the tannur as detailed in the closeup shot. f 422 dy The N limit of the cut that formed burial f422 was seen in the floor. This was removed (ca. 10cm deep, & 40 x 20) before the accumulation, f419, surrounding it was removed. tc in f419 k 31 dy f419 was cut as a trench 20cm W of the expected top of f210, to a width of 60cm to the W, as a l00cm long strip, 30cm down. Since the accum. @ the elevation definitely was a the top levels of wall f210, the accum. was assigned f# 454. f454 was further excavated to a depth of ca. 50cm. k 30 dy We continued along the W baulk of k30. The top levels now extant are f339, below which come floors 434 and 435. f 436 ds This appears to be a brick structure, perhaps wall, abutting the limit found for wall, f430. The alignment of the bricks seemed at first to be at an odd angle to those of f430, but now it seems they are alike. Perhaps in continuation of f78, bonded to f430/210. f 347 dy We seem to have removed the last of the fill belonging to this pit. It terminates at the upper limit of f431. f 431 el m1749-72, = 8508, corresponds to top of feature. f 347 el 8508 for the bottom of feature. f 431 ds contained many brick fragments in fine pink-brown accumulation. f 429 ds accumulation N of f430--loose crumbly accum. with carbon, sherd and small stones. Has walls to W, S, & E. Clearly an accumulation evidenced by many small carbonaceous inclusions. .rd H717 .ri dns f 439 nr What we originally called part of a wall now looks more like it could be a burial structure. Abutting the structure to teh West is a loose fill. The accum. to the E of f344, was also a loose brown acc. In the E section of k22, above the N wall in k22, brick lines are clearly visible which we had assumed to be layers of brick formerly considered to be uncertain in their relationship to the wall below. We now see a vertical line of loose acc. abutting a column of at least 6 bricks which are aligned, indicating a cut into the wall. This feature we are tentatively calling a burial structure although no bones have yet been excavated from it. Could the large intact pot, i224, found in our N baulk have been a part of the burial assemblage--if this is a burial? k 31 dy In k31 we are going down in the area adjoining the expected meeting place of walls f200 and 210. We have been able to trace the faces of the brick wall to the S (in line with f210) and brick and stone to the E (in line with f200) at this level. It seemed during the excavation that there was a wall along the N of the locus at its W end. But clearing the wall & scraping it removed all signs of it. Most likely, this consisted of alternating layers of accumulation and accumulation high in chaff; or, it could be some wall like structure built out of mud and chaff. We were able to trace the W face of f210/418 continuing Southward, and the N face of f200 continuing Eastward where the walls meet to form the SE corner of the room D1, kitchen, within locus k31. Excavation downward all of a sudden revealed a cavity in the accumulation below (see v142). It is not clear at this point if the cavity was the result of some settling in pit cut down and filled at a later time, or the existence of some structure within the kitchen room. f 439 dy Cleaning the top layer of the accumulation in k30 showed the outlines of a cut, bounded on the E & W by orderly placement of bricks and also having brick sides to the N & S. Most likely a burial. k 30 dy The S end of the W baulk was partially removed below the level of the floors with tannurs (f433). we will cut a section and see the nature of the bricky material before proceeding to remove the rest of the baulk. The segment of the S baulk W of f430 that joined the W baulk was completely removed to the present level of the floor in k30. N of f430, the greyish loose accum., heretofore called f429, was found in fact to be a pit. The pit had cut into the lower layer of brick present in the wall to its S. At the level of floor reached today, there was a white lense, perhaps the bottom of the pit. The outline of the cut at the N limit was clearly discernible as a white band on either side of which the accumulation differed in their shade of color. -mk Relay r815, given label m1750 by the surveyor, is now lost. It had not been surveyed before being accidentally pulled out. f 455 ds Shows layers of loose accumulation. The roof seems to curve down in the shape of an oval along the sides. The base has bricks in section. f 439 nr A large reddish jar has been exposed in this feature which we assume is a tomb. This was in the SE corner of the cut. Another has been exposed toward the NW limit of the cut--a slightly smaller jar. f 339 ds The cut seems to extend even further below the losest extent of the accum. so far uncovered to t he E of f430. The pit, however, extends only very minimally into the locus. f 429 nr The pit/fill has now been removed so that we have found the top of the wall that remains here. A bright red brick has been exposed on the floor. f 350 dy Contrary to my suspicion, no brick wall has surface that runs N-S along the W baulk of k30. So the Northward terminating end of the wall, f425, in k31 could have been part of a doorway, terminating thereabouts. i 241 or lay almost due N-S with the arrowhead to the N. Triangulated the S end. f 429 ds It appears that N of f430, the sides of the wall hadd beden significantly eroded. What appears as a pit could have been accumulation against the eroded side of the wall where that was exposed at floor levels. Although the accum. is loose, not cut from above is clearly evident in section; and even if there were one, how it curved down under the top layers of brick in the wall would be hard to ascertain. The accum. contains loose granular dirt which could also be crumbled brick; generally grey. f 