| Date | Author | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-07-13 | sb | Today we are putting relay tags on the ground to relay all structures. We already have the plot of the locus, although 3 baulk corners need to be retaken (the elevation of one of the markers was wrong). [Input: L818okk.j] | |
| 2001-08-29 | jlw | 1 pick and 1 in support for the work today [Input: L829jlw2.j] | |
| 2001-09-02 | jlw | began to wrap up loose ends of A15 south. Things to be done include preparation of templates and completion of the view log. [Input: L902jlw.j] | |
| 2001-09-05 | jlw | continued to work on preparing view descriptions for kiln photographs. [Input: L905jlw.j] | |
| 2001-09-06 | jlw | did minor trim and cleanup work at the site. [Input: L906jlw.j] | |
| 2001-09-13 | jlw | spent the last several days cross-checking features and feature descriptions to assure that the global record will be complete. This journal contains descriptions for 4 additional features that arose out of that review. [Input: L913jlw.j] | |
| 2002-10-07 | jw | in a continuing review of the documentation available at Tell Mozan that may assist in the compilation of the A15 global record, jw found sketches that had not been scanned. Ten sketches from MZ14 were assembled, uniformly numbered, and scanned into the record (W15a). [Input: Mx07jw.j] | |
| 2003-07-20 | ms | got two new shovelmen, Jawan and Muhammad. Continued going down in all loci. [Input: N720MS.j] | |
| 2003-07-21 | ms | No specific new strategy. Continue going down in all loci as yesterday. We have 3 less workmen, Faris, Suleiman and Muhammad H all went to Qatna with the Germans. There may also be a problem with the relays of some to the q-lots because there was a lot of activity and lf and ii got a little behind and confused. Will continue looking a MZ14 books to find correlation of features still extant. [Input: N721MS.j] | |
| 2003-07-23 | ms | continue as usual going down in all loci. bwp gave us new points [Input: N723MS.j] | |
| 2003-07-27 | ms | two new dirt removers. Continue large scale dirt removal. Had conversation with mkb about connections between stone platforms, sherd floors, pebble streets of MZ14 and current a34 and w f413. She suggested jo do a sketch of this. [Input: N727MS.j] | |
| 2003-07-28 | ms | meeting with gb, fab, mkb, jo, jw, ms. Continue with trench in k15 but also dig across in levels which will have different feature numbers. Continue removing kiln waste in k13, k14. Keep looking for transition with ph5, ph4 and ph3. Discussion about phases. k5 a34 is ph3, k15 is ph4 and k14 and k13 is currently ph5 material coming down right onto ph3, most likely. Primary concern is still how the kiln waste and kilns were cut, into what were they cut and where are the relationships now. We are getting close to this area now so are paying particular attention in k14 and k13. [Input: N728MS.j] | |
| 2003-07-29 | ms | ms spent much of the day drawing section of n baulk of k13 and k13 prior to tearing it down. Muhammad Omo assemble protection for a34 in k5. We covered it with bags of dirt, then built up the perimeter with cement blocks. Then put a layer of poles across the blocks and covered it all with a sheet of hard plastic. This should protect the jars during baulk removal. [Input: N729MS.j] | |
| 2003-07-30 | ms | we took down the e baulk of k5 and the n baulk of k13 and k3. We used all the workmen of A15, A12 and A14. ms went to the house at 8am and spent the rest of the day doing work on the computer. [Input: N730ms.j] | |
| 2003-07-31 | ms | each morning will will uncover the jar installation, a34 so that the photographer can document how we are coming down in k15 and uncovering the room on that side, we hope. ms mapped more of A15 to include old installations of MZ14. Began laying out squares to ne, A17. [Input: N731MS.j] | |
| 2003-08-03 | ms | meeting with gb, fab, jo, jw, ms to discuss the overall layout of the area and what we have after recent excavations. We have uncovered a stone/sherd pavement, f467 in k13, which seems to be at the same level as the street and the other stone/sherd pavement, f208. There is red bricky material seen in section in the baulk which is very similar to the melted red brick feature n of the baulk in k2, f476. The new stone pavement may represent ph3. We do not seem to have any ph4 in this area. The red brick material in section of a30, the kiln, may be a wall or not. There are alrge stones at the ne corner of k3 which go into the baulk. These may be froundation ston for a wall. They seem to be in line also with possible wall, f471 in k13. Ph4 is well documented in k15. [Input: N803MS.j] | |
| 2003-08-04 | ms | keep going down in all areas including new excavations in k2. [Input: N804MS.j] | |
| 2003-08-06 | ms | we took overhead photos towards the end of the day so work stopped early to clean the area. [Input: N806MS.j] | |
| 2003-08-07 | ms | ms spent most of the day in the house. Bruna Mariani, bM, will join the A15 team in the mornings, from 5-9. Stopped work at 12:15 because today is payday. [Input: N808MS.j] | |
