.bk A12 .fl k624jl.j .fd journal entries .ei jl .ed k624 .rd k621 .ri jl -dy Today, gb met with lr and me to discuss the plans for excavating in A12 this season. Our team will consist of myself, lr, okk, and one unknown person from the new expedition members, with jlw supervising as we work. -sg We will try to further define a22, the apsidal structure, by excavating inside of it and around its south and west faces to define those borders. This will require excavation in k21 and 22, and a small team of perhaps 10 workmen. Also, we will be responsible to prepare the A12 book, from both this season and last season, so that it will be ready for publication in the fall. .rd k622 .ri jl -dy Today, I began my first real work on the excavation. This morning, lr (who worked on A12 last season) and I went down to the site and discussed our excavation goals as gb had related them to us yesterday. Then, with Barbara Pritzkat, I put in the first four marker pegs for relays in loci 21 and 22. Unfortunately, she is limited in the locations which she can measure, due to a lack of surveying points with visibility of A12, but hopefully this will change by the time we begin excavating. Meanwhile, lr prepared (with okk's help) a simplified Harris Matrix of the stratigraphy of upper A12 for mkb. Afterwards, she began checking the written records of the A12 book against the computer files here in Mozan, to see if the files are up-to-date or if any data is missing. .rd k623 .ri jl -sg Today, I met with okk and lr for the purpose of outlining the task of preparing the A12 book from season 12 (j) for publication. We suggested six main tasks. First, scan the A12 archive to find any gaps or errors in the data so that we can fill these in with the information from the original field book. Second, we need to complete the templates of the views. Although some work was done last season, much was left undone or partly completed due to unforseen circumstances. Third, as an addendum to goal two, the view descriptions need to be completed. Very few, if any, were done last season. Fourth, the G plots need to be checked and completed. Thankfully, lr remembered that most of the plots were completed last season, with the exception of lower A12. Fifth, the stratigraphy needs to be reanalyzed and reordered, and especially needs to be connected with this season's excavations. Certain equivalent feature numbers need to be extracted from other books to accomplish this, especially for lower A12. Finally, according to okk, when jo left the excavation early last season, he took certain materials with him to complete. If this is true, then these materials need to be identified and accounted for. -dy Today, okk, lr, and I held a strategy meeting to determine what is necessary to ready last year's A12 data for publication. Hopefully, we will present the results to gb later this afternoon. I also learned that ed, one of the new expedition members this year, will be our fourth team member. However, due to her other commitments to mkb, her role with the team will need to be discussed further with gb and mkb. -dy lr, okk, ed, and I met with gb this afternoon to discuss our strategy for preparing A12 season 12 for publication. lr has also taken on the responsibility of preparing our field box for excavation. We will potentially begin removing the backfill in a21 and a22 tomorrow, but probably the day after. Finally, it seems as if ed will primarily be involved in the excavations, and less so with the data analysis or the work on last season's book, due to her other commitments to mkb. -sg With gb's input, we have expanded our strategy to include the following considerations. Apparently, jo did not take any data with him from the excavation, so that is one less problem to worry about. Regarding the archive data, not only does it need to be scanned for format and completeness, but also its substance needs to be checked, and improved or supplemented by additional entries when neccessary. As regards the stratigraphic analysis, we will not only need to combine the stratigraphy excavated by jo and fxx, but we will also need to prepare a final summary of A12 for the publication, bringing all of the data together. .rd k624 .ri jl -dy This morning, I took ed down to the site to familiarize her with A12. After breakfast, I supervised the removal of backfill over the whole extent of a22, the apsidal structure. At gb's request, I asked the workmen to take good care of the plastic sheeting, so that we can reuse it at the end of the season. I anticipate that another half-day of work will be needed before excavation can begin.