Well, week 3 started with a smaller crew of about 16 people. Work on the northern extension of the iron age city road & Prof. McNamer's area of the upper north end of the site were closed down, at least for the time being.
Work continues in chamber 1 where the top of a ~2 meter wide iron age (stratum 6) wall, running north/south peaked its way out of the dirt & rocks. A small wall running east/west & another possible east/west wall were uncovered abutting the larger ~2 meter wall. Good work by a small group headed by Steve Reynolds from UNO.
Carl Savage from Drew University arrived & opened up an area which we're calling "A" west. Its inside the main city gate up on the Roman level where he headed up the excavations in 2004 & 2005. A number of interesting walls & floors were uncovered that will help Rami figure out the history of the site. A portion of a bronze pot was found, which is the find of the week. See the pic of Ellie unearthing this beautiful discovery. Additional finds were a pretty glass bead (below on right) & a basalt grinding stone as shown below.
A new locus was opened on the main city road just north of the city gate & below the level of the main city street. Working down to stratum 6, the outer city wall of the 9th century city was found. It runs north/south then jogs eastward. We'll just have to see where it leads us to next week.
Pictures can be enlarged by going to the photo gallery & double clicking the desired picture.
Note : Interesting archaeology blog - http://archaeologydigs.blogspot.com/