Foundation Stones and the Trough

We're enjoying lower temperatures and still hard at work! Dan is bisecting the wood-lined trough along the south side of the site, excavating the north portion first. He's also spent some time looking at the 1999 records relating to this feature. The archaeologists digging the trough feature at that time believed they saw a row of nails on either side of the bottom of the ditch, perhaps representing where the nails held the bottom wood piece or secured the trough cover. This is depicted in maps and photographs, and we're looking for the same nail pattern as we excavate the trough fill. With a greater understanding of how it was excavated in the past, Dan hopes he can dig out the trough in fine detail within the next couple of days.

Mandy and her sandstone features... The first one she bisected was so thin and root-disturbed that we decided not to excavate the remaining half. Mandy then moved to another feature on the north and south sides of the millrace outflow. We'll interpret this one once Mandy is a little further along.

On the north side, Meg has a feature that appears to be a depression filled with building destruction rubble. She bisected and completely excavated it, finding that another feature appears to lie underneath.

Laura and I are still in unit 741 at the northwest corner of the building and have uncovered more intact foundation stones--at least one with quite a bit of mortar on it. Laura is working on the robber's trench fill going south, and I am on the foundation heading east. The corners of the foundation are awkward to get at, and we speculate that the robbers found it too difficult to remove the stones in this area.