SIXTH SEASON – SUMMARY
Start date: February 8th,
2015
Duration:
21 days
Sector B – Abasseya
Archaeological work
In Sector B a first cleaning of the area was performed to continue with the excavation process. The excavation has focused on the north and west sides of the building, where it has continued being excavated the debris level. Also, for two days a bulldozer worked on the movement of sand mounds result of the excavation of previous campaigns. The mound located southwest has completely moved northwest. The mound located at the east side has been partially extended on Abasseya square to cover in a better way Sectors C and D that had been partially visible. The southwest fence has been moved, extending the excavation area by 9 m2.
The North side has been open-stripped excavated; therefore we have finished lowering the debris level, exposing the original level of usage. In places where the level of usage has not been preserved, we have reached a fill up level composed of sand. Along the wall, it has been left a small level of collapse attached to it, in order to preserve as plaster of the wall. This level is planned to be removed in the next season when restoration tasks can be done in parallel with the excavation work. We have kept the provisional wall built in the previous season.
On the South side there has been opened two squares, one that matches the corner of the podium and the second, that partially occupies the extended area of the site. In the southwest corner it was found a foundation bench and remains of the construction level of this bench. In the second square, it has appeared a debris level.
On the inside of the building we continued cleaning the interior walls and we finished drawing them. There have been performed surveys in the corners of the inner areas below the level of construction documented in Season 2014, before partially filling up the rooms with clean sand from the site.
Restoration work
It has been continued to consolidate the plaster from the podium. In the north and south sides of the west entrance, it have been restored some of the fallen fragments. It has also been restored part of plaster of the east wall of the podium. Other restoration work on the plaster has included strengthening the sealing layer that is in contact with the brick wall. Also, inside the podium we have started restoring the walls. According to the guidelines of the previous season we have reduced the original levels, cleaned the top and placed a green network between the original level and the modern level resulting from the restoration. The walls restored are the interior walls of chamber 1 or central chamber. Continuing the work begun last year, we completed the restoration of the south wall of the podium and the west access, repositioning and fixing the last step of sandstone and covering the top with a layer of mortar.
Wahat Projects
