| Date | Author | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-07-15 | fAB | We had a meeting in the field with gB to talk about the strata that we have in A16 and A15. We came to the conclusion that there are 3 sub-phases in phase 5: h5a sees a lot of pit digging by people in structures that we have not seen yet. These can be definitely dated to the Khabur (and so Phase h5) because of the pottery that was found in these pits during the MZ12 and MZ13 seasons. h5b contains the first houses in the area, in particular a2 which sits directly on a pit from h5a. h5c is the latest phase in the area, containing the rebuilding of a8 with the subsequent brickfall, a4. [Input: -M726-A.j] | |
| 2001-06-17 | fAB | We began the second week of excavation today. Today is Sunday, but on Saturday we continued to remove the backfill since the staff could not be present for the whole time. We worked in loci 1-7, coming down quite a bit in k2 k3 and k4. We have several distinct pieces we are working on. k6 contains the earliest structure, a2; work there is limited to scraping the walls and following the floor, which is merely a few centimeters below the level where we stopped work last season. k1 and k5 contain a structure (a1) that is hard to define, a U shaped structure with three walls that do not bond with each other, in fact the rows of bricks with which the walls were created do not even seem to bond with themselves: vertical cracks are visible from the top that go through several courses of bricks. This is the most complex question for the moment in A16: the stratigraphic situation within a1 and the connection to the cut and brickfall that is in k1. k2, k3 and k4 are all in topsoil layers, and we are coming quickly down to the brickfall that is present in k1 and k6 and seems to continue under these northern loci. Lastly k7: here we have immediately the brickfall we are expecting in k2,k3 and k4, with no topsoil. In the southern portion of the square there is even no brickfall: we see the faces of three walls (a3), beautifully plastered. The rooms open to the south, so A15 can expect to find walls relating to the same structure, but there may be a doorway, so there may be further rooms of the same structure under k7. k7 slopes up to the N sharply: could this be an indication of the Tell rising under a3, or large, well preserved portions of a3? [Input: L617FAB.j] | |
| 2001-07-08 | MISSING | continued to remove the remaining brickfall throughout k105, k106, k3 and k5. In a6, the box structure, 80 cms has been excavated inside. The fill of the box contains broken bricks, pottery, and animal bones. The northern face shows clear brick faces with a mud plaster coating. The faces suggest a vaulted shape inside the structure. The brickfall to the west of the structure was also excavated which exposed a clearer view of the platform at the base of the box structure that protrudes one brick and a half west of the box. [Input: L707SVQ.j] | |
| 2001-07-08 | lR | continued to remove the remaining brickfall throughout k105, k106, k3 and k5. In a6, the box structure, 80 cms has been excavated inside. The fill of the box contains broken bricks, pottery, and animal bones. The northern face shows clear brick faces with a mud plaster coating. The faces suggest a vaulted shape inside the structure. The brickfall to the west of the structure was also excavated which exposed a clearer view of the platform at the base of the box structure that protrudes one brick and a half west of the box. cI has drawn the north section of k3 and began drawing k4 north section. [Input: L708LR.j] | |
| 2001-07-25 | lR | yesterday we restrung the baulks of k1, k2, k5, and k6 in order to go down in these areas. We are currently the deepest in k6 since we began excavating this locus a few days ago. We are calling the material below a2 a pit, the same pit that we see in A12 North section that extends to the east in A15. This material contained approx 20cm of interface that changed to gray ashy fill. In k5, we have another pit under a1. We have removed all of a1 except for the portion within the north baulk. The material under this aggregate is the interface between accumulation of the structure and the beginning of the pit which is also seen in A12 North section. In k1, we are also excavating and predict that this will be the most time consuming and slowest area since in the east section of A10 we see layers of sherd and pebble floors going down. we are leaving the wall in the North-West corner to see if it continues down. In k2 we are excavating the whole locus West of the wall feature ??. This area contains large amounts of pottery in comparison to k6, k5, and k1 which is within a brown-gray matrix and is most likely the same pit as k6. The sherds contained no pattern and were not positioned in a way to suggest that it was a pavement or floor. [Input: L724SV.j] | |
