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Saturday Trench 01: Back from our Friday break, a start was made with the removal of the windblown sand south of wall 0006 and next to the steps. It seemed to be clean sand blown in over time and not much has been recovered from this deposit. As such, we were able to remove it rather quickly in large bales and have gone down quite a bit in that section of the trench. We were hoping to find the bottom level of the walls as well as the bottom runner of the steps. There does indeed appear to be a doorway (unit 0031) where the brick fall was found in between the walls 0016 and 0021; this must have been the entrance to the room containing Basin A.  A small bead was found in the area north of Basin A (material uncertain as of now). Trench 02: A reddish soil called unit 0035 in the northeast corner of the trench was removed in order to better differentiate the boundaries of wall 0016 and the possible wall 0026. The reddish soil was only about 5 mm thick, however, and part of the underlying unit was accidentally removed with it; it was stuck to the bottom and could not be separated. This was typical of the layering at this level of the trench: extremely thin layers with the boundaries between them difficult to discern. A floor was located underneath unit 0032 in the northwest corner of the trench. It was a mud floor, much firmer and denser than the above layer. However, due to the highly diffused nature of this portion of the trench, some of the floor was accidentally removed in the excavation of the above soil layers. The original location of the removed floor layers was visible in the stratigraphy of the northeast corner of the trench baulk. More faience was found in the area. Sunday: The Family Pet? Trench 01: A canine burial has been discovered to the east of wall 0010 in the southern part of the trench.  The skeleton of the dog is extremely intact, and was found underneath a pile of brick tumble.  Whether the wall collapsed atop the dog and killed it, or whether the dog was intentionally buried and the wall collapsed over (or as part of) the burial at a later date is unknown at this point. Our zooarchaeologist Dr. Tom Wake and his assistant Marianna Betti examined this burial and carefully removed the skeleton for further examination.  Dr. Tom Wake, Zooarchaeology  Marianna Betti,
Zooarchaeology
We finished cleaning out the fill in Basin A and found a mud floor
underneath; we believe this to be the lowest level of occupation for
this building. Trench 02: As was mentioned earlier, the layers in the northwest corner of the trench are very thin and highly diffused; so much so that it was often not possible to differentiate them while excavating. However, by examining the stratigraphy visible in the northeastern trench baulk, one could clearly see the layers in profile; unit numbers and descriptions were given to these layers post-excavation when the profile was drawn. It was considered possible that the layers continued underneath the walls; but the question was why they appeared to be dipping down the closer they were to the walls, particularly wall 0017? A closer examination of the stratigraphy in a future season will be needed to determine the relationships here. Monday: More Animal Remains Trench 02: While cleaning near units 0026 and 0027 (northern east portion of the trench) a rodent skeleton was found. Several photographs were taken, but much of the integrity of the skeleton was lost during removal. We have counted 10 animal prints in the southern portion of the trench, each of which was drawn onto the top plan. The prints were photographed and top and bottom elevations were taken for each impression. Tuesday: More Basins Trench 01: In the room north of wall 0006 a pottery jar (damaged) was recovered in three pieces. To the eastern edge of the trench just north of the steps, a second basin, Basin B, was discovered. Mudbrick walls 0034, 0035, and 0036 (abutting wall 0017) formed this basin. Directly beside wall 0017 in the north a small ceramic vessel was discovered, and just south of this vessel we found a small circular firing area (described as a “barbecue” in the field notes of an, apparently hungry, team member).  Trench 01, looking
south: small firing area and Basin B. From left to right: Ashraf,
Yusri, Samhan, and Afifi
