.bk J05
.fl T728jW.j
.fd Daily journal for T728. Feature descriptions and comments
.ei jW
.ed T728
.rd T728
.ri jW

-wk All assigned workmen reported.  After breakfast, Anwar said he was ill.  Detailed him for one half hour to gW for some light work, then gave him permission to go home.

f 213
ds A floor surface of grayish mud, containing pebbles, sherds, and animal bones.  The sherds are pressed flat.  This floor begins as J1f313 to the east of J5 and continues north into J5 for about one meter.  It is bounded on the north by the stones of f184 and on the south by the north face of f204 in k100.

f 216
ds A single isolated, gigantic limestone boulder along the eastern edge of k106.  It is located to the south of stone installation, f184.  It is one of a rough line of five large stones (three in J1 to the east) extending approximately E-W for about 8 meters.  After we moved it off its pedestal we found that floor f213 continued westward underneath.  This indicates that it probably was not a part of the line of the other four and that it came to rest sometime after the floor went out of use.
;tc si f204

f 217
ds A large, isolated boulder along the eastern edge of k106.  It is located to the south of stone installation, f184.  It is the western-most of a rough line of five large stones (three in J1 to the east) extending approximately E-W for about 8 meters.  After we removed it we found that it seems to have rested on a surface containing baqaya, just below the wadi soil, f204.  As we excavate deeper in the coming days we will further explore this phenomenon.

f 218
ds A lens of fine-grained yellowish brown soil seen in a northeast section of k105 after we excavated an ash layer, f215, immediately to the east.  During the pick run on the ash layer from east to west, jW noted a slight color change from brownish gray to yellowish brown.  When the new baulk was cleaned we did not see ash at this elevation.  jW estimates that this lens was about 10 cm thick, about 200 cm in length and about 50 cm wide.
;tc ab f215
;tc ov f74

f 219
ds The volumetric material in a 10 cm-wide section of the north baulk of k105.  It consists in large part of wash from a gulley which ran along the west face of the northwestern part of the revetment wall system.

-sg  The unit staff met with fAB to discuss the strategy for excavating a complex intersection of soil features along the northwest baulk of k104. We wanted to know their relationship since all covered an important feature, the f74 floor which covers the f205 stairs and which abuts the early revetment wall, f41.  We had a choice of excavating the hard one first, the soft one first, or cutting an exploratory trench perpendicular to the baulk.  Since time was limited and the features themselves were not individually important, we decided to excavate the smaller feature of harder soil first.

-sg The unit staff met with fAB and gB to review the strategy for gathering evidence that would help identify when the components of the monumental western staircase, f21; early revetment wall, f41; stairway, f205; and late revetment wall, f3 were built.  The basic strategy is to follow the top step of f205 north.  We expect it to intercept the staircase, f21.  We will then clear the accumulation from an exploratory trench to the west of wall, f41, down to the level of the top step to stairs, f205, and extend it north to the middle of f21.  Then, one will be able to see the wall and stair system as it existed at its construction as well as its later phases of use.

q 801
nv This lot contains pottery recovered from the shafat.  It comes from widely separated features; f204 in k100; f157 in k106; f158 in k106; f214 and f215 in k105.