Fun things always happen in the last few days of digging as we race towards the finish.
Patrick and Erin finish the excavation of a Hellenistic wall's foundation trench discovered in Probe 2 which was dug through the east pier of the odeon's stage.
Meanwhile, work continued just across the way in Probe 1 where the hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper. And as it gets deeper and deeper, it continues to produce Iron Age pottery. Today it also produced some patches of heavy burning with some fragments of burned wood still visible (according to the microarchaeologists).
And when the pottery is all Iron Age and heavy burning is found it can only mean one thing. The photographer was called in to snap a photo and the microarchaeologists came in to take samples. Was something burned in situ, meaning in that place, or was the burned material dumped in along with the piles of dirt? Check back for the answer later this week.
There is a good chance, however, that the probe has now reached a sand dune which means that Probe 1 will be soon closed and backfilled.
Never fear, work continues not only in Grid 47 but also Grids 51 and 38 for which pictures should appear soon.