Place: Ar/Ge.T22.17

This is the locus that surrounds the south, east, and north sides of the central basin (locus 9) in the central room of T22. The west boundary of this locus is Locus 16, the southwest corner of the trench, and it sort of wraps around Locus 9 in a counterclockwise fashion, except for the area between Locus 14 (west wall of the room) and Locus 9 (central feature), which is Locus 19. The matrix for this locus was the same as in Locus 19, but they were coded separately because 17 captured the south, east, and north sides of the central clay feature (Locus 9), while 19 began on the north side of a clay arm of this feature. At the time that these two loci were begun, we did not know whether the matrix was the same, nor whether we were capturing two separate areas bounded by the clay feature. It appeared as though 19 would essentially lie between two arms of the clay feature, but when we came to think that Locus 9 (the clay feature) was in fact just the extant surface, it became apparent that Loci 17 and 19 essentially represented the same material. The matrix for both was studded with charcoal, of a light brown soil, with lenses of black soil, clay lenses, and some reddish areas. The width and length given are at the greatest extents, but it should be remembered that the shape of this locus wraps around the central feature of the room and is more like a rectangle with a triangular addition high on its left side. The area was calculated keeping the actual shape in mind.