August 6, 2000
This is a new Trench! We decided to excavate this new trench, which is located on the east side
slope of the tepe (close to facing Tigris), about 15 m down from the top of the tepe. This side has a steep
slope, but the area D is somewhat flat and sticks out, like a small bump. The initial thinking was to find
a earlier occupation, such as Uruk period. The location of the Trench 1 was chosen randomly and
Trench 2 is made at the North side. Because of the steep slope, it was difficult to set-up a stright trench.
After we have the total station, we could be more accurate.
Locus 1000 This locus represent the top-soil and washed/eroded layer. The east side of the
trench is about 1.5 m lower than the West side. North-South does not have much angle. Because of this
slope, there will be deep zone of disturbance in top area of this trench. The purpose of this locus is to
create a leveled ground. However, I did not wanted to level the entire trench in one shot, so decided to
divide the trench into East and West half. I put the line across 2 m from the East and made the workers
level the East half first and the West half later. This will create an arbitrary step at the center of the
trench (ideally 75 cm high wall). In this way, I could see the profile at the center and decide rather it will
be a better idea to excavat the entire trench at one time. If the west half of the trench is in disturbed area,
I should level the surface and keep on excavating. However, if I find some kind of undisturbed area, I
have to devise a new plan. In any case, dividing the trench, I think, will be a safe-guard against
distroying an area of occupational level.
This locus had many pot sherds, mainly from lower elevation (not near surface), and some bones.
Found several flakes, so it might be an indication of earlier occupation (but pottery does not suggest that
idea? mainly Hellenistic?). There was a concentration of several large rocks at the SW corner of the
trench (about 25 cm from both south and west) , but it is most likely a random concentration of rocks. It
does not follow any shape; it is placed irregulary. We found no large rocks at the East half of the trench,
and we leveled the East half today. We will be working on the West half tomorrow. Anyway, West half
seems to contain more large rocks, I do not know why. Also, at the near end of the day, Ihsan found
concentration of the large fragments of pot sherds and some large rocks. It does not seems to represent
any surface or non-disturbed area, but I will clean the surface and see what is going on around. It is too
close to the surface so my suggestion is to just go deeper! In first several levels, I will try and push
myself to excavte faster and deeper (but try not to destroy any cultural levels); the answer lies below!
Aug 7, 2000
Locus 1000 Still working on the layer of disturbed zone. Now concentrating on the west half
of the trench. In this west side, we found more pottery. lithics, and bones. Especially, we found many
worked stones. I found a stone bowl (mortar), and stone fish-net weight?(circular grind-stone with hole
in the center. Also, several flat, rectangular round edged stones. I do not know why we are getting these
materials from this level. pottery seems to be Hellenistic in nature, but lithics and other finds looks like
a neolithic site. there were some soil variation in the locus. Andy thinks it is just a baked surface since
it is too close to the surface. We have been seeing the same soil everywhere in this site, the hard
compacted silt-like soil (almost like a mud-brick). I took out the pot-smash as oone KT number (KT
1011). I decided to close this locus; no definate reason to close, I am seeing some soil variation and it
might be a good sign for getting close to the surface.
Locus 1001 This locus is the west halsf of the trench. The purpose is to level the entire trench
into flat surface. But if we find something, I will close a locus and make a different locus. Basically, the
materials that coming out from this locus is same as locus 1000. Many grind0stones and pottery. I
found several large rocks, especially concetrarted arond South side of the locus. Later, we found out that
there was a stone lined wall sticking out from the West balk. This wall sticks out from the balk for
about 30 cm and it ends there. It probably the end of the wall. This wall is made by piling up stones
about 3 or 4 rows. It is only a small portion that is exposed at this moment, so I must clean it up
tomorrow and see what is the relationship withe the surface that I am seeing now.
Today, we had a TV crew came to visit our site, and we came back from the site later than usual.
I tried my best to write a journal, but I might add some more tomorrow, since I am tired.
Aug 8, 2000
Locus 1001
Today was kind of slow day. Anyway, we strated out by scraping and brushing
the surface of the 1002 (end of 1001). when we were clearing, I found two posible pits, one at the
Southest corner of the locus (south-central part of the trench) and another smaller pit at the North side,
abuts to west balk. At this point I assigned a new locus (I had an idea to change the locus from
yesterday..)