439 ds Proved to be a tomb. It seemed a little odd that the bricks were clearly visible only on 3 sides, N, E and W. But the section to the S shows lines of mortar very clearly. It is possible that the W end of the tomb may have been excavated partially during 1992. But since part of the brick wall at that end is still present, that is an unlikely possibility. The tomb yielded a large metal arrowhead and a metal pin; 2 jars, one much larger than the other. A plug of dirt (intentional or accidental) seems to have capped the smaller jar so that is virtually empty and light. The walls of the tomb approximate in height the highest layer of the extant layers of the wall, f430. The tomb did not contain a complete skeleton (virtually no vertebrae). The parts that remained were somewhat reddish and very fragile and powdery. f 455 nr All of the loose accumulation in the cavity was cleared out and a sample collected. The base where it meets the cut section is quite flat. It does not show any openining that extends anywhere to the back or side. The stones of the wall, f200, from the back of the cavity. Just gently clearing out the inside nmaterial revealed a cavity, ca. 110cm diameter and height 60cm. There is more loose material adhering to the roof that can be removed. Bricks are visile on the left edge of the section along the vertical, adjoining the stone wall of f210. There seem also to be bricks at the base, at least two courses where the section has cut it. f 359 ds This burial had been partially excavated during MZ9. It seems to have been a body placed in congealed brick, hard dirt. The cut of the pit was visible in profile (it is below the gypsum floor covering the tannurs) but a horizontal cut reveals no easy distinction. It has hard encasing but is not a tomb of bricks that have retained their shape. There were large sherds inside the grave, right on top of the bones. No other artifacts were seen. f 460 ds We have assigned a new feature # to the accum. to the E of the wall. More of it was removed today to follow the side of the wall. An ashpit has cut into the area from the E, seems distinct from f347. The accumulation is fine, but packed pink-brown. .rd H719 -su 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. -sf bsh has been working in A7 since H712. dns returned to the U.S. on H718. They both participated earnestly in the excavation of the A6 area this season. bsh managed excavations in k22, at the floor level, and in on site photography for all of area A6. dns contributed significantly in excavating k30 and 31. f 439 el 8557, top of tomb, measured from top of brickwall at NW el 8500, bottom of tomb, measured inside i 243 nr sat at lower level of bones in the grave. or was at an angle of 45 deg to vertical; rim up facing N i 239 or was found in the vertical position. nv Center of the base of the imprint was triangulated. Since i239 is larger than i240, its rim was first seen. i 240 or was found in the vertical position. nv Center of the base of the imprint was triangulated. Since i239 is larger than i240, its rim was first seen. i 236 or sat in the accum upside down at a small angle to the vertical. nr the jar was empty and being hit with the large pick broke into 3 pieces and several tiny fragments. f 442 ds ashy fill of pit; very abundant in chaff/husk like particles; loose dark grey. f 425 ar 3 layers of red and grey bricks were on top. We cut a section down to the E & N of it for > 1 meter and only accum. was found. This requires that the layer of bricks is late. The bricks abut but do not bond with f453. We were able to get a clear face of the wall f453 to the N. tc ab f453 f 350 tc co f428 f 461 tc co f425 tc ab f417 f 425 tc ov f454 .rd H720 f 428 ds was a pink-brown accum. with brick fragments that was at the lower levels of grave f439,459 and just above the top of wall f444. tc co f444 tc co f443 f 439 tc in f428 f 459 tc in f428 f 443 ds grey accum. below f428. It was below the grave f439 and tomb f459. it contained bricky material, in partial association with the burials above. It also had seeds and ash and the remnants of a tannur. .rd H726 tc ab f471 .rd H721 f 430 ds On the E and W face of the wall, f430, is a lot of deposit that is very much like high chaff grey brick. But it is not the brick of the wall, nor plaster, strictly speaking. Most likely it was a mud-chaff mixture that may have been applied to the face of the eroded walls or to prevent erosion and damage of wall face. f 452 ds The secondary wall seen on top of f200 seems to be an integral part of the wall. It follows the same face and is flush with the N face of the lower wall. The lower courses are red bricks; the upper courses are of grey/buff ones which are easy to miss as bricks. It would seem that the two walls (f200 & 210) were the same height, just that f210 had higher courses of stones. .rd H722 i 248 or the pot lay more or less horizontally in the accumulation; mouth toward the East nv triangulated the center of circular impression formed by the body of the pot on the ground. f 447 ds was red-pink, packed hard accum with grey, chaffy loose material. c# 10YR6/2 - 10YR6/4 f 448 ds was crumbly grey-brown accum. ash visible in parts in section. It is more grey close to f430/210 c# 7.5YR6/2 f 447 tc ab f220 f 456 tc ab f215 .rd H723 -sf bsh returned to A6 for the three days remaining before he would leave the expedition. f 430 ds The wall f430 meeting with f465, the continuation of f78, was explored further on G722. It was clear that although there was a brick at the top level of f430 extending to the E, underneath was all accumulation to a depth ca. 100cm. So the top brick was removed and the wall of accum. cut into from the N and E by pits. f 465 ds Removal of the lone brick to the E of f430, connected to its brick layers, and