Began today by leveling Locus 12, especially in the central part of the trench where yesterday the workers had left a considerable dip in elevation. I had Gagik troweling in the northern corner where there was a jumble of rocks sitting on the dark overburden matrix. The soil in the western corner is still very dark, and extends up along the NW baulk.
After the workers finished this I measure a new locus, 17, as the top of the wheelbarrow ramp, in order to see if there is a doorway in the SW wall of WSAC underneath. Visible are two large, faced stones on either side of the ramp. The top of the ramp is similar to Locus 2 and 5, the dark, aerated loam matrix of the overburden. I initially limited the locus to where the ramp joins the SW wall, but then extended it back to the SW baulk when we hit some stones which I thought were blockage or rock fall. Extending this locus to the stones on either side clearly exposed a gap in the wall, with no visible large stones in between, which is likely a doorway roughly 1.5 meters wide. After the workers finished removing Locus 17, I opened Locus 18 as the bottom of the ramp, which is a mixture of the tanner clay-y matrix seen elsewhere in Locus 7 and 13 and the darker matrix of 8 and 12, extending from the wall into the room. I will call the area delimited by the SW baulk and the wall another locus if we decide to take it down later.
As soon as the group began to excavate Locus 18, a very large rim sherd, of a open storage vessel type, began to appear roughly a meter from the NW baulk and 3 meters from the SW baulk. I declared this Locus 19. The sherd appeared to be lying flat, with another adjoining piece next to it, and several bones around it, so I consulted with Lori about whether or not this was potentially resting on a floor associated with Feature 15 or later than the Iron III period. At first she did not know whether the sherd was a later, Medieval date. However, the matrix around the vessel was a dark, aerated and gritty matrix which does not have the characteristics of the clay floors seen last year in WSAC or WSAD. The elevation of the sherd is roughly 15 cm higher than the southern area of the paved floor in WSAC, so it is possible that the slope continues and Locus 19 is not resting on a floor, but its size and placement seem to suggest indirect association with a lived surface.
I had the workers clean the face of the SW wall, where there is a jumble of stones in the doorway, likely intentional blockage but not as elaborate as seen in WSAC last year. I then had them sweep the surface of the operation and took photographs of Locus 19 and more elevations. After the last perecor I excavated the rim sherd and took a soil sample from beneath the sherd and directly around it. The sherd is roughly 30 cm in diameter. Tomorrow's goal is to take down the excavation surface and investigate the extent of the dark soil in the western corner, and whether Feature 15 has another course to it.