Locus 1002 These pits had darker soil and loosely compacted (crumble). Also, soil was more
sandy (fine sand). The hard compacted area is white and silt. Basically, about the same type of soil
variation as in Area A trench 1, and possibly other areas. The pit was about 1 m to 1.5 m. Since this
locus is still close to the surface, I decided not to make a new loci for these pits. However, I gave
different KT numbers for the artifacts. (KT1033 KT1034 KT1035 KT1036). The pit were farly
shallow, about 10 cm deep. Bottom of the pit was same as other compacted area. We took a photo after
excavating the pits. I think these were just a deep area and disturbed zone. Now, all the soil in this
locus looks all the same, except for the wall that sticking out from the west balk. I decided to take the
locus down to the finishing level of the locus 1000 at the east side. we start bashing the soil from the
south-side. Ihsan found some large rocks near the possible wall. I have not cleaned the area well, so I
have to wait for tomorrow, but the rocks seems to be just a collapse. we did not find any large rocks on
the East-side (locus 1000). About KT 1039, this was kind of wired find. It looks like a brick. But it
could be a piece of pottery? It is kind of square in shape but curves up at the edge. Also, surface seem
to be grinded down. It could be a pallet? It actually reminds me of the incense burner from Oman that
was discovered in Oman. I don't know what it could be.
I'm not sure why today was unproductive day. Workers were complaining about the not having
the tent, and we took about an hour or so to take a picture, and some other unknown factors. Maybe I
got used to bashing 1 m a day for last two days, so I'm just feeling this way.
Aug 9, 2000
Locus 1002 Since we did not finish Locus 1002, our purpose for today was to bash Locus
1002 and start working on Locus 1003, which will be a flat surface! We took the South East portion of
the locus and proceed to Northern portion of the locus. Today, my two workers were somewhat
slacking. Perhaps, I should make them work more, or get a new worker. Anyway, I cleared the possible
wall. The soil around the wall seemed lettle compacted than around the area, but as we clearing the
Locus 1002, it tirned out that the whole SW section of the Locus was somewhat compacted. Also,
Deeper part of the Locus were compacted. It seems to be just a variation in the soil (from erosion?).
Does not seems to represent any definate cultural levels; no boundary of soil variation, just gradual
change. I think (and also Bradley) that this layer is just disturbed sub-topsoil. Although the pile of rocks
seems to be in line, only a small section of them are in my trench. If I could dug into the balk, I could
know this structure better. The wall was made from piling up the rocks, smaller and round rocks on
bottom, and flat and bigger rocks on top. Smaller rocks is about 15 cm in diameter, and larger rocks is
about 20 - 30 cm in diameter and app 10 cm thick. Only one pot sherds were discovered while
destroying the wall. Since we have a photo, it should be OK to destroy this wall. It seems that Phill got
a similar structure in his trench. The wall was about 15 cm in height, and 25 cm wide. The front seems
to round up a bit, but several rocks that I found around this structure is probably a fallen rocks from the
wall, so the actual shape of this is in mystery. After excavating few levels, we will know more about
this wall by looking at the section. Speaking about section, when I was strightening the section, a balk
right below a rock seemed somewhat softer and had a brownish color. Near the end of excavating this
Locus, I found small pile of rocks sticking out from the North balk (again too close to the balk). This
structure was near the ending surface of Locus 1002, so only few rocks are exposed. There seems to be
no large rocks are used, but only a pile of round rocks. We will excavate around this structure?
tomorrow as Locus 1003 and see the extent of this possible pile of rocks. Other than what I mentioned
above, there were no interesting feature from this Locus. I put my workers to stright the balk, since I had
a terrible balk. Now the balk looks good. Actually, ihsan is good at making stright wall. We found
some sherds while cleaning the balk. I had them put in one place, but it seems like workers took them
up to the dolmush. I can not find them... I hope it is not mixed with other pot-sherds. I did not had any
tag or bag for those sherds. It was my mistake to leave them out. This Locus was kind of unproductive;
I found less materials than Locus 1001. There were no grind-stone and pile of small finds from this
locus. I found few shells, and possible? Ninevh 5 base. The shape of the base seems to be N5, and color
is light-greenish, and it is thin and well fired. I want the result of pottery reading soon, if I could get
them.
Locus 1003 After cleaning the surface and cleaning the balk, we started out bashing the
surface of Locus 1003, from the North East corner. I told them to bash the entire trench for 25 cm. But
they only took 10 cm or so. It was close to the end of the day, so what I can do. Once again, this locus
1003 is the first time that we leveled the entire trench. We will dig this 4 m x 4 m, flat surface
tomorrow. I wish something happens tomorrow.
