Sarah Haselton
As the days begin to tick worryingly close to the finish-line, EU 33 is a blur of frenetic activity and endless bothering of Elise, our valiant trench supervisor. It has not helped that I and the other Sarah in the trench (we aren’t called Team Sarah-ndipity for no reason) have been bedridden for the past few days from being sick. I think in reality the power of Sarah2 was just too much for the universe, but they couldn’t keep us down for long. This season, EU 33’s primary goal has been to knock down the bulks on the north and west sides. I have been diligently working on the west bulk, and wow, I don’t even know where to begin on this update because what on earth is going on down there?? In all honesty, I don’t even know if our Hellenistic friends knew what they were doing.
Early on we uncovered a wall perfectly hidden in the west bulk, running parallel to another wall just east of it. Further excavation revealed six slabs lying perpendicular to the wall. One seems to run under the wall, but the others are just?? There??? Maybe it was some kind of floor which was built over by the wall, but it’s unclear. Which, as I’m quickly learning, is the answer to a lot of my questions about this site. Because the mystery slabs weren’t enough to make us scratch our heads, there just happens to be a delightful circular slab standing vertically among the other slabs. I’d like to think when this site was being built there was a conversation that went something like this:
“Hey Alexios.”
“What’s up Demetrios, my bro?”
“You know, I’m loving the slab thing we’ve got going on, but I feel like there’s something we could do to spice it up a bit.”
“Dude, I’m so glad you mentioned it, I’ve been thinking the same thing!”
“Hear me out now. What if – for no reason at all – we just put a vertical slab right here? I feel like it would just really make this place pop, y’know?”
“You are just…brilliant, Alexios! By Zeus, what would this fortification be if it weren’t for your masterful artistic vision?”
A part of me really does think something like this happened, because that sweet and charming little slab has been occupying my mind non-stop. For reference, this is the conglomerate of slabs we have revealed in the west bulk:
I hope you understand my pain now. But wait, there’s more pain. Below the slabs is a mostly inconspicuous location; we’ve expectedly found beads and pottery sherds (they don’t call this “the bead trench” for nothing), yet as we go deeper we have uncovered…something? I’m not even sure what to call it. It’s definitely a rock, but there seems to have been a hole ground into it. Could it have acted as a mortar and pestle situation? No prize for guessing the answer: maybe. We found some seeds close by, so it is a likelihood, but again, nothing is certain here. (Tom: alas, not a closed context, so seeds are unlikely to be associated.)
That’s pretty much all there is for my side of the trench. I know there was a path uncovered in the northern bulk, but I didn’t get to see it being excavated due to my sickness (we persevere). However, there does seem to be exciting things in the days ahead. Right on the bottom of my current SU we found a bunch of pottery sherds from the same pots (so far all are cooking ware). Maybe there’s a floor there? Or maybe I’m getting too excited. Regardless, I’m sure more interesting and intriguing things await us next week. Though hopefully no more vertical slabs.