Dig Day Nine

Today the agenda was to remove the soil until we arrived at ground level. 

The square we have been excavating for the last two weeks is officially finished.  Tomorrow we will move to another site.  After uncovering the floor, we found some interesting things.  We believe now that our square used to be some sort of small outside public courtyard.  The cistern had a filling reservoir that likely received water from roof runoff.  It is made of mud stone.  We also found a door way that led into the massive building to the south of our square. 

In the corner near the stairs, I uncovered many broken pottery shards.  I thought at first, given the pottery was embedded in the ground, they must have used it to tile the floor.  This however was not the case.  The pottery was apparently used for fill material underneath the plaster flooring.  The Byzantines reused everything, even broken pottery in the construction of their floors.  Pottery is great fill material given it never breaks down.  

This is the view from the top of the Church of the Beatitudes.