Aug 10, 2000
Locus 1003 I'm writing this jounal a day after the actual day of excavation since we went to
the week-end trip. This is the first time I wrote the journal day after... So, my description may contain
some misleading remarks. I decided to remove as much dirt as possible today. As I mentioned above,
this is the first time that the trench was leveled. We started excavating from the East side and dug all the
way to the West side. The east side is still in sub-topsoil, but the west side could be in occupational
level. after clearing the surface, there were gradual line, but definate difference between the soil from
west to east. Conveniently, the soil seems to be divided just about 2 m line. It was probably not a good
idea to combine the west side of the trench and the east side of the trench. After the bashing has fiished,
I brushed the surface and see if there is any sign of occupation. On the NW cornaer and SW corner, the
soil seemed very compacted; almost like a mud-brick, especially on the North side. The texture is silt,
white-grey in color. In the central part of the West side, soil was somewhat loosely cimpacted, and had
some pebbles within the soil. It also appeared brownish. The soil on the North and West did not had
any pebbles. There was a definate difference in the soil (something is going on!). Some soil of the NW
looked like a mud-brick. However, the bashing crew did a horrible job of making a flat surface, and I
really could not tell what was going on. The surface had many bumps and low spots. I told them to
make the West side more flat. Also, the West side was much higher than the Eat side. We finished our
job for the day while flattening the West side. So, tomorrow, we will make the surface nice and flat, and
see the surface. there might be a mud-brick surface! About the east side, I will divide the trench into
half (I don't like digging with two completely different levels) and excavate it deeper. This is only my
thought, but in the past, the area where my trench was the edge of the mound. All the east side is just
piled up erosion layer. Dividing the trench seems like I am excavating two trenches in one trench; it will
be more work!
Aug 12, 2000
Continue flattening the surface of 1003 on the west side. This time, workers did better job. We
brushed and see the surface. There was a definate line between loose soil and compacted soil. East side
is loose, gray, sub-topsoil. I draw a line following the division of this transition. I made the east side
(loose, sub-topsoil) as locus 1004, and west side (compacted) as 1005. While the workers took down the
1004, I excavated (destroyed) the pile of rocks that was floating at the North balk, about 1 m from the
west. This structure waas made from several flat rocks of about 2 -5 cm in thickness, and rounded, about
4 - 6 cm in diameter. There were several layer of this rocks, but not in particular order, but it was all
layed flat. But few rocks were round, or layed sideways. This rock pile finished around 1002 and 1003
transition in profile, or little deeper. The soil had no significant difference, it was not a mud-bricjk or
mortor. I found two pieces of teeth, probably horse in the rock pile. The soil around the teeth seemed
brownish in color. I gave different KT numberes (1055 & 1056) for pottery and bones. I gave them
Locus 1002, since this structure was in that Locus. I thought about assigning a new Locus, but the rockpile did not seemed that significant. I am not sure it was cultural or not. Also, I took down another pile
of rocks at the SW corner (1 m from W & S). This pile was not layed on levels. Just a conglomorate of
7 large rocks. Soil around the pile seemed compacted and color looked brownish. This pile did not had
a flat rocks, and shape and the size of the rocks were irregular. This, I doubt to be cultural.
Locus 1004 we took several cm down, but found almost nothing. We will take down more
tomorrow and hope to find some cultural layer.
Aug 13, 2000
Locus 1004 I sent in some bashing crew, which was not perfect, but did a good job, today to
excavate this Locus on the East side of the hill. Told them to bash 50 cm, or until find something
different. There were not really any interesting feature, but at one point, soil gradually became harder.
(about mid-way, I don't know the exact elevation). The soil had variation, some area were hard (but not
as hard as the soil in Locus 1005), and had some deep loose soil. I could polk a trowel into some areas
easily, but it dis not follow any definate shape, so it was not a pit; cause by washing down of the soil.
AFter a while, we reached the white, compacted, silt-like layer, which is almost exactly looks same as
the soil of Locus 1005. It was strange that the difference in soil followed the line that I made. I thought
the white soil will have a gradual slope, but the loose soil seemed to went down in straight line, except
for one area in the center where there is a divot. This was probaby some variation in the soil. The white
layer seemed to gradually filled this space as we excavte deeper. I think that thiis could be a trace of
ancient land-shape, or caused by mud-slide. The white-compacted soil did had a little slope, but it was
not a gradual slope at all. We closed the Locus when we reached the white compacted layer.
