Tepe Düzen: August 6-10, 2006

During the second week of the test sounding at Tepe Düzen, digging in sectors 2, 3 and 4 continued (sector 1 of 5 x 5 m having been excavated down to virgin soil last week). In each of these sectors, evidence supporting our earlier proposition of four building phases in this part of the site was confirmed: to the most recent Building Phase 1 belongs the large apsidal building mentioned last week. Phase 2 comprises an earlier apsidal building with a different orientation (see last week's report). This week several walls of Phase 3 and 4 were recovered, complementing the fragmentary picture we had at the end of last week. In Phase 3, of which a nice stretch of wall continued the southern wall toward the Northeast, we now have the remains of a large two-roomed building of at least 12m x 9 m; parts of this building seem to have been reused in Phase 1. Phase 4 is represented by a number of walls, running underneath the walls of the later phases, which are often built on top of these older constructions, and which possibly belong to two distinct buildings (both orientated in the same way). The walls of this phase are sometimes cut into virgin soil. Within the relatively thick Layer related to the oldest building phase, the in situ remains of a plaster floor, on top of which pieces of wall plaster had fallen, were detected. On top of this floor, there was the "normal" recurrent floor level of packed earth. This observation leads us to interpret this oldest thick layer as the result of successive floors built on top of each other, implying some continuity in habitation within existing structures.

This week also saw completion of the garbage dump discovered at the end of last week, cutting into the layers belonging to Phase 3 and 4. Numerous finds, including painted pottery, were retrieved. Next week we will excavate the sediments deposited on virgin soil, and we'll start a new exploratory trench in the large building (ca. 30 by 40 m), constructed of large fieldstones, with an apparently monumental entrance, which was discovered at the western edge of the main settlement in 1994 and studied again last year.

Several fragments of floor and wall plaster are visible on floor level 4.