A large part of the southwestern central pier was exposed, yielding some very well preserved patches of plaster in situ. Towards the west the pier is continued by a brick wall of ca. 2.75 m long, which forms the south wall of the room. The conservation team is watching the exposure of floor and walls closely, as more interventions will be needed to preserve the in situ remains of plaster and mosaics.

In the mean time, the RB 1 team (Markku Corremans, KULeuven, and Hasan Uzunoglu, Mimari Sinan University, Istanbul) continued its excavations of the "northern six piered hall." Most piers are still covered by large patches of white plaster, which were treated immediately. On one of them two lines of graffiti could be distinguished. Toward the beginning of next week, the floor level should be reached here as well. It becomes more and more clear that the two "six piered halls" most probably were not separated from the central hall with its much larger and higher piers, so that the whole space had a length of ca. 60 m!

The consistency of the finds during the week was truly remarkable, as each day yielded a similar array of finds (all originating from the same destruction layer associated with the collapsed vaults): especially metal nails and tesserae, to a lesser extent bone and ceramics. Every day brought us at least some examples of wall bricks and roof tiles some bearing the stamps of the factory (EXIO), animal footprints (mainly dogs) and human fingerprints, both impressed during the production or drying process of the tiles and before their firing, as well as occasional graffiti.

Graffiti on a pier in the northern hall