Locus 1005 I first thought about excavating the whole West half as I did in Locus 1004, but
Andy took a look at D2 and found a possible mud-brick wall at the SW corner of the trench. Since my
trench is just south of the D2, this is just 1 m away from the possible mud-brick that I found in NW
corner of my trench. So, I decided to scrape off the surface (again) and see what is going on. Last time,
the workers did a horrible job on strightening the surface, so I told then to do a better job and I scraped
the surface by myself. We took off about 5 to 10 cm or so. There still does not seems to have a mudbrick, although it kind of looks like it in some area. There are grooves in the hard-mud that is filled with
loose soil, in stright line, but one here and there. Also, I found a strange discoloration of the soil. When
I brush, it looked like a pile of ash, but when I scrape, I found a bluish-gray color. This color is about 10
cm thick and follow a circle. It starts from the edge of NW corner, than curves to south, and curves back
to the west balk. It could be a top of an oven, but it is hard to tell at this pint. The soil inside this circle
seems to be harder than the soil outside. We ran out of time when I strat seeing this shape, I will see
this closely tomorrow.
Aug 15, 2000
Locus 1005 Well, yesterday I had a fever and did not go out to the site. So, today, I'm not
feeling that great but I did my best. Day before yesterday, I found a dark-bluish discoloration in the NW
corner of the trench. Today, I tried to define what this is. I excavated arond and inside, but it seems to
be just a variation in the soil. The soil seems to be burnt, since it had some small frag of charcoal
within. It did not follow any definate shape. I found same soil arond it when I dug deeper. I thought it
could be an oven, but the soil was not ashy. I found a flat-compacted mud below these discoloration.
But, this too had not distinctive shape, and had many animal holes around them. Found no pottery,
lithics, or bones around. Before I began excavting this area, I thought about giving a different Locus
number, but I decided not to.
Now, we began bashing the rest of Locus 1005. We first excavated about 20 cm and see what
was there, but it was taking longer than I thought, so I decided to knock the whole thing down at once. I
lost 1 day, and the days that is left is short, so I must hurry up and level this trench.
Aug 16, 2000
Today, I slept in for a while in Bismil and came after the breakfast. Workers were bashing
before I arrived. I was feeling better, but not in a perfect state; I had approximately 76.38021 % of my
average strength today. I was drawing a section of the D3 and did not concentrate on what was going on
at the trench 1. I hope they were doing a good job. There are still some soil left to dig tommorow. We
will finish this trench. Level the whole trench, stright the balk and I'm out of here!
TRENCH SUMMARY OF AREA D TRENCH 1 (before pottery reading)
The purpose of this trench was to reach the early occupational level of the site since the area D
was located at the lower part of the site. During a survey, we found some pot-sherds from early period
(Chalcolithic, Uruk, etc). Area D is located at the east side of the Tepe below a steep hill where there is
relatively flat area like a hump that sticks out from the Tepe. We did not achieved our purpose in this
season. Because of the deep disturbed top and sub-top soil, it took us a week to excavte to reach the
possible cultural level, and we began excavte this area during a last week. We have not looked at the
pottery in detail, so I am not certain about the age of the Loci that I excavated. Although I am not a
pottery expert by any sense, most of the pottery appears to be from the Hellenistic period. Lower levels
seems to be earlier. We must wait for the pottery reading. However, this area still looks promising for
next season. Trench 3, which is located 1 m West (1 m uphill) of Trench 1 had multiple layer of
surfaces and possible Hellenistic wall, or a path. When I walked around this area, especially below the
area D, I found several fragments of early pottery, even possible Ubaid rim-sherd, many lithics, such as
obsidian. Also, from this trench, and Trench 2, which is just North of this trench, seems to produce
more lithics and grind-stone than other areas. Since we finish excavting the disturbed zone, if we given
several days to excavte, there is a great possibility that we could achieve our original purpose of this
Area.
