Dig Day 12 - Tuesday 10 July

Tuesday morning, and another hearty breakfast amongst the corps. Nothing like a bit of Pita bread dipped in olive oil then dipped in zatar spice. Breakfast of champions!! Court obviously agrees.

Work continues in Square 96 - getting closer to the bottom. Still yet to work out what these holes in the west wall are for. I remember reading earlier filed reports regarding the church itself, how they found holes in the walls which held big brass hooks that would then allow you to hang things from. I'm tempted to think that these would serve a similar purpose, yet the holes themselves would appear (to my mind anyway) to be a bit too big for such a purpose.

Also taking note of this large indentation in the east wall. At first sight it looks like a bit of an enclosure for seating, but wondering if this may have served a more domestic purpose. The remains of some makeshift chimney maybe? Or an oven? If so, why the lack of wood remains?









Then of course we have this northern wall that is separating this space from Sq 95. It appears to be pretty much fill from this side, but on the Sq 95 side we have limestone blocks at the base, and you can even see mortar between the cracks. A bit of a makeshift job, one wonders if Squares 95 and 96 were originally joined together.






Dr Bob gets to works on digging away at the top of the balk, careful not to go at it too hard so as to avoid having the whole lot come down on him.








I get to work at it from my (ie Sq 95) side, but sadly am a little bit too enthusiastic, having to quickly clean up my mess before Ana arrives to continue measuring and drawing up the top plan.

Whilst working in Square 96, Mahmoud finds this interesting piece, possibly from a larger pot or vessel. An amphora of wine maybe?

Work continues in Sq 96, seen here from the vantage point of the now (almost connected) Square 95.

Eventually this piece in the NW corner of the square is exposed. Appears to be some sort of grindstone, probably for cooking. Was this possibly a communal kitchen with some connection to the chapel and the church? Once again, a healthy amount of pottery gets dug up as well.

Meanwhile, Luke has been busy clearing out what appears to be a water channel running along the eastern edge of Square 95, near where the exposed piece of mosaic floor is. It would on initial observation appear to be the previous floor of the chapel, before being dug up and later replaced with the mudstone tiles we now see. Upon further investigation, I'm wondering if it in fact might be the remaining edge of a mosaic "pathway" dividing the chapel from the church. That'll have to be for another excavation I'm afraid.

End of the day, take this parting shot of the chancel screen and the back of the "whole" chancel post. Note the hole located in the top half, possibly there to insert a hanging implemement of some sort.

Dig Day 11 - Monday 9 July

Back to the grind!! Last week for me, all are looking and feeling calm and centred. May be not Pete, judging by his nice little bit of photobombing behind myself and Olivia. Damn, imagine having a psycho like him as your area supervisor!!!!

Things get a little down when the Area E crew reach the site. Sometime over the weekend, someone has seen fit to kick in the base of the chancel screen. Also left a little gift for us in the Roman Bath. This is despite the fact that the area has someone "guarding" the site at all times - although the guard is situated on a hill over the valley, so it wouldn't be hard to miss something. Anyway, can't dwell on this, there's still work to do.

Now that Square 95 has been cleared, preparations are made to measure it up and get drawing of a top plan underway. Dr Bob, Aaron, Luke, and myself begin the process of laying out the borders using coloured string, followed by the laying out of measuring tape. This would be used to create a "real world" X-Y axis, from which Ana and I would get to work, painstakingly measuring up each and every line and crevice within the square. This would include measuring each paver, each significant crack and whole, each significant object within the space, all measured to scale. Harder and a lot more fiddly than it looks.

 

Work would continue on Square 96, digging up a healthy amount of Umaayad era pottery shards. 

Also a large number of glass shards as well, including pieces which would appear to have been the remains of a bottle. This was confirmed when the larger neckpiece was unearthed.

This week would also be Area E's turn to be working in the registery for the afternoon. Whilst everyone else would be outside for the pottery reading, any pieces to be kept are sent upstairs to be logged by the registery crew. This would include labelling the pieces, weighing and measuring them, and logging them into the Excel spreadsheet according to type and description.

Labelling the pieces involves painting on a small strip of nail polish remover (done by yours truly here), which once dried would then be labelled with a felt black pen.