[Context: 1119, Area: A003, Block: 14]

Context information

110513 general note
A003
Today was a quite hectic day but we got a lot of work done and it seems like a good idea to summarize where we are at this point. Notice that we have a lot of tiles, but the one from the upper part of the collapse/layer seems to be of three different kinds: thin red, thick red and thick yellowish.
We have no reached the same level all over the trench. This is at about the height of the visible bottom line of the column bases and it seems as if everything above this level belong to the same stratum. It is now clear that we are dealing four different groups of material.
The first is the central stone tumble/collapse. This was thought to have been the remains of a platform but it is now uncertain if this theory can hold – there are some pottery mixed up in it and that is why we now refer to it as a collapse. This new interpretation is, however, not unproblematic. If it is a collapse, why is it confined to such a small area? It is possible that the other stones have been robbed and reused but it seems somewhat unlikely. We hope that further excavations will shed more light on the issue. It is important to notice that the collapse ends quite abruptly where we stopped excavating the upper layer of the blocks described below. The N and S side is, thus, easily defined at the lower level while the E and W are simply gone.
The second is a roof collapse. This is primarily situated in the eastern, mostly in q. β but also in q. δ. I suspect that this will be found under the eastern part of the stone tumble/collapse when it is removed. We might notice that the tiles are quite large, of a yellowish color and many are almost complete. There are also a variety of different types: flat tiles, roof notch tiles and simas.
The third is a wall. It is difficult to determine exactly which stones that should be included in it but it run from the West to the East ca 1 meter into the trench from the S side. We do not know how to interpret it yet. The two main ideas are that it’s either the front wall of a number of small backside rooms (as in other stoas) or the basis for a platform. I guess that we’ll find out when the upper layer is removed.
Finally there is the empty soil. Large parts of the trench, mainly in the west and northwest is almost empty. This might be in part due to Wide and Kjellbergs excavations but I don’t believe that we can explain it all together like that. There is still pottery in all blocks.

A few words on the trench as one unit must also be said. It is clear that the soil is quite similar (yellowish, medium hard) all over and finds are from around the same period of time so far. I would suggest that we have been digging the same stratum all along, even as we find different materials and features in different parts of the trench.
Block 14:This is the by far richest block yet. Pottery abounds and there are a large number of, some almost complete, tiles lying at the bottom of the trench. These will not be removed until we have made sure that the tile collapse does not extend in under the stone collapse.
The material from this trench looks Hellenistic, ca 150 BC. It seems safe to establish this as the date of destruction for now.

Bags/MusID