Early morning shot in Maggie’s trench “7 East”. First coming across a brick wall on the north (left), she then encountered rather a broad expanse of magloob, or bricky material, out of which pottery is appearing all over the square. The pots appear nearly or completely whole, and this may well be a large discard pile left undisturbed. After a photo is taken, the workers begin to dig back into the magloob in search of more certain surfaces.

In Ashley’s square “9 east”, a column base appeared along with a mud brick wall running west-east. After the photograph she begins the process of drawing the brick wall so that we can eventually remove that brick and proceed to excavate below.  For this she is helped by Michael who has become a very significant helper – doing levels, assisting with measurements, and sorting pottery. Kelly is ill today, but she is also an enormous helper. We look for her return.

Over to the south Violaine gathers the local team of Chris, Katherine, and Gaultier who have three areas being actively worked. The large mud brick feature in this region continues to challenge us as to its exact dimension and depth, so we are approaching it from across the “top” and along the length, at least as it appears from the ground. Qufti Ayman has found more brick in the new square to the far south, and Abdullah seems to be following an unending line of brick. However, we do not think that this is an enclosure wall, because it definitely stops just west of where we are working.

Marina has a trench with a great deal of burned surface and late reuse pottery pits. She speaks with Betsy and Michael about one of many small objects that appear in the mixed soils.

The activity is brisk here, and back in Maggie’s square later in the day, bricks have appeared in a regular pattern in the center of the trench, while the beautifully preserved “blue painted ware” jar lies in a pile of other pots. Never a dull moment here.

In square “10” Katie and Meredith have a number of mud brick walls already, running both east-west and north-south. With all the recording this requires, it’s a good thing tea break comes along.