| 2001-08-01 | lR | Continuing excavating in the west of k5, extending it to 6 meters. Three new loci were created k108, k109, k110. In k110 removed the foundation stones from a1. In k108 we still have not reached the stone pavement and are deeper than 8500 which is the elevation of the pavement of A13. We decided to pound in a metal shish to see if the stones underneath and found that the shish hit something hard. The metal shish was pounded in at the elevation of 8498 and we believe to hit something by the next 25-30 cm. [Input: L801LR.j] | |
| 2001-07-23 | sV | The find of Khabur pottery inside the pit in k5 helps us to better understand the situation in terms of chronology of the whole area A16. The Khabur sherds from the pit would belong to the phase 5a which is below the floor f29 of the structure a2. This belongs to the phase 5b (a2) and seems to be the only well preserved structure of this phase. The other structures to the west of a2 shows a more complicated situation. The North wall of this house f7 appears to be on a slint basement which fAB believes to belong to the phase 5b, contemporary to the large stone components f118 aligned with the north wall to the East of it and supposed to be the basement of an earlier wall then destroyed (still in the phase 5b). fAB suggests that the reddish accumulation above the stones of the wall f7, a sort of fill between those and the bricks above, could belong to the following phase 5c similerly to the floor f51 and the accumulations above f50 and f24 within a1. Outside the house, we have to the North a series of three floors whose the upper one shows many inclusions of pebbles and sherds and can be associated to the stone basement of the South side and to the wall f114 on the North side of the locus. The floors are probably associated to an open area as the irregularity and the slope westward of their surface show. Above the wall which represents the North-West boundary of this outside area we can see a 30cm reddish accumulation at the bottom of the wall f114 to be attributed to phase 5c. [Input: L801LR.j] | |
| 2001-07-23 | sV | To the west a series of accumulations (cut by a pit f149 next to the north east corner of a1) included between the North wall of a2 f10 and the wall f132 appearing in the East part of locus k2, which we supposed to come still from phase 5b since they lie underdeath the ashy layer f22=f33 k6. This layer appears also on the top of the phase 5b east wall of a2. Some questions are not yet solved with regard to the a1 structure. The South wall appears to be consisting of two walls. The external one which we labelled f142 would seem to be bonded with the first wall f4 whereas the interneal one f5 shown a kind of bond with either of next walls. This wall is 70cm ends like one ethier buutress in wall distinguishable next to the north wall f7. At this moment we are removing slowly and accurately the courses of the bricks from each wall to bring to light the actual relationship between those walls and the floors below f50 and f51. [Input: L801LR.j] | |
| 2001-07-30 | sV | Removed f138 c1,c2,c3. This feature is associated to f136 the wall East-West in k2 and to the basin f137, consisting of three limestone door sockets irregular in shape. C1: northern door socket measuring 33x20x15cm C2: middle door socket measuring 31x22x19cm C3: southern door socket meauring 24x14x16cm [Input: L801LR.j] | |
| 2001-08-02 | lr | today we are cleaning the area and sections since it is the last day of excavation. In k110 we have quit excavating in this area since it is too large and will not reach the stone pavement and have concentrated all our efforst to exposing the stones in k109 and the northern portion of k108. k109 is two meters in width and at the end of the day we hit stones which extend throughout the entire locus. The elevation of the stones in k109 is 8486. In k108 we removed portions of the western red bricky material since we could not identify any clear brick lines to make the western section straight. A ceramic vessel was found in the north portion of k108 in the western area, black overfired jar in poor state of conservation. The jar was sitting upright in this bricky red material. It was triangulated and removed in pieces since it is so overfired that it fell apart easily. While removing the vessel, small bones were noticed inside which may belong to an infant or a small animal, likely a small animal since the bones are rather small but it has been defined as a burial and treated as one. [Input: L815LR.j] | |
| 2001-08-02 | lr | For the past few days we have been digging below Phase 5b in the large Khabur hollows that lie underneath the structures a1, a2, and a11 in k1,k2,k5, and k6. We have made three new loci to facilitate digging and q-lot assignment. Locus k108 includes k2, and k6; locus k109 includes the Northern portion of k1; and locus k110 includes the Southern portion of k1, k5 and the Northern baulk of k5. [Input: L815LR.j] | |
