Excavation notebook 1Jean-François Salles

- to the east, a sounding at G10/4 yielded no indication (stopped at 1.70 m; no traces of a robber trench). Sounding to be continued? It would be necessary to: a) re-examine exactly the position of the sounding G8/4, 1976

b)try to verify (deeper sounding at H8/4?, to the east of the disappearance of wall 432) whether wall 432 continues towards the east (which did not appear in the 1985 excavation)

c)study the west end of the building: it is there that we will see whether the west closing wall is bonded to wall 432 or presents itself like the other walls of refent, in the form of a succession of "piers"; in that case, wall 453-474 could be the east "closure" of the building.

- to the north, trench J8-J10: a third pier is visible, but partially robbed; no trace of a west-east wall, parallel to 432, is visible in the sections of the trench.

- to the west, the building continues under what remains of Bamboula.

1.The foundation walls (Note: the foundations are set deeper to the north than to the south, no doubt because of a slope towards the north existing at the time Classical) delimit 7 (?) rectangular loci, about 5.50 m x > 20 m (problem of the north limit). Locus 700, to the east, is uncertain. The other oblong rooms were separated, in elevation, by "colonnades" if one follows the rhythm of the foundation piers (???). No trace remains of the floor of the initial state, which must have been located around the altitude 5.10 m (to the south, Class. I floor about 4.70 m; Class. II about 5.10 m).

2.In the initial state, the southern part of the basement was arranged: the north face of wall 432 is carefully plastered down to its base, to be visible, and the base of the wall is bordered by paved "basins" of marmaro (carefully bonded by plaster to wall 432): these "basins" fit regularly between each interior buttress of wall 432, and were bordered to the north by a low wall (vertical slabs) 1 m high. The term "basin" may be inappropriate since there is no trace of overflow from one "basin" to another (no conduit passing through the buttresses). Immediately north of these basins extends a long west-east corridor, about 1.50 m wide, marked by a beaten earth floor in very good condition (alt. approx. 2.65/2.75 m). This corridor was no doubt covered by a roof supported by beams, one main west-east beam between each buttress (cf. beam hole on the west and east faces of buttress 449). The north limit of this corridor is not a built wall, but the succession of steps giving access to the ground floor: the width of the massifs