Unit Book J4

J4-daily

Processed on 2023-11-19

Date	Author	Record
2006-08-26	sC	Today we started with a general cleaning of all the units in order to take some general views of all the area with the N-S baulks. We then started to remove part of the NS baulk. [Input: Q826SC.j]
2006-08-27	sC	Today we finished to remove the E baulk of k84 and the E baulk of k72. dM took some general views of J4 without the N-S baulks (v33, v34, v34a, v34b, v34c). We also left part of the E baulk of k74 and we used it as a ramp in order to facilitate the removal of the dirt from all the unit. At the end of the day, one elevator has been positioned in k63. We are going to use it tomorrow, while, the elevator located in the dirt pile east to J4 has been working only partially today, due to electricity problems; only few pottery sherds have been recovered from the swifting of the dirt located here. [Input: Q827SC.j]
2006-09-03	sC	Today we started with a general cleaning of all J04 Unit, and then dM took some general views of the whole area (v56, v56a, v56b, v56c). Since yesterday, while removing the baulk, we have also removed all the markers in the central portion of the unit, today bwP assigned new markers in k73 and k63. [Input: Q903SC.j]
2006-09-05	sC	Yesterday in the afternoon the elevator was set up, and today we start collecting the pottery sherds recovered with the swifting of the dirt belonging to the whole excavation area. We collected 5 baskets which have been labeled as q-lots starting from q999 (i.e., q999, q998, q997, q996 and q995, and one item, q995.1) in order to differenciate them from the 'ordinary' q-lots that is possible to link with a determinate feature. [Input: Q905SC2.j]
2006-09-06	sC	today we will have the visit of the Minister of Syrian Culture and a lot of work need to be carry out in J1 as well as in J3. For this reason, we have been working in J4 only for the first half of the morning in J4 with only one team of workmen. All the other workmen have been working in J3. In J4 we only needed to remove a small portion of the N baulk in k84 left from yesterday excavation and to clean the whole unit. [Input: Q906SC.j]
2006-09-12	pC	Today bP took several relays in k83 and k73 (r92-r119). [Input: Q912PC.j]
2006-09-23	sC	Yesterday Katleen Deckers from Tuebingen University, examined some layers within the J area and in J4 Unit as well, in particular in loci k72, k63 and k100 (i.e., f121 and f158). Her study aims to better define the processes that were responsible for the deposition of the natural layers we found within the tell mound and. Katleen Deckers says that in J04 loci k72, k63 and k100 we have layers that can be related with small gully, wash layers and water and wind borne (aeolian) layers. [Input: Q923SC2.j]
2006-10-05	sC	Last week, during the stratigraphy meeting in the field, gB suggested us to clean the portion of the w128 where it abuts the monumental staircase in J2, in order to understand the real realionship between them, i.e. whether w128 is sitting on top of the monumental staircase (as it seems) or is bounded with, etc. In fact, until today, the general understanding of w128 was that: w128 is sitting on the monumental staircase, and thus, that it is a later costruction (to be approximately phased in phase 2-4/5). The last two rows of the stone w128, clearly different in shape and modality of construction, have been always interpreted as a second/later phase, and being part of the re-arrangement of the area where the apron is located occurred in Mittani time. This re-arrangement of the area is cleary visible in the different accuracy of the steps between the lower and upper part of the staircase, by the big stone with a flat surface resting on an accumulation on top of the "primary" apron. The area of contact between w128 and the monumental staircase in J02, was never really investigated up to-date, and therefore on QX03 we start cleaning this portion of J2. Close to the w128 there was also one stone, rolled here probably from the top of the wall or from the secondary Apron. This stone (q168) was abutting w128, disturbing the real perception of the relationship between this wall and the monumental staircase. We took a picture of the stone in place (v92, v92a, v92b), and then we removed the stone and start cleaning the accumlation below the stone, f167, which it is in contact with the monumental staircase. Once we removed f167 and all the dirt accumualted here in the last years we had a completely new picture of the contact between the two structures: w128 is not sitting on the monumental staircase but cleary bound with it. Thus w128 is contemporary to the monumental staircase and is therefore dated to phase 1. We have been always considered less probable the possibility of a bounding bewteen w128 and the monumental staircase because this would have meant that w128 was built in the same period of the revetement wall, and the presence of two wall at the same time was a bit puzzzling. We took several picture in order to document the bounding bewteen w128 and the monumental staircase (v93 and following). [Input: QX05SC.j]