Mid season assessment in 2001

Federico Buccellati – July 2001

Review of current situation
Tasks ahead
Brick sizes
Phases

Review of current situation

These past 10 days have seen the removal of most of the baulks in A16. We felt that the sections, once drawn, were only showing brickfall, and therefore could be removed in order to show the 20m N section which would help us link a1 and a5, the house in k5 and the wall with the drain in k4. As things now stand, we have removed most of the brickfall and have pieces of structures in most squares.

k1 has what may be the oldest material as yet uncovered in A16, a floor with no walls connected to it. k2 and k3 have a very puzzling structure, a6. This, which we call the ‘box’ for lack of a clearer understanding of the nature of this structure, seems to be vaulted, as a tomb might be, but with plaster at the base. More excavation will tell what this structure is and what its link to the surrounding area might be. In k4 we have the drain and wall, a5, which seem to be among the latest structures in A16 since the brickfall a4 abuts it but does not cover it. k8 and k7 contain the walls of a3, which we have given to A15 to excavate, since most of the structure lies in their area. k6 contains a2, which we have not touched this season, since it was dug by A13 in MZ12, and is the oldest structure in A16.

Tasks ahead

We are presented now with the problem of linking the several aggregates together into a meaningful stratigraphic sequence.

As we understand it now, a2 is the oldest structure that we have, as it sits on the pit in the N section of A13. a2 is clearly below a1, separated by a grey layer. a1 is contemporary with a5 and a3, since all abut but are not covered by brickfall. Questions arise when we look at the differences in elevation: a5 is considerably higher than a1 and a3. This seems to indicate a terracing, which we would expect to result from extended building in the phase of a2.

Brick sizes

Brick size plays a role in our understanding of the strata sequence: a1, a3, a4 and a5 are all built with bricks that are 10cm in thickness: a2 is built with bricks that are only 8cm thick. It is perhaps interesting to note that the bricks in A11 are all 10cm thick as well.

Phases

G. Buccellati prepared a strata assignment (AAsC) in which we can identify the a1, a3, a4, a5 strata as 5c and 5b, while a2 belongs 5a. It is unclear if a6 belongs to any of these phases or if it may even be a tomb that is later than the brickfall that defines the end of 5c.