.bk J02 .fl P820vVE1.j .fd daily journal J02 .ri vVE .rd P820 .ei vVE .ed P820 -dy Today we continued excavating in k4, k14 and k15 in order to reach their respective goal depths. We stopped excavating in k100 for today because we reached a floor level which is positively associated with the steps of f130 and the other squares were given more priority by gB. Excavation was also started again in k102 where we eventually hope to create a sloping section baulk to increase the safety for the people working in k100. -sf After the 9:00am breakfast mH did not feel very well and decided to stay in the house to work on the computers. sC worked in the house for almost the entire day. k 15 dy One final pick run was done in k15 f193 to make its excavation surface more level. We will stop excavating here because we are now at the level of the next ledge of the stepped section at an elevation of 90. q 544 ds q544 contains the pottery sherds from the same pick run which was started as q538. When removing the dirt the bag of q538 became too full and q544 was created. q 538 ds When removing the dirt from q538 the pottery bag became too full and therefore the rest of the pottery from this lot was collected in q544. k 23 dy Yesterday (P819) we had reached the elevation of 92 m for the first ledge of the stepped section. Now we continued excavating in a smaller area to reach the next ledge at an elevation of 90 m. f 201 ds f201 was opened today although it is the same soil as the overlying f187. It is meant to emphasize that we made the excavation area slightly smaller to leave a ledge for the stepped section. It soon was closed because the soil changed. f 203 ds f203 underlies f201 and consists of a medium soft light red clay. This seems to be a layer of molten brick debris. Some larger pieces of brick are also visible, but no traces of a complete wall. k 4 dy k4 is still excavated on its southern half only: south of stones f144. It still consists of the two different deposits f188 and f189. f 188 ds The brick debris of f188 is changing a little bit in colour. It consists more of grey clay than of red clay. f 189 ds The brick crumble of f189 continues with the same colour and composition. sg Each pick run was given a separate q-lot: q534 and q541. k 102 dy Excavation was continued in k102 in the hope that eventually we might be able to make the work in k100 (the German trench) more safe by having created a stepped or sloping section. k 14 dy Excavation was continued in the northern half of k14. Also the northern part of the east baulk of k14 was removed which showed the continuation of wall f127. At the end the elevator, which was standing in the southern half of k14, was moved to k15 and the top part of the southern half of k14 was removed. The finds from this area might be contaminated with material that was excavated from the other loci. However, it is not very likely to be actually contaminated because we had put a plastic sheet on the surface before we started to remove dirt with this elevator. f 200 sg Excavation of the northern half of k14 continued today with the start of a new feature: f200. ds f200 is much more ashy than the overlying layers. f 202 ds f202 is ascribed to the entire E baulk of k14. sg because the southern half of k14 has not been excavated to the same level yet, f202 was today only excavated in its northern half (q539). Here we found the continuation of wall f127. f 127 ds f127 was seen to continue southwards when f202 (q539) was removed. It consists here of smaller boulders than those usually used in the monumental stairway f130. These stones seem to form a small ledge which is higher than (and thus creates a border to) the first apron f131. It also became more obvious now that f127 (and therefore also f131) do not extend southwards perpendicular from the "oval" wall f128. Instead it runs obliquely slightly to the west. f 204 pr Although the soil was covered with plastic before the elevator was installed, it is still possible that the underlying deposit is contaminated with material from the dirt that was removed with the elevator. f204 is the top 10cm of the southern half of k14. Today only the eastern half of f204 was excavated (q544). q 544 pr There was not enough time to excavate f204 entirely, and therefore q544 is only the eastern half of f204 (i.e. the southeastern quarter) of k14.