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2001-08-02 |
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(first part) for the past few days we have been digging below strata 5b in the large khabur hallows that lie underneath the structures a1, a2, and a11 in k1, k2, k5, and k6. We have made three new loci to facilitate digging and q-lot assignment in these loci. k108 includes k2, and k6, k109 inlcudes the northern portion of k1, and k110 includes the southern portion of k1, k5 and the northern baulk of k5. The baulk seperating k2, and k6 was removed on L731 and we have assigned k108 to this whole area. A few features from a2 an a11 have not been removed and these are all located on the eastern portion of k108. f132 the wall running North-South in former k2, and f8 wall running North-South in former k6, and the southern portion of f9 wall running East-West have not been removed and defines the eastern perimeter of k108. These walls in k108 make the locus somewhat narrow. In the western portion of k108 we have left the red material which protudes approximately 60 cm east of the western baulk, which we have interpreted as bricks since a few morter lines and a few white plaster lines have been identified. This red bricky material is difficult to define due to its poor state of preservation and we have left this material to the West in case it is a phase 3 wall. We have also pedastooled the tannur f180 located in the south east corner of k108 and currenlty are 260 cm down from the beginning of the pit. While excavating inside k108 we noticed a clear line forming a circular pattern that we have defined as the cut of the pit/hallow. This cut links all the material in former k2 and k6 below a11, and a2 together since it all belongs to the same pit. This cut is marked very well by a hard compacted reddish brown material that froms no brick shapes just a massive accumulation measuring approximately 50 cm down. The material inside the circle (the fill) peels away easily from the red material and also curves slightly in at the base. [Input: L815LR.j]
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2001-08-02 |
lr |
(second part) The fill inside the circle is gray and brown, softer and full of pottery and bones. We proceeded to excavate the fill first. After 15 cm down the material became browner and 35 cm down we came down on a hard layer of clay, almost fired which was only 5-6 cm in thickness. This material chunked off with the brown material making it difficult to expose the area in its entirety with this clay. We excavated the area in some cases mixing both the brown and the clay together and underneath we hit something hard which we first interpreted as stone since this was the prediction of the courtyard. After cleaning the area we noticed that the material was not stone but fired bricks. The bricks are a pink and yellow collor and cover the bottom of the circle with a drack chunky clay material running North-South in the east. This may be a possible damaged area by the pit cut. After excavating the circle in its entirety we notices large stones forming the same shape as the cut, circular. We then decided to excavate in the southern portion of k105 since we can follow the stones from the pavement in the courtyard to better understand the relationship between the fired bricks and the stone pavement. What we found was that the stones sit ontop of the bricks and we have hypothesized that the stones were cut by the pit since the stones from the pavement form a circular shape and the bricks are below. We have two possible situations, one that the fired bricks are an earlier phase, a pavement under the palace or that the fired bricks are part of a drainage system since it is in line with the drain found in A13, and may continue underneath the eastern portion of the stone pavement. [Input: L815LR.j]
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