| 2001-08-02 | lr | In the Northern portion of k108 we hit stone pavement at an elevation of 8491. The brick pavement f194 is at 8470 and to the South the stone pavement is at 8503. The stone pavement continues to slope South to North and again down from East to West since k108 is higher than k109. In the Southeast part of k108, the pot smash i48 has been removed but some of the pot extended into the baulk and has been left in place. We decided to remove this pot smash since it sits on top of the stone pavement and would most likely suffer further damaged and lost if left in place until next season when we remove the baulk. [Input: L815LR.j] | |
| 2001-08-02 | lr | While excavating the large pit a13 we hit baked bricks instead of the anticipated stone courtyard. These bricks lie under the stone courtyard, seen by the cut f189 of the pit a13, which removed the stones, and left exposed the bricks f194 below. [Input: L815LR.j] | |
| 2001-07-23 | sV | Outside a1 we have to the North a series of three floors. The upper floor shows many inclusions of pebbles and sherds and can be associated to the stone foundation of the South side and to the wall f114 on the North side of the locus. The floors are probably associated to an open area as the irregularity and the slope westward of their surface show. Above the wall which represents the North-West boundary of this outside area we can see a 30cm reddish accumulation at the bottom of the wall f114 to be attributed to phase 5c. To the West a series of accumulations (cut by a pit f149 next to the North-East corner of a1) included between the North wall of a2 f10 and the wall f132 appearing in the east part of locus k2, which we supposed to come still from phase 5b since they lie underneath the ashy layer f22=f33 k6. this layer appears also on the top of the phase 5b east wall of a2. [Input: L818LR.j] | |
| 2001-07-30 | lR | removed f138 c1,c2,c3. This feature is associated with f136 (the wall running E-W in k2) and to the basin f137. [Input: L818LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-03 | lR | Today we opened up A16 for season MZ15 and began by removing backfill and scraping the entire area to eliminate the outer coating of soil caused by the winter rains. We met with gB early this morning to discuss the strategy for excavations in A16. We decided to string up new loci for k110 and have included a small square part to the west of k110 that was A10. This small square is now k201 and k110 will include k202, k203, k204, k205, k206, and k207. The East section of k110 will also become new loci k208,k209 and the area that protrudes out of the section k108 next to the tannur f180 will be k210. [Input: M903LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-04 | MISSING | Today we continued to excavate the east baulk of k110, which we have assigned k209. We finished excavating it completely to the level of k110, which was a good 90 cm below the top of the baulk. In the afternoon we began to excavate k208 the northern portion of k110 east baulk. We also excavated i83 the burial jar out of the soil since we did not want to leave it overnight. [Input: M904LR2.j] | |
| 2002-09-07 | MISSING | The main concentration today was on the cleaning of the entire A16 lower area. We still do not know when phase 4 begins so we are placing our efforts into cutting back the sections to expose a fresh face to see the layers and by leveling the upper surface of the area to see if there are any pits in view. These pits are extremely important to remove before excavating the material around it since we are assuming these pits are Khabur and may contaminate the area if not removed. The loci were surveyed in by bp and include relay numbers r307-r325. The burial a18 was also completely articulated and drawn by flp and photographed by gg. [Input: M907LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-18 | lR | This morning we prepared for the overhead photographs of the entire lower A16 area. These photographs are important for they show the beginning of the red in the area which is phase 4. We spent the morning cleaning the area and used a water bottle to spray down the red areas. A test of this procedure was done the day before and found that the red shows better when when. The overhead camera was used along with the slide camera. A total of 60 photographs were taken of the area. [Input: M919LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-19 | lR | yesterday a potsmash was uncovered while removing the last 10cm of red material ontop of the stones. We are referring to it as a potsmash since there are several sherds from the same vessel lying right on the