07/24/2000
We started the day by taking elevations. On the advice of Andy on the previous day, who suggested that
the material below the wall on either side would be different than the material above it. We opened three
new loci using the wall as a dividing line. The first was on the south west side of the wall which had
previously been part of 1006, we sunk a .5 x .5 meter sounding 20cm deep trying to find another course of
rocks that would indicate the size of the wall/foundation in the adjacent locus 1008. We did not find any
new layers, but we did find various pot sherds and bones imbeded in clay beneath the stones.
On the east side of the wall we opened a 1m wide sounding 20cm deep from the south east corner of the
trench directly up to the wall. We called this Locus 1007. Adjacent to the wall we found numerous pot
sherds scattered like debris just at the surface of the Locus 1007. We straightened the south baulk closest
the wall trying to find more layers of the wall, Locus 1008. As with Locus 1009, we found only pot sherds.
While trying to level Locus 1007 along the wall we came upon a suspicious number of pot sherds that may
have indicated a pot smash. We decided to dig around those sherds, leaving them articulated and started
focusing on the middle of the Locus1007. We marked off a 1m square sounding for the middle of the
trench and immediately came upon a pile of large rocks 10cm below the wall surface in Locus 1008. We
followed the rocks through the middle of the trench hoping to find more foundations. We spent the rest of
the afternoon following them across to the north east part of the trench.
While this was going on, Michaelle began straightening the edges of the sounding done that morning on the
south east corner, and she came upon a group of large pot sherds and a lot of fired clay lodged about 5cm
above the bottom of Locus 1007. It resembles a large pot smash that Bradley thinks is typical Early Iron
Age. We found a handle and numerous large body and rim sherds stacked on each other in the layer. We
began to clean this area immediately while still following the wall in the middle of the trench.
Here's where it gets complicated.
While digging close to the wall in Locus 1007 we found what appeared to be another smashed pot, more
delicate than the first. We uncovered a handle, body sherds, and a small cylindrical piece artculated along
the east side of the wall 5cm below the wall's surface. Part of the crew was assigned to clean this area as
well.
All this time we were still trying to find the rest of our new wall. We finally came upon some softer soil
3m east of the west wall, as well as some ash (which Aziz seems to think is wood ash) and some over fired
clay. We took soil samples of the clay (KT 1032) and ash (KT 1031) which we think were contaminated
because of the plastic bags we had to put them in. (Doh!) We will take more samples tomorrow in
aluminum foil. We think that these materials indicate a pit of some sort so we decided to dig a sounding to
the north of the "pit" to outline its size. We found lots of large and small bone as well as more clay and
ash. These materials do not extend all the way to the north wall they seem to stop very close to where we
originally found them. We named the fill that we found the ash/bone/clay in as Locus 1010. When we dig
for the bottom of the pit tomorrow we will give the pit itself a locus of its own.
We spent the rest of the time cleaning and looking worried because we hadn't taken any measurements due
to the large number of finds. We will compensate for that tomorrow morning.