Started today with the removal and screening of Locus 16, the matrix delimited by the linear stone feature (15) and the SE face of the partition wall in WSAC2. I had left this matrix untouched while I took loci 20 and 21 down, and we still aren't at a floor. Locus 16's matrix is similar to the cultural fill seen in Locus 13 and 20, but has some bits of charcoal and some of the chalky leeching from the stones of the wall. I took one okay charcoal sample from this locus but I want a bigger piece closer to the floor. The stones of the wall keep appearing, so its possible we are still 10-15 cm higher than the floor in WSAC. Feature 15 now has three courses of stones in some places, and Lori today raised the question again (with Julio) as to how these 'trough' features functioned. I had the workers remove some of the stones in the southern corner of the operation, in Locus 16, as they appeared to be resting on soil and are likely wall fall. From the screen of this locus came an oddly shaped piece of bone, with a nicely carved right angle, which I guessed might be some kind of bone inlay for furniture or something else. There was also a nicely preserved phiale-type vessel, not complete but likely mid-first millennium, found between two stones of the wall in the southern corner where the SW wall meets the SE wall.
We finished leveling out Locus 16 before lunch and I had the guys start another 10 cm pass in Locus 21, the darker silty matrix along the NW baulk. I told them to avoid the area of Locus 22, the collection of large rim sherds, but while cleaning another very large rim sherd was found which I believe fits the reddish-brown, mid-first millennium one found yesterday. It was roughly 20 cm NW of the other ones but the same relative elevation. This sherd was also resting embedded in the dark matrix, so I don't think it was on the floor, but we are getting very close.
At the end of the day after cleaning Locus 21 I had the workers begin another 10 cm pass in Locus 20. I took elevations and the NW edge of WSAC2 is about 10-15 cm above the floor measured last year.