| 2003-08-11 | jw | work in k15, k14, k13 and k3 continued from the previous day. The baulk between k12 and A17k2 needs to be removed to test the hypothesis that there is evidence for a Phase 5d Khabur settlement in A17. [Input: N811jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-12 | jw | work continued in k2, k12, k14 and k15 from the provious day. Except for the work in k12, we are removing accumulations atop what we believe to be Phase 3 and Phase 3 uses of the palace. Accumulations in k14 and k15 have been either bounded or capped, so the pottery is being carefully segregated and analyzed. In k2, we are clearing debris and surface accumulations from a floor which was made from the dense reddish brown clay commonly found in roofed palace rooms that have previously been excavated. [Input: N812jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-13 | jw | we began to systematically remove measured and numbered pieces of the possible plaster face of what we beleive to be a fallen wall f489 in k2. There, we also continued to remove accumulation f501 to the south of the brick wall face f489. In k3 we continued to clear the earlier floors of recent debris f510. We continued to excavate accumulation f486 from room a36 in k14 and clear the accumulation f491 in k15 which we hypothesize overlays jars similar to those of a34 in k5. In k12 we removed wall f42 and contined to remove the north baulk. gg photographed the southern part of the area with a camera attached to an overhead wire. [Input: N813jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-14 | jw | work continued in all active loci as before. We accelerated the pace in k15 by assigning a pickman trainee. In k14, we contined to excavate carefully because the accumulation f486 has a good chance of being that atop a Phase 2 floor. We finished removing the E baulk of k12 and the workmen returned to excavating A17k2 adjacent to the north. We put our two best pickmen on the project in k2 to remove the plaster surface from fallen wall f489. [Input: N815jw2.j] | |
| 2003-08-16 | jw | work continued in k2, k14, and k15. In k2, we finished identifying which sectors of f489 had the plaster coating and removed three to the conservation laboratory for cleaning. In k14, three pickmen worked to excavate f486 more quickly. In k15 we identified a wall that possibly bounded the room on the east where the large storage jars were found in k5 to the west. [Input: N816jw2.j] | |
| 2003-08-17 | jw | work continued in k2, k14, and k15. In k2 we removed more sectors of fallen wall 489 which appear to have a plaster surface. In k14, we continued to excavate the possible Phase 2 room, but we changed feature numbers of accumulations above the anticipated floor due to the fact that it became cleaner and contained more whole ceramic vessels and fewer sherds. We also found the east face of the the N-S companion to wall f483, which bounds the room to the north. In k15, we removed the last remnants of the fill of a deep, late phase pit, and began to excavate the accumulation f521 which is bounded to the east by wall f508 and which is expected to overlay additional component jars to those in a34, just to the west. Worked in the afternoon with a six-man crew to finish this task. We continued to remove the accumulation to the east of wall f508, which is relatively soft compared to f521. In the early morning we deployed the train crew to assist Muhammad Omo in building a berm to the east of A15 to keep winter rains from washing over the east baulk and down into the deep excavation. [Input: N817jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-18 | jw | today was an active one in k5, k15, k14, k2, k3, and k93. Our overall goal was to begin to clarify the separation between Phase 3 and Phase 2 architecture, since it is beginning to appear as if the people in Phase 3 either partially maintained the Simple Ware tradition or re-used the inventory left over from Phase 2. Comparing the excavations in k2 and in k14, it appears as if the Phase 3 walls were either brick or pise founded on small stones and sherds and coated with red plaster, while Phase 2 walls were a combination of a lower section of large stones topped by courses of red mudbrick. We found the east face of N-S wall f520. It was damaged by pits and to some degree by excavators unaware of its composition who were looking for bricks. A line of red plaster clearly defines the east face. In k3 and k93 we excavated gray and red accumulation in an attempt to clarify the Phase 2 architecture there which had been severely damaged by reuse in later phases. In k2, we began to seek a Phase 2 floor which we could expect to lie to the south of wall f492/f494, whose stones were clearly coated with plaster having a white surface. Not only did we see about 20 cm of this plaster on the west face of the N-S wall, we also appear to see the intersecting north face of an adjoining E-W wall. In addition, they appear to contain a grayer accumulation. In k14 we continued to excavate the accumulation f518 within a room enclosed by walls on three sides. [Input: N818jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-18 | ms | removed jars from installation a34 [Input: N818MS.j] | |
