.bk J02
.fl P814mH.j
.fd daily journal
.rd P814
.ri mH
.ed P814
.ei mH

-eq The elevator in k100 broke after breakfast. The soil we had excavated in that unit was very moist and it seems that it cloged the elevator and broke it. The men had to lift the elevator out of unit in order for Ammar to try to fix it. fAB and gB emphasized that elevators should run whether we have a trailor underneath or not.

-wk Fahed left before noon with gB's permission. 

-mk We removed marker m4030. bP gave us contol points in k4. These are m4080, m4081, and m4082.

-sg Before breakfast we had a tell tour the purpose of which was to explain the relationship of current excavations in relation to the stratigraphy of temple structures on top of the oval. Excavations in J2 during the last season and the season currently underway had changed gB's interpretation of the temple stratigraphy. These excavations suggest that there was indeed a second millennium temple above the terrance although the early excavations by the temple revealed only very faint traces of it.

-mt In the morning gB, fAB, and mKB came to visit the unit. Based on their suggestion we started separating pottery bagged by Massum in k101, the pickman, and the pottery discovered in the sifter even if they come from the same pick run. This change was done so that we can observe how big a different sifting makes compared to just collecting pottery during excavation and dirt removal. We also decided that rather than tossing the dirt from k101 up with buckets to the sifter, we would alternate with dirt coming from k13 and use the elevator.

k 13
dy We started by removing the northern half of the unit (q450). After excavating this and cleaning the surface we noticed that the soil changed color. It became clearly browner, it had small pebbles, gypsum, ash and charcoal as inclusions. We labelled this feature as f171. After excavating the first qlot (q455) within this feature, we noticed that the ash and charcoal concentrations became more pronounced and there was more of it. We also found a stone close to the SE corner of the excavation area. And, in the spaced formed by the stone and the corner of walls f128 and f127, we found a deposit of pot sherds positioned vertically rather than lying flat horizontally. They also seemed to form a circle. These aspects of the deposit made us suspect that this might be one complete pot. We thus gave these sherds its own q-lot number (q461). We marked this qlot for mKB to take a look at. At her suggestion we also marked the q-lot above this (q455) for her because it might contain pieces belonging to the possible pot. q-lot q455 also produced a sealing q455.1. This sealing was uncovered very soon after seal impression q458.1 was discovered in k101. Until this point we had had a large floating stone right in the middle of the unit. We relayed it and gave it a feature number (f175), and after breakfast we took a picture of it in situ (v85), the ash deposit south of the stone in the NE corner (v85a) and the possible pot in the corner (v85b). After removing the stone (f175) and the pedestal on which it rested (f176), we took another picture of the whole unit (v85c). The pedestal contained a layer of ash and charcoal. Its elevation was m3965 +112 -147 = 89.26m. During the removal of qlot q455 and especially qlot q462, the latter of which followed the removal of the floating stone (f175), we found several tannur pieces although we did not recover a tannur in situ. At the end of the day, after removing q462 a heavy concentration of ash, charcoal and organic matter was exposed to south of the stone and abutting f127. We also found a door socket stone. 
ar Tannur pieces, ash, charcoal, and bone found in f171 suggest that this feature has something to do with kitchen/cooking activities. At first we thought that this feature would relate to f150 located in k4, but f150 is still 30cm lower than the elvation we are at currently in k13.

k 101
dy We started by removing soil in the northern half of the unit that was left higher at the end of the day yesterday. The pottery noticed and baged below is contained in q449 whereas the pottery recovered by the sifter is contained in q454. We removed the column under the tent pole in the NW corner of the area (f172 q456). We did not mark this pottery with the blue ribbon used for pottery coming from the column, since it contains material from several features. After the last pick run we noticed that the soil had changed characteristics. It was now browner, it contained pebbles, animal bone, pottery sherds etc. We labeled this feature as f174. This corresponds to the feature f171 in k13. The first q-lot excavated in this feature was q458, the corresponding q-lot at the top was q459. While cleaning the surface the unit after pick run contained in q458, we found a seal impression. Because we did not know its exact location, we were unable to make it into an item, but made it a q-item (q458.1) instead. The next pair of q-lots excavated was q463 and q464 of which q464 was by the sifter.   

.ed P815
k 5
dy We started the day by removing the remaining part of northern baulk, which was still above the 90 m elevation level (f160 q451 and q465). We changed the feature into f177 once we started excavating the baulk below the 90 m level. We excavated q-lot q469 with this feature number today.
sg Our goal here was to reach the 90 m elevation level and stop everywhere else except the baulk, which we will include into the 88 m level ledge, and 40 cm area just south of the baulk. This 40 cm area will be used for the 2m slope.

k 15
dy We started excavating here today with f168 q452. This q-lot was contaminated only by being exposed during the winter but also the elevator that we had placed here this year and the foot traffic.