the accumulation underneath it for almost a meter revealed the stone layer of a wall at 90 deg. to f430, running Eward, and ending at 70 cm E of the corner. When the wall face was traced Northward, it was found to jog again after 62 cm, leaving a rectangular extension 48 cm NS and jutting out 30 cm from the corner. We still have only 10-20 cm of stone exposed here. So the actual limits and turns could be different. However, the likelihood of a doorway is almost cetain and the rabbeting appears to be on the N. The E section does not reveal a wall continuing @ the level where f465 would be expected to be. However, it reveals several bricks at the level corresponding to the top of the wall to mid-way down the layer of bricks in f430. The top is where we begin f427 and 5 layers of bricks for about 35cm in the Northern half (f465 E of f430 is ca. 130cm wide at the stone level, same as f430). In fact, these bricks in section are unlikely to correspond to the walls f465 or f430 because these are adjoining bricks, perhaps 5 layers deep, extending Northward pdast the N limit of f465. Both groups of bricks in section at this level clearly have accumulation/fill and not stone/brick beneath them. f 430 ds Careful excavation of the sides fo the wall revealed the existence of plaster over the brick and stone walls. In some parts, hitting the accumulation adhering to the stone layer with the point of the handpick resulted in the removal of everything, exposing the bare stone, but elsewhere, plaster was unquestionably present. Part of the plaster, especially below, was a thin layer of red, in stark contrast to the grey accumulation. Higher up, a contrast between grey/red accumulation to a lighter grey next to the wall could be seen, the latter being a thin covering of the wall. What seemed to be plaster also covered the brick layer forming a flat smooth surface. This appeared to be mud + straw/stubble. f 463 ds corresponded to top layers of f358 ds seemed to have large chunks of kiln waste; isolated brick nearby. Brown accum., not much ash, but isolated lumps of carbon found; had pieces such as our hearth wall in the excavated dirt. This is at the level of the top of the tannur, f356. f 464 ds corresponded to lower layers of f358 ds grey-brown accum. with many very small chunks of carbon, some kiln waste, sherd, but no stones. .rd H726 i 224 nr The base of this large pot recovered from pit f426 was in fact at the level of the base of the tomb, f439. It sat adjacent to and almost in contact with the bricks that formed the NE corner of the tomb, but outside the tomb itself. ar It is unlikely that the jar, i224, is part of a18 because it would be hard to see how it would belong to an ashy fill in contrast to the the vessels enclosed in the tomb. nr adjacent to a18 but outside the brick walls of the tomb. f 426 ar Excavation to clean up the pit f426 showed flat laid sherds underneath the lowest bricks of the tomb and also remains of tannur wall, decorated with shallowly impressed circles. This corresponds to a stage of occupation at the level of the top of the (secondary?) walls, f444. The pit had been cut into where f444 met f430. It is a possibility that the tannur fragments were contents of the pit. The burial f439 would then be later than the pit f426. But this seems unlikely since it is a layer of ash, and not the pit itself that seems to extend significantly under the tomb bricks. a 18 ar Excavation to clean up the pit f426 showed flat laid sherds underneath the lowest bricks of the tomb and also remains of tannur wall, decorated with shallowly impressed circles. This corresponds to a stage of occupation at the level of the top of the (secondary?) walls, f444. The pit had been cut into where f444 met f430. It is a possibility that the tannur fragments were contents of the pit. The burial f439 would then be later than the pit f426. But this seems unlikely since it is a layer of ash, and not the pit itself that seems to extend significantly under the tomb bricks. f 468 ds Floor accum from ca. 10 cm above the final floor surface, was high in ash in the NE corner and had the remains of a tannur. This was not firmly in place and the whole wall was not present. f 473 ds In cleaning up the pit f426, sherds and bones were found to the W, extending underneath the brick of the tomb. Also, extensive remains of a tannur (see arguments under a18 or f426). This raised the question of (1) whether the tomb was built over the pit; (2) whether the pit had cut underneath the brick of the tomb a18, as we have seen other pits erode extensively layers of brick walls (here, however, the bricks were all intact and had not been cut into by the pit); or (3) whether below the tomb was an ash floor associated with tannur f472. So we removed the lowest layer of the tomb floor bricks. Underneath was ash. The ash in fact adhered to the bricks. The ash extended only a few cms (5-10) deep, well above the bottom of pit f426, to a brick red surface below, but continued Westward over the wall ca. 70 cms where it ended. f 473 ds red-brown accum. with sherds and bones f 466 ds was very low in the presence of sherds. f 469 nv The kilnwaste and tannur fragments that seems to form the tannur wall were ca. 25 cm above the final floor. f 468 ds was above the "reed matting". The material previously thought of as reed matting was seen also in the NE corner of the room. f 455 nr We had recovered what may be the skeleton of a snake from the chamber of f455. No openings to it had been seen from directly above or to the N and W. The S and E have walls of the room. Eventual removal of the feature showed a path, small enough for a small snake and curvy, that led from the brick wall of f210, close to the corner with f200, along the E face of the S wall, f200, down into f455.