Villa Magna

Area BII, 9-15th June 2008

The world of B II was significantly changed this week. A good cleaning of 4017 and the western extension of the trench revealed that the northern wall of the praefornium of the lime kiln, [4123], passes under the pavement—making it quite clear that 4017, which extends across the greater part of the west side of the trench, was built for use with the lime kiln. Hence, we are still in the land of the lime kiln and will have to empty all of the various intrusions in this surface before we can put this phase of Room I Building II behind us. Our mistake (thinking that the pavement was something earlier than the lime kiln) was due to assumptions made the first day that the surface was revealed last year. Francesco, who returned to us this week and is joined by Manuele (also a star), began the week by emptying one of these intrusions (fill 4128 and cut 4136), a cut immediately west of the northern wall of the praefornium [4123], which seems to be associated with the burials in this are, but—praise god—did not contain an articulated skeleton (only a few body bits). Further cleaning of the western extension of the trench revealed a burial area cut into the fill of the lime kiln. This series of earthen graves was partially excavated last year (*4118, *4121, *4101, *4098). These skeletons are all either on a N-S or S-N orientation and may be associated/contemporary with burials (*4040, *4062, *4067, *4073, *4077) on the west side of [4005].

The rain continued this week, slowing our progress, but creating a super-cool effect in the western area of the trench. The drying differential made obvious the limits of the robber trench (fill 4138 and cut 4139) that runs east-west. 4139 is clear where pavement 4017 remains, but less obvious further to the east where no pavement is present. The footprint of a sort-of ghost wall could be seen as the trench dried out. The same occurred with the parallel robbed-out wall in this area (fill 4019 and cut 4034).

The biggest change in our universe was the extension of the trench three meters to the east so as to learn more about Room III, Building I. Among others, Mohammed and Francesco spent a great deal of time cleaning down to the first non-humus layer in this area (4132). E-W oriented wall [4006], the southern wall of Room III, was immediately visible in the southern part of the extension as we hoped it would be. Franco (on the bobcat) left a significant pile of hard packed rubble around the circular well-like mouth of the cistern, [4133], which came to light near the northern LOE. Near the end of the week it was decided to realign the trenches so that they square with the structure of the church. This was a difficult and heartbreaking task left unfinished on Friday midday when we finished excavating.

— Megan McNamee· Jun 15, 08:40