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Saturday: Clearing the Sand Trench 01: As usual work began at 6:00 by cleaning the surface of all units, which had become obscured by the sand blown in over the Friday break (this had become our regular Saturday habit!). There appeared to be some collapse at the southern area of wall 0010, but overall the wall appeared fairly intact. Just below the small mudbrick wall abutting 0006, we discovered a jar embedded in the sand; it was made of mud and was not complete (the top portion was missing). The mud container was found at a depth of about 20 cm and had an overall round shape with a flat base. Some team members were of the opinion it was used to feed animals (a trough of some kind), while others felt it may have been a container for storing grain.  Trench 02: What we had thought to be fired brick in the kiln feature (unit 0006) turned out to be very coarse pottery, which would also fit in with our theory that this was a kiln site. Even more ash was discovered in the area and formed a definite ring. Another copper-alloy coin was found in the northwest portion of the trench. Much more iron and a few more small pieces of faience were recovered. Sunday: Finding the Walls Trench 01: The greater part of the morning was spent defining the brick fall south of unit 0016 and north of unit 0021. As was mentioned above, these two units probably formed a single wall originally, but because the brick fall was located in a separate soil unit the northern and southern portions of this wall were labeled as two individual units. From what was visible in the ground at this stage, the wall formed by 0016 and 0021 was more or less parallel to 0010, and these were connected by wall 0006; they seemed to form a room, though its use was undetermined at this point. 0019, the brick fall, perhpas marked the doorway to this room, which team member Yusri proposed to function as a temple. The brick fall would have collapsed down from the door frame. Trench 02: In addition to the kiln in the mid-west portion of the trench, another possible kiln feature was uncovered in the southeast corner. This feature however was only partially within the trench; in effect we have a semi-circle uncovered, with the remaining portion uncovered outside the boundaries of the trench. Here, however, the ring was formed clearly with mudbricks in a circular formation. In addition, two mudbrick walls were located in the northwest portion of the trench, the first (unit 0016) running roughly southeast and the other (unit 0017) running parallel to 0016 northeastwards. There was more molten mudbrick in this area, most likely originating from these walls (indeed, the top courses of these walls had dissolved, with individual bricks distinguishable in only a few sections).  Tuesday: Lamp Fragment Trench 01: The proposed storage jar / animal trough was actually more sub-rectangular or sub-cylindrical than rounded. What was uncovered so far formed a right angle with a bit of the base showing; it seemed to be resting up against wall unit 0021. In sand unit 0007, the team members discovered some pieces of wood and charcoal. It was also noticed that walls 0010, 0006 and 0012 curve to the inside, and this plus the discovery of the wood led members to propose that this southern area carried a roof. Trench 02: Very soon after excavations began in the morning, Eric Wells found a well preserved lamp fragment, located roughly 2 meters east and 1.5 meters south of the northwest corner. It was carefully measured in and photographed before being collected. The following day the trench once again required cleaning from the previous night’s wind. Some larger iron fragments were beginning to appear in the trench primarily in the region of the larger kiln and in the northwest portion of the trench. A small test pit (0.5 meters) was dug in the northeast corner (approx. 2 meters south of the corner), but at 11:40 we had to retreat to the car due to high winds; sand filled the units faster than we could clean them, and with all the sand in our eyes we could hardly see to work. We huddled inside until 12:50 but the wind never let up, so we left site early.  Wednesday: Too Much Wind Unfortunately the weather was so bad the previous day that the entire morning was spent cleaning windblown sand from the trenches! In Trench 01 to the east of wall 0010 in the south there was a large area of brick tumble, labeled unit 0020. The tumble probably collapsed from the wall, and it was noticed that it contained a large amount of fine sand and pottery mixed in with the fallen brick. Finally, unit 0013 (the possible storage jar) was chemically treated to prepare it for removal.  Trench 02: Once trench cleaning was finished, the top layers of mudbrick melt were removed, paying attention to possible boundaries for walls 0016 and 0017. Individual bricks became clear in the sides and top portions of the walls. Additional walls were also located: a small wall (one brick width only) was found also perpendicular to wall 0016, about 0.5 meter east of wall 0017. Another wall (0022) was located west of the kiln (now labeled unit 0014 (ash inside = unit 0006), apparently forming a border for the kiln. More bricks appear to border the south and east edges of the kiln, but these were arranged haphazardly and may in fact have fallen from the western wall 0022 or from the kiln itself. Reddish stained soil (probably iron-stained) was beginning to appear in greater quantities. Luck was against us yet again, however: the winds picked back up at 10:15 and never died down. We left site early yet again, thankful for a break from this nasty turn of weather, and with the hope that things would improve after our Friday break. |
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