Had guys start in the morning with a second shovel pass in Locus 8, the cultural fill matrix between the linear stone feature (which today I designated Feature 10) running N to E and the NE baulk, about 1.5 m wide. The eastern area of this locus came down through the fill and we took out four large stones directly abutting the NE and SE baulks in the corner that were floating on soil. However the northern area of this locus came down on a ton of rocks, which may or may not articulate with Feature 10 and the line of stones now two courses high that runs N to W parallel to the NW wall. I had the guys clean this locus and the rocks and took photographs of Feature 10, mainly to show how many of the rocks which I thought might be in a line and connected to the N-W linear feature are sitting on soil, not other rocks. In particular, the row of about 6 stones running N to E is floating, and I am confused as to what they are doing there- are the fall from the other line of Feature 10? Are they a later addition? The soil around them is the cultural fill with some more encrusted, darker soil directly beneath the stones.
After photographing this confusing stone arrangement I had the guys after lunch do another pass in Locus 9, the soil between Feature 10 and the NW wall, which is very dark and loamy and shows no signs of the cultural fill. We came down on a ton of very small rocks, which if I were looking at a wall I would say were part of the internal rubble fill; I'm not sure what they are doing here. We pulled out 3 or 4 very large pieces of terracotta-type low-fired coarse ware, so I wonder if we are dealing with some sort of pit/firing area, but I haven't found any charcoal and the ceramics coming out of this locus are a complete mix, and don't show signs of firing. The stones of Feature 10 in this area are surrounded by this darker loam, and I haven't yet found the bottom of the lower course. At the end of the day out of confusion I decided to expose more of Feature 10 from the other side, the SE side, so I declared a new locus (11) as the fill between Feature 10 and the wheelbarrow ramp and the SE baulk, roughly a 3 by 3 meter area. However as soon as Gagik did a one meter pass running W to N, I noticed that the soil was a mixture of the same darker loam against the stones and the lighter brown compact soil towards the N. This also confused me; are the stones in some sort of pit or foundation trench? The elevation of the bottom of this pass is probably only about 10 cm above the level of the paved floor in WSAC2 so 1) do they continue down to another paved floor? Clay floor? Do they sit on some sort of elevated platform? 2) I really need to start screening tomorrow if we are this close to the floor. We didn't really have time to clean this area before the end of the day and the heat was getting to people but I would like to expose more of these stones to see what if anything I can tell about how it articulates to the NW wall, to the floor found already in WSAC2, and to the stones floating near the NE baulk.