LOCUS 1000 (E 85.34-85.22 W 86.76-86.05)
This Locus is the top-soil and heavily disturbed. Because of the steep slope, I expected to have a
deep top and sub-topsoil. Interesting enough, I found many worked stone artifacts, such as stone-bowl,
possible weight (circular shape with a hole in the center), and others; for more info look at the KT
1003,1005, 1007, 1008, 1010, 1013, 1014, 1015, 1017, 1018, 1019, 1022, 1024). First I thought this
could be the indication of the early occupation of this area. Near the North balk, about 1 m from the
west balk, I found a concentration of the pottery. It appears to be a pot-smash, but it is too close to the
present surface (KT 1011). I found a hard compacted layer of the soil below this potsmash, and gave a
new Locus 1001. Because of the slope, I decide to assigne locus 1001 for only west side of the trench.
We did not excavte much in the east side; as I mentioned above, West side had a compacted soil, but
East half was still in top-soil. I divided the trench in half, and made a arbitrary steps at the 2 m line.
Locus 1001 (West 1/2 86.05-85.86)
The purpose of this Locus was to level the entire trench flat, unless we reach a possible cultural
layer. There was a possible stone piled wall (86.13) at the SW corner of the trench, and found 2
possible pit, so I closed the Locus and gave Locus 1002. We found several large rocks around this
possible wall; probably fallen from the wall. The soil arond the wall seemed somewhat compacted, but
did not seems to be much of anything. The wall was made of piling up the flat and round rocks for about
30 cm in height. In this locus, above and below, I found sevral brick fragments, those could be
Hellenistic in age.
Locus 1002 (West 1/2 85.86-85.63)
Since we found 2 possible pit, and soil was more compacted than locus 1001. First I thought that
this could be a cultural surface. The stone lined wall finished in this Locus. Also, we found a pile of
rocks in the North balk. A possible pit were located on the South-centarl section of the trench, irregular
shape of about 1.75 m in length and 1 m + wide. the another pit was smaller, and it was located on the
west balk, on the north side, about 1.25 m in length. I excavted both pits, and found relatively few potsherds, bricks, lithics, and bones. (chech KT 1033, 1034, 1035, and 1036). These pits seemed to be just
a variation in the soil. The shape of the pit was irregular, and did not have uniform depth. I decided to
make the whole trench flat. The pile of rocks that I found near the North balk was constructed by flat-
rocks, and found a possible equid teeth. (KT 1055 and KT 1056). In general soil seemed to be
somewhat vary in nature and disturbed, it could be still in the sub-top soil, especilly in the Eastern side
of this Locus.
Locus 1003 (85.63 - 85.20)
This is the first time that I had a flat trench! Strange enough, there is less worked stone in lower
levels. I found a pile of rocks about 1 m away from the SW corner of the trench. However, this did not
look like constructed by human. Soil was same as inside and around the rocks. Some rocks were layed
flat but many rocks were on side. I excavated for about 30 cm, and found a line between loose and
compacted. This line roughly followed the 1.5 m line from East balk. Loose soil to the East is probably
still in the top-soil but the west side could be in cultural level. I decided to excavted the loose soil
(Locus 1004) first and than compacted soil (Locus 1005).
Locus 1004 (85.20 - 84.75)
This Locus is the East side of the line which is loose soil. I thought that the Compacted soil will
gradually slopes down, but it more or less went down straight. One area at the center had a slope of
compacted soil. About 30 - 40 cm below, we found a compacted soil, which is similar to the soil west side. I think at this point, it is below the top-soil. There were some pottery and lithics. Found obsidian
fagments and several pieces of bricks from this Locus.
Locus 1005 (85.20 - 84.84)
This Locus is the west side of the trench with the hard compacted soil. This Locus started out
with a promise of discovery, but turned out to be little disappointment. In Northwest corner of the
trench, I found a hard-compacted soil that looked as a mud-brick. We tried to make the soil flat and see
if there is a mud-brick or not. There were few several lines, but were not stright and the soil looked
disturbed. In the same area, I found a band of dark soil that seemed to be in circular shape. First I
thought it could be an oven; the size and shape of the dark soil was similar to that of A1 Locus 1018.
This dark soil contained chrcoal. I excavated and tried to define the shape. When I start excavating, it
turned out that the shae was irregular and had more dark-soil below. I decided to bash this area and
make the trench flat. So that next year, when someone comes back, they will have a flat trench. Found
grind-stone and Obsidian from this Locus.
For this season, the Area D trench 1 resulted in some disappointment, but for next year, there is a
great chance of discovery of this Trench. From this season, we basically removed the thick top-soil that
was washed down from the steep slope. For next year, we should reach the earlier ocuupational levels.
We found many grind-stones, lithics, and Obsidian. All pottery seems to be from Hellenistic age, but
still wait to be seen.