Trench 02: What had been thought to be a wall in the northeast corner of the trench (unit 0026) may in fact just have been a very dense mud-melt; no bricks were observed and after excavation the mud did not appear to be deep enough to represent a wall. The soil between walls 0017 and 0027 had been excavated down to what was believed to be the floor level (the same level seen in the northwest corner of the trench. In order to determine if this was the original floor level, the southern 0.5 meter section of this floor (labeled unit 0045) was removed and we continued excavating down in this section. There was evidence of charcoal, much fishbone and pottery underneath the floor layer, so there was occupation prior to the construction of the floor. The question how extensive this occupation layer was, will have to be answered in a future season. The floors appeared to continue underneath the walls. The sequence of occupation seemed to be the following: there was occupation followed by the construction of a mud floor. Mudbrick walls were built on top of this floor, at which point soil deposition began building up. Some time after abandonment of the site, the lake levels rose and inundated this region, melting much of the upper portions of the mudbrick walls and sealing the other units. One possible interpretation is that when the site was inundated, the weight of wall 0017 pushed into the dissolved and softened mud floor, causing the slanted stratigraphy seen in the profile. This interpretation is still in dispute, and further examination will be necessary to explain the deposition process in this area. A round patch of ash was located just to the east and slightly south of the large hearth. The shape seemed to indicate that there had been a container in this area, possibly used for cooking or burning; it certainly seems too symmetrical to be caused by leakage from the hearth. Perhaps we will find a cooking vessel further down? This ashy unit will be sectioned into north and south halves and excavated separately, with the ash being collected as it is removed for later analysis. Wednesday: Sand Storm Trench 01: A mudbrick wall one course thick was found connecting wall 0010 and 0012, forming a small portioned off area in the southern part of the trench. Three additional mudbrick walls were found running vertically off of this wall, creating 3 small basins (Basin C, D, and E).  In the middle basin (Basin D), a great deal of charcoal was found indicating that this basin was used in, apparently deliberate, burning of material. In the eastern-most of these basins a small amount of bone was recovered as well as more charcoal. In order to better see the dimensions of these basins, the south wall of the trench was expanded one meter south: the dimensions of the trench were now 6 x 6 meters. Thus it became clear that these basins abutted a much larger mudbrick wall (unit 0053), which ran east-west between walls 0010 and 0012. In the northeast corner of the trench and abutting wall 0008 were two individual mudbricks running south parallel to each other. They contained some pieces of charcoal and they were possibly used as a stand for a cooking pot. Trench 02: The soil under floor unit 0045 continued to be removed, and in order to better determine the deposition one brick was removed from wall 0027. It was observed that the floor layer did indeed continue underneath the wall, and presumably also continued under wall 0017. A new mudbrick wall was discovered in the southeast corner of the trench running roughly north-south; it was labeled unit 0052. Next to this wall we found a small ceramic vessel about 4 cm in height, perfectly intact, which was sketched, photographed and collected.  Rough sketch of
Trench 02 from field notes, showing new wall units and sketch of vessel.
At around 14:00 a small sandstorm came up and it began to rain (it had been rather cold and overcast all day). The wind became too strong to continue excavating, so we left site at 14:45.  Sand storm, seen
from the camp
Thursday: A Visit From ARCE  Director of project
Dr. Willeke Wendrich lectures to visiting ARCE members.
In the afternoon we received a visit from the members of ARCE, the
American Research Center in Egypt. They arrived around 12:00 and
were given a tour of the site by director Willeke Wendrich, who
described the unique layout of the site and its previous unknown
status. Afterwards they were treated to a description of our
findings by the general inspector for our site, Mr. Ashraf Subhi Rizq
Allah.  They observed as we continued to excavate and take elevations, as well as draw trench profiles and top plans.  The group from ARCE then went with the director to see our other research areas in the region. Trench 02: Kandace continued removing the southern portion underlying unit 0049, trying to find the lowest level of occupation, but 0.5 m down traces of occupation still continues. Further examination in the next season will hopefully better our understanding of the phasing. The wind was quite strong, and most of the day’s efforts were spent completing top plans and the profiles for the larger hearth and the layers underlying the ash unit 0020. We saw the inspectors off for the Friday break at 12:00. |
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