stone pavement suggesting they were smashed. The sherds were triangulated today and we will keep them in situ. [Input: M919LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-19 | lR | yesterday we uncovered an item which we have called a potsmash. This vessel does not contain any base nor rim and consists of large fragments of thick pottery. They were all found lying face (outside) down. We triangulated this item then photographed in relation to the burnt area to the east and the stone pavement to the north. It was removed this morning. [Input: M919LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-19 | lR | today we continued removing the red layer, which covers the entire area. [Input: M919LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-24 | MISSING | Yesterday was the last day of full excavations and today we just have a few workmen to excavate the sections that were not finished yesterday. It took all day to remove the east and north sections in 10cm increments but did expose the entire stone courtyard today. The east section revealed a clay installation f328 a few cm above the stone pavement. This first appeared as a tannur but after cleaning the area it was found to have several holes in line inside this feature. It was cleaned and the conservator will consolidate it and remove it. We left a section to show it's relationship to the pavement and the matrix around it, photographed it then removed the section leaving f328 ontop of the pavement. The phase sequence of this installation is still in question and most likely falls into phase 4 similar to the tannur found ontop of the stone pavement in A13. The pit f250 continued to go down with the same black ashy fill as yesterday. It was completely excavated and reached 162 cm below the level of the stone pavement. Inside this pit is an interesting situation with a layer of baked bricks below and some that are vertically placed. The baked bricks are in line, orange in color, and appear to slope downward. The fill of the pit continued to yield a number of interesting items, pottery, and figurines. Taking relays was somewhat problematic since the relay rod is not that long and therefore a long thin wooden board was placed under the rod vertically then measured. It is unclear how accurate these measurements will be, regardless these items are located inside a pit and have no stratigraphic context except for being in a pit. [Input: M924LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-24 | MISSING | Yesterday was the last day of full excavations and today we just have a few workmen to excavate the sections that were not finished yesterday. It took all day to remove the east and north sections in 10cm increments but did expose the entire stone courtyard today. The east section revealed a clay installation f328 a few cm above the stone pavement. This first appeared as a tannur but after cleaning the area it was found to have several holes in line inside this feature. It was cleaned and the conservator will consolidate it and remove it. We left a section to show it's relationship to the pavement and the matrix around it, photographed it then removed the section leaving f328 on top of the pavement. The phase sequence of this installation is still in question and most likely falls into phase 4 similar to the tannur found on top of the stone pavement in A13. The pit f250 continued to go down with the same black ashy fill as yesterday. It was completely excavated and reached 162 cm below the level of the stone pavement. Inside this pit is an interesting situation with a layer of baked bricks below and some that are vertically placed. The baked bricks are in line, orange in color, and appear to slope downward. The fill of the pit continued to yield a number of interesting items, pottery, and figurines. Taking relays was somewhat problematic since the relay rod is not that long and therefore a long thin wooden board was placed under the rod vertically then measured. It is unclear how accurate these measurements will be, regardless these items are located inside a pit and have no stratigraphic context except for being in a pit. [Input: M924LR.j] | |
| 2002-09-09 | lR | Today we continued removing k210, which we have termed "the pillar" since it, is a long column of soil left from last season. We have concentrated the majority of our efforts into removing this pillar, which requires an increase in dirt removal slowing excavations in the other loci. Yesterday the khabur structure that was the highest level was removed and today the entire ashy pit fill was excavated leaving the material that the pit a17, a13 cut as the current elevation. We plan to stop at the red below, which is approx 30 cm leaving a 10cm buffer zone between the two layers. [Input: N304LR2.j] |
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