| 2003-08-19 | jw | this was a busy day in all loci except k1, k11 and k12. We cleaned for an important series of photographs that documented the completion of most of the excavation in k15, k14, and k13. Also we took overhead photos by wire of the wall f214 to be used in an experiment to draw directly from a photograph registered to the grid with AutoCAD using Freehand. We removed a number of additional jars of the a34 collection in k5. We reached the floor f534 in k14 and we feel certain that, along with walls f457, f483, and f520 they define a room a36 that was in use in either Phase 3 or Phase 2 or both. We began to remove wall f214 in k4 and hope to finish it tomorrow. In k3 we removed more of the debris surrounding the burial a37. We took overhead photos of the remains i295 superimposed on a provenience square so that it can be drawn later using Freehand. In k2 we finished removing the plaster coating i479 on the fallen wall face f489 and began excavating the accumulation f532 below, which is probably the debris from brickwork behind the face. We also found what may be a floor f535 which goes with wall f528 and wall f536 (a38). jw took a series of elevations to assist in anticipating the levels of floors in various phases of architicture that we are excavating. [Input: N819jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-20 | jw | today we finished excavating the room a36 in k14, having reached a serviceable floor. In k5, we tentatively finished excavating the room a39 in k5, having located the south, east and west boundary walls as well as a stone threshold on the north side. No floor surface was reached, but we stopped at the elevation where last of the cache of jars a34 was located. In k4, we excavated around and within the space enclosed by the walls of platform f214. There was no discernable west wall, the north wall appears to be made of mudbrick, the south wall appears to be made of stone founded on dirt, and the east wall apperars to be made of stone, founded on large stones. [Input: N820jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-21 | jw | the day was incredibly busy, as we attempted to identify and clarify the locations of stone founded Phase 2 and Phase 3 walls amid the debris from weathering, re-use and pit intrusion. We began to remove platform f214 which is the focus of our attention. We removed sherd streets which lay to the east and south of the platform. We excavated the material contained by the north, east and south walls, reaching the level of a floor comprised of several baked bricks laid on crumbly red packing. We removed the north wall which was made of inferior bricky material overlaid upon sherds. In the interior, we reached lines of large stones underneath the surface cover on the east and south sides. Clearly they demark the SE corner of a room and the fact that the baked bricks are at the same elevation as the floor of room a35 probably links the two. We excavated in the NE corner of k3 to look for wall foundations/stone components. We found what appears to be the corner stones for f520 and the west end of E-W wall f547, whose deteriorated brick top we had seen in section in the N baulk. We contined to excavate the accumlation under the wall fall in k2. Among the significant finds were a fish carved from bone and a tablet containing a floor plan, probably for part of the palace. We continued to probe the NW corner of k93 to see if the line of stones f537 was founded and if so, what the relationship with the wall system might be. [Input: N821jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-22 | jw | the fast pace of work in a confined area continued. gb, ms and jw discussed the probable phasing of the platform and its floor in k4, agreeing that it was almost surely Phase 3 architecture which covered Phase 2 walls and floors associated most likely with the formal palace entrance. We began to completely remove the platform and leveled and scraped the area to the north between the platform and the accumulation above the floor south of the massive fallen wall in k2. This revealed a large floor of unbaked brick. In the accumulation above this floor was an impression of an Uqnitum seal, indicating that the floor is more than likely associated with Phase 2. We began to explore the area to the west of the platform where we encountered a N-S line of deeply founded stones. To the north of the platform we began to excavate accumulations beneath the later sherd streets that we removed yesterday. Several excellent seal impressions were found here and we contined to define the west face of the adjacent N-S wall that forms part of the Phase 3 room, a36. In k93, we continued to try to determine the organization of deeply founded stones separated by a gap that could be wall damage caused by the digging of a later phase pit. In k2 we contined to explore for the Phase 2 floor which we have always expected to find under the brickfall. Today, near the damaged wall where the tablet was found yesterday, we found portions of what had been a finished floor. [Input: N822jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-23 | jw | today we focused on finding the extent and the boundaries of the brick pavement f558 discovered yesterday in k3. To that end we continued to remove the remnants of later phase platforms f214 and f208, as well as the accumulations between the east side of platform f214 and the west face and foundation of wall f520. We also removed the east "wall" of the platform. As we excavated in the area to the east of platform we discovered foundation stones for another wall underneath and aligned more easterly than the foundation stones for f520. In k4 we removed several large stones that overlaid part of the burial a40 and removed the rest of the human remains. An intact Khabur pot was found in a corner that had been covered by the stone. In k3 we continued to