.bk A9
.fl L721jlw.j
.fd daily journal for L721
.ei jlw
.ed L721
.rd L721
.ri jlw

-wk 6 picks and 17 in support reported for work. A'lan Hessu and Yassir Hessu were late.  Loaned A'lan Hessu to A10 for dirt removal.

-wk gb asked if we needed more workmen for the final 2 weeks of excavation.  jlw and vp agreed that the present workforce is adequate to complete our work.

-eq gb and jlw agreed that we no longer needed the train and it will be moved to A15.

-eq no tents were put up today. Their absence noticably slowed the pace of work after breakfast.

-sg in a meeting on L720 with gb, vp and jlw, we decided to stop digging in the easternmost loci, k15 and k25 in order to better preserve for future excavation the very large walls that appear in the SE corners of each near the surface.  We will continue to dig in k24 to find the first level of major architecture, which may now be appearing along the southern edge of the north baulk in the NE quadrant.  We will concentrate our attention, instead, on the major walls and floors now appearing near the surface in the northernmost loci, k41, k51, k42, k52, k43, and k53.  The basic idea will be to trace the major walls, which are up to 4 meters thick, to help define the structures to which they belong. 

k 25
dy continued to look for brickwork, which we expect by analogy to locus 15 to the south. One large wall, f328 is now clearly defined in the SE quarter.  In the NW quarter, below the sherd and pebble layer, f318, was a flat floor surface of fist-sized pebbles, f326, which seems to match in section a similar surface in k24. Between the wall and the floor surface is a very dense, hard accumulation containing bits of charcoal. This is typical of a living accumulation and may be evidence of late scattered occupational use of the site.

k 24
dy continued to look for brickwork as we dig deeper, analagous to that found in k14 to the south.  Began to remove the mud plaster structure, f325.  It is very hard and does not yield easily to the large pick. Unlike accumulations elsewhere in the locus, there are very few sherds. fab said that there were mortar walls similar to this one in A16. Therefore we have tentatively identified this feature as a wall. even though there is no evidence of an accompanying floor surface nearby. The pinkish, clay oval structure, f315, appears to be tapering to a point as we dig around it. There is the possibility that it is the bottom of a small pit that we did not notice as we dug overlaying accumulations, but we have not ruled out other interpretations.

k 41
dy we began clearing the topsoil, f311, from the west side of the locus. There was a large amount of pottery (5 q-lots) in just a few centimeters of cover, including an unusual bowl shape. In the SW quarter, the NE face of a NW to SE line of bricks, f329, appeared at the south baulk and disappeared into the west baulk.

f 320
df w
ds mudbrick wall running N-S on the far western edge of k31. It is linked to the wall complex, a25. The west face is angled such that it is headed to the west as the wall proceeds north, so it will probably disappear into the west baulk in k41 to the north.

f 321
df fa
ds cement plaster floor, more than a centimeter thick in some places in the western half of k52. It is more or less intact to the north, but the southern part has been eroded by water runoff down the slope of the tell.

f 322
df w
ds mudbrick wall that we initially believed ran N-S in the middle of k52. It now appears that it is actually a very large E-W wall that had been cut in the MZ6 step trench excavations. (This phase of construction used bricks that were the same color as the loess deposited by the wind on the tell.) The west side we see as f323 in k51, the east side we see as f322 in k52.  Furthermore, it appears to have been built upon the hard cement plaster floor, f321.

f 323
df w
ds mudbrick wall, that we initially believed ran N-S, in the east third or so of k51. It now appears that it is actually a very large E-W wall that had been cut in the MZ6 step trench excavations. (This phase of construction used bricks that were the same color as the loess deposited by the wind on the tell.) The west side we see as f323 in k51, the east side we see as f322 in k52.  Furthermore, it appears to have been built upon the hard cement plaster floor, f321.

f 324
df fc
ds compacted floor in a section of wall, f322, in the SE quarter of k52. All that remains is a small section about 70 centimeters square. It appears to be a floor that was built and used after final abandonment of the tell.