[Context: 1319, Area: A004, Block: 29]

Context information

I decided to change blocks at this point, not because of any stratigraphical reasons or because of the character of the finds, but to make it possible to divide the material later – block 28 was very productive.

The soil composition here is quite complex. The absolute majority of the block is composed of the normal yellowish brown soil. It is however, ever so slightly, somewhat redder along the southern and eastern wall (ca 30-40 cm). I decided not to excavate this area separately due to difficulties tracing the exact extent of this area and the marginal difference in colour. The soil was also a little bit darker in the central parts of the block, but not ashy. Also included in the block as a whole.

Finds were very numerous in this block and included potter, tiles, lead, bronze, bones, shells, charcoal and soilsamples.

The tiles were far fewer here as in the previous layer, but some very large fragments were recovered. I have separated the tiles into four groups 1-3 are concentrations (each one a single tile) and nr. 4 is formed by the rest of the tiles found. It is well worth to notice that both the yellow thick type (older?) and thinner red kind were represented, lying in near vicinity to each other.

The pottery material was also very rich, and several very large fragments, some close to complete when put together, were found. All of the material seems to be worn and a great deal shows traces of burning. We are most likely dealing with cooking ware. Some of the vessels were clearly Hellenistic.

The metal finds were quite varied. The most impressive was a ca 10-15 cm long item looking like one half of a pincer. Another interesting find was a lead clamp still stuck to the tile which it had been repairing – we should perhaps rather interpret the large clamps found here as roof repairs then vessel mending? Several coins were also found, most of them of the small local variety, but one larger one was also recovered. There were also a small number of iron objects, most likely nails. Two soil samples were taken at B18 (one in the central area, one in the in a corner (SW side of the smaller N-S going wall in the “middle” of the area).

Only a few bones and shells were found. This seems to be the rule rather than the exception in Stoa A.

We decided to terminate the block at 190.227 masl, but then went down to fillipra as it started appearing just centimeters below our level.

No features, but the western wall was cleaned.

Bags/MusID