excavate the accumulation that overlays the damaged plaster floor of room a41. In k94 we continued to search for the foundation stones for walls on the north edge of the locus. At the end of the day we began to clear accumulation away from the large collection of stones in the southern part of k4. A small workforce under the direction of Muhammad Omo will continue to clean and remove debris from atop those stones. In addition, they will remove the chuwals that served as steps for removing dirt as well as the spoils from the last half hour of excavation today. [Input: N823jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-24 | jw | today the work focused on clarifying several remaining issues. First, we cleared several small patches of accumulation from the edges of the brick pavement f558. Next we excavated west of N-S wall f520 to trace its foundations and determine its relationship with the offset line of stones f539 directly below. As we moved north, we explored for the next lowest layer of stones on the east side of E-W wall f550, whose top stones had apparently been robbed in antiquity. We found that the bottom stones of f550 abutted the offset line of stones. We also needed to find the southern face of wall f550, the north face having already been found during the removal of platform f214. Careful cleaning revealed that f550 is approximately 180cm wide. We finished clearing the accumulation f553 from the floor of a41 and explored the eastern extent of wall f528 as seen against the north baulk of k13 and k3. We also removed two unfounded stone strucures, f568 and f569. This afternoon Muhammad Omo supervised a crew that removed the large unfounded stones of f537, which were an obvious later Phase addition. [Input: N824jw.j] | |
| 2003-08-25 | jw | Ken Garrett, the photographer for NG was on hand to take a series of pictures of the jar cache, a34. Muhammad Kher 1 exposed a patch of fist-sized pebbles f574 in k3 that may be the southern passage between N-S wall f528 in k2 and a possible northward extension of N-S wall f520. Masaud exposed a platform f575 made of large flattened stones that do not seem to be founded. The other workmen thoroughly cleaned all loci, including k12 and k11, in preparation for a series of photographs that will continue for about a week. [Input: N825jw2.j] | |
| 2003-08-26 | jw | ms and jw worked at home to finish the stratigraphic assignment of all features before ms departed for the US at 0730. gb reviewed it with jw and approved it with minor changes in phase assignments. Stef misunderstood some preliminary instructions about when to remove the accumulation surrounding the plaster face of N-S wall f528 in k2. (It was a project that was being saved for real-time photography.) He performed the task during the period when ms and jw were not at the site. He recovered two seal impressions, i338 and i339. Fortunately, sb was nearby and she assured that relays were taken and that the objects were immediately brought to the house to be processed. [Input: N825jw2.j] | |
| 2004-08-17 | jw | jw described two features, f214 and f426, whose q-lots are being analyzed in connection with the visit of Dr. Hans-Peter Uerpmann, a paleozoologist, who is studying selected animal bone lots to determine the environment and living conditions during the time the palace was occupied until the tell was abandoned. Specifically, he is looking at what animals were present and how they were used during different phases. Included in this is a search for evidence of when the horse appeared at at Mozan, the bones of which were found in lots associated with these features (which were not described in MZ14 or MZ16.) mkb is analyzing the pottery from these features to determine their phase. Also, jw described a fragment of a zoomorphic vessel. Finally lr, in her comprehensive review of skeletal remains found one lot, previously thought to contain human bones, consisted entirely of animal bones. It will be re-labeled and returned to proper storage. [Input: O817jw.j] | |
| 2004-08-18 | jw | mkb analyzed the pottery from features 214 and 426, in which Prof. Uerpmann found horse bones. Both had sherds that were tentatively associated with Phase 3. [Input: O818jw.j] | |
| 2002-10-09 | jw | took hardness measurements with a soil penetrometer on elements of the platform in k12 and k13 that were south of the kilns, a30 and a31. At the end of last season, it was postulated that the hard, dense material along the north and west edges was either clay in a varigation tank or was alkaline kiln ash that had been dumped near the kiln. However, observation this year (2002), after weathering, lead to a different conclusion. Now, it appears as if the platform may be the northwestern corner of a room of a building whose walls had been constructed of pise and mudbrick. There is a sharp contrast between the hard outer material (which has linear interior edges) and the soft accumulation contained within. Also, there is a patch of very soft, fine ashy material in the SW corner, which may be the fill of a pit that was dug into the accumulation. The pise walls are a minimum of 30cm thick (the outside edges had been cut during excavation) and appear to be founded on a floor surface, the details of which may be revealed by analysis of the ceramics conained within the accumulation. [Input: ZH823jW.j] |
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