.bk A09
.fl J615jlw.j
.fd daily journal
.ei jlw
.ed J715
.rd J613
.ri jlw

-sg  when excavation of A9 was suspended at the end of the 1997 season, a test trench, k5, exposed a section of baked brick floor, f84,  that was bounded on the west by a packed earth floor, f82.  These two surfaces may well be associated with the earliest phases of the building.  It is possible that the brick floor was part of an open courtyard that connected major sections of the building.  We know that the kitchen was immediately to the south and connected to A7 by a large doorway.  We postulate that there may have been a similar connection towards a ceremonial area to the west and possibly a residential area to the north or to the east.  k5 probed the middle section of the northern edge of k4, which was formed by combining  k1 and k2, two of the three squares originally excavated.  We now need to follow f84 and f82 south to the kitchen doorway, then east and west to the limits of k4.  Later, we will excavate k3 to follow the floor to the north.

-dy backdirt and plastic sheeting removed by jo in conjunction with other work in A10.  Highest level, f74, very well protected.  Clean and not eroded.  Some algae and silting in pebble floor, f80, as well as f82, 84 and the baulks.

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k 4
dy first day of excavation in A9 in season 12.  Working in f74, resuming exploration to find the extent of the paved brick floor, f84.  Pottery unremarkable, as we are still seeing material carried down form the hill to the north and retained by the major N-S wall A6f76.

sg to manage the findings from such a large locus (combination of two squares k1 and k2) we will divide k4 into 4 quadrants, Q1 thru Q4, roughly equal in size, whose borders run north-south.  Q1 is to the east while Qa  is on the west.  Although we intend to eventually excavate all to the level of first occupation of AK, we will ignore Q4 for the moment to assist in getting dirt to the train which is to the west of k4.  Findings will be separated in to q-lots associated with a particular quadrant.  We plan to work as quickly as practicable to clear f74 (the last locus in k4 excavated in 1997), so that we can reach the level of the f80 and f84 floors.

-wk two large picks and 8 others in support.

.rd J615
.ri jlw

-wk  4 large picks and 14 in support

-dy dirt removal train installed and successfully tested.  In full operation.  Requires about 8 people, including the engineer.

f 74
dy Q3 lies between the f84 floor the door way to the A6 kitchen to the south.  At a depth of  30 cm below the starting 1999 surface, began to find clay lumps.  May be a sign that we are seeing less influence from the wadi to the north and more direct accumulation from the original deposit since we would normally only expect to find stones and sherds, the only thing to survive immersion in the brickmelt generated by water trapped behind the north kitchen wall A6f78.

dy  began to notice scattered reddish blocks of deteriorated brick.  Similar in color to those seen in the north kitchen wall, A6f78.  No apparent organization, but there is an increasingly high concentration of these in the NE corner of Q1.  Designated this concentration as f87.  My first impression is that these are bricks from a fallen wall.