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Saturday: Swarm! Sunday: Dissolving Problems Northwest corner of
Trench 02, showing walls 0016 (horizontal), 0017 and 0027 (vertical).
In this area one piece of fine ceramic ware was recovered, the first of its kind found thus far. After cleaning the walls and defining the bricks, it appeared that wall 0017 was laid down with a course of vertical bricks and a course of horizontal bricks alternating; 0016 seemed to follow a different building method with horizontal and vertical bricks lying in the same course. Average brick size is L 28 cm x W 15 cm x H 3.5 cm. Yet again the wind picked up, and following second breakfast we worked on the day’s notes in the car, but the weather became worse and after a while we left for the day. Monday: More Top Plans "At last, a full day’s work! The wind is finally on our side, and we did not have to leave early today." As the wind was calm, we spent the majority of the day drawing ground plans of the new units. After cleaning the area around the larger hearth in Trench 02, more mudbrick appeared in a collapsed pattern to the east of the hearth; it may originally have surrounded the hearth but diffused outward, perhaps due to the lake’s inundation.  Rough sketch of
positioning of mudbrick walls in Trench 02, from field notes
Tuesday: The Pottery Village of el Nazla  Excavations were postponed today for a day-trip to El Nazla, a traditional pottery-making village, for a lesson in ethnoarchaeology. The group was assigned to look around the site, talk to the craftsmen and women about how they produce their wares, why they work in certain ways, and basic information on the history of the site.  The idea was to trace the production from the gathering of the raw materials up until the decoration and firing. The group had a wonderful time interacting with the villagers and learned a great deal about the pottery industry; several team members even tried their hand at creating vessels!  Trench supervisor
Kandace Pansire trying her hand at pottery working.
Wednesday: Going Down Trench 01: In the eastern corner of the trench at the northern edge unit 0012, we discovered mud steps leading down from this level to a deeper point in the trench.  0012 may then have been the floor level with stairs leading down to a basement. A section plan was drawn in the eastern edge of the trench and top plans were completed to include all new units. Trench 02: It was thought that wall 0016 ran across the entire trench east-west, but the eastern portion of the wall has not become visible. Part of the day was spent clearing away soil unit 0013, which was thought to overlay the wall in this area. As the walls were cleaned, it was noted that a white plaster was present on the east and west faces of wall 0017.  White plaster
visible on east face of wall 0017.
The plaster was extremely patchy and in many places pealed away entirely; it was easily damaged and crumbled when any pressure was put on it. Underneath the soil in the northwest corner of the trench (in an enclosed area between walls 0016 and 0017) a new unit of reddish soil was found. This unit (0032) was much diffused with the mudbrick melt underneath and it was difficult to excavate it without removing bits of the underlying layers. As the stratigraphy shows, this corner of the trench was composed of very thin deposits, some only with a thickness of 1 mm. which were in many places mixed with the units above and below. The deposition pattern was interesting: the layers appeared to dive down the closer they get to the wall (unit 0017).  Rough sketch of the
stratigraphy in north of Trench 02
Thursday: Traces in the Dirt Trench 01: It had become clear that mudbrick wall 0012 has a series of steps leading down in its northern portion, and that the eastern wall of the trench contained another mudbrick wall running slightly northwest-southeast, fairly parallel to wall 0010 and possibly forming a level floor with the top of unit 0012. In order to better determine how these units fitted together, the trench was expanded to the east by one meter. While expanding the trench, the team discovered some fishbone, small pieces of metal, charcoal, some plant remains, and pottery. The removal of the deposit over this additional meter was not time consuming as there was mostly loose sand overlying the walls. Trench 02: A number of unusually shaped impressions were discovered in the southern portion of the trench. Earlier we had thought they could have been bread moulds, but upon a closer look their shape was too irregular; more likely they were hoof prints (possibly donkey from their size and shape; some of the impressions ungulate).  The ash layer from inside the larger hearth was collected for soil analysis; about 2-3 cm of deposit was removed. The rest of the hearth was divided into 4 quadrants, each to be excavated separately in order to better examine the stratigraphic relationships with the rest of the trench.  A small bead was recovered from the ash layers; we do not yet know if it is glass. Also, a possible stamped fragment of pottery was recovered (alternately, the markings may simply have been the result of salt erosion). |
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